Valentine's Day in Japan

In Japan, only women give presents, mainly chocolates to men on Valentine's Day. These gifts are classified into three types: "giri choco" which means an obligatory chocolate for the woman's fellow workers and superiors, "honmei choco" which means a chocolate for the man the woman loves seriously and "tomo choco" which means a chocolate for the woman's female friends.

These pieces of chocolate consist of couverture chocolates by Valrhona and by Callebaut, hazelnuts, walnuts, raisins and ground black peppers. They are my honmei choco!

Kakigōri, a seasonal image in summer in Japan

Kakigōri is a Japanese shaved ice dessert topped with syrup and condensed milk. It's a seasonal image in summer in Japan. The way of making it includes using a hand cranked machine to spin a block of ice over an ice shaving blade. Lately some shops use ice frozen naturally in cold mountain areas.

Popular syrups are strawberry, melon, lemon and blue hawaii, though most of these syrups don't involve any fruit juice and no fruit pulp is topped unlike Taiwanese one with a lot of fruit pulps.

If you long for the traditional one, I recommend "Ujikintoki", green tea with sweetened red beans.

Eel Kabayaki

In Japan, the popular way of eating an eel is Kabayaki (蒲焼), a grilled eel with a sweet sauce made of soy sauce and sugar after filleted and boned. An eel has been considered as nutritious and stamina-generating food in Japan. Many people eat Kabayaki in summer, especially on a particular day called "doyo-no ushi-no-hi (土用の丑の日). The custom is derived from that an owner of an eel restaurant consulted Hiraga Gennai, a famous herbalist and inventor about the decrease in sales in summer. He suggested him to put an advertisement at the door of the restaurant which catchphrase was "Today is the day of Doyo-ushi ", because people in those days believed in the tradition of eating dishes that began with the letter u on the day of "Ushi-no-hi" was good for the health. By the way, an eel is called Unagi (うなぎ) in Japanese.

Japanese sanshō (山椒) powder is indispensable for Kabayaki. Every elel restaurant has it on each table available and packed Kabayaki are always sold with it and a small bottle of sweet sauce.

Chicken Nanban チキン南蛮

Kyushu (九州) is is the third largest island located in the southewest of Japan. It has 9 prefectures and each has many local specialities. Chikin Nanban (チキン南蛮) is a speciality of Miyazaki prefecture and lately becomes popular in another areas and especially a favorite as a dish for bento. It consists of a deep fried chicken coated with flour and egg, sour souce with soy sauce, sugar and vinegar, and tartar sauce. The dish has both a sourness from vinegar and a mildness from boiled eggs in tartar sauce and they are well suited to the flavor of the chicken.

By the way, Nanban means Portugal narrowly and China and Holland are involved widely. Normally deep fried fish or meat marinated with a vinegar sauce are called Nanban.

A local festival in Japan

I went to a festival in Zushi city, which was supported by a local shrine. Most of Japanese festival are supported by a local shrine or temple, and you can see Mikoshi passing through a street and hear the sound of Taiko drums.

Originally Mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine and the vehicle of a divine. Only during a festival it is brought from a shrine. people bear the Mikoshi on their shoulders by means of the two or four poles shouting "Wasshoi!".

The vehicle on the left pic is a float with Taiko drums follwing Mikoshi.

Many sightseers wear Yukata,  a casual summer kimono and the participants wear Happi, a coat imprinted with with a family crest.

You can find many stalls selling toys and food at the shirine precincts and the neighboring streets. One of the traditional stalls is a goldfish scooping game. It is said that his game started around 1810. A player scoops goldfish with a thin paper scooper which can be easily torn. The game is over when it is completely broken.

Takoyaki is the traditional food in a festival. It is originated from Osaka Prefecture, but has been taken a firm as a festival food.  It is fried ball-shaped dumprings with a dice of boiled octopus inside, and brushed with takoyaki sauce and topped with Aonori, green laver powder and Katsuobushi, shavings of dried bonito.

Most of local festivals are hold in summer. If you visit Japan in summer, you may as well call at it!

Guess what?

Can you guess what this is? This is deep fried Japanese mountain yam grated and rolled with green perilla. We call this food "Yourouage" in Japan. Grated and deep fried yam has a soft chewy texture like rice cakes.

At a Kaiten Sushi restaurant

Whenever my foreign friends come to Japan, they are ready to go to Conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Last weekend I took my German friend to the restaurant, who has lived in Japan for 2 months.

Conveyor belt sushi is called "Kaiten Sushi" in Japan. It is known as "Sushi Train" in Austrian and you can enjoy it even in Paris and London.

In the restaurant there are rotating conveyor belts on which plates with sushi are placed move along every table and counter seat. Customers can pick as many sushi as they want. And they can order a sushi chef what they want directly or through a speaker phone.

Plates with different colours have different prices. But some restaurants have a fix price of 100 yen for all plates.

If you feel hesitant about eating raw sea food, you can find sushi topped with deep fried shrimp or grilled beef at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, though they are never served at a genuine style sushi restaurant.