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Sweets, pickles, and haiku
Standing in front of sweets is Mrs. Kon. 99.11.29/ Temperature: 0C/ Weather: Wet snow/ Wind Direction: Stagnant
Current Location: Ogunimachi 38 03 42 N 139 45 33 E
Distance Traveled: 0 km (Rest day)What are your thoughts while eating? Yummy. Boy am I hungry. This could use a little extra salt. There are several thoughts that may rush through one's head. In addition to revealing a strong message about the importance of appreciating food received, my short encounter with Mrs. Kon of Kadomatsu Japanese Sweet Shop was a delightful cram course in Japanese culture.
Heartfelt Food
Mr. and Mrs. Kon of the Kadomatsu Japanese Sweet Shop don't only want people to eat their sweets. "We want people to enjoy the sweets we make as well as the heart that goes into them. There are many things in food that we can't see. In the case of our sweets, they are filled with a lot of good intention. We want our customers to be able to imagine the faces of the people who made our sweets," said Mrs. Kon. Her every expression was so cheerful that it rubbed off on me. She wore a Japanese indigo died apron over a black shirt, sleeves rolled up to her elbows. "Good shop, good flavor, and good encounters; this is what our shop is all about," she continued.
Mr. Kon quickly rolls balls of sweet beans into a thin layer of dough. With a fresh batch of dough and sweet beans ready to go, I was summoned into the shop's bakery. Mr. Kon skillfully packed balls of sweet bean paste with a small wooden spoon into the tiniest skins of dough. Mrs. Kon joined him. Their adeptness showed years of practice and their smiles reflected the heart that he and his wife speak so proudly of.
The shop's philosophy doesn't end with sweets. Handing me a bowl of ochazuke (rice soup with flakes of dried fish), Mrs. Kon said, "No matter what you are eating, if you eat its heart too, it will be delicious." I have to say that the ochazuke along with the sweets I tasted there rank up with the most delicious things I've enjoyed on this journey.
Self portrait of my pickled daikon. Pickled Daikon
Very energetic, Mrs. Kon encouraged me to learn as much Japanese culture as possible during my short visit. "Pickling vegetables is Japanese culture. You should try it," I was told. Before I knew it, Mrs. Kon carried a large tub with persimmons and red peppers into the sweet shop bakery. Handing me two giant daikon (Japanese white radish) the size of my calves, she forcefully and friendly said, "You're going to make some pickles." Excited at my first pickling experience, I quickly peeled the daikon and cut it into fours. Once prepared, Mrs. Kon instructed me to put the daikon in with the persimmons and red peppers. While I mixed and kneaded persimmons and red peppers with the daikon, Mrs. Kon added sugar, salt and shochu (Japanese rice spirits). Lastly, we placed two large weights over the freshly mixed batch of pickles. The pickles will be ready to eat in another two days.
Practicing her brush strokes, Mrs. Kon writes "Big Dreams" in Japanese calligraphy. "You're done!" she exclaimed. "This is Japanese culture. Great, isn't it?" The persimmons used to pickle the daikon are persimmons that were going bad. "This is one way we Japanese have made use even of fruits which are going bad. We bring their flavor back to life in our pickles."
As I was cleaning up, Mrs. Kon cut up the daikon leaves I had cut off, salted then rinsed them, tied them up in a bag and said, "We'll use these for miso soup throughout the winter." I'm sure that there are many cultures throughout the world that match Japan in its traditional resourcefulness, but Japan must rank pretty high.
Haiku (5-7-5)
My Japanese culture "workshop" continued. "I love to write haiku," said Mrs. Kon. "You can fit the universe into one haiku. One haiku can say more than an entire book. I'll write one for you." Delighted I watched her graceful brush strokes@glide over the paper. "Speaking of his dreams, a young foreigner, snow falls," read her haiku. I tried to return the Kon's kindness with a haiku of my own. I scribbled down, "Amidst the snow, warm and rich in heart Kadomatsuya." Unsure of how much the universe fit into my one phrase, I admitted my lack of experience and offered the haiku to Mrs. Kon.
My crash course in Japanese culture was very special. It revealed to me an appreciation for food that we often forget in our daily lives, a resourcefulness that can be learned from, and a mode of expression that can say so much with so little. All I can say to sum up the day is:
Amidst the snow, warm and rich in heart Kadomatsuya.
Greg
- What do you normally think about when you eat?
- Have you ever made pickled vegetables?
- How about trying to write a haiku?
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