Tag: food

Posted on

Kanto Festival (Akita Prefecture)

akita kanto6

Akita is a rice-produching region.  Kanto lanterns shining in the night sky represent a bountiful harvest of rice in coming Autumn and praying for an end of epidemics like that Gion Festival in Kyoto prays.    It is interesting that many festivals both in Japan and abroad, now and in the past, are held to pray for the warding off of epidemics.

akita kanto1 ready
akita kanto8 music
akita kanto4
akita kanto3 pose
akita kanto2

The kanto hand over the pillars to the next person while adding a piece of pillars, showing an exquisitely balanced pose each time.    The completed kanto reaches 12 meters high and weighs 50 kilograms, and the pillars are largely bent.   “The boughs that bear most hang lowest.”  This really embodies the proverb.


akita kanto7 a child who take out something decoration when the pose is decided
akita kanto7 a child who take out something decoration when the pose is decided

If you want to see Kanto at night, you should reserve a seat in the front row of the median on the main street. It is so powerful that the lanterns collapsing in front of you.

Discover a genius boy mixed with adults! As soon as he strikes an exquisitely balanced pose, he pulls out various projectiles such as fans from his chest and enjoys everyone around him.

During the daytime, the festival holds competition to compete in techniques to support the Kanto in various positions(one hand, forehead, sholder, waist !).  Even at night, you should look down, not up.

akita competition2 judge
akita competition9 next players waiting
akita competition3 penalty if the foot is out of circle
akita competition4 experts only move their heels
akita competition6
akita competition7 change position each 30sec
akita competition5
akita competition10
akita competition8 change music also each 30sec
akita competition11 curve max
akita competition12 at least break

Let me briefly explain the rules. use only one hand.   Do not go beyond the 6m diameter circle.   Change technique according to the signal (every 30 seconds).   If playing an instrument, change the tune.    In my opinion, good athletes keep their balance by slightly shifting their heels.    If you can’t afford to stay overnight in Akita, I recommend you watching the daytime competition.


akita competition1 lotus flower
Lotus flower (Junsai is one of familly) around Akita Castle

Detour

Make sure you have something to eat in advance for a long enjoying.   There is a market near the station where you can eat rock oysters from the Oga Peninsula.   You can also choose Akita’s famous sake from the list pasted on all over the wall.   The fact that “junsai” can be eaten with sake is proof that the water is delicious.  “Inaniwa udon” (Japanese noodles), which is eaten in the middle of summer, cools down to the core and releases the summer heat.

akita market3
akita market1 rock oyster
akita market2 rock oyster
akita stall1 sakes offered here
akita stall2 sake
akita stall3 sake
akita stall4 menu1
akita stall5 menu2
akita stall7 menu4 seri salade
akita stall6 menu3 junsai
akita stall8 menu5 beef tendon soup
akita competition13 nudle cold to the core

 

morioka6
Go back to itinerary
Posted on

Eat Yonezawa Beef (Wagyu) in Shirabu Hot Spring

Yonezawa Beef

The meat in the beef stew I always eat at home is pork !    That’s because beef is expensive and not so good for the price.    However, the price of brand beef is different, but the taste is also different.
I remember eating beef steak in Argentina once, but it was very tender and delicious.   When I asked to the waiter if they were exporting, he told that they  were all eaten by  the Argentines, so they were not exported.   The export volumn of Argentine wine is also low for the same reason.   That’s why I try to find Argentine wine first in Japanese wine shops.

The Japanese beef (Wagyu) gene was brought overseas and became a global brand, but Japanese beef still stands out.    Moreover, it is west high(ex. Kobe Beef, Matsuzaka Beef, Ohmi Beef) and east low in Japan.   Kyoto seems to have the highest per capita consumption of beef in Japan, but I was wondering if they were eating only vegetarian food.    Among these circumstances, the Yonezawa beef in Tohoku is doing its best.  Enjoy yourself slowly with local sake. 

Shirabu Hot Spring1

Shirabu Onsen has a retro hot spring inn with a thatched roof.   Hot springs always overflow from the bathtub like a flood and are always fresh.   Since it is a retro, the voice of the next room will leak, but do not hit the wall one by one.   I was hit by a nervous foreigner in the next room.   Then I want to tell her not to stay in a retro inn.

Shirabu Hot Spring4
Shirabu Hot Spring2３
Shirabu Hot Spring5
Shirabu Hot Spring2
Shirabu Hot Spring from edo period
Shirabu Hot Spring water

Unfriendly poster cat

She did not let me take a frontal photo at Nishi-Ya inn.

cat1
cat2
cat3
cat4

 

Mountain Pass Station0
Go back to itinerary

 

Posted on

Uragasumi Sake Brewery with tasting before lunch

sake brewery

When I got off the approach from Shiogama Shrine, I saw a large warehouse of sake brewery.   Since it was founded nearly 300 years ago, it is a company with an even longer history than Kamei, which I visited earlier.

Everywhere Shrines and sake breweries have existed as a pair for a long time, but due to advances in brewing technology, the sake brewery entered a period of great competition, which is a great story for sake lovers.  The taste of Daiginjo, which produces a refreshing taste by polishing sake rice to the extreme to remove miscellaneous tastes, becomes similar among any sake brewery without fear of misunderstanding.  Therefore, I think that Junmaishu, which does not polish so much rice, represents the taste of the brewery.

Sake production is a complicated process in which a two-step process of saccharification of rice starch with koji and alcoholic fermentation of sugar  with yeast is carried out in one barrel.   Sufficient alcoholic fermentation of sugar results in dry sake, its current fashion, but it does not retain the umami(rich taste) of rice. On the other hand, sake which often wins the gold medal in the world is not suitable for in-meal liquor because its umami is so distinctive.   This balance is difficult, and the true sense of Toji(Master of sake in each brewery) is questioned.
Although wine and sake are common in that they are not distilled, the wine is only fermented of its sugar, so the performance of the grapes harvested is the most important.   So vintage is everything.   On the other hand, sake is all about delicate manufacturing methods.

If you go back to Uragasumi Sake Brewery, you can buy a small glass, and with this you can have 3 kinds of tasting, so please find the one you like and buy it. However, buying a full bottle here will affect later actions.

Japanese sweets and tea utensils
Japanese sweets and tea utensils

There is another well-established store here that I want to stop by.   It is a Japanese confectionery shop “Tanrokuen” that sells Shihogama.   When you put it in your mouth, it melts and you can feel the scent of salt and perilla.   As before, shrines and Japanese confectionery shops are paired everywhere.   However, it seems that it has made history by changing the industry since the beginning. Speaking of Japanese sweets, Japanese tea is always associated with it, and it is clear that tea utensils are now sold mainly there.

Detour for lunch (Le Nid d’hirondelle in Higashi-Matsushima Town)

Higashi(East)-Matsushima Town has the same place name as “Matsushima”, but because it is off Matsushima Bay with a lot of small islands as a breakwater, it was directly affected by the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake.   Although the coastal land became salty and therefore not suitable for cultivation, private company KDDI Evolva, contact center services for telecommunication business, is taking on the challenge of smart agriculture such as high quality tomato production by hydroponics, land restoration and employment of people with disabilities. They  are really working on making the situation plus rather than returning it to zero from minus in Nobi district !

A new town is being rebuilt on the opposite bank of the Nobi district, and there is a restaurant worth a detour in it.  That is “Le Nid d’hirondelle“.
Since the air base is located in Higashi- Matsushima Town, you could see Blue Impulse training flights sometimes near here.

le nid d’hirondelle1
le nid d’hirondelle5
le nid d’hirondelle2
le nid d’hirondelle3 carrot
gate chocolat
top gun16

 

Posted on

“The early bird gets the worm” at morning market of Yuriage

yuriage auction

Film director Makoto Shinkai said he got the idea for the movie “Your name”(subtitle:  I’m always searching for something, for someone.) from the disaster-affected Yuriage.  The coastal area of ​​Yuriage and the port town were all swallowed by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the situation was seen by all the people in the live broadcast via helicopter from the sky without doing anything.  According to the story of the movie, two people, who transcend time and space, cooperate with each other on how to call residents to evacuate, although the types of disasters are different.

yuriage seawall1
yuriage momument

In the old days, a row of beautiful cool pine trees that continue along the coastline collapsed due to the tsunami, and now triple tide walls continue to the dry ground.  In addition, the residents are returning by raising the height of the land.   Morning markets are held on Sundays and public holidays from 6:00 to regain the old bustle, and the general public can participate in the auction no charge and get cheap and fresh products(see cover photo).

breakfast1 at yuriage
breakfast2 at yuriage
yuriage morning market
yuriage port

Michinoku Coastal Trail and Natori Information Center

This trail connects the Pacific coast from Hachinohe in Aomori prefecture to Soma in Fukushima prefecture.  Walking distance is 1000km !   Natori Information center is located at Yuriage and not only for breaks, you can use showers and laundry there.
>read more about Michinoku Coastal Trail in Hachinohe

yuriage seawall2
yuriage seawall2

Posted on

Soba is cool in the throat

white flower of buckwheat

Soba, a thin noodle made of buckwheat flour, is eaten or the scent enjoyed all over Japan and had become a subject of classical literary arts, especially rakugo.
Yamagata was a place to ship rice to the Edo Shogunate by Kitamae ship, so rice production was popular.  Soba has historically been offered as thank-you after the rice farming work that many neighbors helped, and its taste was a showcase for the farmers.  That is why soba became famous in Yamagata prefecture.
Soba fields spread along the Oishi Kaido(highroad) in the countryside, and many soba restaurants are concentrated in it.  In August, the fields are filled with small white flowers, and in the fall you can enjoy the fragrant new soba.

Gallery (click photos)

soba highroad left
soba highroad right
soba menu left
soba menu right

The restaurant ‘Heikichi’ I found in the countryside by chance is the following.
The place name is “Jinego”, literary ‘next year’s children’ in Japanese characters, because it was too snowy to register the birth at the government office only next year.