New pastime

Lately, It has been difficult for me to go out because of my growing little boy, so I 've recently found a new hobby and I have been enjoying it on weekends. The pleasure is cooking seafood dishes and drinking alcohole that mach the dishes

This is how I usually begin my Saturday. I go to a fish shop with my toddler to buy some fresh seafoods. This is wonderful opportunities for both me and my wife, it is because the brief trip with my little boy is very relaxing and critically choosing the kinds and quality of fish is also very eciting for me. On the other hand, it is also very convenient for my wife because she can do housework at home during our shopping.

◆fish shop I make use of in Nishi Koyama(西小山)

After I go back home from shopping, I am pleased with the purchases on the day, as if I came from hunting.

And then, I started to fight against gutting the fish and shelfish. This is very hard work but challenging and interesting action because I can directly feel the material as it is and the advantage of it.

The folowings are the report of my efforts.

■the date : October 6th


■purchases

a) brown seaweed for raw diet (生食用ワカメ)　b) prawn (クルマ海老) c) sea quirt (海鞘貝) d) autumn salmon (秋サケ) e) salmon roe (筋子) f) flying fish (飛び魚)　g) psenopsis (エボダイ)

c) a sea quirt (海鞘貝)

This odd object may look like plant or vegetable such as a pineapple, but this is an animal classified prot protochorade (原索動物), which is not a vertebrate animal(脊椎動物) but have close functions to it.

The contents which are unique has hard skin that contains a lot of liquid and a soft muscle. They seems to be eaten raw mainly in Tohoku rigion, northeastern area in Japan, but less people like it in other places because of its too strong sea smell.

I once had this experience at a Japanese restaurant but eating it raw and at home, off course preparing by myself was the first experience for me.

The liquid was a little astringency and difficult taste for me. So I ate it soaked with sauce containing soy sauce and citrus juice and a little red pepper. It eased too strong smell and mathed Sake very much.

e) salmon roe (Sujiko : 筋子)

Sujiko is a chunk of a lot of salmon roe which are still attached sac.

We can't deliciously eat Sujiko as it is, so I first take them apart in a lukewarm warter and soaked with sauce composed soy sauce and Sake and broth. Sitting for two nights are ready to eat.

■the date : October 20th

a) a head of sea bream (鯛の頭)　b) mackerel (鯖) c) turban shell (サザエ) d) saury (秋刀魚) e) horse mackerel (アジ) f) parrot fish (石鯛)

c) turban shell (サザエ)

Shellfish is easy to be rot. So we can eat raw when getting especially fresh one. It has feature of crunchy texture and faint sea smell. Needless to say, it goes with Sake very much.

sliced raw fish (刺身）

Sashimi is thinly sliced, raw seafood. It is typical Japanese cusine which is eaten after being dipped into a soy sauce and accompanied with Wasabi or ground ginger.

■the date : October 27th


■purchases

a) blackthroat seaperch (のどぐろ)　b) squid (烏賊)　 c) sardine (いわし) 　d) saury (秋刀魚) 　e) filefish (かわはぎ) 　

swimming in the ocean (海水浴)

My family and I made a trip to Ito (伊東) city in Izu peninsula for swimming in early August. Ito is located in the eastern shore of the Izu Peninsula and facing Sagami(相模） bay. It is one of the well known hot spring resort towns near Tokyo and It took 3 hours by car from my home.



By the way, the earth is said that it is covered with 10 or more thick rocks plate (the thickness is 100 km) which are slowly moving. Plates collide and sink or rise with each other, and then fault formation and earthquakes happen on the spot.



The Japanese Archipelago is on an area which 4 plates concentrate. It mainly extends over Eurasia and North America plate, in addition pacific and Philippine ocean plate put strong pressure by sinking under the two plates. Izu peninsula is exactly just the spot their plates are colliding with each other.




Izu peninsula is orginally said to be a submarine volcano (海底火山) located hundreds of kilometers southern than the current location. But as the Phillipine ocean plate gradually moved and went up to north, it collided with the Honshu, and it become a part of Japanese archipelago about 1 million years ago. We can enjoy beautiful nature and a lot of hot springs at Izu by the characteristic geographical feature.



Anyway, one pleasures of this trip was to see my son enjoy swimming for the first time. So we visited a beach for two consecutive days and try to help him to swim, but he was frightened and was crying all the time.

A huge body of water in his sight and the noise of waves seemed to be horrible for just a one-year old boy. My wife and I took turns enjoying swimming and taking care of the crying baby at far from the sea side.







We also had a trick for dinner at hotel. A hotel we stay offers a dinner service at the inside restaurant of the hotel but it was difficult for us to have a dinner calmly at public space with my son, so we went to buy and took out Sashimi and Sushi of local seafood at fish shop near our hotel and ate in our room after we put him sleep. The food was so delicious and cheaper than restaurant service.







Sea bathing of my son had to be postpone to next summer but we could enjoy seafood, hot springs, beautiful picturesque of Izu. It got to be a good summer memory.

Bon dancing

My son has started to walk since last June and consequently he has got to be more manageable, so my wife and I sometimes went out with him this summer.

The other day, we went to Bonodori festival held at the elementary school near our house. This is small festival by local community and sponsored by local shops and companies.

Obon is a day of Japanese Buddist-custom and one of the most popular events like new years day on which it is thought our ancestral spirits return home. Many people take vacations and go back hometown to welcome the spirit of ancestors during this period.

Bon dancing is one of the interesting dances various people do at a public space such as the precincts of a temple during this period. There are various styles of dance and music but the pattern we can often see is dancing in a circle around a tower.

Bon dancing was thought to be originally for holding a memorial service for a departed soul in the Middle Ages and prevailed by adding elements of praying for a good harvest and amusement.

By the way I first visited Bon dancing since my elementary school days about 20 or more years ago. Usually we are apt to drift away from the regional community and regional event after we grow up to about junior high school students. This time, my son has been given a chance to have a relationship with regional community again. Thanks to him, I could feel nostalgic and remember child’s mind .

I hope he will dance better next year.

Fish shop at Namamugi (生麦魚河岸通り）

There are fewer fish shops than expected in the world.

Last March, a nearby fish shop I frequented unfortunately closed because of ageing of the shop staffs. It deprived me of a bit of pleasure on my weekends.

When the fish shop was, we could easily get fresh seafood in season and enjoy various dishes which is made use of its material by getting some information about how to cook them most deliciously from shop staff.

Of course a supermarket sells seafood, but the something sold is mostly processed and packed, so they don’t look so especially fresh and it is difficult to perceive and enjoy the real size and features and most tasty season of fish. In addition, we can’t enjoy talking about fish at supermarket. Looking for and cooking and eating fresh fish is exciting amusement I think.

My wife and I have searched for an alternative fish shops in the neighborhood since then and we finally found a new ideal spot although it is actually very far from our home. It is a fish shop street in Namamugi（生麦）city which is called Uokashi（魚河岸） street.

In this street some old traditional fish shops gathered like a market. And they sell various kinds of seafood not as cut figure including rare kinds that we can't get at a common supermarket. The main customer of the shops are special people which manage Sushi shop and Japanese restaurant so the opening time is limited from early in the morning to noon and available time for ordinary people is more limited， from 9:00pm after special people finish buying to about noon, just for three hours.

By the way, the Namamugi area is famous for Namamugi incident occurred in the last stage of Edo period. This incident was samurai assault from Satsuma on British nationals at Namamugi on 1862. And this occurence caused Angro-Satsuma war, which made some samurai realize a necessity of opening a country.

Namamugi was a fishing village at that time and the fishery industry had prospered by about the end of world war 2. But it declined because of the sharp industrialization and accompanied reclaimed project after the war. The district around there has changed as famous heavy industrial area . But it is very interesting that Uokashi street has continued to have a fish related business and feature which remind us old fishery village even in such an industrial area.

We bought at one shop some fish and shellfish (such as barracuda, horse mackerel, clam). They were a little more expensive than in an usual supermarket because shop’s target customers are professional people but that is why the quality and size and freshness are perfect. 

After we came back to home, I prepared sashimi and made clam soup and dried fish. A bone left over was fried to cracker. The taste was so good, in addition we could first enjoyed buying and cooking fresh fish in a long time.

I think it would be better if only the street would nearer.

 

Trip to Himi (氷見) during GW - はしもと屋 -

I took a trip to Himi City in Toyama Prefecture during GW, hopng for beautiful scenery and tasty fish with my wife and son.

Himi City is located at the part of bottom of Noto Peninsula, facing the west side of Toyama Bay. The coast of Himi commands a very fine view of the sea behind a high mountain range at the opposite side of the bay. In addition, there is abundant and so delicious seafood.

Toyama Bay is the largest gulf in Japan, and has characteristic geographical features of being sharply deep even in coastal areas and having a deep valley at the bottom of the sea. The water in the shallow area is warmed by an ocean current flowing into the bay, and on the other hand the water in the deep area is cold. So various kinds of fish can live there. It is said that 500 of the 800 kinds of fish inhabiting the Japan Sea live in the bay. 

We stayed in a “minshuku” named Hashimotoya (はしもと屋) in Himi. It was a Japanese style hotel like a private home providing meal and lodging service, and it was managed just one family. The lodging was a small old house located in a very rural place facing Toyama Bay, but the scenery from our room was fantastic, and they offered a wonderful meal service. After all, the family who manage the lodging was very polite and friendly.

The dinner we were served was a Japanese style course composed of the various local fresh seafood and edible wild plants, beginning with an appetizer of some delicacies and a big bowlful of several kinds of raw fish, salty broiled sea bream, and deep-fried shrimp. Each dish was made expertly from their ingredients, and we were greatly satisfied with them.

After the satisfying dinner, I found a comment of the lodge’s manager on their homepage and I was moved to see it. He says he is also one of the fans of Himi’s fish and he would like to make a place to share the deliciousness blessed by the nature with visitors. He also mentioned that the fact we can eat delicious and safe seafood is not always natural in light of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. So he wants to cook the living things nature has blessed us with.

His remark was very persuasive and impressive for me after having his elaborate cusine.