Beyond the obvious differences in weather between the 4 or 5 seasons in Japan, each season is also known for certain foods (eating seasonal was a necessity and a way of life here long before it became back in vogue in the US). Mushrooms, chestnuts, apples and saury are famous fall foods (try saying that 5 times fast) for example. One big spring food is sansai, or mountain vegetables (the same san as Fuji-san, which is how it’s called in Japanese). What sansai actually entails can vary depending on what part of Japan you are talking about. They are typically not cultivated but foraged for in the woods and mountains. Around here we have fuki (butterbur; looks sort of like celery), warabi(fiddlehead ferns), and what Hokkaidoins call ainunegi (ramps or something similar; really strong garlic tasting green). Many of my older students would tell me they had gone forraging when I would ask them what they had done the previous week. Then they would describe the delicious food they had used them for. One Hokuto man (one of the cities bordering Nanae) was not so lucky.
On April 6th, a 50 year old construction worker went out during his lunch break to forrage for sansai in some nearby mountainous woods. When he didn’t return after lunch his co-workers alerted the city hall who called in assistence from some deer hunters to start a search party. They discovered his body the next day with injuries that implied he’d been killed by a small bear, probably around 5 years old. I didn:t ask how but they were also able to tell that it was male, about 1.2 meters tall and 70 kilos (not quite 4 feet and 154 pounds).
Can you imagine many American construction workers spending thier lunch break forraging for wild vegetables?
Soba noodles are grey-ish in color because they are made with buckwheat flour rather than wheat flour. They can be eaten hot or cold but are a very popular summer dish served cold on a bamboo strainer above a plate, dipped into a cup of cold soy sauce based broth and slurped up.