10-15-06 Sunday “The Matsutaka T Shirt company”

10-15-06 SUNDAY “The Matsutaka T Shirt company”

I got up to do some more Internet work. Getting this journal out there was difficult, so I had my sister do half the work and got twice done in the same amount of time. AOL IM works fine in Japan.

After a while, the parents made me put on their daughter’s kendo uniform to take pictures. It was funny because the superstar American status kicked in as I then had to pose with two different neighbors.

I didn’t realize last night that outside and behind my host house there was a sizable farm that I couldn’t see at night. It wasn’t their farm, but it made for quite a nice view.

Next, we drove a few minutes away down to the Children Festival at a Shinto temple. The temple had a very fair like feel, as there were many vendors and booths to win prizes at. I got a real timely snow cone, with it being about 70 degress out in October.

I noticed that our dialogue was becoming overly simplified. My speech changed to a more simplified deal when I realized that they understood practically nothing but a few words in English. I ended up using just key words that are “easy.”

At the children’s fair, many families dressed up there kids in little komos or yukatas (cotton robes).

There was also a pretty neat parade” of sorts as a number of color-clad Japanese kings men brought a prince to the Shinto shrine to be purified. This reenactment came with full song and dance and the prince rode in style on horseback through the crowd.

Lunchtime. My family asked me what I wanted and I told them I didn’t care, but would prefer something inexpensive that they enjoy that is specific to Japanese culture. We went to go have Japanese pizza.

Okonomiyaki is not really pizza at all. In fact, there is no dough, no tomato sauce and no cheese involved, and they cook it in front of you on a grill in the face of your table. Okonomiyaki is really more like a mixture between a pancake and a pizza. "Okonomi" means "as you like" referring to how the ingredients are put together.
Hibachi is an American term and we understand it to mean a restaurant where they cook your food in front of you. In Japan, it just means grill. While they do cook the Okonomiyaki at your table at “The Kousendago,” it is not an Americanized Hibachi deal, complete with a performance for entertainment by the cook.

Okonomiyaki is an odd but tasty concoction of meat, noodles, cabbage and some sauces to glue it all together. The mixture is stirred and applied either in a large rectangular shape or circular by shaping it out of the bowl and onto the grilling surface.

Here is the recipe:


DOUGH
300 g flour
210 ml water
2 eggs
Cabbage

DOUGH EXTRAS
Possible ingredients to put into/onto Okonomiyaki
Katsuobushi*: Dried, shaved benito (katsuo)
Aonori*: Green, dried seaweed.
Leek or green onion
Beef: thinly sliced or ground
Pork: thinly sliced or ground
Chicken: breast filets
Octopus*
Squid*
Prawn
Tuna
Mushrooms
and much more...

DIPPING SAUCES
Brown okonomiyaki sauce spicey or mild*
Mayonnaise

* May not be available in Western supermarkets; but you should be able to find it in Japanese grocery stores that exist in most large European and American cities.

PREPARATION:
1) Cut four large, green cabbage leaves without the hard, white core in thin strings (ca. 4 mm).
2) Mix the water, flour, eggs and the cabbage strings together.
3) You may now add more ingredients to the dough: e.g. seafood, cut in little pieces, ground meat, cut mushrooms, etc.
4) Fry the dough like a pancake in a small frying pan.
5) Before turning the okonomiyaki over, and while the dough is still quite soft, you may put other ingredients on top of the dough.
6) Turn the okonomiyaki.
7) When fried well, serve the okonomiyaki with katsuobushi, aonori, mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce.

It is notable mention that depending on the region of Japan, okonomiyaki is prepared in various different styles and house secrets are part of the charm of eating at this “Japanese Style Pizza Parlor.” In Hiroshima, which is especially well known for its okonomiyaki, it is served with or on top of Yakisoba fried noodles. In Arao, a number of herbs and spices pepper a bed of Okonomiyaki sauce baked on the top.

After eating the entire thing, again, I achieved American superstar status and posed for some pictures with random customers (fans). In Arao, many people very seldom see people who are not of Japanese descent. And because American movies and/or television is very popular with the Japanese, when they see somebody from the states, they think he/she IS really a somebody.

SHIRTS
After a great meal that couldn’t be beat, we went out shopping again in Arao this time. Because we had no success finding any Japanese script on T-shirts, my host family decided to make some with special computer iron-on transfer paper. We stopped and got t-shirts and went right to work on the designs. I worked on the computer with the son and we made two shirts successfully related to my trip. On one shirt “Basashi” was printed in Japanese over a stallion’s head. On the other “Gyjin” (a word that translates into American Idiot over a yellow star.

Before I left, my host family gave me another Japanese hand towel (as they did the night before) and also a little hand bag pouch to keep things in. Sateshi gave me two DVDs of Japanese music that he burned off of his computer.

When we got back to the hotel, I said goodbye to my family and exchanged information.

MAKING WEIGHT
With all the stuff I had purchased coupled with all the gifts I had been given, I really had to weigh my bags. Weight restrictions on the plane could have cost me up to $300 for an extra bag, or losing all my stuff. From Arao back to Tokyo, we were allowed to have 30kg as a check in on the plane and 15 as a carry on.

I went down into the Verde communal bath locker room and found a small stepping scale. I was told it is easiest to weigh yourself and then subtract your weight a second time holding the luggage. Someone told me that the conversion to pounds was times 2.2. This didn’t make sense to me, because at 75 – that would put my own weight at about 5 pounds or so less than I should have weighed. It was true, I lost even more weight.

I believe that the weight lose was from eating so much raw fish and not a whole lot of bready things. This too must be attributed to why the Japanese does not have an obesity problem (save for the sumo.)

After I did some shifting, the two bags were up to par.

I bought two yakatore at Mammy’s grill by the laundry mat. Yak ore is meat on a skewer. They had such a strange selection. Beef, chicken and pork were the regular selections, but they also offered chicken skin, gizzards and Japanese pig’s feet on a stick.

I met up with Kaye’s host family who were looking for her at the front of the hotel and called Nayoku from the house phone. She spoke with them, and I watched the family set up camp in the lobby to wait as I went up to my room.

I put on some gym clothes and went for a run . I ran to the middle school that we had visited a few days before and skipped any real kind of dinner. When I returned I saw Kaye’s family still waiting in lobby and also saw Kaye in hallway behind a wall where neither could see each other. They would have missed each other if I didn’t say anything.

I went up into my room, ready for bed then a got a call from front desk. My family returned and brought me another shirt with my name on it in kanji. They were so cute.

I fell asleep, but then got awoken by Kaye’s host family on a house phone and had to quickly dress. The gave me some octopus and a Japanese kanji towel for helping me connect them back up with Kaye for the evening.

I feel really bad, but accidentally left the octopus in the fridge the next day after check out.