Kagurazaka is an area in Shinjuku-ku, in Tokyo. It's the name of the slppe that runs alog Waseda-dori between Okubo-dori and Sotobori-dori. Now, at the Okubo-dori intersection they call it the "top of the slope" (坂上) and the intersection at Sotobori-dori is called "bottom of the slope" (坂下). It was named Kagurazaka because during the during the Edo period, you were able to hear the scared shinto music (神楽, kagura) during festivals when the mikoshi from the Ana Hachiman Shrine were taken out. Apparently, in the Edo period, the mikoshi were so heavy they couldn't actually take them up the slope so they built some stairs.
It's a really quaint atmosphere. There are tons of cafes and small shops. Apparently, it's got Japan's only reversing one-way street! In the morning, traffic goes from the top to the bottom and in the afternoon it goes from bottom to top. The former homes of many important people are there, as well as the present head of the supreme court, which Molly and I walked past. We didn't take any pictures though, the gaurd might not have liked that.
The area is also the heart of Japanese cuisine in Tokyo. There are many ryotei in the backstreets that are only accessable by foot, which are restaurants that serve traditional kaiseki cuisine and which is also where geisha entertain guests. This area was one of the geisha districts before World War 2. There are also numerous French cafes. The Japanese-French Insitute is also in this area, near the Canal Cafe along the outer moat of the palace.
Part of the reason we went was to see a new area of Tokyo, and maybe stalk the location of Haikei, Chichiue-sama a little bit, but the real reason was for the Awa Odori and the Bishamonten-Zenkokuji. This temple is dedicated to Bishamon, the god of warriors and one of the seven lucky gods. Maybe one day I'll do a Shichi-fukujin meguri in Kagurazaka, that would be fun. It's a pretty small temple compared to some I've been too and not really anything special, except for the thing you tie your fortunes and wish plaques too. I always love reading them because you get to see some really hilarious ones sometimes but almost all of them were wishes to Arashi!
After wandering around, Molly and I saw people taping down tarps on the sidewalk. I didn't know how busy it was going to get so we decided to go find a tarp (we ended up just getting a newspaper to sit on) and got a great spot. It turned out really good because we were right next to a spot light so my pictures turned out really well.
The temple is also the starting point of the Awa Odori, a dance festival held during the Obon season in Tokushima prefecture, on Shikoku. Awa is the name of the feudal administration of that area. It's the largest festival in that area but the dance is also done in Kagurazaka. The dancers are accompanied by taiko drums, shamisen, flutes, and a bell and they dance through the streets. The dance looks quite simple but I'm sure there's more to it than just you can see; having your arms up in the air and dancing on your toes must get really tiring. At the beginning there were groups from the elementary schools in the area. Some of the kingergarteners were so adorable. Following them were adults and they were so good! By halfway through, we were starting to learn the words to the song. The dance went on for 3 hours! When it was over, we went to check out the temple and some of the dancers talked to Ginny and I. We asked them was the words to the song was because one of the call responses sounded a lot like "Yakuza, yakuza" to us.
Cabbage and Tofu Garlic Miso Stir-fry
Ingredients (serves 4)
☆ 2 blocks of thick fried tofu (厚揚げ、atsuage)
☆ 1/2 medium carrot
☆ 1 long onion
☆ 1 clove garlic
☆ 4 tbsp miso
☆ 2 tsp each sugar, sake, dashi stock
☆ Vegetable oil
☆ Sesame oil (optional)
Preparation
- Cut the cabbage into large bite-sized pieces. Cut the carrot in half and slice length-wise. Cut the onion into diagonal slices and mince the garlic.
- Put the tofu in a bowl and pour hot water over to remove some of the excess oil. Remove and pat dry with paper towel. Cut into 4-5mm slices.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry both sides of the tofu. Remove and set aside.
- While the tofu is frying, mix the miso, sugar, sake and dashi stock in a bowl.
- Heat more oil in the frying pan and fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the onion and fry. Then add the carrot and cabbage. When the cabbage is slightly wilted, add the miso sauce and toss well until heated through.
- Serve on a plate and drizzle sesame oil on top if you like.
Cooking point
Tofu and Mushroom Kimchi Stew
Ingredients (serves 4)
☆ 1 pack shimeji mushrooms, broken apart
☆ 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and cut half
☆ 1 pack enoki mushrooms, roots removed
☆ 120g boychoy kimchi, cut into 3cm slices
☆ 4 slices of bacon, cut into 2cm slices
☆ 2 spring onions, diced (optional)
☆ 2 tsp vegetable oil
Sauce
☆ 1 cube chicken stock
☆ 400ml hot water
☆ 1 tbsp soy sauce
☆ 2 tbsp sake
☆ 1 tsp salt
☆ 2 tsp potato starch
☆ 4 tsp water
Preparation
- Cut and prepare all the vegetables and tofu. Mix the potato starch and 4 tsp water in a small bowl and set aside.
- In another bowl, dissolve the chicken stock into the hot water. Add the soy sauce and sake and sugar. You can also add juice from the kimchi.
- In a pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Fry the bacon slowly until crisp.
- Add the kimchi and stir fry.
- Add the mushrooms and fry until the mushrooms have wilted and softened.
- Add the tofu and pour the sauce over and boil until the flavour has gone into the tofu.
- When the tofu is cooked, add the potato starch water and mix well to thicken the sauce.
- Serve in a bowl and garnish with spring onion.
Hayashi Rice
Ingredients (serves 4)
☆ 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
☆ 1 can sliced mushrooms
☆ 1 clove garlic, minced
☆ 1 small can tomato juice (8oz)
☆ Pinch salt and course ground pepper
☆ 20g butter (2 portions of 10g)
☆ 1 tbsp oil
☆ 1/2 cup frozen green peas
☆ cooked rice
Sauce
☆ 2 tbsp ketchup
☆ 1/2 cup water
☆ 1 tsp soy sauce
☆ 5 tbsp okonomiyaki sauce
Preparation
- Slice the beef into bite-sized slices, slice the onion and mince the garlic.
- Heat 10g of butter and oil in a frying pan. When the butter is melted, stir in garlic and onions. Over medium heat, fry everything until the onions are brown.
- Add the beef and fry. Season with salt and pepper when the meat turns brown. Add mushrooms and green peas.
- Add the tomato juice and bring to a boil. Add the sauce ingredients in order. Lastly, remove from heat and add the remaining butter, melting over residual heat. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with hot rice.
Cooking point
Original recipe from OneeMANS.
Spinach, Tomato and Tuna Salad
Ingredients (serves 2)
☆ 1 large tomato
☆ 1 small can tuna, drained well
☆ 2 tbsp olive oil
☆ 1 tbsp soy sauce
☆ 1 clove grated garlic
☆ 1 tbsp lemon juice
☆ 1 tsp sugar
☆ Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
- Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl: olive oil, tuna, lemon juice, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.
- Remove the roots from the spinach and blanch in hot water. Remove excess water and toss with dressing.
- Cut the tomato into small wedges and mix with the spinach.
Cooking point
Spinach and Bacon with Egg Salad
Ingredients (serves 2)
☆ 2 slices of bacon
☆ 1 tsp potato starch
☆ 1 tbsp milk
☆ 1 tsp vinegar
☆ 2 eggs
☆ 1/2 tsp chicken bullion powder
☆ 1/2 tsp sugar
☆ 1 tbsp mayonnaise
☆ Pinch of salt
Preparation
- Cut the spinach 3cm pieces. Mix the italicized ingredients in a bowl in order from the top.
- Fry the bacon in a pan until crispy. Remove.
- Fry the spinach in the remaining bacon fat with your desired amount of salt. Add the egg mixture from number 1 and mix well until heated through thoroughly.
Cooking point
☆ Please add everything to the potato starch one by one and mix it well. The starch prevents the egg from congealing so it's got a nice creamy texture.
☆ You can substitute the bacon for other ingredients you like: bacon, ham, weiners, corn, etc. Great warm but also good as a cold salad the day after.
Stuffed Toast (たくさん具トースト)
Ingredients (serves 2... or one if you're me)
☆ 10g butter
☆ 2 eggs
☆ 4 spinach leaves
☆ 1 slice of bacon
☆ 1 tsp grated parmesan cheese
Preparation
- Cut a hole in the middle of the bread, about 1cm in from the edge. Remove the centre and set aside.
- Cut the bacon into 2mm pieces.
- Remove the stems from the leaves and slice them into 1cm pieces.
- Heat the butter in a frying pan. Put the holed-out bread in the pan and fry.
- Crack the eggs into the middle of each piece of bread and add the bacon, spinach and cheese, spreading evenly.
- Replace the middle of the bread on top of the filling and flip over to fry. Fry until nice and golden brown.
Cooking point
☆ You can either leave the yolk whole but I find that when you put the bread center back on and flip it over, it breaks anyway and runs out.
☆ I like to fry the bacon a little bit first before putting it on the egg to give it a little more crispness.
☆ I've also tried this with avocado and tomato so you can try any filling you like!
I've decided my next trip will be to China. I would be stupid not to go while I'm on this side of the ocean. So when the school year ends in March, I'm going to take some time to hang out and get all my affairs in order. I want to stick around for the end of the year nomikai and go to the closing ceremony on the 24th and say good-bye to the kids and teachers. That doesn't leave much time to get things together before the end of the month so I think I'll make April my last month here. It'll be a nice month. Cherry blossoms and nice spring weather.
I'm going to take a boat from Osaka to Shanghai since it's the cheapest option and totally cool sounding! 20,000 yen vs 100,000 for a flight? Hell yeah. And it'll give me an excuse to go to Osaka and Kyoto again! I will have to give Yuka lots of notice so she can book off a weekend for me at the end of April. The boat takes 2 nights to get to Shanghai. And then I'll take a train to Beijing and fart around there for a few days. Then take a train back down to HK and fart around there for a few days before I catch a plane from HK to Toronto.
I want to make the most of this opportunity but I'm going to have to see how much I can square away between August and April. I really need to be serious about this. 35,000 yen to get to China is no big deal and from what Alex says, travel and general costs in China are cheap, cheap, cheap. I'll have a place to stay in Beijing but hostels in Shanghai and HK aren't going to run up too much either. It's the flight from HK to Canada that's going to kill. But maybe I can get mom and dad to help out with that one. ;) Coming home present?
Oh fuck, I'm going to have to think about how much sending all my crap home to Canada is going to cost. If I'm going to China from here, I don't want to be lugging a giant suitcase around.
OMG OMG OMG. I'm still like :DDDDDD after the concert last night which is awesome.
I only wish this picture was mine.
OMGOMGOMG!!!
Okay, so I manage to get home from work earlier than expected, showered, hair curled and all dolled up in record time. Got to Shindaita at 5:50 and waited for JR, who in typical gayman fashion was late. He got there around 6:35 and then we went to find some eats and went to the show. This live house only opened in March so everything is still shiny and new. It's directly across from the station so super convenient. There really isn't much else in Shindaita but its only one stop from Shimo-Kitazawa, the old hipster hub of Tokyo, JR tells me.
The first band, Haushinka was interesting. A mix of punk, rock and metal. They did some Beatles and Ramones covers, very lively and entertaining. The second band was Rally the Bird. these two guys, one on drums and one on guitar that were pretty blah. Pretty nice arrangements and the singer had a nice voice--it's just too bad we couldn't really hear was he was saying. And pretty much no crowd interactions. Boo.
THEN JOE! :DDD I went to the bathroom
before he came out the start setting up but JR said all the girls
screamed. LOL When we got there there was maybe 2 dozen people but
there was a fair crowd by the time Joe got to the stage. He opened
with Nowhere and then played Pa-pa-pa. Then he says, "Where are you
guys from?" into the mic after his song in English. JR and I were the
only visible foreigners in the crowd, but we couldn't help but ask,
"Who, us?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, Canada."
"Awesome. Rock on!"
Though
being the only two white people in a sea of Asians, dead centre, is
kind of hard to miss. But it just makes me feels so amazing because
that is absolute, undeniable proof that he saw me there and took
notice. :DDDD
And I bet you all the rest of the girls in the audience--ie the whole audience were jealous as fuck! Especially the one in pink right at the front who spent his entire set waving her hands and jumping up and down. I guess it's not done in Japan to sing along at shows but I didn't care. I knew all the words and JR made fun of me but whatever. He sounds just as good live as he does recorded and he's damn cute. As if I wasn't already in love with him before. He also played Closer, Maboroshi and his new song coming out this month, Go.
I had hoped that he would come out and mingle afterwards like the first band (they passed around comment sheets to everyone!) but no dice. I guess because he's on the up and up he (or his management) doesn't want to mingle with fans for security reasons? I don't know. JR and I hung around after a bit, had another beer and played with the door-girl's dog for a while afterwards.
All I can say is that he's very personable on stage. Some of the girls were calling out things, "Kakkoii~", "Ganbare~", "Oishii?" when he took a drink of water, and he just rolled with it. He hasn't got a big head about his fame (yet) which is nice to see. I wish all the best for him in the future. Now I can say I saw him before he got big, from 6 feet away.
☆ Work was long and painful. I didn't get enough sleep last night, as I predicted. I was almost nodding off in Kaneko's class. Fuck, what is the point me even being there? I want to ask him.
☆ My aircon has been acting up lately. It'll run but I can't change any settings with the remote. The Toshiba man came and fixed it. It was the sensor, just like I thought. So he replaced the part and I don't have to pay anything. :)
☆ Somehow, I managed to not burn 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy S2. Right in the middle. WTF? I didn't even realize it until just now.
☆ So the fucking city hall never ended up calling InterGlobal, of course. I crunched some numbers and in the end just decided to not fight it anymore. If you divide the total in 12 (as opposed to the 10 payments it is), I'm really only paying 9,800 a month. But still dropping 800$ on my bills this month really, really hurts.
☆ I made gyoza!
I have so many recipes, I've just been lazy to post them. I think I've got 5 or 6 things to post. :X Today, I though I'd be all hardcore and make my own gyoza. They actually came our really well! And hell of a lot cheaper than buying them at the store. Aside from sauces and seasonings and stuff which I always have in the house (garlic and ginger), the ingredients were under 1,000 yen and I made 30 dumplings with enough filling for about 2 more left over. Took a little while to get a hang of the pleating but I'm pretty pro now!
Filling:
320g ground pork
8-10 shrimp, pre-cooked
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 chunk ginger, about the same size as garlic
Pinch each of salt and pepper
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sake
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 package gyoza wrappers
Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp vinegar
Rayu (chili oil) to taste
- Rehydrate the mushrooms. Blanch the cabbage and scallions.
- Mince the cabbage, scallions, mushrooms and shrimp. Peel and mince and ginger and garlic.
- Put the meat and shrimp in a bowl and kneed with your hands. Season with salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and sake. Mix well until smooth.
- Squeeze excess moisture out of the vegetables and add them to the bowl. Mix well.
- Spoon about 1 tsp of filling onto a wrapper. Wet the edge of water with you ring finger. Fold in half and pleat the edge. Arrange on a plate to rest while you prepare some hot water and heat a non-stick pan over high heat.
- Add oil to the frying pan. Line the gyoza up on the pan and fry the bottom until desired golden brown colour.
- Pour about 1/4" hot water into the pan and quickly cover with a lid to trap the steam. Steam until the wrappers are transparent and the filling is cooked (about 2 minutes).
- Arrange on a plate and serve with dipping sauce.
The wrappers and filling.
Close up of the filling. Mmmm meaty.
Little dumplings ready to be cooked!
Frying the bottoms til golden crispy.
出来上がり☆
They weren't very crispy but delicious none the less. Though, I don't know if I'm ever going to do this again... least of all just for myself.
