I wrote this article for a job application as an online journalist/translator, I didn't get the job but why not post it!
If there’s one thing every foreigner praises Japan for, without fail, it would be the speed, the efficiency - of transportation, customer service, and almost anything that requires a plan or schedule. Personally, I’ve had nothing but good experiences in this aspect of Japan.
In Kimino town on the way to Koya
On the other hand, sometimes it’s more than worth your while to go slow, and sort of meander about, without a set plan or strict schedule to adhere to. You never know who you will meet or what interesting things you will see; plus, it’s always refreshing to stop and smell the roses (or in my case on March 24th, take a picture of the cherry blossoms).
On Sunday, I set out on my road bicycle like I always do: with the intention of going somewhere interesting and getting my weekly adrenaline fix. Little did I know I would be in for a big adrenaline rush, and a great adventure.
In Kimino town on the way to Koya
Kimino town on the way to Koya
I started out from my home in Wakayama city, and headed east on a familiar road leading to the countryside. I had always thought about riding to Mount Koyasan, one of Wakayama’s famous tourist destinations, but when I left that day, it was already noon. Could I make it nearly 50 kilometres to the ancient valley town, 800 metres up in the mountains? Nevertheless, I decided to ride along any road that looked nice. Soon I ended up in Kimino town, south of Wakayama and Koya. Even though it is inland, trees in bloom were already dotting the hills. I came to a crossroads; one way leading to Koya, and the other leading back to Wakayama. Well, since I had come this far, why not go for it? So I continued on my way to the mysterious mountain town.
Finally, after a long ride through Kimino’s beautiful wilderness, I came to another crossroads. The road to Koya was a steep grade. Well, I guess this is it, I thought. I stopped to get a bottle of tea at the first vending machine I’d seen in nearly two hours, and met a friendly old man. He asked me in Japanese, in the strongest country accent I’ve ever heard, “Are ya goin’ to Koya, then? On that thing? Yer a real trucker, aren’cha!” Yes! I was going to do it (hopefully).
the sign says: "altitude 634 metres: this point is the same height as Tokyo SkyTree [the tallest tower in the world] Danger of forest fire Koyasan, 1200 year anniversary" Koyasan mountain is about 800 metres high!
So, I geared down, and started my ascent. Every few seconds I wondered when I would reach the top. One of my triumphant moments was when I came to a commemorative sign that said “634 metres: The same height as Tokyo Sky Tree.” Wait--I rode my bike as high as the Tokyo Sky Tree? Now, that was something to be excited about. As a nature lover, I was also in awe of the fact that even Japan’s tallest tower could be dwarfed by the power of the everlasting earth. It may seem obvious on paper, but sometimes you have to be in the thick of it to understand.
A few more grueling minutes, and I was finally in Koya town! I cruised down an easy hill and was greeted by an enormous orange gate. However... there was only one problem. Since I left home at noon, and took the long, scenic route, it was now five in the evening! I hardly had the chance to set foot in one temple before they started to close for the day.
part of the famous temple in Koya
Since it was about to get dark, I decided to go straight home, the way I came, twisting and turning down that mountain road. But somewhere, I took a wrong turn and ended up on another winding mountain road, this time in Kudoyama town. Having never heard of Kudoyama, I wasn’t quite sure what prefecture I was in, but since I was essentially in the woods with no one else around, I decided to press on. Eventually I came to Hashimoto (still in Wakayama prefecture--phew!), found a quaint little restaurant, and had a satisfying meal of green pea rice and natto (among other things). Luckily, from Hashimoto, I was able to get on the highway for a speedy return home (sparing enough time to go to bathe in the local hot spring)!
When I think about it, I could have easily ridden along the straight, smooth highway that goes from Wakayama to Hashimoto, and gone to Koyasan from there. It certainly would have been quicker, and I would have been able to see the temple, and get another Traffic Safety sticker for my bike, to boot! What’s done is done, however--and I feel that not only I accomplished something fantastic that day, I also felt refreshed and relaxed by my ride through the country (even though I had to climb over 634 metres on my bicycle). With that in mind, everyone should be able to enjoy what Japan has to offer at their own pace, at least once in a while!
Again
So obviously I wasn't satisfied with my trip to Koya, since I didn't even get to see the town properly. So on April 4th I went again. This time I managed to leave at 10:00... I still should have gone earlier though! oh well. By that time, I was staying at the Egawas in Aridagawa, so first I biked up to Kainan city, then through Kimino and Katsuragi towns, and finally arriving at Koyasan. Kimino is a tough ride going east, because it's long and narrow, and there is a slight incline all the way. and at the end there is an 800 metre mountain to ride up. I got to Koyasan around 3 or 4 pm, I think.
I stayed until around 5 and then left by a road that looked like it hadn't seen a car in months. there was also a rest stop/"picnic area" that was completely deserted and looked abandoned, as the water in the washroom didn't work! It was also a very steep road. luckily I was going down but I actually got off and walked my bike part of the way to save my brakes.
so to go home I went through Shimizu, which is the easternmost (inland) part of Aridagawa. it's very countryside. it's hard to get cell reception in some places and there is no train that goes out there. I think there might be a bus of some sort. Luckily the road home was mostly downhill, an easy grade.
wild sakura trees in Kimino
wild sakura trees in Kimino
this is where I stopped for lunch, by a river
I don't think you can see them, but the wind was blowing the petals everywhere, it looked like it was snowing!
at Kongobuji Temple in Koya
At Kongobuji Temple in Koya
at Kongobuji Temple in Koya
another temple that had a cute statue
me at Kongobuji Temple, pretending to be a first grader
on the road home... nothing, nothing and more nothing for as far as the eye can see!
so apparently I didn't post my recipe for a basic nabe/hotpot (called yudofu) but I guess I'll post this one first! Nabe is the perfect dinner for winter because it is easy, and cooks on the table, so the pot doesn't get cold. Also it fills you up! especially soymilk-nabe.
Soymilk Hotpot (Tounyuu-nabe)
What you will need
is a hotplate and shallow saucepan or large frypan
and the following ingredients:
fry the onions
and boil the kabocha and sweet potato.
- half an onion, chopped
- oil for frying
~ kabocha squash, gutted and thinly sliced
~ japanese sweet potato, sliced
~ carrot, sliced
＊3 - 4 cups water
＊2 tbsp mirin (or cooking wine and a bit of sugar)
＊1 tsp soy sauce (preferably usu-kuchi)
＊1 tbsp shio-koji (not sure what to substitute in N. America, but you could try a mixture of sea salt and cornstarch...)
- 1/2 - 1 cup organic plain soy milk (I actually used sweetened plain soymilk for this, so if you want you can try adding a bit of brown sugar or corn syrup to taste)
~ sliced boiled renkon (lotus root)
~ shiitake (sliced or whole), enoki, or oyster mushrooms (or other varieties of asian mushrooms)
~ Kyo-age tofu (or your choice of deep-fried tofu), sliced/diced/prepared however you like it
~ Mizuna (not sure about the English translation but you could try to substitute arugula or other light-tasting cookable greens)
~ shirataki / konjac noodles, rice vermicelli, or other clear noodles
- about 10 cm naga-imo/yama-imo, peeled and grated (do this last!) - for extra fibre, omega-3 fats and nutrition, mix in a spoonful of ground flax seed, hemp hearts, or ground sesame to the grated naga-imo. note: ingredients marked with ~ are optional or you can add as much/as little as you can eat.
add the soymilk and cook a bit, and you're ready
to add the rest of the ingredients :)
Directions
put your hotplate on the table and gather everyone around for a real epic mealtime.
fry the onions on medium until light brown. add kabocha and sweet potato, water, and bring to a boil.
add＊ingredients and stir well. once the squash is a bit softer, add the carrot. simmer for a couple of minutes, add the soy milk, and stir well. cook until these ingredients are almost ready to eat.
add the rest of the ~ ingredients, arranging neatly in sections. lower the heat to between medium and low, put the lid on, and cook for 2-5 minutes or until all ingredients are cooked and soft.
when it's ready, put about a tablespoon of grated naga-imo in your personal bowl, and on top of that ladle the veggies/tofu/noodles that you want, then a few ladlefuls of the soymilk soup. mix the soup and naga-imo together. you will have a melty, rich and creamy soup for your soymilk nabe perfect for cold winter days.
as you take things from the pot, put more things in so there is always food cooking in the pot.
What your soymilk-nabe should look like before cooking through.
clockwise from top:
renkon (lotus root), sweet potato/kabocha/carrot,
kyo-age tofu, enoki, mizuna, shiitake
in the bowl and ready to eat!
Veggie Rice Porridge
How about another recipe?? I came up with this "cheesy" veggie kayu (congee?) when I was trying to make lazy risotto but added too much water. Enjoy this vegetable rice porridge on a chilly day!
What you will need
day-old rice/cooked rice that has gone hard
3x water to rice (give or take)
1 - 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp shio-koji (or maybe potato starch and salt)
kabocha squash, gutted, sliced and with the skin cut off
enoki, cut as such:
a pinch of black salt
2 - 3 tbsp nutritional yeast, or to taste
a pinch of curry powder, or to taste
mizuna (or arugula?)
dried parsley or basil
Directions
bring rice, water, and oil to a boil in a pot. you're going to boil this rice until it gets mushy so add plenty of water along with the shio-koji.
boil until soft.
chop up the sliced kabocha and add it to the pot. boil until soft.
add enoki, black salt, curry powder, and nutritional yeast. stir well and simmer until desired consistency is reached.
spoon into bowl and garnish with plenty of mizuna and parsley flakes.
hello all,
I am very happy to say that i just bought my ticket to vancouver for Tom and Crystal's wedding :)
I'm going to depart from Kansai International on the 17th and I'll arrive the same day at 11:40. it's a 9-hour flight. I'm flying with JAL because I love JAL so very much (seriously they are the best. I was not paid to say that)
I'm flying back on the 22nd so I'll be back in Japan on the 23rd at around 4 pm. but I get back to KIX around 10 pm... ooh. D: I think it'll be worth it to not spend my birthday on a plane or at work, though :)
A special shoutout to Tom and Crystal, I hope you guys are taking it easy even with all the preparations! and I seriously can't wait to see everyone. I can't believe it's been exactly a year and 3 months now.
as for my new life in wakayama, things are going okay so far. I finally have my coveted "kotatsu" (pictured right) which is a blanketed table with a heater underneath. it feels so good... most japanese people say they fall asleep sitting in the kotatsu... but I never fall asleep in it, because I'm super awesome. too bad canadians can't have kotatsu in their houses... there's nothing better on a cold day than to sit down to hotpot and a nice toasty kotatsu! and to top it all off, in the summer it turns into a regular table by the power of love and pure magic.
I am also enjoying cooking for myself a lot! I make a lot of hotpot lately since it's winter but I have also been experimenting, for instance, kabocha squash tofu scramble made with nutritional yeast and black salt (I got those from my internet vegan food exchange friend... black salt has the taste of eggs so it's perfect to put in tofu scramble!)
my job is also going pretty well. a bit slowly though. I have various types of classes I'm teaching, and on thursdays or fridays I go to the elementary schools to teach the english teachers there. mostly though, I've been making teaching materials. it's a pretty good time, and I think lessons will start to pick up in April-may (when the school year starts).
I have also gotten back into calligraphy a bit more. I'm trying to make my writing better for next year's new year's cards... I'm also looking for a place to learn judo in wakayama... but most dojos are only for children. I think there must be at least one place that can teach me, though :) if not maybe i will try karate!
it's officially winter! a few days ago I just got a notice to go to the immigration office and pick up my work visa. From now on I will officially be a company employee! my first official day of work is January 7th, wish me luck!
with that said I have to move on Dec. 29th!
year after year, when i have to move, it's the same old thing. look at all my stuff... how am I going to pack it all... aaahhh... run away... and then a day or two before... crap! I am moving the day after tomorrow! how am I going to pack it all?!
but this evening, I'm really going to do it! I'm just going to look at it a different way.
is it really this simple? absolutely not, but I'm going to pretend it is.
right after I finish this post.
and now, in the spirit of procrastination, here's some of my favourite Japanese TV commercials. can you tell what they're selling and/or promoting? (#1 contains a visual pun, it's for ultrabook [uru-tora book] and in japanese, "tora" means tiger... ha! ha!)
The latest happenings with me involve sorting out details and applying for my visa; going to osaka; riding my bike around places and seeing the autumn leaves. (check out all of my fall photos on picasa)
so I have already applied for my visa! there is a lot of paperwork and a lot of complications in the application process... they have to ask my employer again and again about things >.< they also called me to ask about my job. so hopefully it all goes smoothly, at this point all I can do is cross my fingers and wait.
on november 10th I went to osaka... I went to a bike shop and rented a bike and rode it around; I figure I should get to know the town a bit better. now I can get around okay there, as long as I have my phone of course. I also saw a japanese movie with no subtitles in japan for the first time. it was Tsui no Shintaku... pretty heavy subject matter, it was about a doctor who euthanizes her diabetic patient, and is accused of murdering him (although it focused mainly on their relationship). in the end, it is revealed that after several years in jail, she is freed because he had written in his diary that he entrusted his life to her, and that served as a living will. anyhow I found it very moving... and overall an excellent movie. I had been doubtful about live-action japanese movies because I think the TV dramas here are awful, but this movie allows me to put faith in Japanese actors!
on nov. 18th I went on another bike ride around Arida district (over to a mountain in Kanaya and then back down to Yuasa and then back home). the main point of this ride was to go see the fall leaves! and they were lovely!
the stats of this ride were: total distance 59.44km total time 4h30min. max speed 50.5km/h avg speed 13.3km/h expenditure 1278 calories height climbed 598m
oh... I also took a short detour in the middle to hike down to Kurokura waterfall.
on Nov. 22nd I went to wakayama city. I dropped by wakayama castle to see the fall leaves. didn't go inside, just around the castle grounds. I hear the cherry blossoms are really beautiful there, and so were the fall leaves! quite breathtaking. peep these...
I also went to Don Quijote, the store with literally everything. there's one in Tokyo but I didn't think there would be one in wakayama. well, there is. so I'm quite glad about that.
on Dec. 2nd I went to Hidakagawa (again!? said Machiko sensei. (hey, I've only been there twice...)) just for fun this time, but also to see the fall leaves (again...). I was only planning to go to Matsubara, in Kanaya which is a part of aridagawa. but I ended up in Hidakagawa, in Hidaka district which is directly south of Arida district. anyhow I had been there in september when I went to Ryujin and I thought it was fun to compare the scenery in two seasons. Maybe I'll make a long trip next year during cherry blossom season and make it 3 seasons?
my... my precious...
so I just discovered my phone's camera has the OS6 panorama option... I love iphone's OS6!
anyhow, for todays stats. total time: about 5h3min total distance: about 66.25km avg speed: about 13.1 km/h top speed: 49.8km/h expenditure: around 1400 calories highest point: 346 m.
I also met this guy outside a Lawson convenience store when I was almost home! he is doing a bicycle tour of Japan. I was pretty amazed and inspired, because at some point I want to do something like that (or a long-term trip, perhaps to Tohoku or some such place) sorry the blog is in japanese of course, but I just thought I'd put it out there!
last but not least here are some bonus pictures of me
I'm back with another recipe but first some updates on my very interesting life.
last month, I taught a lot of our classes alone, and this week until the 6th I am teaching alone again! it's all good fun though. our 3 9th-grade students are starting to study for their high school entrance exams. I feel kind of sorry for them because it's all they do over winter break... study for their exams (at least that's how it was with last year's 9th graders).
we also had two halloween parties, one at the Kibi (main) classroom and one at the Tsujido classroom in Arida city. they were fun. I dressed up as hen-na ojisan...
hilarious! he's one of my favourite comedy characters...
come to think of it, this is the second year in a row I dressed up as a man.. last year I was Chuck Testa hahaha. I remember when I was like 10 or 11 I went as one of the Thompson twins from Tintin, too. strange...
and I rode another 160 km on my bike (over 3 days)... on sunday I rode to wakayama city to buy two lights and a bike pump. but when I got to the bike shop it started pouring rain. nothing like I've seen in vancouver... this was almost typhoon style! so the nice guys at the shop told me to wait until it stopped :) and lo and behold, it stopped an hour later (also nothing like I've seen in Vancouver!) by then it was dark though, so the shop guy lent me a light so I could ride home more safely. the trip to the shop and back home is about 70 km apparently. but the next day I wanted to return the light. so I rode back to the shop again... this time I brought them some really nice persimmons too. mmm persimmons.. probably nature's most perfect fruit.
today I rode way up a mountain road in part of Aridagawa called Kanaya. it's about 13 km from home.
took this picture from a bridge...
... the bridge in this picture! (this was taken at my lunch stop)
my bike had a rest while I ate a quick lunch in an orange field.
as for this week's recipe... in japan there is such a thing called "cream stew" which is basically like a creamy chicken-vegetable soup. the stew part comes in a box.
except I think I can make a better one, japanese style... and without using milk or chicken to boot!
ingredients (feel free to add your other favourite veggies)
- canola/sunflower/vegetable oil
- an onion, coarsely chopped
- a couple of potatoes (yellow or white, not baking), washed, eyes removed, and cut into chunks
- a carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
☆ oyster mushrooms or other mushrooms, cut into slices or coarsely chopped
☆ sliced lotus root [renkon], boiled
☆ julienned bamboo shoots, boiled
☆ your choice of tofu (I chose deep fried soft tofu blocks called atsu-agé. you could also use ganmo, deep fried tofu balls; or sliced usu-agé, deep-fried tofu; or crumbled firm tofu.), cut into easy-to-eat pieces
step 2
- a tablespoon of all-purpose flour (optional)
- naga-imo/yama-imo
- unsweetened, unflavoured soy milk with a high solid content (I'm sure any soy milk would do, or even unsweetened almond or coconut milk)
- salt and pepper
- for garnish: green onions and/or nutritional yeast
directions
1. in a pot, sauté the onions in a tablespoon or two of oil until lightly browned. add the potatoes and carrots, add water, and simmer until soft. 2. meanwhile, prepare the ☆ ingredients. add to the pot and let them incorporate.
step 4
3. after that, prepare the cream stew part. peel the naga-imo and, using a fine-tooth grater, grate it into a bowl. the end product should be the consistency of raw eggs. the peeled naga-imo feels like a wet bar of soap, so don't let it slip out of your hands!
to the grated naga-imo, sift in the flour. but I don't think you actually need it because the naga-imo will thicken the soup enough. you can always add flour after if it's too watery.
4. to the imo-and-flour mixture, add some soy milk. I think I added a cup and a half or so but it really depends on how creamy you want the stew to be, and how much imo you grated. I grated the whole thing, it must have been half a cup or so. mix this well and you should have something that looks like a batter. add some water to this if it seems too thick to you.
5. there should still be water left in the pot... add the cream mixture to it and stir well. at this point if you think you need the flour, add it so it can cook. simmer for a few minutes and add salt and pepper to taste. make sure that the mushrooms are cooked through and everything is soft and tender.
6. taste test and add more soy milk, salt/pepper, water, or simmer more until it's to your liking.
enjoy! I had this for dinner with some green pea rice I cooked this morning. all you have to do is make regular rice except add green peas and a bit of extra water too.
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