Japan Navigator

I have written a recent post on the birth of kaiten sushi or conveyor belt sushi exactly 50 year’s ago - an invention made in the great city of Osaka, but I still had to visit the shop where that happened: Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Fuse, Osaka.

Fuse is just a few minutes by Nara-bound Kintetsu train from Tsuruhashi on the Osaka loop line and the sushi restaurant sits almost in front of the station (on the block of shops to the right when you stand in front of the south exit of Fuse station). This is an old downtown neighborhood with impressive classical shopping arcades and shops and other establishments that are pleasantly un-modern.

Genroku Sushi was doing brisk business. The conveyor belt snaked all the way through the restaurant, leaving no corner empty. It also offered privacy, as a second belt had been built on top of the first one, thereby hiding eaters from each other. Another innovation! While the first belt carried the plates with sushi, the second one was loaded with cups, ash trays, paper napkins and other accessories.

All plates were the fixed price of 130 yen and the quality of the sushi was excellent. The fish was fresh and soft. Here you see one of my favorites, ikura, the eggs of the salmon (a sort of pseudo kaviar - even the Japanese word “ikura” is a rendering of “kaviar”). Besides offering the usual fish (tuna, salmon etc.) and shellfish, Genroku Sushi goes along with the times in providing sushi with raw meat, calbee, chicken, and also whale ham. I skipped all that, but there were many types of crab sushi I enjoyed and a nice seafood salad.

On the picture above you see the faucet for hot water. You have to press your cup against the black lever, the hot water comes out of the white spout (warning: if you mistakenly press the black lever with your hand putting the cup below it on the table, you get the scalding hot water over your hand). Tea bags are in the round black box next to the faucet. The other box contains ginger (shoga).

The Japanese names of the plates were indicated with little flags, but there was also an English language picture menu. Beer was available as a side order, but unfortunately the restaurant did not serve sake. A surprisingly large number of staff was on duty (considering the fact that the conveyor belt system was invented because of lack of suitable staff), to seat the customers, count the plates, and keep everything running smoothly. The chefs were also working at high speed to keep up with the pace of consumption. In the front wall of the restaurant was a take-out corner, with the same reasonable prices. When I was there, in the early evening of an ordinary weekday, the other visitors were mainly locals who would eat a few plates and then go back home again.

And this is the final result…. gochisosama deshita! Highly recommended and I will be back here even if I have to make a detour for it!

Which of the five Flower Towns (kagai) or geisha districts in Kyoto is your favorite one?

Gion Kobu - the foremost of Kyoto’s Flower Districts, named after the Yasaka Shrine (”Gion-san”). The most traditional of the five. Dance and music training is in the classical Inoue-school. The major public performance is the Miyako Odori in April.

Gion Higashi - Originally formed one flower town with Gion Kobu, but became independant in 1881. Follows the Fujima School. Performance called Gion Odori is held in autumn.

[Miyako Odori]

Miyagawacho - on the east bank of the Kamo River, between Gojo and Shijo. The riverbank here was from the early 17th century on an area of teahouses and theaters. The famous Okuni performed the first Kabuki here. Wakayagi School. Kyo-Odori dances are staged for a few weeks in April.

Pontocho - along a very narrow street (with a great atmosphere) on the west bank of the Kamo River between Shijo and Sanjo. It developed in the early Edo-period after a new embankment was built here. Symbol is the plover, a bird associated with the Kamo River. Onoe School. The Kamo Odori is held for a whole month in May.

Kamishichiken - Developed in the Muromachi period and is therefore the oldest Flower Town in Kyoto. Was built with wood left over after a reconstruction of the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, next to which it is located. The name means “Upper Seven Houses.” The symbol of the town is a string of dumplings, offered to Hideyoshi when he held his Great Tea Party in the shrine. Hanayagi School. Performance called Kitano Odori in April lasts just a few weeks.

[Gion district with lantern advertizing the Miyako Odori]

As you see, all Flower Towns have there public dance performances, held in their own theater. This is of course a modern development. Geiko and maiko only used to perform at small parties, for guests, and not on a public stage. The tradition started in 1872 in Gion, and was a bright idea of Prefectural Governor Hase Nobuatsu and Vice-Governor Makimura Masanao.

At that time, Kyoto was in decline. Three years before the capital had been moved to Tokyo and the new Meiji Emperor and his court had departed Kyoto, leaving an empty shell behind. To promote the city, the Prefectural Government oragnized an exhibition to showcase the art, culture and industry still thriving in Kyoto. To attract people, the Governor and Vice-Governor requested Mr. Sugiura, the representative of the Gion district and owner of the restaurant “Mantei” (now Ichiriki) to stage a public dance performance by geiko and maiko. Mr. Sugiura asked the help of the master of the Kyomai dance school, Ms. Inoue Yachiyo III, and together they devised a highly stylized group performance based on the “Kamenoko Odori” dance from the Furuichi district in Ise.

[Gion district with poster for the Miyako Odori]

A traditional Japanese orchestra and singers were added and in March 1872 the the first Miyako Odori, or “Dances of the Imperial Capital” was performed to great acclaim. This performance become the prototype of all subsequent Miyako Odori of the Gion Kobu (and in a wider sense of the dance performances of the other Flower Towns as well), and the choreography is still the exclusive domain of the Inoue Kyomai dance school - now headed by Inoue Yachiyo V. In 1873 the “Miyako Odori” moved to the more spacious confines of Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Theater.

The style of the Miyako Odori is classical and dignified and is the best way to see the country’s top geiko and maiko in their beautful kimono’s!

[Tea ceremony performed by a geiko at the Miyako Odori]

I attended last week Friday, after a time gap of more than 15 years. The performance itself had not changed, and was very enjoyable (the stories were taken from the exactly 1,000 year old Genji Monogatari), with the exception that now it was strictly forbidden to take pictures - so the dance pictures in this post are from the older performance! What had changed was that the whole set-up had been commercialized. There were countless shops selling souvenirs and the tea ceremony, performed by a geiko in a seperate room before the main show started, which I liked very much in the past, had become a hurried and superficial affair. This is probably inevitable with modern massification…

[The maiko troupe in the final dance of the Miyako Odori]

By the way, if you still want to see geisha dances, the Miyako Odori is finished, but the Kamo Odori of Pontocho are still held during most of May and are also quite impressive. And on the second Saturday and second Sunday in June the Five Flower Districts will give their annual joint performance in Kyoto Kaikan!

[The Jikata singers and shamisen players at the Miyako Odori]

Good news for Kyoto’s Flower Towns: the profession of Maiko is again popular under young women! As Asahi.com reports:

The number of maiko has bounced back to 100, the highest in more than four decades, thanks to the growing interest in Kyoto’s traditional geisha culture.

I do not know if this surge in interest is attributable to a film like Maiko Haaan!!, or the influence of blogging maiko…

[Maiko dance during Miyako Odori]

But the life of a maiko is not easy, as these rules on the website of the Ookini Zaidan, the Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation that recruites the maiko for Kyoto’s five geisha disticts, demonstrate:

1. Maiko is an apprenticeship for those who want to become a professional female entertainer
2. Age must be between 15 and 17 (graduates from high school are already too old)
3. Length should be less than 160 cm (the okobo clogs add another 10 cm!)
4. Have physical strength and weigh more than 43 kilos (the kimono is very heavy!)
5. Parental consent (as maiko are still minors)
6. A liking of traditional Japanese song and dance (a good ear for music is necessary)
7. Enjoy a Japanese-style life (everything in the life of a maiko is Japanese-style: the kimono, the tea ceremony, ikebana, the ozashiki room with tatami where the guests are entertained - one even has to sleep using a traditional, high pillow so that the hairstyle remains intact)
8. Lots of patience and gumption (in the shikomi-period, that is the “pre-maiko training,” one not only has to learn the correct manners and the Kyoto dialect, but also do cleaning, washing and shopping for the geisha house, the okiya)
9. No monthly tuition fee required - the okiya pays for everything, including the lessons
10. The total training period (incl. shikomi) takes four to five years.

[Houses in the Gion district of Kyoto]

Aspiring maiko also have to build good relations with the other maiko and geiko in the okiya and be in everything obedient to the okaasan, the “mother” of the house - a bit like men who are in training in a sumo stable to become sumo wrestlers! How difficult that can be was shown aptly (despite all the flaws) in Memoirs of a Geisha…

Food manga are not always about gourmet food, even when they are called The Solitary Gourmand (Kodoku no Gurume). For there is not a shred of fancy food in all these stories. Instead, they introduce us to the daily dishes and common eateries of the ordinary Japanese, and that is all the more interesting.

The setting is that of a middle-aged businessman, an importer who owns his own small company, always neatly dressed in suit and tie, going on foot about his business in Tokyo, Osaka and other cities. There must be millions of persons like him in Japan. When tramping around in downtown areas he gets hungry and then he picks the first restaurant that looks inviting enough to still his hunger. Entering a restaurant alone, especially in a strange neighborhood, is sometimes difficult, and as readers we share the self-consciousness of the Solitary Gourmand.

The name of this businessman is Inogashira Goro. We almost know nothing about him. There is not much of a story, either, we just get Inogashira’s interior monologue while he sits in the restaurant, observing the other guests, the owner, and the type of food.

Inogashira likes to eat alone so that he can concentrate on his food - he dislikes business lunches. The food awakes all kinds of thoughts and memories in him.

What he eats are typical Japanese dishes as kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi), udon noodles, gyoza, takoyaki, and yakiniku (Korean barbecue). The manga renders the atmosphere of these small restaurants and their simple food so well, that you almost feel like slipping inside and taking a seat next to the Solitary Gourmand and, of course silently, enjoy the same kind of dish…

The manga was written by Kusumi Masayuki and drawn by Taniguchi Jiro. There is just one slim volume with 18 stories, but it became quite a “cult” manga in Japan and has also been translated, for example in French (Le Gourmet Solitaire).

The drawings are very detailed and magically transport us to downtown Tokyo and its small eateries.

Osaka often seems to be playing second fiddle to Big Brother Tokyo, but it actually is a city of many firsts. Calculators were invented here in 1964, the first automatic ticket gates appeared in Osaka in 1967, vacuum packed foods as curry were introduced in 1968, and the famous cup noodles made their first appearance in 1971. And of course we should not forget “conveyor belt sushi,” which greeted the rising sun in 1958. The first revolving sushi restaurant in the world, called Mawaru Genroku Sushi, opened its doors in April 1958 in what is now Higashi-Osaka.

[Kaiten Sushi (from Wikipedia)]

Have you visited Kaiten-sushi, as it is called in Japanese? The plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating belt that winds around the counter where the cooks work, and moves past every seat. Customers pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving by in front of their eyes. A great invention from the city of Kuidaore, “eating until you drop down,” and symbolic for the Osaka mentality of “value for money.”

As the Daily Yomiuri writes:

Operator Yoshiaki Shiraishi equipped a sushi restaurant counter with a revolving belt after seeing a conveyer belt at a beer factory and thinking that it could reduce the work of waitstaff. At the time, a bowl of ramen noodles cost about 40 yen, and one plate of four sushi pieces was priced at 50 yen.

Sushi-go-rounds, as they are sometimes called, became known across the nation after one opened near the 1970 Osaka Expo venue.

Mr Shiraishi did his invention due to staffing problems. And indeed, besides the sushi chef(s) behind the counter, there is often only one waitress who seats you and handles the cash register and besides that, at most takes care of special drink orders as beer. The rest is available at your table: from soy sauce to wasabi and chopsticks. Interestingly, there is even a hot water faucet, so that customers can make their own tea.

[The original Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Fuse, Osaka]

The belt moves at 8 cm per second, clockwise, and is constantly replenished. In some shops, it is also possible to ask the chef for special types of sushi that are on the menu on the wall, but not on the conveyor. The belt also carries things as deserts.

The bill is calculated based on the number and type of color-coded plates the customer has amassed and is never an unpleasant surprise. There are even sushi shops where every plate is priced at a fixed price of 100 yen. Kaiten Sushi made luxury food sushi available to ordinary people. The fish was often bought outside of Japan to make cheap sushi a possibility. Sushi shops became family restaurants.

There are about 3000 Kaiten Sushi shops in Japan (Wikipedia) and the industry is still going strong. Many belong to chains as Akindo Sushiro, Atom Boy, Genki Sushi, Kappa Sushi, etc. Of the original inventor chain, Mawaru Genroku Sushi, there are still 11 shops in the Kansai.

Kaiten Sushi shops are also popular with foreign tourists, as there is no need to study a Japanese menu - and above all, it is fun!

Do you like Kaiten Sushi?

In the Tama Hills in the western part of Saitama Prefecture stands an old temple famous for the valuable Buddhist scriptures it possesses. Now only a remnant of a much larger complex, the temple also boasts an Eleven-Headed Kannon. When I visit, the doors of the altar cabinet happen to be wide open and the parishioners are having a cherry-blossom viewing party with karaoke and sake in front of the hall.

[Itabi on the way to Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Jikoji stands on a solitary hillside in western Saitama, far from the dreary bed towns that pockmark the modern face of the prefecture. It is remote from major roads or train lines, and the difficulty to reach it is doubly rewarded by its quiet and seclusion.

I climb Jikoji’s hill on a clear day in early spring, when the fresh green is just starting to appear, walking under the pink patches of cherry trees planted in the roadside. Due to the colder mountain air, the trees bloom later than Tokyo, where the season is already past. I relish my second spring.

[Sakura on the way to Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

After a bend in the road, I come across a row of gray stone steles, standing like sentry’s upright in the wayside. These are itabi, Buddhist road-markers. With Sanskrit letters the names of various Buddhas have been carved in the stones. Some also carry the dates and names of the believers who put them up. A century ago, there were still tens of thousands of such stones all over Japan. Now they have dwindled to a few specimens in museums. It is a surprise to find itabi in their original position, here on the road to Jikoji Temple. I feel as if touched by a breath from the past.

[Main Hall of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Jikoji stands on the last part of the hillside. High up is the Kannon Hall, halfway the modern Treasure House and the temple office. Where I enter the temple grounds, there is only a belfry, as the Amida Hall has burnt in recent years. Fires and other natural disasters have severely diminished the greatness of the temple over the centuries.

Jikoji was reputedly founded in 673, which would make it one of the oldest Buddhist establishments in the Kanto area. It soon grew into one of the largest as well. At its peak the temple possessed 75 halls, shrines and other buildings. Ennin came here in the ninth century and planted an ilex tree that still lives on in front of the temple office. Jikoji also had the fortune to be patronized by Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate. The temple bell, dating from 1245, is the oldest bell in the Kanto.

[Close-up of itabi, Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Old Scriptures
But the greatest treasures of Jikoji are the old sutras it possesses: a Heart Sutra from 871 and an ornately decorated thirteenth century Lotus Sutra, both forming the oldest extant sutras in the Kanto and qualifying as National Treasures. The sutras are kept in the concrete treasure house, where they (or rather their copies, for it is not possible to display these fragile, century-old scriptures for long, as ink and colors would fade) can be inspected.

They are veritable labors of love, like the handwritten, decorated books that medieval monks in Europe used to copy. It is a pity that such scrolls do not impress Westerners as much as they should, because it is impossible to read the Chinese characters.

[Grounds of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

To copy a scripture is a way to gain merit. Today in Japan, people still visit temples for sessions of shakyo, sutra copying. Others practice it in the quiet of their homes. Before there were printing presses, the custom must have served the function to preserve and propagate texts. Nowadays shakyo is often done by tracing the preprinted outline of the Chinese characters with a writing brush. Today, it still helps to provide us with a close reading, a thorough immersion into the text being copied.

Many, many sutras were copied in Jikoji, as is attested to by the circumstance that the area is a thriving center of washi, Japanese paper making: the paper industry originated in the need for paper for copying sutras.

[Main Hall of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Hannya Shingyo
Sutras are the threads that weave the Buddha’s teachings into everyday life. The historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, verbally handed down many teachings that later were written down by his followers. Therefore each sutra traditionally begins with the words “Thus I have heard.” It is presented as an account of the Buddha’s words as his listeners understood them.

The sutras that we find in Japan, all came by way of China and are therefore read in Chinese translations. The preferred sutra for shakyo practice is the Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo), on the one hand because it is short (only 2 pages in Chinese) and on the other hand because it summarizes the central tenets of Japanese Buddhism.

The main theme is that all things are empty and that it is only our own filling of things with (false) attachment that makes them appear full. To realize this, means delivery. Earlier during my pilgrimage, I heard this sutra chanted at the early morning service in Enryakuji.

[Temple office of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Under the noise of pop songs, as if one of the picnickers has put up the volume of the radio, I climb the stairs to the Kannon Hall. A large assembly of villagers occupies the open space in front of the hall. People sit eating and drinking under a tent screen, while watching karaoke and dance performances on an improvised stage.

The performers are people from the neighborhood, who take turns on the stage. With a lot of feeling an old man performs a folksong, then a group of women appears colorfully dressed for a dance. Politely refusing an invitation to join the party I ascend the hall to catch a glimpse of the recently restored Kannon statue.

When I later descend the mountain of Jikoji, the gold letters on blue ground of the scriptures still shimmer before my eyes. Empty or full, on this balmy spring day all things of the world seem in perfect balance, echoing the temple’s name, Compassionate Radiance.

This post describes a visit that was made a number of years ago.

Jikoji is No. 9 on the Bando Kannon Temple Pilgrimage.

Address: 386 Nishi-daira, Toki Kawamura, Hiki-gun, Saitama-ken.
Tel. 0493-67-0040

Access: The nearest train station is Myokaku on the infrequently serviced JR Hachiko Line, so plan in advance with the help of a timetable.
The Hachiko Line can be reached in various ways: a) by Saikyo Line from Ebisu, Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ikebukuro to Kawagoe, and then the Kawagoe Line to Komagawa, where one can change to the Hachiko Line; b) by Tobu Tojo line from Ikebukuro to either Ogose (change at Sakado) or Ogiwamachi (connections less convenient than from Ogose).
From Myokaku take the Tokikawa Son’ei Bus (for information: tel. 0493-65-1535) to Nishi-daira bus stop.
From the stop it is a walk of about 40 minutes to the temple (walk a few meters along the road in the direction of the bus, then take the first road to the right. This road leads to the temple.)
If you catch the 10:38 bus from Myokaku, there is a bus back to the station from Nishi-daira at 14:10, which gives you ample of time to see the temple, the treasure house and have a picnic on the way.

The Kannon statue can be seen on April 17, and also on the second Sunday in April.

Trip idea: Due to traffic conditions, Jikoji takes most of the day. You can pay a short visit to Kawagoe at the end of the day, if you take the train passing through that town; or drop by in Ogiwamachi to see the papermaking.

Resources: Heart Sutra (Soto School), or this translation with Japanese transcription.

What is the best sakura (cherry blossom) viewing spot in the wider Kobe area?

The best spot to enjoy both the sakura themselves and the hanami people engaged in viewing them is Shukugawa Park, in the western part of Nishinomiya, which was included in the top of the “Hundred Sakura Viewing Places” selected in 1990. The sakura here were planted under the guidance of Mr Sasabe Shintaro (1887-1978), Japan’s foremost sakura-expert and biologist, who lived in Nishinomiya (he also collected art on the theme of sakura, and his collection is on view in the Hakushika Memorial Sake Museum in Nishinomiya).

[Sakura on the bank of the Shukugawa River, Nishinomiya]

The Shukugawa is one of the many rivers that in this area flow down to the sea from the Rokko mountains (another one is the Ashiyagawa in Ashiya, which is also nice for hanami!). The park consists of the banks of the river. There are broad walk-ways with the cherry trees forming a tunnel, and many more trees have been planted along the steep embankment.

[Sakura tunnel on the bank of the Shukugawa River, Nishinomiya]

The whole course is almost four and a half kilometres long, starting at Hankyu Kurakuen-guchi Station in the north (on the Hankyu Koyoen line, which splits off at Hankyu Shukugawa) and stretching all the way down to Koroen-hama Beach in the south.

[Sakura on the banks of the Shukugawa River, Nishinomiya]

The number of cherry trees amounts to 2,300 and besides that, there are various types of other flowers as well. Among the sakura trees, there are many varieties, the park has more than only the ever-present Somei-Yoshino type.

[Picknicking under the sakura in Shukugawa park, Nishinomiya]

Last weekend, we started at Hankyu Shukugawa Station and walked down to Hanshin Koroen Station, which took about half an hour. Just under three kilometres, this is the most central part of the park. The sakura were in full boom, it was the perfect moment. Many families had found a spot for picknicking under the trees and others were sitting on the edge of the steep embankment as if they could not drop down, like the sakura, which kept raining on our heads.

[”Hiza-makura,” using her knees as a pillow and managing not to fall down - Sakura in Shukugawa, Nishinomiya]

English information on Cherryblossom spots in Kobe and in Nishinomiya/Ashiya - or do you prefer Arima?

Another (Japanese-language) site introduing the best 100 sakura spots in Japan.

[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

On the banks of the Neyagawa River near Osaka Business Park (Kyobashi Station) stands a row of magnolia trees which were in full bloom last week. They do not last long, so yesterday during lunch time I hastened out with my camera cell phone to get a few pictures.

[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

These white magnolias are a sort of enlarged cherry blossoms, of course thicker and harder, but falling just as fast.

Linda Inoki writes in the Japan Times:

Magnolias were among the earliest flowering plants to appear on Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago. When great ice sheets covered much of the Northern Hemisphere, more than 2 million years ago, magnolias survived in the warmer forests of Asia and America.

There are two Japanese terms for magnolias: kobushi is the native variant, the wild mountain magnolia, mokuren the larger type (pink or white) introduced from China in the 7th century. I think the ones in Osaka Business Park are kobushi.

[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Usually, the river here is pitch-black, the white magnolias gave it at least some color! Here they are bending in the strong wind, almost getting blown away.

[Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

See the World Kigo Database for haiku on magnolias.

[Weeping cherry in the Kamigamo Shrine, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

This magnificent weeping cherry (shidare-zakura) called “Gosho-zakura” stands in the grounds of the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto. When I saw it last Monday, it was almost fully in bloom, so this week you can still enjoy it!

Read more about the Kamigamo Shrine in my article about the New Year Shrine visit of this year.

[Weeping cherry in the Kamigamo Shrine, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

In Japan, food is judged on its health properties, real or imagined, and fads of such foods are fed by media frenzy. It is only a short time ago that all Japanese were eating blueberries for better eyesight and natto to slim down. Drinks, especially of the sort sold in 350 or 500 cc pet bottles in convenience stores, do not fare differently. Many teas make claims about bringing down the level of body sugars or helping you get slimmer…

The huge Japanese health drink market

Contrary to the US, Japan’s $48-billion-a-year soft-drink industry consists for a large part of sugarless teas (with ot without health claims) rather than of sodas and other unhealthy products. This has been ascribed to the graying of the population, but I have my doubts: most buyers seem salarymen and young people, at least when you look at the convenience stores. There has always been a connection in Japan between food and health.

What keeps amazing me is the sheer volume of this industry in Japan. Teas, juices, and soft drinks of all varieties take up a solid refrigerated wall in convenience stores. The number of different products is mind-boggling. As is the number of new drinks brought to market every year: 1,500! Many of these fail, of course, but the sheer logistical power of Japan’s companies is impressive, to say the least.

[Japanese health teas: from left to right, Kuro-Oolong, Healthya and Catechin-Ryokucha]

Japanese health teas that became hit products:

Kao’s Healthya Ryokucha. When you drink a bottle of this green tea, that has been fortified with 540 mg of catechins, everyday for 3 months, Kao promises you will lose 10% of your body fat. This is a FOSHU (Food for Specified Health Use) product, in other words, Kao has obtained approval to label its effect on body fat by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The FOSHU market is huge ($6.5 billion a year) and also encompasses such popular products as Yakult.

The amount of catechins is 4 times higher than in normal green tea. As catechins make tea bitter, Kao had to develop a new technology to restrain the bitter taste (it is still rather bitter, but not unpleasantly so). In Japan, it has been a megahit product since its introduction in 2003. A sports drink with the same amount of catechins, Healthya Water, followed in 2006.

Another diet-assisting hit product is Suntory’s Kuro (Black) Oolong Tea OTPP. Launched in 2006, this tea drink contains 70 mg of polyphenole per 350 ml bottle, helping the body block the absorption of fats in foods and suppress the increase of triglycerides after meals by 20%. Like Healthya, Kuro-Oolong is a FOSHU product. It took 20 years to develop, demonstrating how much expensive research goes into these products before they become a cash cow. (OTPP in the name of the tea stands for “oolong tea polymerized polyphenols”). This tea is only mildly bitter and can well be enjoyed with your meal. Kuro-Oolong is also a great hit.

A new FOSHU tea is Itoen’s Catechin Ryokucha. The catechins in this product are for 90% of the “epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)” type, and the tea is marketed as helping keep cholesterol levels down. It is not bitter but also does not have a very distinctive taste. Itoen is market leader in the cut-throat ordinary bottled green tea market with its Oi-Ocha brand, but it remains to be seen whether they can take the lead from Healthya in the FOSHU tea section!

Catechins are said to boost and revitalize the immune system. They are powerful antioxydants. So green tea is good for you - in whichever form you drink it! A PET bottle of ordinary green tea, such as Suntory’s Iemon, Itoen’s Oi-Ocha, Coca Cola’s Hajime or Asahi’s Nama-Cha, will also do the job, at least partly.

As will a freshly brewed cup of green tea at home… I still remember the reaction of one of my Japanese colleagues, when bottled green tea first came to the market. This elderly lady scoffed at the stupid consumers who were buying expensive bottled stuff while being too lazy to brew a fresh cup themselves. And isn’t that the tastiest of all?

BusinessWeek article about Japanese health drinks.

2007 survey on consumer behavior as regards bottled tea from What japan Thinks.

Article in Science News about the slimming effects of green tea.

Japan Times article about the health properties of green tea.

This somewhat creepy, robotlike Japanese woman follows your cursor with her eyes as you move it over the screen! The technology was developed by Japanese company MotionPortrait. (Via Jean Snow)

Billiken, the fiendish-looking God of Good Luck in the Tsutenkaku Tower, Osaka, has celebrated his 100th birthday.

During the ceremony, a birthday cake was presented to the Billiken, which is said to bring good fortune, granting the wishes of people who rub its feet.

The Billiken was created in 1908, based on a figure that a female American artist saw in a dream, and became popular across the world.

[Billiken statue in Kobe - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Click here for my post about Billiken, suggested by a statue I found in Kobe’s Kitanozaka.

Also a century ago, umami, the fifth taste, was discovered in Japan. Read more about it in this article from The Age, which says for example:

This savory taste was isolated 100 years ago by Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese scientist who wanted to figure out what gave dashi, a Japanese seaweed soup, its distinct flavor.

He concluded that the umami flavour came from glutamate, an amino acid and protein building-block. That means protein-rich foods such as meat and dairy products tend to be high in umami, especially when the cooking or processing of the foods gives the proteins time to break down into glutamates.

Indeed: to taste pure umami, just take a sip of dashi, Japanese soup stock!

Japan Newbie has a nice piece on a kushikatsu restaurant in Juuso, Osaka, run by an elderly couple. The cook wears berets and the wife is extremely forgetful, but the taste is great.

The New York Times features Mori Minoru of Roppongi Hills fame in The Builder Who Pushes Tokyo Into the Clouds. Yes, Mr Mori is planning more huge complexes for Tokyo, aiming ever higher…

Supporters from Japan (including the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo) have helped restore the pottery set up by Bernard Leach in St. Ives, England. Leach was a collaborator of one of the greatest 20th century Japanese ceramic artists and scion of the Folk Crafts (mingei) movement, Hamada Shoji, and he often visited Japan. Report by the Japan Times.

Spice of Life takes some of the best Kyoto pictures I know. Here are the photos for March, including a beautiful sakura tree in Gosho (the ito-zakura of the former Konoe Residence), sakura in Kikokutei Garden (belonging to Higashi Honganji) and Yasaka in the rain.

Janne in Osaka reports on the Cup Noodle Museum in Ikeda, Osaka, a monument to inventor and Nissin Food Products Company founder Ando Momofuku (in 2005 his noodles were even eaten in space by a Japanese astronaut).

As suits an international city, the Kobe City Museum is devoted to the themes of “International Cultural Exchange” and “Contact Between and Changes in Eastern and Western Cultures.” It has been accommodated in a former bank building with Dorian columns from the nineteen-thirties. The museum opened in 1982 after the merger of two museums that still determine the nature of the present facilities’ collection: the Municipal Archaeological Art Museum and the Municipal Nanban Art Museum. Thus the Kobe City Museum is strong in archaeology (it owns the fantastic series of bronze bells that in 1964 were unearthed in Sakuragaoka in the Nada Ward of Kobe) and in Nanban art (several famous screens and paintings on exotic topics).

[Kobe City Museum]

To this the museum has added a permanent exhibition that showcases the history of the city. This starts on the second floor with the theme of “Cultural Exchange with Asia.” Here you will find copies of the above mentioned bronze bells, as well as a model of the Goshikizuka Tumulus, a 4th c. keyhole-shaped tomb lying near the coast and probably belonging to a clan leader who controlled sea traffic in this area. Next under the theme “Growth of Regional Culture,” pottery and Onigawara roof tiles with demon faces are shown, demonstrating the activity of kilns in the area; and there are displays about Hyogo Port, which played an important role in contacts with China and Korea, as well as in trade in the Seto Inland Sea area.

During the “Age of Seclusion” in the Edo period - the next theme, for which you have to go down to the first floor - there was still some foreign influence, such as the Rangaku or Dutch Learning movement shows. Foreign technology also entered in the form of telescopes, glassware and clocks. From January 1868, after the start of the modern period, Kobe Port was opened to foreign trade and became host to an important foreign settlement, to which the Ijinkan houses in the city still bear living proof. Under the theme “Enlightenment and Modernization of Japan,” the exhibition finally focuses on the European’s lifestyle in Japan by showing the interior of a Western house. The new industries brought by the Westerners, such as printing, furniture making, and shipbuilding, are also highlighted.

[Kobe City Museum]

The art collection of the museum consists of nearly 34,000 objects. Unfortunately, these are only displayed at limited times and the visitor who wants to see the famous bronze bells usually has to do with the above-mentioned copies. The bronze bells were unearthed by chance in 1964, during earth works in Sakuragaoka of the Nada ward of the city. The cache contained 14 dotaku bells and several spearheads (doka). The whole set, which dates from the 2nd c. CE, has been declared a National Treasure.

The Nanban art works are above all interesting for their mix of Western and Japanese elements. There is a screen called Equestrian Kings of Europe made on the basis of illustrations that decorated a map brought from Holland. There is also a screen showing a world map, again based on a map brought from Europe; and there are late 16th c. screens showing Western ships by Kano Naizen. Famous are also portraits of Saint Francis Xavier, who brought Christianity to Japan in 1549, and Oda Nobunaga, the 16th c. military commander who helped unify Japan and who himself was fond of “Nanban” products. Then there are works by Shiba Kokan (1747-1818) who learned Western painting techniques, and started painting in oils; he also created Japan’s first copper etchings. Finally there is an oil-painting portrait of a European Woman by Hiraga Gennai (1728-1779), a leading theorist of Western-style painting.

Although the greatest treasures are only displayed during special shows, the permanent exhibition is certainly worthwhile and has the advantage of being labeled in English, which in museums of this type is only rarely the case. A disadvantage is that there is no separation in entrance fees between the permanent historical exhibition and the various special shows the museum hosts (meaning that one has to pay the higher fee even if one is only interested in the permanent collection).

Tel: 078-391-0035
Address: 24 Kyo-machi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0034
Hours: 10:00-17:00  CL Mon (next day if NH), NY, BE
Access: 10-min walk S from Sannomiya (JR, Hankyu, Hanshin and Municipal Subway Lines) or Motomachi St (JR and Hanshin Lines)
Official website

Although I had been living for a year in Kobe, I had not yet made my way to that part of the city where the hot springs of Arima are located. There was no need to play the tourist, I thought, but last weekend curiosity drove me if not to the baths themselves, at least to the town around them. Here is a guide to what I found.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - the river near the station. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Arima Onsen proved to be compact, and more interesting than is usually the case with famous onsen. There are narrow lanes with old shops snaking up the hill, there are a few old temples and a nice piece of history to top it off.

Arima is one of the oldest hot spring resorts in Japan and its discovery goes back to the mythological mists of time. Two deities (whose all too long names I will mercifully withhold) were tramping through the mountains when they came across three injured crows bathing in a hot puddle. Apparently, those waters possessed healing properties and the deities also enjoyed a good soak in the hot spring.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - the winding streets with old houses. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

After that, in the 7th century came two emperors who stayed in Arima for lengthy periods, both longer than eighty days, the time needed to heal imperial wounds.

In the eight century the ambulant wonder-worker priest Gyoki came here, bringing an old man to the springs to be healed, and when the hot waters proved efficacious (the old man changed into a golden Buddha and flew off on a cloud to the east) he built a temple dedicated to the Healing Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai. Gyoki is a historical person, but the deeds ascribed to him are still very much the stuff of legend - he would need nine lives to found all the temples he is said to have founded.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - statue of the ascetic Gyoki. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Arima became a spa town and prospered, but was cruelly wiped off the map by a flood in 1097. It would take a whole century before another priest rebuilt it: Ninsai, who came from Nara and was miraculously guided to the hot spring by the thread of a spider. Ninsai not only rebuilt the Yakushi Temple, but also set up twelve Bo or lodgings for monks, named after the Twelve Generals who usually accompany the Yakushi Buddha. Weary priestly as well as lay bodies would from now on be revived by yuna, bathing girls, in rituals unholy but pleasant enough to keep a constant stream of men coming to the springs.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - visitors enjoying a foot bath. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

These men stayed long, too, and even made a sport of it. They would wear white yukata robes in the baths, which thanks to the water with high iron content, gradually would take on a reddish color. They competed to have the reddest robe - after all, the redder the robe, the richer its owner, as only the very wealthy could afford a limitless stay at an expensive resort.

The Arima spa paradise was finally hit by a new string of disasters: in 1528 and again in 1574 the town suffered destruction by fire, and in between a civil war raged here.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe. Taiko no Yudonokan Museum, showing Hideyoshi’s bath house. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

A new rebuilder was necessary. He appeared on stage in the historical person of Hideyoshi who took his first Arima bath in 1583 and from then on was addicted to the healing waters and even started a large-scale reconstruction project. In 1598 heavy rain prevented him from visiting Arima’s hot springs - and unhealed, in the same year he died.

The hot springs of Arima prospered in the Edo period. Women came here too, as the iron holding waters, rich in sodium cloride and on top of that carbonated, were believed to enhance fertility. Hideyoshi, desperate for an heir, had brought his wife Nene here to that same purpose.

Later, 20th c. literary giant Tanizaki was a frequent visitor, as he enjoyed the rustic atmosphere of the old inns.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - Nembutsuji Temple with Kannon statue, where once the villa of Nene stood. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

The nicest place in Arima is the area around Onsenji Temple, with the Tosen Jingu Shrine, Gokurakuji Temple and Nembutsuji Temple all standing close together. Onsenji is the successor of the Yakushi temple originally built by Gyoki and Ninsai and has a large Yakushi statue on display. Nembutsuji stands at the location of Nene’s summer villa, Gokurakuji occupies the site of Hideyoshi’s bath. This became clear thanks to another disaster: when the residence of the priest collapsed in the 1995 earthquake, the foundations of the ancient 16th c. baths were discovered and now a museum has been built on top to preserve them, the Taiko no Yudonokan. It is fascinating to see the exact onsen bath that once accomodated the mighty Hideyoshi!

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - Onsenji Temple. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Arima is full of old wooden houses, shops selling crafts as bamboo baskets for the tea ceremony and decorative “doll” brushes. Nibble on a “carbonated” rice cracker baked in spa water and ascend the serpentine slopes at leisure… this all against the serene backdrop of the green Rokko mountains. Kobe seems far-away, too.

[Arima Onsen, Kobe - Yakushi statue in Onsenji Temple. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Article about Arima Onsen in the Japan Times.

See also A Guide to Japanese Hot Springs by Anne Hotta and Yoko Ishiguro (Kodansha International, 1986).

Arima Onsen is only 40 min by bus from Sannomiya (once an hour). Even faster is the subway/train combination (Hokushin Express to Tanigami St, then Shintetsu Arima Sanda Line to Arimaguchi and finally Shintetsu Arima line to Arima Onsen St) from Shinkobe Station, which takes only 30 min.

Festivals: On Jan. 2 the statues of Arima’s founders are carried in a procession and washed by women dressed as yuna. On Nov 2 and 3 there is a maple and tea ceremony festival.

The public bathhouses Kin no Yu and Gin no Yu are for a quick “return-trip” soak, for longer stays there are many luxurious hotels.

Read here about the health benefits of the various types of hot springs in Arima.

What is this year’s sakura timetable? You will find the best English guide here, at the Japan Metereological Agency!

But don’t leave just yet, as here are some more interesting sakura links:

Stories from Japan Navigator:

[”Sakura,” cherry blossoms. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Sakura links from around the web:

Look here for a sakura (cherry blossom) timetable!

As spring finally draws near, the first warm days bring a certain giddiness. And expectation. The great “sakura (cherry blossom) wave” is about to roll over our heads, enveloping us in its pinkish extremeties… sake and sakura, what better combination could there be?

[Sakura. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The sakura front is as closely followed as the stock market and certainly more interesting, as there are more peaks. When will these most fickle of flowers bloom? How long will the fragile blossoms last? When should we be stand-by for hanami, the flower viewing?

The first hanami scene seems to be from Japans first novel, about a flowering young prince called Genji. He was drunk with all sorts of blossoms, those on trees and those of the flesh.

Towards the end of the Second Month, the festival of the cherry blossoms took place in the Grand Hall. […] It was a beautiful day. The sky was clear, birds were singing. […]

Remembering how Genji had danced at the autumn excursion, the crown prince himself presented a sprig of blossoms for his cap and pressed him so hard to dance that he could not refuse. Though he danced only a very brief passage, the quiet waving of his sleeves as he came to the climax was incomparable. […]

The festivities ended late in the night.

[Blossoming cherry tree in Shoboji, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

But the real interest in sakura would come a bit later, in the great poetry compilations of the Kokinshu and Shinkokinshu. The medieval poet Saigyo was one of the loudest laudators of sakura, sakura and even wished to die under a blooming tree (a wish that was miraculously fulfilled). One of his most famous sakura poems goes:

switching my path
from the trail I marked last year
on Mt Yoshino
I go searching for blossoms
in directions I’ve never been

Yoshinoyama | kozo no shiori no | michi kaete | mada minu kata no | hana wo tazunen

[Cherry Blossoms in Arashiyama, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The sacred mountains of Yoshino were Saigyo’s favorite haunt for sakura. This was the territory of the wandering, ascetic monks and Saigyo who did not belong to any fixed temple, was more or less one of them. Here he saw the yamazakura, the wild mountain cherry, which still graces the slopes of Yoshino. It was from this wild tree that later ornamental garden varieties were developed: our present sakura with double flowers, or the “weeping cherry trees” with their branches hanging down, or the late blooming varieties. Wandering through the mountains, Saigyo was drunk with sakura, as a sort of this-wordly Satori…

Read up on sakura lore while waiting for the blossom to break and don’t forget to watch the daily updated sakura front on the website of the Japan Metereological Agency.

The quote from the Genji Monogatari is from the chapter The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms in the (online) translation by Edward Seidensticker.
See another translation of Saigyo’s poem in 2001 Waka. It has also been translated by Burton Watson in Saigyo, Poems of a Mountain Home (Columbia 1991) - my translation follows that of Burton Watson closely, as there is usually no better way to put it than he does.
Read more about sakura lore in Enbutsu’s A Flower Lover’s Guide to Tokyo (Kodansha International, 2007).
Japan Times article about the fine science of pinpointing the days of blossoming. See also this piece about Yoshino.

I am starting a new series where I will look into the regional varieties of Japanese sake. The first one is Kyoto!

[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]

Kyoto Prefecture is in volume the second sake producing prefecture in Japan - after Hyogo’s Nada district. That is all thanks to the breweries in the southern part of the prefecture, in Kyoto’s Fushimi, which are good for 90% of the total output. There are about 30 breweries in Fushimi. Except for the big, nationally operating Gekkeikan (by far the largest producer in the whole of Japan), these are mostly smaller breweries that have dedicated themselves to brewing only premium sake from pure rice (junmaishu).

[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]

Fushimi is in the first place famous for its excellent water: until the early Meiji-period, it was called Fushimizu, alluding to the underground water that flows down from nearby Mt Momoyama and fills the wells of the district with delicate and mild water. That water is honored in the Gokonomiya Shrine (”Shrine of the Honorable Fragrance”), which according to legend was so named when in 861 fragrant water gushed up from a well that appeared in this area - the water even healed the sick.

[People come to fetch the water from the well in the Gokomomiya Shrine, Fushimi, Kyoto]

The sake brewed in Kyoto has always been of high quality - after all, it was destined to be consumed by such demanding customers as the imperial court and its nobles. Important technological innovations, such as the isolation of koji spores and use of a yeast starter can also be written on the account of the brewers of the Old Capital. In the Middle Ages (Kamakura and Muromachi periods) there were hundreds and hundreds of small breweries in Kyoto.

But in the Edo-period, Kyoto was superseded by Nada as a sake center. Conditions for large scale production were just not good enough in the crowded inner city. That changed when in the Meiji-period (1867-1912) sake producers started moving to the suburb of Fushimi where they found space, good water and better transport possibilities. Many of those breweries had a history going back to the 17th century.

From Fushimi, sake could be transported directly by rail to Tokyo, and this greatly boosted the industry. Another modern development was that Fushimi’s breweries as Gekkeikan started to ship their sake in hygienic glass bottles instead of wooden vats (also making it impossible for resellers to dilute the sake!) - you will find these early bottles on display in Gekkeikan’s museum.

[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]

Thanks to the softness of the water, Fushimi’s sake has been called “feminine,” in contrast to Nada’s hard water sake, which is more “masculine.” Kyoto’s sake has a soft, smooth and full taste. It is delicate and graceful, as befits the Old Capital.

A second sake area is the northern part of Kyoto prefecture, such as Miyazu on the Japan sea coast, where you will find many small and still unknown breweries. Not accidentally, there are also many good ports here - some of them were important as naval bases from the Meiji to early Showa periods. This is also the area where the Tango Toji came from, a small group of Kyoto-based brew masters.

[Sake vats in the Gokonomiya Shrine, Fushimi, Kyoto]

Facts:
Sake production volume Kyoto Prefecture in 2006 (figures National Tax Office): 111,596 kiloliters
Sake rice: the brand “Iwai” has been developed in the prefecture　－it is low in protein and helps make light sake; also popular are Miyama-Nishiki and Gohyakumangoku.
Number of breweries (Japan Sake Brewers Association website): 60

[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]

Examples of Breweries (those with websites; first the name of the brewery is given, then between brackets the year of founding and the name of the major brand - which is often different from the name of the brewery!):

Fushimi:
Gekkeikan (1637; “Gekkeikan”) - “gekkeikan” means “laurel wreath;” the company has not only been Japan’s largest producer since the 1960s, but is also known for its technological innovations. Also active abroad. Beautiful museum, impressive traditional buildings also include the former residence of the Okura’s and the former office building.
Kinshi Masamune (1781; “Kinshi Masamune”) - has held on to its old Kyoto townhouse which now functions as a museum (just south of Gosho)
Kitagawa Honke (1657; “Tomio”) - “tomi-oh” means “old sage.” The brewery was started by Shirobei, an innkeeper for boatmen along the Uji River, who started brewing for his guests - the orginal name was “Funaya,” “boathouse”.
Kizakura Shuzo (1925; “Kizakura”) - Kizakura has set up “Kappa Country” in its old warehouses, featuring a gallery, a garden, a restaurant and a shop.
Matsumoto Shuzo (1791; “Momo no Shizuku,” “Hinode Zakari”) - Momo no Shizuku is a clean, light pure-rice sake, of which the name is based on a haiku by Basho. The traditional wooden warehouses of Matsumoto Shuzo, standing along the river, have been declared a special industrial heritage.
Masuda Tokubei Shoten (1675; “Tsuki no Katsura”) - this company specializes in nigori sake (”clouded” due to a sediment of remnants of rice and koji)
Mukaijima Shuzo (1655; “Furisode”).
Saito Shuzo (1895; “Eikun”)
Sasaki Shuzo (1893; “Jurakudai”)
Shotoku Shuzo (1642; “Shotoku”)
Takara Shuzo Honsha Jimusho (1925; “Shochikubai”)
Tama no Hikari Shuzo (1673; “Tama no Hikari”) - one of the first companies to start making only pure-rice sake; charming and sweet, this has been called a “quintessentially Kyoto sake” by John Gautner
Toyozawa Honten (1891; “Hoshuku”)
Yamamoto Honke (1677; “Shinsei”) - the company has a famous restaurant, Torisei, in an old warehouse in Fushimi.

[The traditional wooden warehouses of Matsumoto Shuzo, Fushimi, Kyoto]

Kyoto (elsewhere):
Haneda Shuzo (1893; “Hatsuhinode”) - in the Sagano area
Matsui Shuzo (1742; “Fuji Sensai”) - the only (small) brewery left in the city, near Demachiyanagi.

Kameoka:
Oishi Shuzo (1688; “Okinazuru”).
Tanzan Shuzo (”Tanzan,” etc.) - uses the same water source as Kameoka Castle. Cultivates its own sake rice.

Miyazu and Tango area:
Hakurei Shuzo (1832; “Hakurei,” Shutendoji”) - Established by Niiya Rokuemon of the Nakanishi clan, after obtaining a permit from the local daimyo. Uses fresh water from the Fudo no Taki waterfall, which flows down from one of the peaks of the Oe mountain range. This water is said to have excellent immunizing powers. Brews with locally grown Yamada Nishiki rice. Its brand name, Shutendoji, is based on the legendary red ogre living in the Oe mountains.
Joyo Shuzo (1895; “Joyo”)
Kinoshita Shuzo (1842; “Tamagawa”) - this is the brewery where Philip Harper, author of The Book of Sake is working
Kumano Shuzo (1944; “Kumi no Ura”)
Mukai Shuzo (1754; “Kyo no Haru”).
Shirasugi Shuzo (1777; “Shirakiku”)
Takeno Shuzo (1947; “Yasaka Tsuru”)
Wakamiya Shuzo (1920; “Ayakomachi”)

[Koshiki for steaming rice, Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Fushimi, Kyoto]

Sake Museums:
Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, old tools and Meiji-period advertisement materials, shown in a wooden sake warehouse built in 1909; if you make a reservation in advance, you can also see the 1906 Uchigura Sake Brewery, a mini-brewery.

The Horino Memorial Museum was the town house and brewery of the makers of Kinshi Masamune; the brewery moved to Fushimi, but the Machiya from 1781 remains as a museum. There are also a brewery making local beer and a restaurant.

Kizakura has a gallery showing drawings of the Kappa (river imps) used by the company in its advertising, plus some tools and information on sake brewing.

[Aburacho liquor shop in Otemon Arcade, Fushimi, Kyoto]

Restaurants of Sake Breweries:
Torisei, the restaurant of the Shinsei brewery in Fushimi, with a menu mainly consisting of yakitori.
Kizakura Kappaland, also in Fushimi, offers various dishes in a large and spacious restaurant, with sets for sake tasting and also beer tasting (also Kizakura brews local beer). There is also an open courtyard where you can sit outside.

[Sake tasting set in the Kizakura restaurant, Fushimi, Kyoto. From left to right: junmaishu, ginjoshu and nigorishu]

There are seven liquor shops in Fushimi selling local sake and one of them, Aburacho in the Otemon shopping arcade, also features a small bar (right in the shop!) where you can get sake tasting sets.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005)
See also John Gautner on the sake of Kyoto and Nada

As the International Herald tribune reports, foreign minister Komura Masahiko has appointed Doraemon as Japan’s first cartoon ambassador. The robot cat, who is especially popular in Asia, promised:

Through my cartoons, I hope to convey to people abroad what ordinary Japanese people think, our lifestyles and what kind of future we want to build.

Perhaps the 22th century feline can help the troubled Fukuda cabinet by employing the “anywhere door” that comes out of a fourth-dimensional pocket on his stomach?

The New York Times and other international media have picked up the story of Akutagawa Award winner Kawakami Mieko and the fact that she writes a popular blog.

Hanami among the Mountain Gods in the Japan Times gives the historical background of Yoshino, the most traditional sakura viewing place in Japan (south of Nara). But be prepared for considerable crowds…

On another spring note (literally), researchers in Scotland and Japan have discovered the secret of how birds know to sing in springtime!

Japanese Food Report has a nice, long article about Kyoto vegetables and Kyoto’s “soul food” obanzai.

Reuters makes it official: after going crazy about Belgian waffles, Japan now has its own secret weapon: the “moffle.” Yes, made from indigenous rice… this is in fact a mochi (rice cake) pressed in a machine to look like a waffle. I haven’t tasted it yet, but moffles seem to be popular desert and the moffle making machines are advertised all over the internet. This YouTube video shows one in action:

See also this article in the Japan Times.

The Mitsukoshi Department Store has bought a small Buddhist wood statue carved by famous Kamakura-period master Unkei at Christie’s in New York for $12.8 million. The Dainichi Nyorai (Cosmic Buddha) figure brought in more than ten times the estimated price - this is the highest price ever offered for any Buddhist artwork in the world (Japan Times article).

It is no Satori, but after reading this PingMag article about the diversity among logo lights on taxi roofs, you will be paying more attention to a whole new world of illumination!

PingMag MAKE is an interesting new sub-site that weekly introduces an innovative craftsman or craftswoman - from goldleaf to indigo, from washi to calligraphy brushes.

Japundit has a sharp dissection of the weird Buddhist(?) custom of self-mummification, accompanied by appropriate horror pictures.

Simplify your life by living somewhat like a Zen monk - read these suggestions from Zen Habits.

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” - Shunryu Suzuki

For example:

Do one thing at a time. […]single-task, don’t multi-task. When you’re pouring water, just pour water. When you’re eating, just eat. When you’re bathing, just bathe. Don’t try to knock off a few tasks while eating or bathing. Zen proverb: “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”

Shunbun no Hi or the “Vernal Equinox” (when day and night are of equal length) is a Japanese national holiday established in the Meiji-period “so that people could commune with nature and show their love for all living things.” It is usually celebrated on March 20 or 21. Similarly, in September, there is an Autumnal Equinox Day (Shubun no Hi).

Both equinox days are associated with the Buddhist Higan practices, held traditionally two times a year in the same period.

Higan is a Buddhist term literally meaning “Other Shore.” Buddhists believe that our worldy life is symbolically divided from the world of Enlightenment by a river full of pain and sorrow. Only those who manage to pass to the “Other Side” can be free from attachments and enter Nirvana.

[The Otani Cemetery near Kiyomizu Temple will also be busy with people visiting their relative’s graves]

Why was Higan celebrated around this time? That was because of the popular belief that when night and day are of equal length the Lord Buddha will appear to help souls make the crossing to the Other Shore.

Higan was already observed in Japan in the 8th c., and further institutionalized by Imperial Order in 806.

In this period, the Japanese usually visit the graves of their ancestors, clean the tombstone, offer incense and flowers. And as the Buddha on this day saves all souls, the visit to the cemetery is considered a joyful event.

From the old ritual of offering food to the ancestors developed the custom of eating botamochi, a ball of soft rice covered with sweetened bean paste.

Shunbun no Hi is also the time that the chill of winter finally fades away. Temperatures gradually rise and the colorful riot of cherry blossoms is near…

Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka castle in 1585, five years before he completed the reunification of Japan. The donjon was five stories high on the outside and eight on the inside, making it a fitting symbol of the generalissimo’s rule.

[Osaka Castle - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

After his death in 1598 Hideyoshi had himself deified and a shrine, Toyokuni Jinja, was established near his grave in Kyoto. His successors, the Tokugawa, were not happy about having Hideyoshi as a deity in their political heaven (Tokugawa Ieyasu in fact copied Hideyoshi’s deification for himself in Nikko) and destroyed all vestiges of the cult. But in the Meiji-period, local governments in Kyoto and Osaka started honoring the achievements of Hideyoshi again and also built new Toyokuni shrines for him as an expression of State Shinto.

[Toyokuni Shrine, Osaka - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

One such shrine stands next to Osaka Castle. It is a concrete and rather tasteless affair, aiming at empty grandeur. The best thing to see here lies in a forgotten corner to the right of the shrine hall. It is a fenced in garden designed by great 20th c. garden architect Shigemori Mirei. Characteristic are the huge boulders and the use of tiles and patches of asphalt. Why is this garden not better advertised and open to the public?

[Garden by Shigemori Mirei in Toyokuni Shrine, Osaka - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Hideyoshi’s statue also graces the grounds. He was a shrewd politician and brilliant general, and also seems to have been aware of the many social and economic problems of his age. In his later years, he developed a regrettable megalomania, leading him to invade Korea and even toy with plans to conquer China. Although originally he seems to have been a genial and affable man, he was negatively transformed by his lust for power - a not uncommon story.

[Hideyoshi statue in Toyokuni Shrine - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

After he died and the Tokugawa clan took over the reigns of government, his descendants were seen as a danger to the new authority and exterminated in two campaigns, directed against Osaka Castle where they were holed up. The castle withstood the first siege, but the second campaign, in the summer of 1615, led to its total destruction.

[Lion dog, Toyokuni Shrine, Osaka - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Subsequently, the victoriuous Tokugawa built their own castle here, but already in the 17th c. the donjon was hit by lightning and destroyed. It was never rebuilt.

The present concrete reincarnation, complete with elevator, was built by Osaka City in 1928 to celebrate the coronation of the Showa Emperor. As a castle it is worthless (I wonder why all the tourists flock here? Better to visit the real castle in Himeji!), as a historical museum exhibiting some items related to Hideyoshi it is worth a look.

[Osaka Castle - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

As my office is in the Osaka Castle Business park, I often come here for a lunchtime stroll - it is the perfect place for some fresh air!

[Osaka Business Park seen from Osaka Castle - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

This year I have been writing about various plum blossom viewing possibilities in Tokyo, but until yesterday I did not yet have a chance to see th