I have been longing for kamakura since I was a child. By kamakura I mean small houses made of snow (and not the historical city in Kanagawa, which I love, too ). It’s summer and pretty hot now in Japan but you can experience what kamakura are like. You can find one in a certain building in Yokote city where a kamakura festival takes place every winter. The day we were there, the temperature was above 30 C ( 86F ) and inside the building where holding the kamakura it is minus 10 C. You have to wear a wataire (a cotton stuffed) jacket before going into the facility.And anyone who has a weak heart should refrain from going in. In fact it was an interesting experience but we couldn’t stay there for a long time. Inside the kamakura a water god is enshrined. They give thanks to the god and enjoy baking rice cakes and drinking something hot. They set candles and usher the people into the kamakura. I hope to go to the festival sometime.

I discovered another interesting place in Yokote. But my camera’s battery was flat and I couldn’t take photos of the inn. About 50 minutes drive from downtown Yokote will take you to the inn where we stayed. The area is called Mitsumata hot spring. The facility is kind of old and nothing special but it’s really quiet and relaxing. The hot spring is pretty good and the food they serve is excellent. I couldn’t take photos of them but I’m going back to that place again and then I’ll take photos of them. They serve homemade buckwheat noodles and they still use a windmill to grind the seeds.

We drove up to the North along the Japan Sea. As we kept going toward Akita, we enjoyed viewing the beautiful sea. This area is called “Sasagawa Nagare”. We saw many interesting rocks in interesting shapes. According to local people, it has been this sunny and hot since June and many people are going there. Last year, they had many rainy days and business was very slow. Weather does affect economics. This fisherman has just come back from catching summer oyster or “ Iwagaki”. We can eat this oyster from June to the end of August. There are some shops you can buy and try out the oyster on the spot. We tried one. It was very creamy and tasty! The oyster itself has a strong taste and flavor so it was very good as it is. This oyster is very popular and its price is high. If you buy this oyster at restaurants in Niigata or in Tokyo, it’s more than twice as expensive as the price near the beach. If you have a chance to visit this area at this time of the year, it’s worth trying.

On our way to the Northern part of Tohoku we stayed one night in Niigata. Senami( Murakami City ) is located on the coast of The Sea of Japan to the north of Niigata City. There are many resort hotels since it has good hot springs and fresh fish are available. Above all many people admire the beautiful romantic sunset. Fortunately, the weather was perfect to view the famous sunset.

The sea was calm and water warm. Next morning I saw a man feeding Japanese gulls. The birds are very friendly and like this person. I talked to him and found that he can’t hear or speak. But we could communicate by sign language. Once I read in a book that people mostly communicate non-verbally and communicate verbally only 20%. I guess that’s true. I could tell that the man is a very warm-hearted person.

Murakami City is famous for its salmon. A man named Buheiji Aoto completed the method to incubate salmon about 140 years ago. That has greatly contributed to this area’s economy. A long time ago the Japan Sea?was very busy with trading traffic so we can see big old houses and warehouses along the coast. Today we find most of the leading ports on the Pacific Ocean sides, however.

I love mushrooms. I am particularly fond of Maitake mushrooms. “ Yukiguni Maitake” cultures and sells mushroom products. It is said that Maitake help  people build a strong immune system. I love Maitake because they are low or zero in calories, tasty and look interesting. Natural Maitake are very rare and difficult to find. People seem to have known their beneficial effects for many years. 300 years ago or perhaps even earlier, natural Maitake were worth their weight in silver. That’s how valuable and hard to get they were. Let me tell you the meaning of “ Maitake “. “ Mai “ means dance and “ take” means mushroom. Those who discovered rare natural Maitake mushrooms danced with joy so the mushroom has been called “ Maitake”.

Do you know this Japanese expression “ mottainai “ ?

My grandmother and great grandmother used to tell me that whenever she saw things being thrown away.

In fact, we throw things away so easily. Sometimes things thrown away can be better than things kept for use. “ Nante mottainai ! “ I can hear my ancestors’ yells.

Do you ever cook carrot leaves ? I bought good organic carrots with their leaves on. I cooked tempura ( deep fried ) with carrot, corn and carrot’s leaves. It tasted very delicious ! The carrots’ leaves created great flavor and texture. It was my first try but it went well. To make it I mixed tempura flour with cold beer then combined it with corn, carrot and carrot leaves. I prepared a shallow pan with some oil, I don’t make it too deep. Unlike fish or meat you can use relatively little oil. But I always make sure if the batter is cooked enough or not.

When it’s ready, you sprinkle some salt on it. It goes very well with beer.

I was very lucky to have a chance to visit the tea valley and factories in Kanaya with two American tourists. This beautiful American couple are very keen on learning about green tea and have a strong passion to make green tea more prevalent in the US. Particularly, Dan has been engaged in the tea industry ever since becoming enchanted by green tea.www.drinktheleaf.com and Teresa is making and selling wine from Napa Valley in California.www.zdwines.com

 Interestingly, growing grapes and tea leaves have many similar points. For example they can produce high quality tea and grapes on steep hills. Frost is a big threat for both of them.

     

Delicious tea is made by nice people. The tea is appreciated by nice people like this American couple. Good tea makes people healthy. It sounds like a wonderful chain.

I was very glad to get to know Teresa and Dan, The Sugimotos and the farmers in Kanaya. I hope more people in the world visit Shizuoka and share the same experience. Also I feel like visiting Napa Valley where the couple live. It looks like a very beautiful place and their wine looks delicious, too !

We had zazen tours on 21^st and 27^th of June at Chokoji temple in Numazu. According to Reverend Matsushita, zazen is like doing the laundry. We accumulate lot of bad things inside of us such as anger, jealousy, grudges etc. We do zazen to rid these things from our mind and try to be in the state of “ Mu” or “ zero “. Proper breathing and posture are important. As we uncover ourselves, we can see things clearly and then we come to feel new energy to initiate something new or get some creative ideas. Zazen breathing affects people’s skin, too. No wonder many priests’ skin is beautiful. Probably another reason could be that the food they eat is based on vegetables. After a zazen session that was relatively long for beginners, we all felt refreshed.

Then we moved to the restaurant nearby called “ Garden Bells”. There we enjoyed Shojinryori ( vegetarian dishes ) followed by Zen temple style food. Eating itself is also training in zen so we are not supposed to speak while eating. Eating time is very short since we all concentrated on eating. When the course finished we came back to normal mode and enjoyed eating more food while talking. All of us were amazed by Garden Bells’ service and savory dishes. The menus on 21^st and 27^th were slightly different. Now it’s the humid and muggy rainy season in Japan but the food and drink were a cool balmy breeze.

On 27^th’s tour, after the lunch we took a short walk to Shoinji Temple. Hakuin, zen master, was the head priest of this temple. So it has Hakuin’s painting and calligraphy. Every year on April 29^th it is open to the public.

I’m going to organize zazen tours on 21^st and 27^th of this month. Most of us are beginners so our sessions will consist of two 20-minute sessions each time. One of the participants has already experienced zazen more than 25 times in the US. In fact Hakuin is very popular overseas although he is not as well-known here in Japan. He was from Numazu ( Shizuoka ), but many local people are not aware of him. I read books about Zen and I learned that zen is rather the study of the self. I think this is the thing we really need. As unexpected incidents can always occur, if we know how to stay calm we might work out our problems. I heard the famous basketball player Michael Jordan learned Zen. He could play really well under tremendous pressure and when he shoots baskets the air around him is unusually calm. Isn’t it cool ?  I’m really happy that many people showed their interest in this tour. After zazen, another attraction will be a vegetarian meal. In zen everything we do in daily lives are training; eating, cooking, taking a bath and cleaning etc. When I am tired of doing household chores or feel like complaining about it, I always try to remember this. Anyway I’m really excited. For those who can’t take part in June’s tours we are planning to have a session on September 26^th. The seats are limited so please contact us if you are interested in earlier time.

During Golden Week, a string of consecutiove public holidays in Japan, I visited Ryogoku in Tokyo. Ryogoku has The Edo Tokyo museum and Kokugikan (the National Sumo Stadium) and is the gateway for cruises on the Sumida River. And you can see Sky Tree, due to become Tokyo’s tallest building, under construction.

It also has some sumo stable houses and you might see sumo wrestlers training even on the street early in the morning.

On the days I stayed they had a festival in Ryogoku. Many shops and sumo-related people opened their shops on the street.They are currently holding an exhibition about Ryoma Sakamoto who was very active at the end of the Edo period. Right now his story and the time he lived, at the end of Edo, are being televised, so many people rushed to the exhibition. Even some who might not normally be particularly interested in or familiar with Japanese history might enjoy this museum’s  regular exhibition.

Ryoma is a hot figure right now and some people tried to sell a lot of goods related to him. He was involved in trading in Nagasaki so he might be happy to see people buying goods marketed in his name if it contributes to the Japanese economy.

Here’s a new icon to advertize sumo, Sekitori kun. Since that Mongolian wrestler left this world, some people worried about the decline of the popularity of sumo but it looks like it is doing OK.Despite the high price of sumo tickets, it looks like they are selling well.

At the festival, I tried chanko. Chanko Nabe is a special dish for sumo wrestlers. They have to practice hard and have to eat a lot to build up their body. Chanko-nabe is said to be body-building.

First I hesitated to try it because I don’t want to gain weight any more. But when I tried it I found it is very healthy . It has a lot of vegetables of various kinds and the broth is rich in collagen from chicken. This bowl of chanko was only 500 yen. It tasted very good.

Then I went to Ekoin Temple where Nezumi Kozo , other people who were killed by the big fire in the Edo era or any other people and even animals are buried. Nezumi Kozo was a famous ( infamous?) thief who was active in Edo. He took things from rich people and distributed them to the poor. On that day they had gagaku and bugaku performance. It was very good. I thought gagaku and bugaku are only 

performed at shrines but they are also performed at temples. This art came to Japan from China with Buddhism. The priests from Zojyoji Temple, belonging in the musical division, told me. 

After enjoying the tea festival, we hurried to my favorite buckwheat noodle restaurant in Asagiri .

That restaurant is far away from anywhere and doesn’t have any advertisement but as soon as the shop opens the place is occupied with avid soba eaters. On sunny clear days, it has a view of Mt. Fuji out of the windows. For some of my friends this place was new. In fact I want to keep this place secret and yet I ended up taking new people there again!

This shop serves good tempura but we have already had a lot of green tea tempura so we ordered only noodles. The reasons I like this place are :                                                  1. The food they serve is great. They use the best ingredients but the price is reasonable.

2. The shop is comfortable and makes me relaxed - I like the owners.

3. I like the furniture, cups, dishes, chopsticks. The toilet is always clean.

Only a five minute drive brought us to this flower field. It’s a part of “ Milk Land “ where you can enjoy shopping, dining, eating icecream, playing with animals or experience milking cows, churning butter etc.

We took a walk in the oilseed blossoms. I didn’t know these blossoms smell so good.