Caramel coverage

It would appear that summer is the season of caramel, since so many companies are coming out with caramel-flavored versions of their original products at the moment. The taste spectrum ranges from the slightly bitter salt caramel (see the ba-ni-ra based yogurt pictured above) to the super sweet milk caramel (like these filled Morinaga cookies I love), and all of them are pretty good. Even Starbucks has gotten on this bandwagon, declaring Qandi (is that a cognate or merely a coincidence?) the land of caramel with the latest in its "Discoveries" series.

Japanese Kit Kat No. 8: Rose

Around Mothers' Day, the stores were carrying a new "rose" variety of Kit Kat. I have no idea what real roses taste like, but if this candy bar is anything to go by, then their flavor is very mild. I believe the bars even smelled a bit like the flowers as well. P.S. Our mini rosebush is still alive!

The constant gardeners

When you are wandering around a sprawling Japanese garden, you might find yourself lost in contemplation. As you admire nature and the beautiful landscaping that aims to both celebrate and control its wonder, you might not realize how much hard work has gone into creating such an idyllic outdoor space. I never really thought about it much myself until our first walk through Kenrokuen. While sitting in a particularly secluded part of the garden, we noticed a little old woman diligently sweeping pebbles and raking leaves at a furious pace. She seemed so strong and determined for such a small, elderly person, but I almost pitied her inability to relax with the rest of us on a Saturday morning. I say almost, however, because she was so focused on maintaining the garden that it appeared as though she could not be bothered with thoughts of doing anything else. I'll never know whether this strength and sense of purpose were genuine, or merely the product of well-aged professionalism. Nevertheless, I am grateful for her tireless devotion, as well as the efforts of others like her, keeping public grounds pristine all across Japan.

Kanazawa Castle

Americans living in Japan might find themselves missing simple things like lawns and backyards. As I've said before, this country manages to be impressively green with relatively little grass. We were obviously deprived, because when we got to Kanazawa jo, the first thing we did was fling ourselves down on the ground for fear that it might be some kind of cruel mirage. The ancient castle grounds encompassed more meadows and woods than royal dwellings. This might have something to do with all the fires the place is said to have weathered since the sixteenth century. We had a nice afternoon walk around what may be the most heavily fortified public park in history.

Sado, chado, tea ceremony

We had our first experience with a Japanese tea ceremony ( 茶道) during our stay in Kanazawa this month. The women who served the matcha and manju to the guests bowed on the floor in front of us before leaving. Manju come in many flavors, but ours were the smooth, azuki bean-filled white mochi kind. Soft, sweet and heavenly. Benkyodo in San Francisco has a great online menu displaying the varieties they offer in their store. What we ate seems to be very close to what is labeled as habutai on their web site. Of course, I have never been to this place, but their site is very useful for my purposes today. Please let me know how it is if you have actually visited! Real matcha is richer than regular tea, but not nearly as sweet as all of the matcha-flavored products you find in Japanese grocery stores. Still, the slightly bitter taste was quite good. The setting also enhanced the experience, as we were seated on tatami floors, looking out through sliding doors at a beautiful, sunny garden. Incredibly, this magical afternoon snack time can be yours for the equivalent of seven US dollars. Or, you could buy one Japanese fashion magazine and a pack of gum.P.S. This was rather informal, an approximation of the heights to which a traditional tea ceremony might aspire. Even this brief exposure was a treat for us, though, and we hope to participate in the longer, more elaborate version someday!

Mexican food in Japan

Jake loves fish tacos. He discovered them long ago, on a road trip that began in Guadalajara and ended in Cabo San Lucas. Apparently, these are pretty much the only things he ate on his journey. Now, he's always looking for places that claim to create the classic dish. Unfortunately, he's usually disappointed because something is not quite right. Living in Japan makes his endless quest even more difficult since Mexican food is not as abundant as other types of foreign cuisine. When we asked our lovely friends at What's for Din Din? for a good lunch spot, we were not expecting to find this stuff. They suggested a great place called Demode Queen in Shibuya and especially recommended the burgers. We were all set to try them when we noticed the Mexican stuff on the menu and realized we'd been craving it for a while. Though these were not an exact replica of his favorite food, the Japanese twist was still tasty. According to Jake, the ones in Mexico are really lightly battered, made with a different kind of fish, and placed on smaller tortillas. Also, there is no sour cream, but rather freshly squeezed lime juice, and salsa if you like. After doing some research on their origins, I came across a theory that would be a crazy coincidence if actually true. Apparently, the idea to cook the fish this way might have come to Mexico via Japanese immigrants who introduced their tempura method of frying to the locals! In other news, I liked my taco salad a lot. Since the majority of Japanese cuisine is extremely mild, both of us were happy to have some spice on our plates for a change. So, if you're in Japan for a while and find yourself craving some comfort food, check this place out! Also, please feel free to share what you know about Baja style tacos with us in the comments.

Otoosan no hi

Happy Father's Day! Make sure to celebrate the responsible men in your life by throwing lots of meat on the barbecue. Pictured here, delicious yakiniku skewers from one of our local izakayas. Butaniku, or pork, to be exact.

My new MUJI rain flats

These are great because they are made of rubber, but basically look like real shoes. It's so hard to find cute, waterproof stuff. I love how the extra strip over the instep keeps them from slipping off my feet when I'm biking.

Biggest. Sushi. Ever.

I think this definitely beats the mondo size futomaki we had on Setsubun. It was good! Definitely not something you want to eat with chopsticks. In other news, we recently found a steak and sesame dressing roll at the grocery store. I guess they are trying new, American-friendly things these days. There are more foreigners popping up in this country every day. Does this mean a Mexican restaurant explosion could be in the works? That is the one thing Jake says he misses about home. It is impossible to find a taco truck over here. How long do you think you could go without la comida Mexicana? Have a great weekend!

Kenrokuen

Japan loves to rank its main attractions in order of size, beauty and overall quality. Hence, it is with 100% certainty that I can inform you that the garden you see here is one of the top three in a country that has made gardening a part of its national heritage. Kanazawa's Kenrokuen (兼六園) is an explosion of green that manages to combine immaculate design with seemingly natural tranquility. This place is a prime example of the Japanese landscaping technique known as shakkei (借景), or "borrowed scenery", in which views of distant hills and mountains are set up in such a way as to enhance the garden itself. This creates the sensation that the garden is infinite, or at the very least, much larger than it actually is. Running water is incorporated into the layout of the garden in subtle, surprising ways and, despite its status and popularity, there are many places to hide and enjoy the stillness of this ancient oasis in the middle of a city. As with any potential tourist draw, it is your own fault if you find yourself battling with crowds late in the day! Get up early to enjoy one of the most beautiful morning walks of your life in relative peace.

Kanazawa's beached green tomatoes

The city of Kanazawa (金沢) is famous for many things, but, as far as I know, beaches strewn with perfect green tomatoes are not on the list. Nevertheless, as we came face to face with the Sea of Japan for the very first time, we were immediately struck by how many of them seemed to be popping up after every dune. Indigenous sand fruit or healthiest shipwreck ever? We documented the best ones as we meandered down the shore line for an hour. A little bizarre, but really quite pretty.

Japanese face covers keep clothes makeup free

Unless you confuse it with a still from a shopping mall horror flick, this photo I took in the dressing room should be pretty self-explanatory. Whenever you go to try on clothes in Japan, you will find that a dispenser of nearly transparent fabric head covers has been placed in the corner of the stall. If you are a foreigner, the assistant will take the time to point it out to you and urge you to take advantage of the store's desperate attempt to keep its merchandise in good sale condition. The makeup mask prevents the inadvertent transfer of all your artificial facial enhancement products onto the tops and dresses you have to pull over your face. I usually don't bother with them when I'm not wearing any makeup. Since those days are few and far between, however, I have worn my fair share of these this year!

A picnic at Shinrin Koen

Since it is Sunday, I wish you all beautiful weather and suggest you take the time out for a picnic. We have been taking full advantage of the beautiful spring and summer weather to ride our bikes all over creation in search of the perfect picnic grounds. While parks are abundant in Japan, surprisingly, grass is not. Most of the Tokyo city parks, though pleasant, are severely lacking in lawns. Here in the Kanto region, people usually do not have front lawns or backyards, even way out in the countryside (everything seems to be utilized for gardening or planting rice). They tend to focus a lot more on the arrangement of flowers, trees and rocks over here. For example, it is very hard to find places as verdant as Central Park. One of the things we look forward to seeing again when we return to the States is the abundance of grass on the ground. Anyway, we were excited to find Shinrin Koen (森林公園) last weekend. There were so many lush lawns from which to choose. I believe the name can be translated to "Forest Park", which makes sense since it boasts so much greenery. The nicest part about this place was its size. It was so big that we had to bike pretty quickly in order to get from the south end to the north end within an hour. This meant that there were lots of quiet meadows and streams tucked in between the trees, and we had no trouble finding a private place to put down our blanket.

Menu o yomemasu ka?

They always make fun of people who have to move their mouths while they are reading. Since we have been in Japan, however, it is practically impossible for us to understand printed words unless we take the time to physically sound them out. Here is Jake at our local place, having a good time with the bar menu. Some of the obstacles we encounter when reading Nihongo include: the vertical organization of the letters, the occasional right to left orientation of the sentence flow, and last but not least, the fact that a few of the hiragana (46) and katakana (also 46)characters look pretty similar at first glance. I am not even going to address kanji since we only have about 100 out of the 2000 regularly used symbols memorized. Everything is much harder when you are alone, of course, because there is nobody there to correct you when a mistake is made. Luckily, we are usually always together or with Japanese friends or foreigners who have been here longer than us. Also, everyone remembers different things in different ways. Since Jake is into liver, he is always quick to recognize it on paper. That and the beer list!

Japanese bar snacks

Luckily, many countries share the tradition of the local bars serving you some kind of snack with your drinks. This can be a nice way to sample some traditional food and tide you over until your dinner arrives. For example, we still have vivid memories of the olives, enormous corn nuts and dried garbanzo beans we enjoyed in Spain almost ten years ago. Nibbling on free food is never a bad thing. Unless, of course, you happen to be in a country where they serve you the dried out, skeletal remains of a fish you probably wouldn't have wanted to eat fresh. Normally, we love everything they serve us in Japan. This just wasn't one of those times. It did, however, provide a few moments of entertainment as we tried to take the perfect spooky snack shot.

Suiden from the Shinkansen

On our last Shinkansen outing, we had the good fortune of passing by tons of flooded rice paddies at dusk. They are known as suiden (水田), and are not to be confused with Sweden although they essentially sound the same. The view was incredible, and Jake managed to take a great video at high speed. One warning, though: you will see another bullet train whizzing by in the first few seconds of the film. Another warning: Jake will be babbling nonsense for the remainder of the clip. Then, I chime in with something stupid at the end. It also sounds like we are opening a giant bag of chips in the background. We apologize in advance for ruining the moment. In other news, it seems that the US could finally catch up with Japanese train technology, thanks to President Obama's hopes for a better American rail system. We will have to see if his plan encompasses replicating this particular landscaping technique.

Ekiben there, done that?

Train travel is extremely efficient here in Japan. As a result, it's a part of daily life for many people. This mode of transportation occupies such a special place in the national psyche that a unique type of dining has been developed in its honor. Ekiben (駅弁) might look like regular bento boxes, but their components are often linked to the culinary heritage of the region in which they are made. Every major train station, or eki, showcases a different theme based on traditional local foods. Since these meals are made to be eaten on the go, they are always packaged in a convenient, commuter-friendly fashion. We began our exploration of this cool subcategory of Japanese cuisine on our recent trip to Kanazawa. During a brief stopover in the small ski town of Echigo Yuzawa, we picked up this great combination of pork, rice and vegetables. Before we opened it, though, we had to pull the little yellow string on the side. As soon as we did, steam started to seep out of the container. We are still not sure how, but the box began to cook on its own. After five minutes, the food was supposed to be ready. Sure enough, we removed the lid and were pleased to see a nice, hot meal. How do they do that?

Japanese Yakitori: Tsukune

Yakitori (焼き鳥), or grilled chicken on a skewer, is a big part of Japanese street food culture. It is always available at fairs and festivals, but you can also get it at grocery stores and delicatessens on any regular day. There are so many varieties from which to choose, and you can get almost all of them with or without tare, a syrupy sweet kind of soy sauce. The tare usually makes everything taste even better, but sometimes you want to keep it light. Anyway, I always went for the chicken breast with grilled negi (葱), but when Jake introduced me to tsukune (chicken meatballs, 駅弁), I fell in love. Now it's almost all we get when we go to a yakitori stand. The meatballs in the photo were particularly special because edamame was mixed into the minced meat. The darker tsukune on the left are covered with tare, while the lighter ones were left plain. Both were juicy and fun to eat!

Japanese Kit Kats No. 6 & 7: Lemon and Apple Vinegar

If the arrival of summer makes you think of vinegar, then maybe you will not be as confused as we were by the newest members of the Kit Kat family. We had no idea what the company was going for with their latest theme, but of course, a taste test had to be conducted. The secret ingredient actually gives the lemon and apple flavors a tart twist, without making either one too sour to be considered a dessert. I was really expecting to dislike at least one of these varieties, but they were both surprisingly tasty.

Ueki update

Remember how excited I was when Jake brought home a flowering plant for us to raise? Well, it died a nasty death as a result of that trip we took to South Korea. Not only did the poor thing suffer from dehydration, but it was also infested with potato bugs. Dis. Gust. Although I never really expected it to survive such epic neglect (we were away for a whole week), I was sort of bummed by my failure as a caregiver. Jake was concerned about what this had done to my self-esteem and surprised me with two new potted friends in the weeks that followed. The first was a sweet little bunch of what may or may not be forget-me-nots. The second was a beautiful miniature rose bush. I love them both, and as of now, they seem to be doing all right. I hope they will be mature enough to look after themselves by the time we go away again in August.

The semantic debate rages on...

Weigh in! Not sure what I'm talking about? Scroll down to the comments on last month's PARA escapar del SOL post!

Sakura jelly custard

This tiny cheesecake custard dessert came out as part of our set lunch at Oto Oto in Bamboo Garden, a conveniently located restaurant complex adjacent to Ueno Park. On top of the custard was a cherry-flavored jelly adorned with a single cherry blossom petal (whose color appeared to be enhanced by food coloring). The Japanese dessert universe reserves a special place for jellies and gelatinous treats. In fact, somebody at the Huffington Post just devoted a whole article to the latest development in Japan's ever-expanding market for jiggly foods. There are so many varieties and so many flavors of the stuff that I have now developed a taste for a substance that never used to appeal to me in the past. We cleaned our cups, petals and all.

Kabuki @ kabukiza

We were so excited when a good Japanese friend invited us to go to Ginza and see a kabuki play with her family. It was a unique opportunity to observe one of Japan's oldest and most illustrious art forms with a native speaker who could help us truly understand what was going on before our eyes. Unfortunately, photography and video recording are prohibited within the inner sanctum of the theater. I could only focus my lens on the facade of the building and the posters advertising plays outside. You would have to go there yourself in order to experience this strangely beautiful spectacle. All of the characters, including the female ones, were portrayed by men in elaborate makeup and ornately decorated costumes. The speech was loud and far more dramatic than the Japanese we are accustomed to hearing on a daily basis. The same could be said for American theater, of course, but the contrast here in Japan is far greater. Luckily, we were able to rent little audio devices that were synced with the script to translate the dialogue for us. We were also fortunate enough to see a particularly famous piece entitled "Shibaraku!", which means "Wait just a minute!" One interesting aspect of this play was the positioning of the actors, all of whom formed a straight line across the stage and shouted their lines at the audience. They did not turn and face each other or attempt to act like real people having real conversations. The formal posture and highly disciplined movement of the men added to the already surreal environment on stage. Each scene is accompanied by live musicians plucking away on their shamisens, thereby providing an appropriately ancient soundtrack to enhance the rich atmosphere created by the clothing and mannerisms.

Matcha inarizushi

Regular inarizushi is already a sweetly satisfying way to enjoy your rice, but this new matcha-flavored tofu skin available at our local supermarket is a great variation on the classic. We have long since learned to associate this light shade of green with delicious things. In the States, it tends to have rather unappealing connotations. In Japan, however, it is a particularly auspicious slice of the color spectrum.

Prettier post-its

What started out as a humble carton of milk was somehow transformed into the work of art you see here. One of my students made it in class and was kind enough to give it to me, her favorite (only) American English teacher! Since the beginning of the school year, I have been watching all the milk drinkers in school (both students and teachers) unfold their cartons and rinse them out every day after lunch. They always string them up outside in large batches so that the boxes can dry in the sun. I figured everybody was simply taking part in a massive recycling project, but didn't realize how cool it would end up to be. The patterned paper wrapped around the cardboard is yet another example of Japan's famously beautiful washi. I love the color combination and the way she coordinated it with pink post-its. Now it sits on my desk, waiting for those times when I decide to scribble down random, unimportant nonsense. It doesn't matter what I write, though, because using this makes every note seem special.

Japaneasy

Coming to Japan soon and need a little help with the language? Already here, but not making enough progress? Check out this fun page for kids. Seriously! The "Quick Kanji" application is a cute intro for all you visual learners...