Food from Okinawa

I love food from Okinawa, not only because it is supposed to be very healthy (Okinawa is called the "Land of Longevity"), but in the first place because it tastes so good! Like all culture on these tropical islands, the old Ryukyu Kingdom, Okinawan cuisine contains elements of both China and Japan.

My favorite Okinawan vegetable is the goya, a very bitter gourd that looks like a grotesque, extra knobbly cucumber. Goya can be eaten in salads, made into tempura, but the most common way is to use it in a stir-fried dish called goya-champuru. Besides goya, leeks and eggs are used, and lots of tofu. What is bitter, is good for you, so goya is thought to be the secret behind the Okinawans’ famous longevity.


[Goya Champuru by Maaco]

Another favorite is rafuti, tender chunks of pork stewed in a sweet brown sauce made from miso, soy, sugar and awamori.

Awamori is the national drink of Okinawa, a powerful distilled drink with alcohol percentages between 25 and 30. It is very fresh and tasty, too, as it contains a lot of citric acid. It is often drunk mixed with hot or cold water.

The food that really suits awamori is my third Okinawan favorite: tofuyo. This is fermented tofu, super dense and concentrated. It tastes like a strong moldy cheese and is eaten in tiny bites. It marvelously complements the awamori! Okinawan food and awamori have become very popular in Japan and in all the big cities you can find Okinawan eateries and izakaya (bar-restaurants).

Regional Sake: Saitama Prefecture

When I lived in Tokyo, I never thought much about neighboring Saitama as a prefecture with possibly interesting sakes. The image of a series of dreary, endless Tokyo bed towns was too strong for that. But is was exactly the vicinity to Tokyo (the Edo) and its numerous consumers that helped the sake industry develop here. Transport arteries were the large rivers, the Arakawa and Tone Rivers - and they also provided plenty of water for the brewers.

Important highways also passed through Saitama: the Nakasendo and the highway north, the Riku-U Kaido. Saitama is therefore dotted with historical towns. Many breweries are spread out along these two highways and not a few of these were Oshudana, breweries operated by Japan's best pre-modern businessmen, the shrewd Omi Shonin, merchants of Shiga Prefecture.

The western part of Saitama consists of the natural beauty of the Chichibu basin, with many old shrines. Here, too, there is good water - not for nothing is Ogawamachi an old paper-making town - and therefore plenty of brewing opportunities.

So if you re-assess your image of Saitama on the basis of this information and then hear that it is No. 8 in sake production, with about 40 breweries, that almost sounds like a matter of course. The prefecture is also active in developing new yeasts ("Kaori Kobo") and common brands (the ginjo "Saiko"). Sake from Saitama is usually light and fresh.

Some famous Saitama breweries are:

Kikuizumi (Takizawa Shuzo, Fukaya City; 1863)
The name means "Chrysanthemum Spring" - chrysanthemums were thought to bring long life.
Stands along the Nakasendo highway, in "brick producing town" Fukaya. All processes are traditional and by hand. Won many prizes in the last 20 years.

Shinkame. (Shinkame Shuzo, Hasuda City; 1848)
Founded in 1848, Shinkame only brews junmai sake. Instead of making flashy young and fragrant sakes, it insists on a deep and complex flavor. Another token of its solidness is that its uses a generous aging period. The name of the brewery 'Divine Turtle" goes back to a turtle who lived in the pond Tenjin-ike that used to lie at the back of the brewery - that turtle was considered as a messenger of the gods. "Hikomago" is another brandname used by this brewery.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association, as well as the JAL sake site, Sake, the Liquid Essence of Japan.
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005). Some information about individual breweries based on Matsuzaki Haruo, Tastes of 1635 Shinpan Nihonshu Gaidobukku (Shibata Shoten 2003), as well as The Sake Companion by John Gaunter (Running Press) and The Insider's Guide to Sake by Philip Harper (Kodansha International).

Lantern Festival, Nihonmatsu

The "Nihonmatsu Chochin Matsuri" (Lantern Festival) is one of the three largest lantern festivals in Japan. It is held every year from Octobber 4 to 6.


[Photo by Ad Blankestijn]

In fact, it is the annual festival of the Nihonmatsu Shrine, going back for 350 years. But contrary to for example Kyoto's Gion Festival where the daytime parade of floats is the main event, in Nihonmatsu the "yoi-matsuri," the evening previous to the festival on October 4, is considered as the most interesting spectacle.


[Photo by Ad Blankestijn]

Seven carts from different wards of the town are decorated with about 400 lanterns, strung in six layers above each other. A sacred flame is brought from the shrine and then all the lanterns are lighted. Next the floats parade through the town to the accompaniment of festive music of the drums and pipes played by people inside the carts. Every float has its own festival music and typical rhytm.


[Photo by Ad Blankestijn]

Young people follow the carts energetically dancing and shouting "washo, washo" to the music. The lanterns shine in the dark sky of early autumn and from the many stalls lining the street waft the nostalgic smells of fried squid, soba and octopus balls. The nice thing about this festical is that it is still rooted in the local population. They hold it for their own enjoyment and not just to attract tourists.