Itadakimas! - Mochi

Mochi
(moh-chee)

What it is:
Mochi is a really sticky sort of rice cake which is made from a special variety of rice. We had a bit of a mochi making party here yesterday and it was interesting to watch the process in action. Basically, it's made by steaming the rice, putting it into a large wooden bowl (that's basically a tree stump with a bowl carved out of the top) and then pounding it mercilessly with a special hammer until it is one glutinous mass. We took turns, of course, because it takes a lot of pounding. Then, it's covered in flour and broken up into smaller pieces.

I've had mochi several different ways. The first time i had it, it was served for breakfast wrapped in seaweed with a slice of cheese. Then, we had it in this soup that was prepared for the party yesterday. When it's put into hot water like this, it gets really gooey and stringy. Younger people prefer the softer, gooier mochi while the older generations are used to mochi being more tough. This gooeyness is controlled by how much water is used in the preparation. Water is needed to make sure the mochi doesn't stick to the hammer or the sides of the bowl.

What it tastes like:
Mochi has about as much flavour as regular rice. It's all about what it is cooked in. I personally thought that it was best in the soup pictured above. The soup sort of stuck to the mochi and just added to the texture of the soup. Quite tasty, i assure you. However, be warned. It's a bit tricky to swallow.

I'll stop eating this:
After seconds.

a list of cultural things i've picked up from being in Japan and may find it hard to change back in Canada because it seems to make more sense.

5. making sure dirty outside shoes do not enter the realm of clean indoor socks and carpet
This one is the toughest one to get used to and it makes sense, but i don't know if i'll be so strict about it for my place. For others, yes. But, i've already walked through my house a few times with my shoes on just to get something i've forgotten.

4. slurping noodles
Ah, it feels so comfortable to be able to slurp one's noodles. Not only does eliminate the need for frivolous mouth muscle movement, one is able to ingest noodles at a much faster pace. It's a simple cost-benefit calculation. Besides, i love walking into a ramen shop and hearing a drone of slurping in the background.

3. using chopsticks
Okay, this one doesn't make more practical sense, i just find it to be more fun. I guess this doesn't really belong on this list because chopsticks are pretty common back home. Though, it does come into play for the next item...

2. drinking soup straight from a bowl
Food is a big part of exploring another culture. I'd say about exactly 60 percent. Well, no, but that's how much of this list is dedicated to food. Drinking soup straight from the bowl is all about cutting out the middleman. Especially when the middleman is not quite a bowl and not quite a chopstick but a freakish combination of the two. Plus, when you drink soup straight from the bowl, you allow your entire esophagus to be covered with steamy, hot, delicious miso soup at once, thus heightening the pleasure factor of your soup sucking experience.

1. showering while sitting down
This one is such an utterly simple concept, but it seems nobody does this in North America. It makes miles of practical sense. When you sit down to shower, suddenly every bit and part of your body is within arms reach. You'll start cleaning parts you didn't even know existed. Plus, it's relaxing. Cleaning one's self should be. It's a time to think about how that bit of dirt got in your kneepit, the hard work it represents and then the clean, fresh start you allow yourself using a simple bar of soap.

a humble request for your participation

I just had a thought and i'm curious as to your reactions.

For those people who know me, i don't really have a direction in my life. I don't know what i want to do "when i grow up." But, what if i said i wanted to be a farmer? What's your first reaction?

I'm not saying this is what i want to do, i just thought it'd be interesting to see what you'd think.

If you have an answer, you can leave a comment by clicking on the comment link just below here. If you don't have a gmail/google account, just enter your name, or select anonymous. Alternatively, you can email me at hotsteamyrice@gmail.com.

on getting "kicked" in the back

One question that people keep asking me is what happened during my trip to the horse kicking veterinarian turned self taught chiropractor. Well, i suppose i didn't answer right away because it wasn't quite as much of a story as i thought it would be, or that the story would be difficult to explain in writing, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Though the clinic was relatively small, set inside an office building in downtown Sapporo, it's layout was quite open and it was clear from the start that it was designed to "process" a significant amount of people at a time. The waiting room had about 8 rows of benches, two wide, much like a church or chapel. This is not by accident, the clinic is called The Healing Light of Christ or something along those lines and they hold regular church services there.

Past the reception counter, there was three rooms made from and separated by curtains. The two off to either side were changing rooms, one for women, one for men. The nurse ushered me into the men's changing room and instructed me to remove my shirt and wait. So i did.

As i sat there, shirtless, a rather large man in his late twenties entered, removed his shirt and sat next to me. The next ten minutes was in complete silence except for the pain induced groans and grunts of the man. It seemed like an hour before the nurse came in and we moved on to the main room.

It was a large, white room that is mostly empty except for the bench going around the room. The doctor sat on a white square box near the far side of the room, a chair in front of him and a small worktable beside. The other patient sat in front of the doctor first. I took a seat on the bench just behind them so i could see what i was getting myself into.

The doctor put white powder, baby powder or something similar, down the man's spine and ran his finger down it to see if it was straight. He then began to tap the patient's back using the second knuckle of his middle finger with a sort of "zzzhuup...ktchsssss" vocalization. Like he was building up energy then releasing it as he hit his patient's back. In 5 minutes, he was done. The patient left, satisfied supposedly, and it was my turn.

It felt both good and bizzare. My lower back tingled as he "slammed" it into it's proper position. I left feeling like my body was lighter than before, but the real effect of it didn't hit me until 4 or 5 hours later. I felt drained of energy. All i could do was rest and relax. The next day, i felt light again, full of energy.

So, i guess the whole bit about him not touching his patients' back is a bit of a stretch, but he was using some sort of energy in his procedure. Overall, it was worth it. I'd probably go again.

an apology

This is an apology to those people who have sent me emails asking me questions about my journeys but have not received a reply. I have relatively limited access to the internets and don't have the time to write personal emails to everybody all the time. I tried doing this at the beginning, but it's just too much.

Instead, i will try to answer your questions through this blog. Then, hopefully, i can save some time on the computer here by letting everyone who wishes to see the answers.

Again, i apologize.

Movie Sign! - The Garbage Knight

Curt and i have been working on a new movie. Because i have been in Japan, Curt had to do the entire soundtrack by himself. Which he has just recently finished. He did a really crazy good job of it too.

Technically, it's an art project for one of Curt's Fine Arts classes. But in reality, it's just plain awesome.

Here it is!



Go here if you want to watch it fullscreen.

haiku: to drain a rice field

bucket on a stick
canals of mud water burn
behind my eyelids

Sake and Candy

The first time was like this.

I was over at my brother Tim's place and he had just come home from one of his trips to Japan. At one point during my stay, he brought down a ceramic bottle wrapped in a rope mesh and various kanji symbols painted in blue on the side. He also brought down two small cups and filled them with the clear liquid from the bottle.

We raised the cups. With a hearty "kompai!" we clinked them together and sipped on their contents.

When it first hit my tongue, it was mildly sweet and dry. As it finished it's journey, it left only a hint of heat at the back of my throat. It was a very smooth drink.

The second time was like this.

I was going over to a friends house in Winnipeg and i needed to bring something along to drink. Recalling my previous experience with sake, i went to the local Liquor Mart to see if they had any. They did. Plus, it was cheap.

This is great, i thought. All sake must taste the same. Therefore, this will be my new drink of choice. It's so different and exotic. I will be so cool.

It tasted like watered down alcohol and it burned like rubbing alcohol all the way down. Needless to say, that bottle of sake is probably still sitting in some fridge somewhere, quite full. Since several months had passed since the first time i tried it, i thought maybe i didn't like sake as much as i did or maybe i was just saying i liked it to be polite.

Well, i can say with certainty that sake is good when it is not so cheap.

Yesterday, there was a festival in the neighbouring town of Kuriyama. A local sake maker and a local candy shop held a bit of a soirée to celebrate and promote their products.

...By giving free samples.

I made sure to take advantage of their hospitality and all the different varieties of sake they had there were so good. Also, there was a sort of market there with fried croquette vendors and beer gardens and the like. But, we didn't stay long since we arrived late and things were closing down.

So, at the end of the day, i still like sake. And those squash filled croquettes were pretty good, too.

(Thanks to Ray for the pictures)

Itadakimas! - Natto

I've decided that since there are so many awesome foods here in Japan, my little blog here needs a whole segment dedicated to covering this area of my adventure. I've named it "Itadakimas!" (ee-tah-dah-kee-mah-su) which in Japan you say right before eating.

I feel like this segment needs some consistency, some structure. So, for each food, there will be three sections. What it is, what it tastes/smells like and my personal satisfaction rating. The first two are pretty self explanatory, but the last one, which i will call "I Will Stop Eating This...", will have only a few select answers. Which will be (in decreasing order): "When My Stomach Bursts", "After Seconds", "When I Leave Japan", "After This One Time" and "Before It Touches My Plate".

Anyways! Enough formalities! On with the new segment. This week it's...

Natto
(Nah-toe)

What it is:
Natto is a very unique Japanese food that is typically eaten on rice at breakfast. Functionally, it's soybeans that have been fermented, but aesthetically it looks like what your mouth feels like if you fell asleep without drinking water the day before when you were eating flour by the handful. It's gooey, stringy stuff with lumpy, whole soybeans.

Taste and smell:
Before eating it, i was warned that it was an acquired taste, that i could stop eating it if i wanted to. It was built up to be this really potent stuff, but when it hit my tongue, it wasn't that bad. It kinda had this strong earthy side to it, with perhaps a mild coffee flavour in there somewhere. It was very subtly sweet, too. Perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome, though, is it's mucus-y texture.

I'll Stop Eating This:
When I Leave Japan.

my new pad

Since moving to Japan didn't seem to be enough of a shock for me, i was given an opportunity to live in my own place on the farm. So, i moved again. To this little house. It may not look like much on the outside, but it's actually quite nice inside and well insulated.

Why don't you come on in and i can show you around?



If you would be so kind as to take off your shoes here. Try to leave your dirty shoes in the first square there. I'll get you the guest slippers. The door ahead of you here is the washroom, but since this little house is still a bit of a work in progress, it's not quite functional yet.



Ah, the living room. This is the room that you can see through the front windows. This is also where i sit and play the guitar which i found in that big dresser on the right of the photo. It's a five string guitar and it's kinda jangly, but it does the trick.

The aluminum siding you see there behind the couch is actually the back room of the house. I'll explain more when we get there.


Here is the second and final room, the bedroom/study. It's actually a truck box. Those windows at the back are the rear of the box where the doors are. As you can see, the right door is shut and acting as massive metal blinds from the outside. It's quite an interesting idea.

Well, that's the whole place. Yes, i have a bed. I was standing on it when i took that last picture. It's not terribly exciting. It's a bed. I sleep on it. It has blankets. Et cetera. Although, i did discover a little machine that dries out my bed. Apparently it gets so humid in the summer that beds here just get wet. So, to help keep things dry, they have these things that kinda look like a vacuum machine with a hose that attaches to a bag that's as big as your bed. You put the bag under your blankets and it helps heat up and dry out all your bedding. That hasn't happened yet. The weather here is cold, cloudy and windy most of the time.

The Nomikai

Ray says he hates going to Japanese conferences because there is no way for him to give any input into what's being discussed. 30 speakers give a talk without opening it up to the floor.

Aside from that, Ray the most interesting part about Japanese conferences is the drinking party they have at the very end. Where, to quote him, "the business really happens." It strikes me as kind of a sort of social drinking workshop where it's okay to get drunk.

Apparently, sometimes during this drinking party when some of the speakers get a little too drunk, they speak their mind a little more bluntly than they would normally. You must realize that in Japanese culture, especially business culture, all language is incredibly polite. One would never say "no" outright, instead they would say "yes, but..."

I pondered what it would be like if we had drinking parties at the end of Mennonite conferences. I suspect there would be a lot more Mennonite denominations if that were the case.

gather 'round the storytime circle and let me spin you a yarn

This is a story about a veterinarian who lived in this very town of Naganuma many, many years ago.  So many years ago, that the mode of transportation du jour was on horseback.  One can see why a veterinarian might easily make a living back then.  He made his living travelling to different farms and houses tending to their sick horses and cattle.  Himself riding his own horse.

Then one day as he was riding on his horse to someone's house, the horses rear legs suddenly went limp.  At this point, he was in the middle of nowhere, at least 3 miles from anyone's house so he had to get this horse up and running again.  But no matter how hard he tried, he could not figure it out.  So he did what any professional does when they get frustrated.

He kicked the horse.  Hard.

Then the horse jumped up, back to normal.  Completely fine.

The man was dumbfounded, but as he rode his horse the last three miles to his destination, an idea struck him.  Hard.

He began to experiment.  If he found a horse that was sick, he would just boot the thing in the back as hard as he could.  And apparently it worked.  He moved on to different animals, trying out different striking methods and refining his targets.  Then when he was tending to someone's animal, the owners thought he might as well treat them too since he was there. 

And it worked. 

People started coming to him from miles around just to get punched in the back.  He continued to refine his skills to the point where he could apply the same amount of pressure without even touching his patient.  That's right.  He could somehow focus his energy onto a person's back and adjust their spinal column this way.

This guy is still alive and he runs a little clinic in Sapporo.  He's apparently trained a few other people in his techniques.  He can also read people's backs and can tell what is ailing you by the position of your vertebrae.  Once, he walked up to a patient and told him that there is something wrong with his heart and he should go see his real doctor.  A week later, the patient died of a heart attack.  This guy's also recently become a Christian.  A Mennonite, to be exact.  So he treats Mennonites for free.

And i'm going to get a treatment from him tomorrow.  'Cause i want to see this for myself.  And it's free.

intermission: a well composed picture

We actually ate some of these brightly coloured weeds at supper today.  Once you cover them in tempura and some sauce of unknown description, they're pretty good.

Tampopo didn't let me down

For those unfamiliar with the movie Tampopo, it's a Japanese "noodle western" about a woman (named, quite appropriately, Tampopo) who is trying to run her own ramen noodle shop. It's also the movie that gave me a massive craving to go to one of these ramen noodle shops and it's also partly responsible for my decision to go to Japan. Now, i can finally say that i've been to one of these shops. And it was totally worth the trip. Holy crap. So tasty, so good.

(Kazu took this nice pic of the noodle shop)

This is the shop we went to. Not entirely sure what the sign means, but the little dragon sitting on a cloud slurping ramen noodles was enough to get the idea. We entered through the sliding door on the right. The actual part where you sit down is kinda further off to the right of the picture. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was too dark outside and the windows were so steamed up, you couldn't see inside.

Once inside, we ordered our food off of this menu. Well, Ray did. Generally since ramen shops have a very limited menu (only 6 items at this one and two add rice options) and a specialty, people already know what they want before they come in. Ray and his two sons explained the options to me as we drove. I picked the kim chee ramen which on the menu is the one with 750 under it.

Then the cook got to work. This guy made a pretty good show of it. Splashing water and sauce over the pan as he threw ingredients in. Fire flaring up. He was fast too. About 4 minutes after we ordered, all four of us had our food. This is the Japanese traditional equivalent to our fast food joints or greasy spoon restaurants. This ramen shop was locally owned so the kitchen was a little messier than a chain shop would be which only added to the whole ambiance and overall appeal of the experience.

Watching our food being prepared. That's Ray on the far left with his sons, Yohe and Kazu. There was a bookshelf on one wall of the shop that was filled with Japanese comic books that you could read while you wait. If you know your kanji, that is. I know the kanji for "book" and "tree". That's about it. So, now i can tell if a building is a bookstore.

Finally! It arrives in all it's fat glistening glory. Just looking at this picture makes me want more. Good god was it ever good. Probably not so good for the body, but definitely good for the soul. You may not be able to tell from this picture, but this is a big bowl of soup. I could probably fit my face in the bowl. I couldn't finish all of it, but i wanted to. I remember eating the last little bit of broth i could muster and watching another patron getting their food and i was jealous that they get to experience this from the beginning. Fresh sprouts and green onions piled on top of their slice of pork...

Mmmm....

Has anyone read this movie?

Good morning everybody, sit down and shut up. It's time to think. Got your coffee? Good. Cause it's going to be a long day. We are going to make a big blockbuster movie. With explosions and computer graphics and a hot girl. We've already paid for two million dollars worth of explosions, another two million worth of computer graphics and two thousand on breast implants. They've already started making computer models of a white Corvette and a Harrier jet. They're quite slick. We just need some context for them. Some people maybe. Characters. Possibly involved in a "story." Got it? Start thinking.

Wilson! Are you reading? Don't give me that head shaky no crap. I can see that book in front of your face. Give it here. And get your fingers to your temples and start thinking like everyone else. Look at Johnson over here. See that vein popping out a quarter inch from his forehead? That's an extra quarter mil on his next paycheck.

What is this book? Jumper? Ha! Sounds real exciting, Wilson. Can't wait for the sequel, Jump Roper. Johnson thinks it's funny. Where do you get this crap from, Wilson? Your mother's basement? What? This Jumper guy can teleport? Pppfff. That's not realistic at all. Unless he explodes when he teleports. Does he explode when he teleports? No? He should.

Say, this Jumper book doesn't sound so bad anymore. What else happens in it? What? I'm not going to read this. Too many words in those word sentence things. Tell me what happens. Did i hear you correctly? His dad's a drunk and he's looking for his mom? Awwww. What a tough life. Does he wear black and listen to Linkin Park, too? 'Cause actually i hear that's what the kids are into these days. I bet his life would be tougher if there was some secret government agency set up to rid the world of these teleporting people. A secret government agency with tazers! And! A mission from God. If we throw in some religious jargon, we'll get some free press from the Christians who try to ban it. Perfect.

Man, this kid could do whatever the hell he wants to and he'd never be caught. What teenager in our target group wouldn't want that? What? No, dummy. They're for my wife.

No, really, the book is awesome and the movie is complete and utter Hollywood wank. In the book, David Rice is actually a dynamic character who just wants to be a normal kid with a special ability, but whose good intentions are twisted by his own actions. In the movie, David Rice is living the dream. Being able to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants with no conseqence because of his teleporting ability. Oh, wait, sorry. He has to answer to Samuel L. Jackson's bleached hair and high tech cattle prod thing. But that just means he has to fight him, not change his ways at all.

I bought the book with this movie cover on it and it painfully obvious that they have no respect for the writer of the book whatsoever. Nor the original ideas that they took and bastardized for the movie. The book cover says, "Jumper from the director of the Bourne Identity." It made me ill. So i took care of it.



Ahhh. Much better.

Ukuleles are difficult to find when you're Hard Off

On Tuesday, i went with Aki and her son Kazu to deliver their daikon radishes, potatoes and eggs to some customers in Sapporo. It wasn't a big job, they only had 13 drop-off points most of which were to individuals who wanted a carton of eggs and a single daikon radish, but it took up the entire afternoon. We took our time, stopping off at a few different shops along the way and getting other side jobs done. We even had lunch in the car. Two tasty rice balls, stuffed with mushrooms, seaweed and tiny fish wrapped in seaweed and packaged in a traditional lunch food paper.


I had fun quickly switching between these two pictures on my camera.

One thing Kazu likes to do is point out the differences between Japan and Canada. Especially the funny English in some of the signs. Almost every sign in Sapporo had some sort of English on it so theres always a good chance of finding a gem. Kazu is about 13 years old. He grew up attending public school in the States somewhere so his English is pretty much perfect and he can enjoy these signs as much as any English speaker. He made sure i saw this one on the side of a concrete factory:


Oops! Concrete Basics for Life

One favorite is a store named Hard Off. I couldn't even begin to think of what that store might sell, but on our Sapporo delivery trip we visited a few of these Hard Off stores.

A big thing in Japan, or at least in Hokkaido, are recycle shops. Think of them as kind of a high end pawn shop or Value Village where they actually give you money for your stuff and display them as neatly as any department store. Stores such as Oki Doki and Second Street take anything and everything. In the "Off" line of stores there's Off House, for your home appliances and clothing, Book Off, for books, Hobby Off, for collectible figurines and such, and Hard Off, for your music and home entertainment desires. However, because these shops are so popular, the prices are higher than what you might find at a Value Village.

The reason we went to Hard Off was to find a ukulele for me to play because i stupidly left mine on the bannister at Curt's house right as we left for the airport. Baka. Apparently, my other brother Tim had impressed them enough with his ukulele that Ray and Aki were counting on me to play for a few people at their Mochi making party on April 26th. When i told Ray the day i arrived in Hokkaido, he and Aki were already scheming the next day as to how i could get a new one. This was before asking me about all this, of course, but i couldn't say no.

Turns out, out of the three Hard Offs we visited, only one had ukuleles but they were new, expensive and didn't have tuning gears. Aki was surprised, she had seen ukuleles in droves during her previous visit. I suggested that perhaps it's ukulele season.