asazuke

Life in Japan, food, music, whatever…

The Rainy Season starts here… 3 June, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — johnraff @ 2:46 pm
Tags: , , ,

OK it’s official, yesterday most of Japan entered the Rainy Season. Everything has a season here (“…turn, turn, turn…”) but this is not one of my favourites really. The new green leaves are beautiful and lushness abounds, but you can have too much lushness and everything’s so damp and mouldy… As we get into July the humidity and temperature will go up and up until it’ll be impossible to use the computer without worrying that the keyboard will get shorted out by the sweat dripping into it. However, I once heard someone say that living through the tsuysu was the basis of Japanese culture (“梅雨のすごしかたは日本文化の原点”) so I’ve obviously got some work to do…

Summer is even hotter, but at least it’s a bit less sticky and anyway we North Europeans like it hot. Asians seem to associate heat with work, sweat, tired… but if they had our cold damp winters they might understand why we enjoy a bit of warmth. Actually, here in Nagoya the weather’s not really that bad. Winters are dry and often sunny, with maybe just a couple of snowfalls and some chill winds, Spring is beautiful and starts in March, Autumn can be gorgeous too and from late July to early September it’s as if the whole place had been transported to Southeast Asia ( the heat here can be quite similar to Bangkok, for example ) – like going on summer holiday without moving!

Except you have to work of course…

 

琴欧洲やったあ! 25 May, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — johnraff @ 3:14 am
Tags: , , , ,

Hey, Kotooshu (promounced something like koto-oh-shu if you’re an English speaker) finally won a tournament! As a fellow-European I’ve supported Kotooshu, whose Japanese name contains the character for “Europe”, since he started some 5 years ago and rose up to the ozeki rank in record time. Since then, however, some injuries held him back so it’s great to see him beat off the two Mongolians Asashoryu and Hakuho this time.

Sumo, that quintessentially Japanese sport, has long had foreign wrestlers; when I first got here Takamiyama from Hawaii was in the news, to be followed by Konishiki and Akebono. More recently, the two current Grand Champions are both from Mongolia, which seems to have something similar to sumo. Of course Bulgaria, where Kotooshu comes from also has a strong wrestling tradition. I remember an Argentinian called Hoshitango and an American Sentoryuu too…

I just wonder what the more conservative sectors of the sumo world think of all this – it might be nice to have a Japanese Yokozuna (grand champion) too.

 

War in Space? 21 May, 2008

Filed under: politics — johnraff @ 2:34 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

Today I saw on TV that the Japanese upper house had just ratified a bill allowing the military use of space.

BBC AP New Scientist Japan Times

I don’t like this at all. The last thing the world needs now is a new arms race. Of course there are reasons – everyone’s afraid of China these days, and they didn’t help by that trial shooting down of a satellite the other month. Then North Korea fired that missile over Japan a couple of years ago.

Since Reagan first dreamed it up, I’ve always thought the whole Star Wars thing was a scam to make (more) money for the evil Military-Industrial Complex. Fear of China and North Korea is the tool the Americans use to keep their Japanese “allies” under control. Just when prime minister Koizumi seemed to be about to improve relations with the DPRK in 2002, the US dug up all that nuclear stuff… Likewise they must be pleased that South Korea’s “sunshine policy” toward the north has been dropped by the new president. An undemocratic, authoritarian and possibly paranoid China certainly gives much to worry about, but the current US administration’s confrontational attitude only makes things worse. (Of course the same can be said about the face it presents to Arabs and Muslims worldwide, but I’ll leave my anti-Bush tirade for another day.)

I’m disgusted with the Japanese Democratic Party too. As the main opposition they have a duty to keep the government LDP in line, and prepare themselves as a potental replacement. With prime minister Fukuda’s popularity down around 18% this is now a real possibility, but apart from quibbling about petrol tax, they haven’t been using their control of the upper house very constructively, and supporting the government over Star Wars confirms their image as a #2 LDP… 😦

Maybe they are all really worried about aliens.

 

Bamboo shoots 16 May, 2008

Filed under: countryside,food & drink — johnraff @ 1:50 pm
Tags: , ,

We had a good rain last Saturday, and the next day out in our country place (where we escape from the city at weekends) lots of bamboo shoots were coming up. With a little bit of altitude we’re later than low-lying areas, but generally get some in early May. Unfortunately the wild boar (inoshishi) like them too, and usually chew up the tender tips, leaving us a few scraps. This year, though, I don’t know what they were up to, but they must have found somewhere else to eat because there were lots of beautiful shoots, just appearing from the ground.

You dig them up – most is below the ground, and they can be a bit big – and boil them with the skin still on till they’re tender. Like sweet corn, which loses its sweetness soon after it’s picked as the sugar gets turned to starch or something, bamboo shoots freshly picked and cooked right away are quite special. There’s a unique aroma and a certain bitterness or astringency (aku) which you just can’t get from the canned ones, or even the plastic packs in the supermarkets. T cooks them with soy sauce and fish flakes, topped with those special sansho leaves, which is very nice; we make an Indonesian style curry from it at Raffles – only at this time of year.

PS (3rd June) Last week the inoshishi discovered those bamboo shoots and tore into the later emerging ones, making a right mess. Luckily we got ours first, and some survived to grow up into new plants. Bamboo grows incredibly fast.

 

Haru Ichi Ban! 7 May, 2008

Filed under: music — johnraff @ 5:16 am
Tags: , , ,

I got back from the Haru Ichiban Festival in Osaka delirious with enthusiasm – and fired up to finally get this blog off the ground. We in Daihachi Ryodan were already pretty psyched up as it was maybe our most major appearance since the “No Olympics” concert in Nagoya all those years ago.

Anyway from the time I arrived on Sunday afternoon it was magic. All the music was so nice, there were no ego trips on display and everyone seemed to be one big family – I was taken back to a Grateful Dead concert in the Europe 72 tour. Probably responsible for a lot of that was the impeccable organization – things worked perfectly, the sound system was excellent, the schedule went on time and everything seemed arranged so that there would be no pressure on the musicians, who responded with some great performances. I have to respect the huge team of volunteers who have obviously got it down to a fine art over the years they’ve been putting this festival on.

I certainly hope we get to play again next year, and recommend Haru Ichi Ban to anyone within range of Osaka around Golden Week. It’s pretty much a Japanese scene, i only saw a couple of other foreigners, so if you don’t read the language you might ask a Japanese friend to help you figure out the data.
It’s worth it!