Where did I leave you? Tokyo, right. Well, after Ueno on the
30th, it was time to skip town and start north. Off to Fukushima!
Let me dispel some concerns right away. No, I didn’t drink
the water…not much of it. And this prehensile monkey tail I’ve grown is
actually very useful. No, honestly, I had a great time staying with some mutual
friends. Mostly those two days consisted of a lot of eating and drinking. 
We
took a tour of a very old and very cool sake distillery. The man giving us the
tour spoke only Japanese but I was able to catch a few words here and there
while he talked about the importance of temperature and rice quality. He showed
us a handful of the special kind of rice they use.
American friends, you know
that rice you get with take out? The stuff that turns into petrified devil’s
teeth if you leave it out on the counter for more than 3 hours? Yeah, that is
laughably the lowest quality rice in comparison to Japanese sake rice. The
grains are almost perfect little pearls. They’re tiny and smooth…kind of like
uncooked tapioca, but the idea of drinking fermented tapioca is rather
nauseating so let’s go back to comparing it with pearls. There’s something
opulent about drinking pearls, isn’t there?
Anyway, so yeah, that place was neat and we got to sample
some very very very good sake. And yes, I bought a very very VERY kitsch ceramic
daruma full of sake. Fukushima is sort of the daruma capital of Japan, believe
it or not. Daruma symbolize luck and perseverance, rather fitting for Fukushima
after the tsunami. And it sort of explains the creepily large daruma in the
train station....
They work like this: they’re made without eyes. You paint one
eye in and make a wish, set a goal or say a prayer (however you work). The
leering gaze keeps you focused on your goal and working to achieve it. A couple
different stories come along with the daruma, including a rather sick one that
goes as you make the wish, you tell the daruma that if he grants your wish, you’ll
give him his other eye.
When that wish comes true, you paint in the other eye and
the daruma keeps watch to make sure nothing goes wrong. Sort of like Japanese
genies, don’t you think? Makes sense to me: every time I rub my daruma, sake
comes out! Instant wishes, granted!
I haven’t made my wish yet or set my goal…I think I have too
many goals to burden one poor little daruma. I might need a few dozen! I want
to continue learning Japanese, I’m also taking up the guitar (thanks, Scott!),
I have some writing projects in the works…too many goals, too few daruma.
Should do something about that…
I also ate the best sashimi I’ve ever had, hands down.
Sorry, Kappa Zushi: I cheated on you and I have no regrets. Oh, and the soft cream, too! Oh, soft cream, you afternoon delight...
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| Green Tea and Cheesecake Softcream! Yum |
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