honey cosmetics and sometimes Onsen

forgot to write here for a long time

autumn finally came here in Tokyo although it sometimes gets hot like 27 degree. but the smell of the autumn is so apparent that i can not ignore the fact that we are getting ready to welcome next winter soon. oh i do not want to rush to get older as the seasons go.

one of my friends is running his own business dealing with organic New Zealand honeys. and he introduced me some cosmetics made from manuka honey which is really distinctive in taste and famous for its health benefits. i heard that New Zealanders use manuka honey to cure scars and burns on their skin. so some people invented honey cosmetics to utilize the benefits for health and nature conscious customers.

so i started to use manuka skin care products to prevent me from looking older than my actual age ( here in Japan there are funny words like Arasaｰ(アラサー）, which means around 30. so i am falling into the category now. this word somehow has certain kinds of negative connotation..)

my efforts to look younger continue.......

i really like this company's manuka honey which can be bought from my friend in Japan. it is bit expensive but worth the money i guess.

before i met him, i never knew there are differences in each honey － depending on flowers on which bees work. i heard that practically there is no such a thing like expiry date for genuine honeys because bacteria can not live in honey. but there are so many fake honeys in the market so it makes sense the authority applied those food standards to honeys even if they are 100% natural.

i used to sleep without washing my face and putting cream on my face. but because of the honey skin care products i have got, i can not continue to be lazy. but happily, i started to feel so fond of taking a bath and going to good onsen(hot spring) 温泉 has become a great pleasure for me.

I went to Atami this weekend to attend my brother's wedding and stayed at a splendid hotel which has outside baths overlooking the pacific ocean. each room at the hotel has almost perfect ocean-view and there are three private outside baths 露天風呂. although i enjoyed the time at one of the private outside baths with my mother, i thought it would be great for a couple to enjoy taking a bath with a nice view. it seems there are some stupid laws in Tokyo metropolitan city which prevents men and women from bathing together in a public bath house (it is called Konyoku混浴, it used to be a common thing）. so that is why we do not find onsens which allow us to have private bath tubs in Tokyo except hotels or onsens for people wearing swim wears.

view from one of the onsen at the hotel.

there are also nice shrines in Atami such as Kinomiya shrine and Izusan shrine. the area is rich in history and used to be called ` the nearest Hawaii in Japan' which attracted newly married couples in 60' and 70's. nowadays, people go straight to Hawaii instead so the area became less attractive than before but i still like Atami much. the town itself has bit old-fashioned feeling but it must be part of its attractiveness after all.

the one onsen i fell in love in the past is in Yuzawa, Niigata.

the town is famous because of a novel written by Yasunari Kawabata who won the Nobel literature prize. he stayed at a hotel called Takahan, which i also happend to stay, and wrote the award winning novel depicting love between a man from Tokyo and a geisha working in the onsen town.  i think that kind of subtle and melancholic literature must have been quite new to the West back then. when i read his novels when i was little i could not get them and now i think i might be able to grasp his literature but not quite.

the onsen at the hotel just made me feel `do i deserve this heaven?'

this area called Uonuma is the most famous rice production place in Japan and its rice is highly prized by many people. where good rice grows, there is always good sake, many people think. this theory never betrays us.

I went to a sake brewery called Hakkaisan. their accumulation of wealth just can't be missed if we are in the town. it owns not only sake breweryies but also a craft beer brewery, italian restaurant and shops which sell kitchen products and food, and of course various kinds of sake.

varieties of sake and shochu produced by Hakkaisan

oh, i am not talking about sake, i am taking about onsen in case you misunderstand.

On a hot and humid Saturday

I needed to have cold beer that day.


 Finally, rainy season is over and suddenly it became hot(35CF) and humid.. Summer in Japan is harsh for me especially after experiencing mild and short summer in the UK. I miss the time when i was having a pint in a pub in London this time of the last year although i had to focus on my dissertation. Who cares!?.


I always feel urged to enjoy Saturday fully, getting up so early and planning to go somewhere form the morning. This time I decided to go to the earth garden festival in Yoyogi-koen because it seemed interesting to me. It has lots of food shops and other funny booths which are related to the concept of `organic' or `sustainable' life.


I got off at Yoyogi station and decided to go through the Meiji-shrine to get to the market. I always love to go to the shrine. The gap between the setting and its feeling is even fascinating - there are so many trees which were brought from all over japan when it was built. Harajuku or Omotesando is probably the  busiest area in japan. But I can feel calmness and something sacred when I am there. I am also a member of the judo club in the shrine. It is such a nice thing to walk through the forests to get to the Judo gym before workout.

Although i got to the market, I was already really tired and had no appetite for buying anything. It was unfortunate for the people who attended to have such a windy and super hot day. It was too hot for me to keep myself being energetic and curious about the things I saw. But I saw some hemp products shops, selling cloths made from hemp and hemp oil etc. Japan is too strict about any kind of drugs including marijuana. So some people were handing out papers to educate passengers about the virtue of marijuana. Too hot to think about it seriously!

Then I headed to Shibuya station to meet my friend. As soon as we met, we went to our favorite izakaya to have cold beer and some food. Yamaga is such a popular izakaya mostly among men. Cheap and tasty food. Couldn't be unpopular.

Drinking beer at lunch time is justifiable if the weather gives me a reason like this.

Before we said goodbye, we decided to have another glass of beer at Fuku-chan just near the corner. This is my kind of place. food is so cheap and quality is surprisingly good. it is a standing bar. I don't mind!

This restaurant is highly recommended if you don't mind standing when eating. So popular by locals it seems.

Lazy Saturday, as usual.........

Coffee and cafes in Tokyo

I love coffee like most people do. Having a cup of coffee in the morning is a daily ritual for me.

In London, I used to buy a bag of coffee from various cafes. Mommouth Coffee is one of my favorites. There was always a long line in front of the shop in Borough market and I enjoyed both the feeling and taste of their coffee.

There are so many good cafes in London. I was really fascinated by the coffee culture which eventually led me to focus on coffee as my dissertation topic.  My paper did not get a good score, but I think it was an accessible topic for me back then. I needed to do some kind of field work so I chose to do it in the Japanese specialty coffee sector. From my conclusion,I do not think many specialty coffee companies in Japan embrace or accept the alternative movements much, instead they try to focus on the quality of products more even fiercely. And also I do not think the alternative trade movements will catch on in this country any time soon since the development of those initiatives needs a certain cultural or historical prerequisite. I did survey among coffee consumers but only about less than 20  % of the people recognized the mark and system of fairtrede, for example. It was expected but for me it was also shocking back then.  When I started the paper, I was really optimistic about those movements and consumerism. But lately, after reading a book called Weighing in and academic papers written by Julie Guthman and related articles, I have really complex feeling toward them, to be honest.

Anyway!

Only 10 specialty coffee companies accepted to take part in the survey. But I think it was enough to see how the specialty coffee retailers perceive the concept of `ethical' or alternative trade movements in their business settings.

The Coffee Shop in Daikanyama is one of them. I heard that the company is run by a design firm. So they are trying to produce really stylish goods selling at the store. I tried their coffee twice. and the iced coffee was shockingly good. I remember the coffee was from Ethiopia. I think they know how to make a good iced coffee to catch my heart.

The person from Horiguch Coffee gave me the most detailed answer to my questions. I think the owner Horiguch is a kind of pioneer of Japanese specialty coffee industry. I took his brewing seminar and in the session he was saying that he learnt a lot about the concept of specialty products in the course of his wine tasting study. He then introduced the very idea of single origin or other important concepts of specialty coffee seen today. I was actually surprised by their professionalism and saw sort of artisan mind from the coffee shop.

Lately, I like Sarutahiko Coffee quite a lot. Its location is really good－ Ebisu and it opens until midnight. Just simply brewed coffee is the best I think. Although the shop is tiny, I could get a comfortable feeling there. And also I like Omotesando Coffee in Omotesando. The cafe was originally just an old house but it turned into a really stylish and fun place to have a coffee. I remember it has a small gallery next to the coffee counter.

Japanese people consume a lot of coffee, but I think many working guys like canned coffee and I guess the popularity is only seen in Japan. I never like the taste of canned coffee.... It tastes like coffee flavored drink which has a good amount of sugar and milk. My brothers drink them a lot at work although they are self proclaimed coffee snobs!

In this time of the year, I have to have a glass of iced coffee often to survive humid and hot rainy season and harsh summer. We can make `Japanese style iced coffee' at home according to this video.

This article is good to understand the method and other things more. Seems strange to have `Japanese way' to brew iced coffee though.

Need to have a cup of coffee now, it seems.

Things I want to eat NOW!

Drinking and eating after work is something necessary for me.

There are several izakaya I am always tempted to go with my friends. 

Since I will meet my friend in Ginza tomorrow, I remember the popular izakaya in the center of the busy city. It is called Sanshu-ya　三州屋.

The reason why this izakaya is famous is partly because of their fried oysters. Customers always order it whenever they find the dish on the menu, If you happen to be in Ginza, I think it is worth paying a visit to the restaurant for this dish. ( My gourmet professor took me to this place for the oysters.)

They are even adorable!

I love mackerel sashimi. We need sake for this.

In Shinjuku, I often go to Ucchan うっちゃん　on Omoide-Yokocho street. (frequent visitors call the street Shonyoko which means peeing street!)

Ucchan is always busy like this......

One thing I was surprised in London is that people there do not eat guts of pigs or cows so often although they eat quite a lot of meat. Here we enjoy yakitori-style grilled guts with shochu. I love this izakaya's special spicy miso.

And I love liver sashimi with this leek and sesame oil source.

My imaginary drinking has started.......

thinking various things AT WORK (with guilty)

It's raining outside. We have not been getting enough rain although it is supposed to be a rainy season. People hate it but once weather forecasts start mentioning a lack of rain in this time of year, they suddenly become worried about it. I hope a decent amount of rain is coming in this month although i also hate this season!


Lately, i have been reading articles on Byliner. It is good that I can read my favorite writers on the website. Sometimes I feel some writings are difficult to understand or take time to comprehend what they are trying to say because of my poor English. But I still enjoy reading especially things about food.


I am following Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman and other writers who write things about food. I have read several articles from Pollan's page and Bittman's page. When I was reading Cooking solves everything by Bittman, I started to remember farmers' markets in London and other cities outside Japan. I used to go to Borough Market in London almost every weekend to get some fresh fish and interesting vegetables there. Occasionally, I ate raw oysters and enjoyed coffee from Monmoth coffee. Although the market is a kind of tourist attraction, it is really enjoyable and it can be easily the most memorable place for many who visited or lived in London. I happened to find a description about the market when I was reading a book Hungry city How food shapes our lives. As long as I can remember, the book is kind mentioning that renovating the market was a part of a vigorous city planning of London. I think the Borough market is now a good example for many cities, showing the importance of power of food to gather people and liven a city through it. When I went to Copenhagen I went to a kind of similar market which contains many shops specialized in danish pastries, smoked fish, and so on. I always love to go to a market in a new town and even a supermarket since they can show me a good deal of real status of people and life.

After I came back from London, I tried to find good food markets in Tokyo and found a few options. First, I went to a farmers' market in Aoyama with my mother. I found products like homemade pickled, vegetables, fruits, and kind of interesting homemade stuff. But at the end, I found myself hugely disappointed by the fact that I never felt `farmer' at the market and displays were just sooo clean! It was just like a concept of farmers' market and I could see people's attempt to imitate `farmers markets' seen all over the market.

And then I paid a visit to Tokyo Earth Day market a few weeks after. I also did not like it somehow. I felt that in Japan a concept or purpose comes first before actual demand or desire catches on among people. It seems to me that people engaging in the movement are trying to persuade us to be `eco-friendly' or conscious consumers at the end of the day. I think this is the most evident and unique difference between markets in many western places and markets in Japan.

However, I have my favorite markets actually.  One of them is Chisan-marche　地産マルシェ. The shop has several brunches in  tokyo and it is getting popular among middle－aged housewives or more older people. The shop sells various kinds of vegetables from  many small scale farmers around Tokyo year around. Chisan literally means locally produced, so each product has a grower's name and place where it is produced on a label. I always love to go there since it's cheap and vegetables taste really good. So I guess people's desire to eat fresh and safe vegetable can be seen at the shop and it gives me a kind of similar feeling as I was at a market in other countries. The alternative food movement is, I think, universal but it emerges in varied styles or ways. This kind of thing really fascinates me.

Oh it's lunch time.

something about japanese food

I just finished Micheal Pollan's new book, Cooked; a natural history of trasnsformation. I thought it was boring at the beginning, but as usual with his books i found myself quite satisfied by the book at the end.

The final chapter is about fermentation. It reminded me of a famous japanese prof specializing in fermentation. I think he still has a column in Nikkei. He always talks about funny cooking stories including his experimental dishes. His name is Takeo Koizumi, and i used to read his books with much passion.



I remember Pollan is not fond of natto which is all time favorite for japanese people

I think many non- japanese people think it is revolting food is that .sticky like this.

 I think to like something like natto one also needs to like the smell of freshly cooked (boiled or steamed) japanese rice. Koizumi writes in a book that the smell of cooking rice contains kind of sulfureous smell which goes well with a certain type of fermented foods like natto, miso soup and soy source. for instance, i think western people cant handle the taste or smell of japanese pickled radish called takuan because of its sulfur rich smell!

On the other hand, he continues, people in the west prefer smoky smell since they eat baked stuff like bread or grilled meat. So i think the smell of cheese is  good much for baked stuff, i mean bread. it is interesting how our perception towards good smell or bad smell depends on cultures in which we live.

And Koizumi also said japanese people like slimy food including natto, raw yum potato, seaweed, raw egg and so on. they all go well with short grain rice cooked simply in a pot. I think it is related to the content of starch in a grain. As many japanese, eating hot rice with slimy food is such a confortable moment especially after drinking!(i think this is my personal opinion?!) I remember when my father made a special yum potato liquid which had soy source and some doshi for lunch after schoon on a Saturday. He then said " as long as we have this, we can eat rice forever!"

In the course of reading Pollan's new book, i was much inspired and I tried to make own yogurt. It was a pleasant taste although I don't like dairy products in general. Fermentation is just like a magic. How fascinating microbes are! Our food or food culture owes much to the invisible guys. wish we can have actual conversation with them.

And I am also interested in home brewing. Here in Japan, home brewing is strictly prohibited by law. I think it is just out of date and absurd to sustain such an old law from the Meiji period. We are deprived of brewing homemade beers no matter how we love beer. Industrially made beers tastes so general and I miss the taste of beers I had outside of Japan.

After having some shochu (it is also a gift from microbes), I am bit tipsy so I should finish my meal with a cup of rice with some natto (product of fermentation) with say source (you know, fermented product!).

it's just heavenly......

HARIO family sale

I went to Hario's family sale yesterday. Hario is a japanese glass company which produces famous coffee dripper V60 and other coffee and tea related products.

There were so many customers at the sale. Every product was discounted from 10% to 30%.

New product area

 Coffee area

The office was used to be a bank. The company bought it and refurbished inside.

I found V60 at many cafes in London. One of the staff at Hario said that the company is famous abroad but not in Japan. I like V60 and a few products and use them for my coffee time.

But not sure about most of their glass products actually in terms of design. It is said that the company started their business selling scientific equipments such as beakers. So it makes sense that they manufacture siphon coffee makers! Remind me of science class at school.

Anyway, I bought a tea pot there. It's a good opportunity to see unknown Hario products and buy some at discount prices. I recommend you to go if you happen to be in Tokyo during its sale period.

Coffee tasted good this morning by the way.