Category Archives: food

After the end of the field trip, some of us headed to Waseda University to attend an event featuring a tea ceremony and wearing of Yukatas. Waseda often organizes such events for the benefit of international students at Waseda. There were quite a few people there. Many of them were taking summer language courses.

The tea ceremony+ yukata wearing event for international students at Waseda

Yukatas are traditional Japanese summer clothing. They are easier to put on than kimonos, and also much cheaper. The red sash is called an obi sash. The Yukata is worn with traditional geta slippers.

I was unfortunately not able to do the tea ceremony, but I learnt what it was. It involved drinking macha tea and eating a Japanese sweet to nullify the bitter taste of the tea. People sit in a circle on tatami mats and are served the sweet first. The tea is served and drunk after that in traditional looking bowls.

 I headed home after the event at Waseda to find a delicious dinner waiting for me.

Kaori-san made a traditional Japanese dish called ‘buta no shogayaki’ for dinner, AKA ginger pork.

Miso Soup with Tororo seaweed-I didn’t know this earlier, but there are apparently several different kinds of seaweed.

Tired of all the course work and physical exertion, my body felt exhausted and I decided to take it easy.

So I started the day with Starbucks coffee. I rarely drink Starbucks, which is why I’m not very well acquainted with their latest menu. I noticed quite a few unique drinks on their menu and instead of going for my all time favorite cafe latte, I opted for a drip coffee instead. The toppings station had a diverse set of options, from different kinds of sugars and powdered cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon, etc. I added some brown sugar and cocoa powder to my drip coffee. It didn’t taste exceptional compared to other starbucks coffees, but seeing so many different options available from the basic coffee to the toppings, I felt the desire to bring my essay to a Starbucks over the weekend.
The atmosphere at the Ikebukero Starbucks was pretty cozy and I loved spending my morning there.

After coffee, I walked across the street for some comfort food from subway. I got an avocado veggie sub on sesame bread with egg. In an attempt to get some Vitamin C, I also got some terrible tasting orange juice.  (Piece of advice: don’t trust them when they say its 100% orange juice)

After class, on my way home, I got a salmon onigiri. The fish was excruciatingly salty but the seaweed and rice nullified the effect, making the onigiri totally worth the money and calories. I stopped for a matcha latte on the way home and letting myself spend over 300 Yen (~$3) on it was the best decision I’d made all day. It was warm and soothing and the perfect balance between bitter and sweet.

Matcha Latte: worth the money

Ending the day with a salad featuring the much remembered broccoli and pumpkin

Exhausted from the past two days, I didn’t have the strength the brave the rain and visit a museum as planned. So I spent all day at home with my host family. From waking up at 11 to surfing the web, it was a perfect Sunday.

For lunch, we ordered in a dish called Yamameshi with unagi gobo. Yamameshi is traditional rice cooked in a steel pot with a fire. It is very difficult to cook rice that way and is rarely done now. Unagi gobo is the Japanese sea eel (unagi) with gobo (bitter gourd) in a kind of sauce. Unagi is an expensive food, and isn’t eaten regularly by most. Its well worth the money though.

Yamameshi with Unagi Gobo

I was impressed to see that the restaurant which we ordered from sends proper trays and cutlery as they would provide if we were eating in the restaurant, unlike the usual disposable plastic boxes. The delivery man comes back the next day to pick up the cutlery and take it back to the restaurant.

 For dinner, Kaori-san made Okonomiyaki, which is a type of Japanese pancake. A batter is made of wheat and cabbage among other kinds of vegetables and meat. Just before eating, it is placed on a sort of portable frying pan along with slices of pork. The pork forms the crust of the Okonomiyaki. After the meat turns red-ish in color, the Okonomiyaki is eaten with sauce, mayonnaise, a bit of seaweed and  bonito flakes.
Okonomiyaki is a food that was invented in Hiroshima after the war bombings due to the shortage of rice. Until the people of Hiroshima had access to rice again, they ate Okonomiyaki as their staple food using the wheat that was imported from other countries. It is now a popular food among households with kids, since it requires very little preparation.
We ate outside on the terrace. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten out in the open without noises of construction, cars or other people around me.

Okonomiyaki in the making

Okonomiyaki, ready to be eaten! Toppings include sea weed and bonito flakes, sauce and mayonnaise.

Over dinner, my host family told me about their visit to , Minami-sanriku a small town in the Miyagi prefecture which was severely affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Minami-sanriku was a small town of about 10,000 people by the coast. When the earthquake came, the town wasn’t really affected thanks to earthquake resistant houses. But there was a tsunami warning and instructions to evacuate. Some people went to the evacuation buildings and others went to the top of a mountain. The Tsunami came about 45 minutes later, and it was the largest one in Japan’s history. Only one building survived the earthquake and others were washed down, including the building of disaster management. A large number of people died and large portions of the town were completely wiped out. A local of the town whose a photographer was up on the mountain taking pictures of the Tsunami. I was looking at some of his pictures in a book that my host family had and I was surprised to see that the Tsunami was forceful enough to uproot houses and send them crashing into other houses behind them. A picture showed the locals’ joy at being able to take a bath in a communal bath tub that was sent as relief in May 2011 (2 months after the Tsunami struck). My host family visited this place in 2013 to see the after affects of the Tsunami and told me that the government wasn’t rebuilding this town since it was too close to the coast.

My host mum whose from Fukushima, where the nuclear disaster happened, told me that the nuclear disaster also took place about an hour after the earthquake. But because there were so many people trying to reach their families and friends in Fukushima, it was difficult to contact them and she only heard from her family at 9 p.m. that night.

This earthquake was worse than the 1923 Kanto earthquake. But after the Kanto earthquake the Japanese took great care in building earthquake resistant houses and having evacuation areas for Tsunamis. Its very impressive to see how they survived an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude, the aftershocks, the nuclear disaster and the Tsunami, all of which were capable of destroying the country within an hour.

I was woken up by an earthquake at 5:30 a.m. It had its epicenter in Fukushima, which is not too close to Tokyo, so it wasn’t too strong. It was long though. In any case, I trust Japanese buildings, so I went right back to sleep and slept peacefully till 9. My host mum later, whose from Fukushima, told me about the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. The areas around the nuclear reactor had to be evacuated and remains uninhabited till date. Children were found to develop diseases after the disaster. The crops produced in Fukushima have to go through an inspection before they’re taken to the markets. Some men refused to marry girls from Fukushima out of the fear that they would bear infected babies. People from Fukushima were considered infected and were often bullied in other areas of Japan. It was sad to hear how a natural disaster, that is not in the control of any human being, can impact some people’s lives in such an adverse way.

I went for my class to Waseda and tried some new kobini (convenience store) foods. There was kiwi yogurt, which was not just kiwi flavored but actually had bits of kiwi in it. I also tried an onigiri with brown rice and a soft boiled egg inside.

After class I tried finding a starbucks to finish my essay which was due the next day. I looked forward to a matcha latte and free internet. But on a day that I wanted starbucks, all the starbucks in the city seemed to have disappeared. I got off at two train stations to look for a starbucks chain and eventually gave up.

I came home to a delicious ramen dinner. Kaori-san had cooked Hiyashi-chuka, which is cold ramen with vegetables and meat.

Hiyashi-chuka (cold ramen with meat and vegetables-in this case tuna and eggplant)

I ended the day with reading some manga comics for the first time. I read what a friend later told me are Yonkoma comics, comics with four panels on one page. The comics were entertaining, and I kept clicking on the next chapter to know what happened next. Another interesting thing my friend told me was that manga comics typically have fairly short chapters and they end on a note of suspense. Readers need to wait for the next version to come out. And those who can’t understand Japanese have to wait for the comics to be translated before they can access them.

I went to Shinjuku again .My host mum and dad accompanied me, who are experts on Shinjuku. It is said that one can be considered a local of Tokyo once they know Shinjuku station in and out. Shinjuku has two parts-the business and office area (called nishi-shunjuku) in the west and the entertainment area (called kabukicho) in the east. I learnt that Shinjuku comprises the largest entertainment area in Asia.

This time, it wasn’t raining, and I took lots of pictures.

Cold soba noodles for lunch. Soba noodles are made using buckwheat. They are dipped in soy sauce and eaten (surprisingly, pouring the soy sauce over the soba isn’t the way its done. you always dip). Toppings like sesame and spring onions can be added. After finishing the noodles, you pour warm water in the sauce and drink it.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

An aerial view of Tokyo from the Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building: The tall tower in the distance is Tokyo Tower.

Another aerial view

We take a break from walking and stop for drinks in this open area with coffee shops

A curved building-if you leaned against the walls, it felt as if the building was falling on you

Cocoon Tower-the iconic symbol of Shinjuku

A cute sign by a crossing in Shinjuku

I noticed some homeless people on the street in nishi-shinjuku. Masaki-san told me that the Shinjuku streets would be filled with homeless people when he was a child. I was surprised to see homeless people in such an upscale area. Kaori-san mentioned that Japanese people don’t like to acknowledge the existence of homeless people.

Kabukich-the entertainment area of Shinjuku-and the largest entertainment area in the world

Omoide Yokocho-a small lane in Shinjuku comprising of Izakayas-it was built post-war in the 1940s and was one of the first things to come up in Shinjuku. Efforts are made to preserve it. There is much anger with respect to Korean and Chinese immigrants beginning to work in these izakayas.

Posters of cafes where men entertain women

Golden Gai-an area known for its nightlife. It comprises of 6 narrow alleys of izakayas, restaurants and clubs.

Hanazono Jinja Shrine

Miso Spaghetti with duck at one of the favorite izakayas of my host family. It was AMAZING. Another interesting item on the menu that night was umeshu (in the background), an alcoholic drink of Japanese picked plum. The izakaya was so popular that we went at 5 pm. before it started to get crowded.

I was surprised to learn that Shinjuku is an area not just for the rich. It has some very affordable places and people in their 20s from all types of economic classes go there. We ended our day at Shinjuku by going into a department store. Department stores at Shinjuku are typically very expensive. We ended up going to the basement floor which comprised of the restaurants and food shops (known as depachika in Japanese), and sampling food that we had no intentions of buying.