Indigo Days

Going on Book Tour

My family at my Book Launch Dinner - Chez Panisse Café                                                                    photo by Kenji Miura

 

Going on book tour conjures up a dual image of the feted author winging from one city to the next making her way (on the dime of the publisher!)….adoring fans lined up out the door at major bookstores across the United States waiting for a stolen moment with their favorite author, a few personal words, and a signature…and on the flip side, grim hotel rooms with even grimmer food.

 

Signing at Keplers - Publisher had to pay (!), store under construction (hammering!), not enough books (!) - a successful nightmare...

 

My book tour was none of the above. It was mainly orchestrated by me (at my choice). I had a willing and able publicist provided by my publisher (Andrews McMeel) but for me it made sense to contact the people I knew in the food world and plan my pivotal book events layer by layer. It took every day, all day, throughout two entire months of the summer of 2012.

The one thing people don’t tell you when you say, “I want to write a book” is how many steps there are in the process and how long the experience will extend for if you are serious about sustaining book sales. Everyone all say “Don’t do it for the money!” –and that much is true. I had just not anticipated how much of my life Japanese Farm Food would take over. (Not that I have one iota of regret – husband, Tadaaki, would have a different response!)

Photo shoots: 2+ years!!! (started before I wrote the proposal). Proposal process + working with agent: 3 months. Shopping the proposal to book contract: 3 months. Futzing around: 9 months. Madly writing: 4 months. Re-testing and editing: 6 months. Preliminary Book Tour planning: 2 months…Serious Book Tour scheduling: 2 months. Main Book Tour Sept/Oct 2012 (7 weeks); Mini Book Tour Feb 2013 (2 weeks); Spring 2013 Book Tour (5 weeks). ….You can see why Tadaaki was not so excited about the whole book thing.

But for me Japanese Farm Food is a living thing and every time I have some reason to go to the States, I feel compelled to put events on the docket to spread the word and introduce this simple style of food to more and more people.

I have some strange impression that only people I know are buying the book so when I see random tweets or posts from people who have (and love) the book I get a tickle/twinge in my stomach. Is it real? How do these people find the book? I always wonder. I am also touched by the periodic email from fans (fans…hah!...so odd to say).

And it is because of that kismet chance of opening up this door into the Japanese countryside for people that I continue to do events. I will be in the U.S. for my Stanford Reunion and have five Japanese Farm Food events on the calendar. I will post the schedule on my website.

You know the saying “in for a penny, in for a pound”…that is completely how I look at where I am. These days it seems easier to get a book contract, but you need to pour much more of yourself into the project than in the golden years of book publishing. I can live with that. Also who cares about the project more than I do? Nobody. So I better get out there and do something about presenting myself and my book in front of people who love food. Certainly doing food events what seemed like every day for 7 weeks  (or the 2 weeks in winter and the 5 weeks in spring) was thoroughly exhausting but it was also exhilarating. And that is why I keep doing it again and again. Because I am lucky enough to get the holy grail of all for writers: A book contract. So I will not squander it whining about not having support (which I do) or not having enough money to travel (which I don’t).

Also writing a book about a way of life that is mostly unknown by modern, urban Japanese has catapulted me into the eye of the media (Fuji TV is documenting my pickling and farm food methods for periodic 20-minute segments aired on Sunday mornings under the title of “Lost Japan.”) and the government (I presented at Japan Night of Summer Davos on our life and food). Japanese Farm Food has given me a big voice in Japan at a time where traditional foods and ways of life are in crisis. And for that I am deeply grateful.

 

I am also deeply grateful for the ever-inclusive community of Chez Panisse and Alice Waters for kindly allowing me into their world. It is my second home. For that, the book launch dinner deserves its own post and I will write it separately.

Dinner meeting at Chez Panisse - Chef Amy Dencler                                                                            photo by Kenji Miura

 

Once Alice and Jen Sherman had given me the thumbs up for holding my book launch dinner at the Chez Panisse Café, the rest of my first book tour fell slowly into place. Over the course of seven weeks in September and October of 2012 I collaborated on 7 Japanese Farm Food dinners; talked, signed books, and served Japanese farm food snacks at 12 bookstores; conducted 4 cooking classes and 6 cooking demos; and was also interviewed by 7 well-known radio shows. I travelled from the Bay Area to Portland, Seattle, Woodstock VT/Hanover NH, Boston, NYC, and Albuquerque, NM. My publisher kindly underwrote a portion of the expenses, but let’s face it the book tour is the responsibility of the author these days so it makes sense to go where you want! Of course unless you are a well-known author like some of my friends. Something to aim for, perhaps?

 

For now, here are some other highlights of the Fall 2012 Book Tour.

 

First, had it not been for my dear friends Ceciily Dumas and Sarah Moulding, I would have been a poor little orphan fending for herself in Motel 6. They and their darling girls Izzy and Pinky took me in for the 2 months I was a vagabond in the U.S. Their basement apartment was in a constant state of out-of-control disorder as I unpacked and packed for each new venue. Having this home base kept me grounded and and being part of their family kept me feeling connected.

 

Cecily - Nancy - Sister Pam

But many people supported my 7 week book tour...friends and family put out all the stops to come to as many events as possible. And they have been equally patient and understanding with my lack of free time to meet privately. I have tunnel vision: book, book, book.

 

Pam - Nancy - brother-in-law Jeff - Sarah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite events was sadly also the least attended. The food at our Japanese Farm Food Party at Pizzaiolo was true to the book and completely delicious. Unfortunately we were not successful on getting the word out and the date coincided with a major ballgame as well as the day after a huge wedding in our community. But Charlie Hallowell kept a smile on his face and kept making pizzas...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Sylvan Mishima Brackett of Peko-Peko Japanese Catering brought out the kamado wood-fired rice cooker to cook Tadaaki's rice for umeboshi-filled rice balls on the back patio. Chez Panisse Chef Cal Peternell, assisted by son Henderson, was grilling teriyaki burgers along side Sylvan's kamado. Wish you could have been there for all the food...there was a lot. Charlie goes big when he puts together an event. Watch his website for future dates and for the opening of his new place in Oakland: Penrose.

 

? & ?, Cecily & Sarah, Jeffrey & Pam Hiver & nephew Patrick 

? & ?, Cecily & Sarah, Jeffrey & Pam (Frantoio Grove Olive Oil), Hiver & nephew Patrick (Chromatic Coffee)

Since the book tour was of my design, I decided to try and fit in some of those places I had been wanting to

Since the book tour was of my design, I decided to try and fit in some of those places I had been wanting to visit for many years now. My mother had been a professor of English literature at Dartmouth for 10 years and I spent several months in the Hanover area during the summer of 1987 and the winter of 1988. The draw to go back was strong and deserves its own post. 

draw to go back was strong and deserves its own post.

I approached Deirdre Heekins and Caleb Barber of Pane e Salute in Woodstock, VT--never thinking they would actually agree to do a Japanese Farm Food dinner in their very Italianate osteria and wine bar. The return email from Deirdre asked one question, "What should we grow now for the dinner in October?" That says it all, doesn't it?

return email from Deirdre asked one question, "What should we grow now for the dinner in October?" That says it all, doesn't it?

Caleb and my old pal from SF days, John Larkin. My most loyal supporter. John came to dinners in Berkeley, Seattle, Woodstock, and Brooklyn! 

Caleb and my old pal from SF days, John Larkin. My most loyal supporter. John came to dinners in Berkeley, Seattle, Woodstock, and Brooklyn! 

vvvvvvv

vvvvvvv

by" dinners that

Another inspiring Japanese Farm Food dinner venue: the airstream trailor behind Marlow & Sons in Brooklyn. Chef Ken Wiss and crew put together two dinners inspired by the book. They remain the only "inspired-by" dinners that I have truly loved. Really stunning in fact. Ken got the sensibility and yet made it his own.

Chef Ken Wiss and crew put together two dinners inspired by the book. They remain the only "inspired-by" dinners that I have loved. Really stunning in fact. Ken got the sensibility and yet made it his own.

John (who grew up in Brooklyn) waits for me to finish talking to the guests. We ate at Reynard, their sister shop, then got to sit down for Ken's full Japanese Farm Food dinner the following.

John (who grew up in Brooklyn) waits for me to finish talking to the guests. We ate at, the now defunct, Isa that first night, then got to sit down for Ken's full Japanese Farm Food dinner the following.

After asking Chez Panisse to host the Book Launch Dinner, I approached Nate Tilden of Olympic Provisions and Clyde Commons. Olympic Provisions SE is my go-to restaurant when I am in town to visit son, Christopher in college at Lewis & Clark. Nate immediately said yes, but it took awhile to get the date set. This dinner was another of my favorites - warm...and beautifully executed.

After asking Chez Panisse to host the Book Launch Dinner, I approached Nate Tilden of Olympic Provisions and Clyde Commons. Olympic Provisions SE is my go-to restaurant when I am in town to visit son, Christopher in college at Lewis & Clark. Nate immediately said yes, but it took awhile to get the date set. This dinner was another of my favorites - warm...and beautifully executed.

m...and beautifully executed.

My Portland

My Portland schedule coincided with Feast Portland so I kept it light. That gave me plenty of time to hang out with pal, Giovanna Zivny - my indulgent and fun host for the week. Christopher is lurking in the background - he was the tolerant participant in several of my events and a wild Bon Appetit dinner at Luce.

background -

Some of m

Some of my favorite events were the cooking classes I did at colleges (Christopher is in the black). I sent around an email on Monday night to the Lewis & Clark Rice Club (!), Japanese Club, and TCK's (Third Culture Kids). By Tuesday night we had over 30 kids signed up for a Wednesday night class. The class was held in Christopher's dorm so we improvised by bringing in long tables for prep and using the postage stamp–sized kitchen for boiling the greens and cooking the country vegetable soup. I brought 10 carbon steel Japanese vegetable knives so the students could get a sense of the feel for a "real" knife in their hands while cutting. Although I bought all of the vegetables at the Portland farmers' market, the food service was incredibly supportive and the kids were very enthusiastic and interested. Some even went back to their dorms to get tupperware to take home any of the leftovers. A hit!

Some of m

                                                                                                                                                                                     Photo by Tim Dang

                  

I also had a great class at Stanford with equally enthusiastic, engaged students. Doing cooking classes at colleges was never about selling books. My aim was to stimulate the hearts and minds of young adults on the verge of creating their own cooking and eating practices for life. But I did sell one book to my new pal Patrick (on my right). 

Patrick (on my right). 

                                                                                                                                                                                     Photo by Tim Dang          

shi -

Ohitashi - boiled, refreshed, squeezed greens sprinkled with shaved katsuo bushi and drizzled with our local soy sauce from Yamaki Jozo, repackaged by Gold Mine Natural Foods under the Ohsawa Nama Shoyu label.

Patrick (on my right). 

                                                                                                                                                                                         Photo by Tim Dang

                  

Kenchinjiru - konbu soup broth with simmered root vegetables and homemade tofu flavored with organic soy sauce.

Patrick (on my right). 

The cooking demos were also lots of fun and gave me a chance to cook the food myself in a way that some of the dinners did not. Working in new kitchens provides its own challenges but finding the venues where I might want to go back was always an underlying thought behind my choices. I was particularly taken with the experience at Los Poblanos an incredible organic lavendar farm and hotel on the outskirts of Albuquerque introduced to me by Deborah Madison.

of Albuquerque

Another great takeaway from the tour and the book are the friendships forged because we are all in it together.

Another great takeaway from the tour and the book are the friendships forged because we are all in it together.

Another great takeaway from the tour and the book are the friendships forged because we are all in it together.

And finally after 7 weeks I am almost home....too late to get back to rural Saitama, I stay the night in the Haneda Airport hotel and have my sandwich brought from

And finally after 7 weeks I am almost home....too late to get back to rural Saitama, I stay the night in the Haneda Airport hotel and have my sandwich brought from The Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley....and some wine.

wine.

Moving On

With not much fanfare, I sent in the last edits on my book and index on April 19 at 8 am. The editing process stretched from the end of last November on into a very furious back and forth well into this March. I don’t think any of us had anticipated it to take so long.

But the book is now at the printer and I am moving on to planning the fall “book tour.” As most people know, book tours are a thing of the past (no money except for the luminaries), but my publisher has been supportive and I am willing to kick in as well...and my community of food people has been overwhelming generous with offers to host or help.

And so, off I am going to Paris for 10 days. I know, it doesn’t make much sense, though I am trying to lobby for translations beyond the obligatory Japanese (after all, I live here, and I write about a version of Japanese life that is quickly disappearing, but in which there is burgeoning interest to revive). Patricia Wells is graciously hosting a Japanese Farm Food cooking class at her atelier on the rue Jacob in the 6^th that I am whimsically calling A Spring Lunch in Paris. And the menu (with much fanfare):

                 Radishes with Miso 

 

                  Kelp-wicked Sea Bream 

                  Fava Beans Smashed with Tofu, Sesame, and Yuzu

                  Thinly Sliced Asparagus with Shaved Bonito

                 

                  Clear Fish Broth with Chives 

                  Flowering Tops Tempura 

 

                  Steamed Ginger and Spring Onion–Stuffed Sea Bream

                  Spring Onion and Snow Pea Salad with Miso Vinaigrette               

                  Organic Hachisu Rice 

                   Ginger Custard 

But before I go, I had my summer seeds to plant. I got morale (and physical) support from Alyssia and Yumiko, my teacher and assistant at Sunny-Side Up! The kids were there for entertainment and company. There wasn’t much for them to do. Shoveling dirt into bags is heavy work. And digging out mulch from the middle of an overgrown mulch pile topped with several inches of dried leaves is even heavier. Unwieldy comes to mind.

Here is how Tadaaki told me to do it (I need a refresher course each year so I won’t do it wrong): “Mix dirt from the field and sifted dirt from the mulch pile half and half for your planting boxes. And you had better cover the planting boxes with a plastic tunnel.”

OK, let’s just back track a little here. First this means rummaging around in the garage for the shovels (not there) and the sifter (Tadaaki had to find). Then going to the chicken coop to search out where the shovels really were. And then there is the business of reaching over a stack of 25k bags of feed to access the paper feed bags (for the dirt) that are of course lying under a whole slew of plastic feed bags. By this time the kids were already waiting for me at the field with Yumiko and Alyssia.

The SSU! kids danced around the field a bit while I searched for the cilantro that had miraculously reseeded last winter, but was becoming engulfed in weeds. (Found it!!) The kids scrabbled around at removing a patch of weeds and Yumiko shoveled dirt into the feed bag that Alyssia held. Division of labor (Yumiko is strong.) I set to work on the worst task of the day: digging out mulch dirt (read: digging a hole in the middle of the mulch pile and smooshing out the dirt by hand onto the flat, mostly useless, shovel). I lay a feed bag down and set the sifter on top of that while some kids crowded around to watch the “fascinating” operation. (I like to fool them into thinking that everything I do is utterly captivating and intrinsically worth study and discussion.) And from there I proceeded to sift the dirt of pebbles and sticks. Repetitious, tedious work that made my arm tired. The only bonus was finding a yochu—not sure how you call it in English but it looked like a large beetle (kabuto mushi) was due to hatch out in the not too distant future. We looked at him for a little bit, then I put him back in the mulch pile and covered him up.

 

Yumiko had filled three feed bags half way up in the time I had barely sifted enough mulch to make a quarter bag. Despite Tadaaki’s blithe recommendation of the 1:1 ratio of dirt to mulch, I figured we could make due with less mulch as I was losing steam (and interest in the project). I kept smooshing and sifting while Yumiko filled a bag with the unsifted stuff (to be worked on later). And that was that.

After lunch we grabbed some kids and finished the planting operation (which mainly consisted of throwing dirt and mulch into newspaper-lined plastic planters, poking in seeds, covering with more dirt and mulch, patting them down, covering with a thick layer of newspapers, and soaking with water). Tadaaki has mentioned a few times about making the tunnel. I haven’t yet. Last time I made a tunnel, I bought the wrong kind of materials. How did I know? That was the only tunnel being sold (still is). Apparently you can’t use gauze material, you need plastic. So this time I improvised and bought stiff wire poles and a plastic sheet that is supposedly meant for covering seeds. The only question here is whether there is soft enough dirt in a sunny spot at SSU! where I can erect this tunnel. And will I have time before I leave Sunday night? It is Wednesday here now, so there is hope. But the weather is not on my side since it is raining. And my staff is off until Monday for the Golden Week holiday, so I am on my own.

But I finished the book. There is that.

 

Christmas Eve in Japan

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy: The Kitchn                                                                 Photos by Kenji Miura                                                                                                                                                                        

I spent my first Christmas Eve in Japan eating hand-rolled sushi and sipping sweet sparkling wine. Oh, and I had a slice of the obligatory Christmas Cake…a cloyingly sweet concoction of generic sponge cake smeared with whipped “cream” and adorned with winter strawberries. At least we didn’t have the bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken that many Japanese eat on Christmas Eve (instead of turkey?). The family I was visiting knew me better.

They knew that my love of sushi had inspired me to want to learn Japanese, thus propelling me to Japan the summer of 1988. My friend prepared a large platter of freshly cut sashimi, along with some other garnishes that I have forgotten (shiso leaves, daikon sprouts, green onion?). She had flavored some hot white rice with vinegar, a little sugar and a touch of salt and had snipped nori sheets into quarters. Each person grabbed a quarter piece of nori, slapped on some rice (with a dab of wasabi), laid a slice or so of sashimi across the rice, maybe some green onion, rolled it and munched it down (after dipping a corner in soy sauce). This is called temaki-zushi and is the most cost-efficient way to enjoy good quality sushi. It was the first time that I could eat as much sushi as I wanted without worrying about the bill. I was captivated.

But it still seemed a tad odd to eat sushi on Christmas Eve. The next day was Christmas, yet not one person uttered the words, “Merry Christmas.” I ate breakfast with my friend and her two children (the husband had already left for work), and made my way back to my train feeling deflated. Was that all there was to Christmas in Japan? Walking through the train station building, the department stores were still madly hawking Christmas wares, eking out the last bit of revenue they could. It was December 25, business as usual—people walking busily through the station, no feeling of Christmas to be had. The desolation that overwhelmed me was palpable and it was that day that I stumbled into the realization that I was culturally a Christian, despite being brought up as an atheist. This realization took a few weeks to set in, but the trigger was that empty Christmas Day twenty-three years ago.

The next year, Tadaaki and I got married right before Christmas. We went to midnight mass at Saints Peter and Paul Church on Washington Square in San Francisco, and spent Christmas Day at my sister Pam’s house in Gilroy with family. Then left for Puerto Vallarta.

I always looked at Christmas Eve as the dress rehearsal for Christmas. Despite my newly found spiritual leanings, for me Christmas and Christmas Eve are all about the food and the gathering of friends and family. Some years have been harder than others (deaths or births coinciding), but I’ve managed to keep both traditions alive here in the Japanese countryside. No Kentucky Fried, no Christmas Cake, no sweet sparkling wine.

For the last 21 years I have invited Tadaaki’s closest high school friends and their families for a late afternoon Christmas Eve dinner. We have skipped a few (because of deaths or births), but not many. Though now our family celebrates on December 23, not December 24. I thought it heresy when one of the friends suggested changing the date because he had to work on the 24^th (the 23^rd is a national holiday). “You can’t change the date of Christmas Eve…then it won’t be Christmas Eve!” I shot at my husband (a long-suffering cultural buffer between me and some of the more crazy-making Japanese customs).

Then I stopped a beat and considered. Christmas Eve on December 23…hmmm…what a great concept! Moving the date would give me an extra day in between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to clean up the previous dinner and cook the next. Hah. Moving the date removed a huge weight from my being and an incredible feeling of relief washed over me. I could move the date because I lived in Japan, because I was the one making the holiday happen. What once sometimes seemed like an overwhelming responsibility (to be solely in charge of creating a holiday feeling in a non-Christian country whose idea of Christmas is comprised of made up “traditions” like eating fried chicken and mass-produced, gooey cake on Christmas Eve), no longer binded me. Many people think of Japan as a restrictive society. I’ll go along with that, but if you pop out of the circle and walk your own path, you may get a little flak at first, yet pretty quickly people give up and let you be.

We usually eat duck on Christmas because we have ducks on our farm. And we always have gougères and small producer champagne from France or the U.S. Gougères and champagne are the one constants in our holiday meals, for I do not like feeling constrained into a boring repetition of obligatory holiday dishes. But then, I don’t like feeling constrained into anything, and that is why I feel so free here on the farm in Japan. Nobody thinks I’m an oddball for only eating what we or our friends produce, because nobody notices. I am already an oddball because of my blond hair, and most people don’t look much further than that. And so I go about my life quietly, making my own choices, no recriminations, no comments. It’s an odd kind of life, but one that suits me. I no longer crave the battles that we Americans so love to wage. And now it is my husband who gets energy from a good knock-down-drag-out. Funny, how life goes in a circle. For in some (small) ways, I have become more Japanese than he.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gougères

Makes 20

This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Patricia Wells’ Bistro Cooking. My copy of the book (an early one) has thick deckle-edged pages and a convenient flap-style cover for marking your place. The recipes include such gems as pan bagnat and salade frisée as well as overlooked classics like blanquette d’agneau and pot-au-feu.

½ teaspoon salt

¼ pound (120 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup minus 1½ tablespoons (130 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

¾ cup (60 g) grated Gruyère cheese

 

Preheat the oven to 425˚F (220˚C) and rub butter on 2 large cookie sheets.

Measure the flour into a medium-sized bowl and whisk to break up any lumps and lighten.

Bring 1 cup (250 cc) of cold water to a boil over medium-high heat with the salt and butter in a medium-sized heavy saucepan (preferably enameled cast iron). Remove the pan from the heat and add all of the flour, stirring quickly and strongly to form a smooth ball without flour lumps.

Replace the pan on the heat and cook the dough over medium-high heat, again stirring quickly and strongly. Try to smash the dough across the bottom of the pan to help cook the flour and dry out the dough a little. This should only take a few minutes depending on how much dough you are working with. You should see some whitening in places indicating that the flour is cooking.

Remove from the heat and add two of the eggs and half of the grated Gruyère. Beat on medium speed until the eggs are emulsified then add the other two eggs. Beat until all of the eggs are completely incorporated into the smooth dough.

Spoon heaping soupspoons of dough onto the buttered cookie sheets—leaving enough space to puff up (maximum about 12 to 15 per tray if you are making multiple batches). Sprinkle with the remaining half of the Gruyère cheese.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve immediately on a pretty plate lined with a piece of attractive cooking paper artfully folded in half (to absorb the steam).

 

Radiation in Japan

Above photo: Hiroshi Furukawa photos                                                        Below Map: Just World Map

The first thing that people asked me when in the States in early June was, “How bad is it in Japan?”

I gave the only possible answer, “Bad. Very, very bad.”

Radiation is here to stay and it won’t abate anytime soon.

But what exactly does that mean?

Tepco is nowhere close to getting the situation under control and in their efforts to keep cooling the melted down reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, they are creating massive amounts of highly radioactive water with no place to store it. Efforts to filter, then recycle the water have not been highly successful. So far.

Radiation is slowly seeping into the air and leaching into the ground supply. The dismal prognosis is that we could be living with these low-grade radioactive releases for perhaps a decade or more.

For us, 215 kilometers from Fukushima Daiichi, it’s hard to gauge the long-term effects. Now four and a half months after the Tohoku Earthquake, life in outer Saitama meanders along as if it all never happened. No one really talks about the radiation or the fact that tens of thousands of people from Miyagi prefecture are still living in shelters all over Japan. We continue to eat local produce, and as it stands now, there is no immediate threat. I love how we are told there is no “immediate” danger from the radiation.

But then, what else can we do? Where could we possibly go? And do we really need to? Recently, my 16-year-old son Andrew somehow convinced me that riding a scooter to work would be safer than riding a bike. Having just read an article on the high risk of cyclists being hit by passing motorists, he caught me at a good moment. I weighed the risks, and gave in to letting him buy a scooter. Does he have a better chance of getting killed on the scooter than getting cancer at 46? Definitely.

Risk is all around us. And if any of you are parents, you will know the agony of letting our child go out on the street on his or her bike for the first time alone. Or of letting our teenagers drive, or even go out with friends. What are they doing? Are they drinking…smoking…or, god forbid, drugging?

So perhaps we are all playing Russian roulette with the future health of our children, but one thing I am certain, every other part of our life is pristinely “clean.” We live in an 80-year-old traditional sod and wood farmhouse that breathes real air (and dust) from the outdoors. We do not use air conditioning (even in the sweltering summer), or forced air heat. We eat simple foods with no additives or chemicals. We do not buy prepared foods.

In the last 23 years, I have seen Japan embrace convenience stores and readymade foods with a vengeance. While this food certainly (on the surface) appears more healthy than the typical fast food available in the United States, make no mistake that the so-called well-balanced bento box meals available at convenience stores on almost every corner in Japan are laden with chemicals and preservatives. It’s cheap food made cheaply. 

Maybe now is the time to take back the heart of Japan. Maybe now is the time to go back to a simple farm diet. Miso, soy sauce, salt, and vinegar. Those are the true preserving agents of Japan. People can’t do much about the increase of radiation in their lives, but they can do something about what they put in their bodies or in the bodies of their children. Now is the time to embrace clean food.

So where can people find this clean food? Farmers.

Sadly, farming in the Kanto region (eastern Japan) has taken a huge hit because many Tokyoites are boycotting food from the whole region. Kind of mind-boggling when you think about the fact that parts of Kanto are certainly further away from Tokyo than parts of Kansai. You can’t just boycott a whole region. It makes no logical sense. Also it is effectively destroying lives of farmers who have no problem with radiation on their crops. But Tokyoites as urban dwellers have little connection to, or understanding of, the land or of the people who have been growing the food that has been consumed in their city for generations.

I find it ironic that Fukushima Daiichi was built to supply energy to Tokyo, and not used by the local inhabitants. Ironic that some people in Tokyo can turn away from the people and area that kept them supplied with food and energy. Ironic and sad.

But I suppose it’s all about ignorance and lack of transparency. The truth is, there have been many lies told about the situation at Fukushima Daiichi. A source in the Chinese embassy reports that the Japanese foreign office gathered heads of foreign embassies together a few days after the earthquake and advised them to evacuate their citizens. This news comes as no surprise to me as on March 17, I had reported via Facebook,

“The American government took a sharp right turn on its stance early today, deviating from the Japanese party line, by urging American citizens in a 80 km radius of the nuclear reactor to evacuate or stay inside (as opposed to the 20 km-30 km advised by the Japanese government). But realistically, there is nowhere for the Japanese to go, even if they did start advising more drastic evacuation.

Late this afternoon, the American government took an even stronger position and has initiated "authorized evacuations" for American citizens who want to leave Japan.

More rumors circulate that Tepco families at Fukushima Daiichi left right after the earthquake. And the head of Tepco was MIA for a couple weeks post-earthquake. The Japanese press (which relies heavily on ad revenue from nuclear power related sources) was mild in it’s reporting of the nuclear disaster. The foreign press was vilified for being sensationalist, and foreigners despised for “escaping,” were called “flyjins” (a take off on “gaijin” or “foreigner” in Japanese).

But most unconscionable is that the Japanese government did not tell its citizens about the huge release of radiation following a hydrogen blast on March 12 in Reactor No. 1, until two months after the release. So in the end, were those foreigners so wrong to leave? No. In fact, they should have left sooner. WE should have left sooner. On Tuesday, March 15, I got an email from my older sister Pam telling me to send the boys to the U.S. When I mentioned it to my husband Tadaaki, he looked at me and walked away without a word, having given no credence to Pam’s (apparent) over reaction. Thursday night, he started to think otherwise, and by Friday, Tadaaki’s position was that I should leave with the boys and he’d “hold down the fort” with his 83-year-old mom, and our cat and dog. Oh, and the 3000 chickens.

Tadaaki tried to pack Baachan (granny) off onto the bullet train to Kansai to stay with his brother, as he had some wild idea of grabbing the cat and dog and jumping into his van to outrun the imminent nuclear blast. Once his gas ran out, he was prepared to run. Oh yes, another point was that, mysteriously, gasoline was hard to come by, so no one could get very far even if they wanted to. Mysterious.

But, all that doesn’t matter any more, because obsessing about what happened in the past is pointless. Life is now and we should not let the presence of radiation consume us. Who really knows, or who can really understand, how much radiation is around us, or what that means in the long run. I certainly don’t.

 

 

 

I check in periodically to NHK World: Society & Others and I get updates from the New York Times on the nuclear disaster. Otherwise, I read the Japan Times twitter feed and sometimes click to the links. If I’m feeling like it.

Right now I have the field calling my name as the weeds are already starting to engulf. The hot, hot unusually dry spell that lasted for most of June and July segued into a cool typhoon. Bringing what I hear was “black rain.” Oh dear.

No time to worry about the black rain since there’s nothing I can do about it, so I carry on with our lives. My Japanese Farm Food manuscript and photos are due September 1^st, and I’m thinking in a more positive vein. I’m thinking about how simply (and naturally) we live and about how clean the air is in our house and this little agricultural area in which we live. And I’d not trade this way of life (radiation and all) for life in the Bay Area where I grew up, because even there I feel far removed from the farm and this “real” way of life.

And as for the Tokyo people who are shunning Kanto produce…well Tokyo can be a fickle town. But then the sense of community has been long lost in urban areas. And that sense of community is really what created the collective energy that enabled Japan to rise up from the ashes of World War II. I wonder if now there will be a renewed interest in recapturing the rural customs of cooperation and mutual support.

I hope so.

Tokanya

All Photos this Post by Toshiji Tomori

I skirted the gray block wall along our driveway and rounded the corner onto the street in front of our house. I could barely make out the figures in the dim light of the lone streetlight, and only the flash of Tomori-san’s camera illuminated the ropes pounding on the pavement. “Tokanya, waradepo yomochi kutte, buttatake!” (Tokanya, straw gun, eat mochi in the nighttime, shoot!)

 

 

A car came up fast behind me and I yelled, “Car!” and stepped aside quickly as the driver did not show signs of slowing. “Car…Car!” The figures scattered, but took up their cries right after,“Tokanya, waradepo yomochi kutte, buttatake!” Thwak. The crack of the “straw gun” on the pavement wakes up the sleeping winter bugs and kills them (metaphorically). After the rice harvest, in the late autumn we make “straw guns” called waradepo for Tokanya, an ancient farming rite to send off the rice field god to the mountains. Our friends come over to help us pound mochi and we eat in the garden at torch light.

Normally celebrated the 10^th day in the 10^th month in the lunar year, it should have been held the day before (November 15), but Tadaaki kindly agreed to wait a day so that I could participate. My JAL flight now gets into Haneda airport too late to get home to Saitama, so I spent the night at the airport hotel and hopped the train in the morning. Feeling a bit discombobulated, I set to unpacking with uncharacteristic haste (usually my bags hang around the tatami room for a couple weeks as I slowly chip away at them). This time I was determined to wipe the traces of my third and last overseas trip this fall and reenter life in Japan without the typically bumpy transition period.

But the publisher discussions and book contract were both in limbo, so I too felt “in between.” When I got home that morning, I asked Tadaaki if there was anything I could do to help. He shook his head and told me, “It’s under control. Yoshie is coming at 4:00 and the rest of the people are coming around 5.” So I went back in the house to unpack.

 

 

My editor friend Kim Schuefftan showed up at 4, then disappeared. I went upstairs for a while only to come down and find a strange girl in the kitchen. Not Yoshie. Tadaaki has a fairly loose style to his events and gives little instruction to his helpers. I never did learn the girl’s name, but she did bumble about in our kitchen. Yoshie eventually showed up with another friend in tow, and at one point all three girls were stirring and skimming the soup together. I never have understood why it takes so many people to do one task here. I guess it is the sense of comradery and also the feeling that if one is not working, one is being lazy or warui to the group.

Warui is roughly translated as “bad.” The usage is fairly common, however, since this is a completely Japanese cultural concept. If someone does something for you, your response will often be warukatta, ne. Oh I was so bad to have received this from you…oh it was so bad of me to put you out for cooking this for me. My mother-in-law uses it a lot. Me, not so much. Bad American wife, I guess.

And I suppose as the “wife,” I should have been the one feeling badly for not helping, but already the plan was out of my control, careening along without direction. Tadaaki tends to whoosh in, give a few minimal cooking commands and then spin back off to the eggs, chickens, or deliveries. I am the opposite, completely controlling in the kitchen and not one to let people go willy-nilly. When I make the kenchinjiru, I like to slice the vegetables myself because I want them all to be the right size and thickness to cook at the same pace. Good enough is not where I look to end up. Each ingredient deserves to shine, so the finished dish should not be messed up by unwitting mistakes of well-meaning, yet untutored assistants. But if the cooks at Chez Panisse could let me blunder about in their kitchen, I suppose I should be more forgiving (and flexible). Though I do relax the “rules” when it comes to little kids—but then I’m just serving ourselves and not a crowd of thirty or forty hungry adults.

 

 

It used to be that the countrywomen all spoke the same language of food and knew how to prepare the same dishes. Today that is not true, as most young women do not learn to cook from their mothers, and there are few farming families passing along traditions. Mothers (and even grandmothers) work, so supermarket prepared foods regularly appear on the table; and convenience store foods are eaten in the car on the way home or in transit to study school. After all, there is no mess in the kitchen if one eats in the car or re-heats in the microwave. At a recent Japanese food event in Napa, there was much talk of seasonality and local foods in Japan…but the reality is much more bleak. Though I suppose those convenience store bento meals are better balanced than MacDonald’s and actually look like real meals, as long as you don’t mind inferior ingredients, MSG, and preservatives. Did I mention that I’m not a fan of convenience store or prepared foods? But then our kitchen is never pristine, so that’s the trade off.

 

 

Tokanya, manju stealing at Jugoya and even mochi making at New Year have all virtually died out in Japan. Our family never gave up on mochi pounding in the garden at New Year, but it wasn’t until recently that Tadaaki revived Tokanya and Jugoya in our house. Having home businesses, trying to grow food for the family, and bringing up three small homeschooled sons stretched both Tadaaki and me to the thinnest point where sometimes I wondered when we would break. Yet somehow when I did not have energy, Tadaaki did and visa versa. So we survived those years. Unfortunately, mushroom hunting and wild berry gathering in the mountains did not. Though somehow we managed to keep river trips and fishing expeditions alive in the summer. I guess it was the cool water in the impossibly sweltering summers that pushed me to get on board these excursions. In contrast, climbing up the mountain with little babies did not seem as appealing (or practical).

 

 

But all of this takes energy. And as I look around me, I realize that most (though not all) of our friends who are trying to live off the land or revive dying country customs are all transplants from the city (me included). I suppose we do not have the weight of generations past pulling us down a bit and I suppose we bring some naïve energy to the equation. But then I look at Tadaaki and Suka-san, carrying on the farming life, college degrees in hand. A new generation of farmers who choose the land, because the land chose them. They both live and breathe farming in a way that we transplants will never be able to, yet we transplants also bring a fresh wind to the area, and so our partnerships have a spirit of dynamism backed by mutual support and respect.

 

And as I stood there on the street that night of Tokanya, I thought about how the old customs clash with the new. About the cars zooming down our old neighborhood street no longer lined with old farmhouses—now razed for large prefab versions that the younger couples favor. And about Tadaaki leading the kids and friends as they banged their “straw guns” on the pavement—as if they owned the street and the cars were the intruders. And I thought about the shishimai dancers who had come to celebrate the sending off of the rice harvest gods and that we can do this because we do it together. We fight the fight to keep those traditions alive because that is the heart of Japan and without them there is no life.

 

Kenchinjiru (Country Soup with Vegetables): Traditionally, this was a vegetarian soup made with root vegetables, tofu, konnyaku, and perhaps dried shiitake for depth of flavor. But we often make a broth from our Christmas duck carcasses for the kenchinjiru we make at New Year…because we have them. In this case, add some sliced ginger and a few generous stalks of Japanese negi (substitute thick spring onions or thin leeks) to the fresh duck bones (I use the term “fresh” loosely because actually we freeze the raw carcasses whole in Ziploc bags). Alternatively, I like to make a stock from the cooked bones of roasted chickens that I stuffed with garden thyme branches and Mochizuki-san’s lemons, quartered. Our chickens are so sublime that I add nothing but water along with the thyme sprigs and drippings off the cutting board. I tried to cook the soup all night but the gas alarm company called my mother-in-law in the middle of the night and she crept upstairs to wake my husband. He has now nixed the overnight cook method. This deeply flavorful chicken soup makes an unforgettable ramen broth for homemade ramen; also I see it as a base for a mochi-less kenchinjiru. For a vegetarian broth, I would add a generous piece or two of konbu kelp to a large pot of cold water and bring it almost to a boil before removing the kelp and then proceed to make the root vegetable soup.

To prepare: scrub equal amounts of carrots, gobo (burdock root), and daikon with a rough brush (tawashi). Slice into thin rounds, half rounds or quarters depending on thickness of the roots. The vegetables should be fairly uniform in thickness and size, as you will be cooking them together and eating the soup with chopsticks. Peel and slice the same amount of taro root (satoimo) as you did for each of the other vegetables. Keep the daikon and taro each in separate bowls. Cut horizontally through a block or two of best quality soft tofu (in Japan use momendofu), then crosswise into 6 x 4 pieces (thus creating a dice). Slice usuage into ¼” strips (Tadaaki cuts them again horizontally to make pieces, I prefer them a little long and dangly). If the usuage is not fresh, pour hot water over to take off any unpleasant odors—or maybe just skip it.

Film organic canola oil in large soup pot, and sauté sliced carrots and gobo for a few minutes before adding the sliced daikon. Stir and sauté a minute or so longer, then add hot homemade broth (duck, chicken or konbu kelp). Throw in the sliced taro and bring to a boil and cook until the vegetables are getting soft, but not falling apart. Slide in the tofu, usuage and konnyaku (see below), and simmer a few minutes more until heated through. Season with organic soy sauce to taste and serve with a bowl of white rice on the side if there is no mochi in the soup. Pass shichimi togarashi (7-spice powder) for those who like a little extra kick.

Optional konnyaku: Fill a large pot half way with water, toss in a small handful of salt and bring to a boil. While the water is heating, tear the konnyaku into 1½” round misshapen blobs (a little bigger than bite-sized). If using mochi, slice konnakyu instead into thin strips (1½” x ¼”). Boil konnyaku pieces for 15 minutes in salted water, drain, and reserve.

Optional mochi: drop pieces of hot mochi into soup and eat immediately.