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Setsubun: Do You Know Where Your Beans Are?

Ah, Setsubun. This special day marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring on the Japanese lunar calendar. It’s a little bit like a New Year’s party in terms of one period coming to a close while a new one starts. It is celebrated in temples and home throughout the country. There are traditional foods and traditional behaviors. One such behavior involves chasing the male head of the household out of the house while throwing beans at him and yelling “Out with the Devil!”

You can’t make this stuff up.

Setsubun comes around every year on February 3rd or 4th. It’s like the Japanese spring equinox. It’s a day to let go of winter and welcome spring. The behavior of the day is reflective of this – the alpha male of the house traditionally dresses up as an oni (devil) and his family throws beans at him while chanting “Devils out! Happiness in!!” until he runs out the front door, which is then slammed behind him. This is meant to drive evil spirits from the home and welcome good ones.

This tradition isn’t practiced so widely at home anymore. Now, celebrations (some involving bean throwing) are held at temples. At some events, celebrities and sumo wrestlers show up. Rather than having everyone chuck beans at some unlucky guy, however, these events may feature celebrities throwing prizes, money, or gold foil-covered bans into the assembled crowd.

There’s food, too (as there often is with Japanese holidays). Setsubun’s special treat is the ehomaki. It’s a long roll of sushi that hasn’t been cut (about 20cm long). It is filled with seven different items because seven is a “lucky” number, and also reflects the legendary seven gods of happiness in Japanese folklore. Every year, a direction is designated as “lucky” (this year it’s north-northwest), and the goal is to eat the entire ehomaki in silence while facing the lucky direction.

I’m not a big fan of rolled sushi, but it’s not every day you see a compass attached to your food in the supermarket.

Rolled Sushi, Ehomaki
Ehomaki, a rolled sushi traditional at Setsubun

The compass attached to each roll of sushi is supposed to help you turn in the correct direction while attempting to eat the entire ehomaki.

While I did not participate in setsubun this year (aside from buying the compass-sushi), it’s a quirky, interesting way to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring. The day also seems to coincide very closely with groundhog day in the U.S. Both are fairly ridiculous. If relying on a rodent to predict the weather for you or throwing beans at your Dad sounds like fun, that’s great. I’m going to wait until I can turn my heater off before I officially welcome spring.

Mask Yourself from the Flu

Every culture has its own remedies for everything from mosquito bites to zits to the common cold. “Culture” could mean the country you live in, your region, or even your family. Regardless, there’s probably a little something you do that might seem bizarre to someone else.

Japan has a reputation for weirdness that may or not have been fairly earned. An image of this “weirdness” was spread around the globe following the SARS scare from 2002-2003. The image was of Japanese people wearing what western individuals and media deemed unsettling: surgical masks.

A group of Japanese people wearing surgical masks.
(Photo via flavorsofjapan.com)

 

For the average western-country dweller, surgical masks are worn almost exclusively in medical contexts. If a person is wearing a surgical mask, they are either a doctor or a sick patient. There’s not much else the western brain immediately tends to think when they see these masks (unless you subscribe to a specific sort of fetishism, I suppose). So, it’s a little weird for some people from other countries to see so many people all wearing a mask in this fashion.

This is a preventative measure. While yes, masks are used to prevent the spread of germs from a sick person to another, the Japanese also use masks to prevent themselves from coming into contact with the germs in the first place. In the past, special masks were even designed using ostrich antibodies because a researcher discovered that ostriches have stronger immune systems than other birds. Masks are taken seriously here.

Now that it’s winter, of course, it’s also flu and cold season. The word “epidemic” is being thrown around with regard to this year’s flu numbers. Additionally, new forms of avian flu have been detected in northern Japan. Nobody wants to get sick. But we also can’t stay home. So, what do we do? We put face masks on.

Until recently, I thought this was a bit of a joke. A face mask? Really? I was especially bothered by the way some sick people (salarymen in particular) seemed to feel that because they were wearing the mask it was acceptable to cough and splutter at will. I find myself holding my breath in train cars at times when a person next to me is coughing and hacking without covering their face. Some people seem to think their face mask will take care of disease control altogether.

But I learned something recently. Something I had to look up. The owners of my school have been giving each person who comes in the door a hand wipe to help reduce the spread of germs. They’ve also been running a humidifier, and many students show up in face masks. The most surprising information I heard regarding these practices was that humid air actually helps reduce the spread of the germs.

“HA! SILLY JAPANESE WITH YOUR SILLY IDEAS!” was my first reaction.

I did a little research, and what I found surprised me. Some evidence suggests that moist air may actually make existence very difficult for the flu. In fact, increased outbreaks of the flu (especially in less humid climates) may be due to how easy it is for the germs to travel through the dry air. However, not all scientists are on board with this theory.

So, how does this relate to masks? By breathing into a mask (especially breathing through the mouth), you’re actually warming the air and adding humidity to it. You’re not pulling dry air into your lungs; it’s much less harsh, and it may possibly be helping to eliminate any influenza germs. Or not. You decide. I tend to think masks have an entertaining element about them – I can breathe with my mouth open without appearing ridiculous, I can smile to myself on the train when I’m watching something funny on my iPod, and I even come with the added bonus of looking somewhat like a space alien when I wear one.

Wearing a Surgical Mask(Exhibit A responds with terror when exposed to loud sounds or cockroaches.)

 

I don’t wear a mask to protect myself from germs. If I am feeling extraordinarily sick, I will wear a mask in an effort not to infect my coworkers and my students. I do, however, wear a scarf that I regularly pull up above my mouth. I tend to breathe through it when I’m out and about in the winter just because the air is cold and breathing through the scarf allows me to heat the air before I pull it into my lungs, which feels much more pleasant. Whether or not my scarf is saving me I may never know.

The thing I find the most entertaining about all of this, however, is knowing for certain now that I live in a nation of mouthbreathers.

Nabe: Japan’s Hearty Winter Soup

**NOTE: This has been crossposted (with some slight modifications) from jibTV.com, where I also write. I wanted to share it with those of you who do not read content at jibTV.**

Winter is cold. Winter is especially cold when you live within a culture that still doesn’t prioritize home insulation. Heaters of every variety – electric, gas, oil – are purchased in droves throughout the season and mountains of sweaters, coats, and woolly socks go out for sale. While I take advantage of all these winter survival strategies, I also like to integrate something that warms me from the inside out rather than from the outside in: food. In America, winter food consists of roasted meat, sweet pies, mashed potatoes, and chicken soup. Here, what has quickly become one of my favorite cold-weather dishes is a food with many variations that is known by just one name: nabe.

Nabe - Hearty Japanese Soup

In a nutshell, nabe is Japanese soup. Stick a bunch of ingredients in a pot, add some water, put it on some heat for a while, and eat it when it’s done. There’s not much more to it than that. There seem to be no real rules for nabe (unless you’re a stickler, I guess), but there are variations in nabe names based on the ingredients used.

The ingredients pictured above include tofu, Chinese cabbage, chicken meatballs, cabbage, thinly sliced pork, kimchi, and suiton, a coin-shaped piece of doughy stuff.

There are plenty of different kinds of nabe. There’s yose nabe, where you can literally choose anything you like and put it in the soup. Then, there’s kimchi nabe (shown pictured), which uses Korean kimchi as a base. This makes a spicy, warm soup, and you can choose your preferred level of spicyness as you go. Additionally, there’s chanko nabe, which has traditionally been eaten by sumo wrestlers. This is typically a high protein, high calorie soup. There are many different kinds of nabe – everyone can create their own favorite.

The cooking pot itself is called a nabe. Typically a heavy ceramic pot with a lid, it’s filled with the ingredients and placed over a burner. The burner is often a portable one that can be used in the middle of a table. Once steam begins emerging from the hole in the lid of the pot, your food is probably about ready to eat.

Cooked Nabe - Hearty Japanese Soup

Nabe is eaten by taking the bits you want to eat out of the pot. This means that everyone gets to choose their personally preferred pieces. Each person has their own individual bowl and can take whatever they like. It’s very much a communal dish.

Leftovers (of which there were many, with this particular pot) can be refrigerated and reheated. The pictured kimchi nabe was reheated with a little water the next morning. Egg and rice were added to make a tasty breakfast!

Nabe is fun and easy to make. It’s a wonderful winter dish that is great for sharing. There are many, many different recipes to try, or you can simply make your own! Regardless, enjoy – you’re in for a treat.

Happy New Year, and a Haiku!

Happy new year! I’ve just returned from a two week vacation to the United States and am back at work in Tokyo. It’s good to be back, but lots of changes are taking place for me this year. I’m looking forward to it.

To start off the new year, I wanted to share something with readers I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Every night when I walk home, I pass a shrine. There’s a signboard posted in front of the shrine where I assume priests post a message for passerby. The message is always written as a haiku. As I walk home at night, I read it and try to guess what it means. It changes fairly often, so I thought it would be fun to share with you, readers. This is the message for the new year:

A Haiku at a local shrine in Tokyo at the New Year in 2012

It reads “Kyokujitsu ni/mayoi no kumo wo/harau asa.” I’ve translated this as “In the morning sun, hesitant clouds are swept away for dawn.”

I thought this might be a nice message to start off the new year. Of course, if you have an alternate translation of the above haiku, please let me know.

Hope you’re all off to a great start in 2012. I’m looking forward to an excellent year.

Japanese BBQ: Yes, we can (grill that)!

Food is awesome. Food is great. Food is fun. Anyone who says any differently is probably someone I can’t associate myself with. We need food to survive. We eat it every day (hopefully), and we’ve all had good and bad experiences with it. Everyone has their own preferences regarding tastes, cuisines, and cooking techniques. Most techniques are apparent throughout the world, and good old BBQ is one of them. Japanese BBQ is a little different from what Americans might think of as grill-cookin’; Japanese barbeque is very meat-on-a-stick friendly, and the Japanese will grill things you couldn’t even imagine before wolfing them down (in some cases, raw is cool too). As a result, there’s not much grey area in terms of preference for some Japanese foods: either you like them, or you hate them.

Seafood for Grilling at a Japanese BBQ

Much to the chagrin of some tourists, a lot of Japanese food is seafood. Japan is, after all, an island, which means that much of its resources come from the ocean. Fish you never knew existed can be eaten here, crustaceans of massive size captured and cooked, and even shellfish are regularly harvested from shores and reefs to be added to bowls of ramen and grills. In the foreground of the above photo are sazae, a mollusk commonly eaten as somewhat of a delicacy here in Japan. In this photo, the mollusks were still alive; they occasionally squirted water out, and recoiled when shop staff added ice to their container. In the background are large prawns already speared on sticks. The photo comes from a recent matsuri, or festival, here in Shinjuku. All of these foods (and more) were prepared for grilling on a barbeque like structure in clear view of all pedestrians walking by. Not pictured are various clams, chicken meatballs, pork, and a variety of vegetables including green peppers and onions. All of these foods are encompassed under the same word(s): yakitori (literally, grilled chicken), and kushiyaki (skewer grilled). These phrases can, mostly, be used interchangeably, but they both refer to the same thing: food on a stick.

Japanese BBQ can be spotted at festivals like these, but there’s also more personalized barbeque settings you can find. The popular yakiniku (literally, grilled meat) is essentially the Japanese version of a barbeque party; however, it’s in restaurant form. Yakiniku restaurants are everywhere in Tokyo. Inside the restaurant are usually several large booths, and in the center of the table there’s a hole. When you sit down with your party, one of the staff will bring over a portable grill already lit with hot coals and place it in the hole; voila, your own personal barbeque. From there, it’s up to you to choose your choices of meats/veggies/tofus from the menu. You cook everything yourself, so be confident in your preparation skills. Prices for these places range from reasonably cheap to pretty expensive.

Americans like myself likely feel a certain sort of nostalgia for homestyle BBQ. Maybe we all have fun memories of Dad cooking hamburgers on the grill in the backyard in summer. Small, home grills are available at some stores in Japan, but be careful where you use them. I’ve heard tales of a hamburger-grilling, unsuspecting foreigner getting the fire department called on him for using his own grill on his own balcony. Sounds like a terrible thing for neighbors to do, right?

As readers (hopefully) know, Japan has a long history. This is a country that’s been around for a while. There are a lot of people here, too. As a result, cities get crowded. Buildings are very close together, and people have to expand up rather than out if they want to find new living/working spaces. This means that fires have the potential to be extremely, extremely destructive forces. A fire from one building can move easily to another in a very short period of time. While some may argue that modern architecture and technologies can help prevent these disastrous situations, the threat still exists. As a result, home BBQ in Japan may be frowned upon.

But fear not! There are other options for you, BBQ enthusiasts! Some public places, like parks and campgrounds, have facilities just for you.

Grilling fish on a campfire, Japan

This image was taken this summer at a campground on a little island several hours to the south of Tokyo. These fish were caught, cleaned, prepared, and cooked within a matter of hours. If you’re the type who wants to build your own fire and prep your own food just the way you like it, seek out a public use place. These areas are typically far away from any buildings, and are first-come, first-served.

Keep in mind that wherever you go, there are a lot of options available for your grilling pleasure. Everything from chicken to sea urchins to cow tongue can be cooked up. Give it a shot! Trying new foods is a fun and exciting cultural experience. I’ve tried some things I would never have imagined to like that are now favorites. Conversely, I have a whole new repertoire of foods I will pass on every time. Do you have any experience in the magical world of Japanese BBQ? Horror stories? Success stories? Must-try foods? Make sure to share, so I can taste them myself!.

Go forth, and eat. If you can find it, the Japanese will grill it.

Moving Internet House

Hi readers, as I mentioned in my last post, a couple changes are happening here in the ArishaInTokyo online world.

One of those changes includes the blog moving to its own personal domain (YAY!). I decided to make the move because I wanted to have a lot more control over my site. WordPress.com has been great, but I wanted to move to a self-hosted wordpress blog.

You can now find the new site at ArishaInTokyo.com. This site will remain up for a little while longer, so if for whatever reason you’re particularly attached to the layout, you can see it for a few more weeks. All content, images, comments, etc. have all been moved over to the new site, so no data has been lost.

In December I’m going to use a site redirect so that if you come to this URL, you’ll automatically be taken to my new home on the web.

For people subscribed to the blog: if you are an e-mail subscriber, I have already automatically moved your subscription. If, however, you follow my blog via wordpress, you may need to subscribe again. For whatever reason, I can’t take my wordpress subscribers with me when I move.  Apologies for the inconvenience.

I hope you all enjoy the new site! I’ve got lots of new content ready to go up, and I’m excited to share it with all of you! Thanks for reading!

Alisha

P.S. There’s a new video up! Check it out!

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