Yes, I know,
it's already 2012, but I must finish this post before writing something
suitable for the New Year.
September
There is a
small settlement in the Mine district in the Okutama area of Tokyo
My car drove
along the north shore of Okutama Lake, tuned left halfway, went northward
along the Minedani
River Mine Seikatsu Kaizen
Center (Life Improvement
Center
This place is
at 760 meters above the sea level. There is a small field full of white
buckwheat flowers. I saw red dragonflies flying here and there (this species is
seen only on highlands in this season).
According to
an old villager, there were only 15 households in this district, while one band
of three-lion dance consists of 16 people. There were only few people, so it is
very difficult to maintain this performing art. Actually, some performers are
now living in other towns or cities and they return to this district on the
performing day for the performance. However, there are not enough people for
the performance and they do not have members who play bamboo fifes. So, they
need to play back taped fife music when they perform dances.
These lion
dances could successfully and uneventfully be performed this year, but how
about next year? I am afraid that they are on the verge of discontinuation.
October
October 1 is
the sake day, and I attended an event called "Tokyo Sake Train" on
this day.
In this event,
a monorail train on the Tama Monorail line was chartered and sake drinking
party was held on this train. The train left at the northernmost terminal
Kamikitadai, running southward to reach the Tama Center
The Tama
Monorail line is not a long line and the train ran just short distances in this
event. If you take a train and ride on it along the same course as above, it
takes only 55 minutes. So, first I was afraid that we could not drink very much
because of short time. No problem! The train stopped at Tama Center Station for
about an hour. During this stop, we could continue talking with people and
enjoying drinking. In addition, President Ishikawa from Ishikawa Brewery in Fussa City
So, we could
get friendly with fellow passengers and have a nice raucous drinking party.
Our sake
train was approaching to the final destination of Tachikawa-Kita Station, and
it was already after dark. Suddenly, the lights in the train went out, and the
city lights in turn gained their luminosity. Viewing a nightscape from a
running train in this way was a quite rare and fantastic experience.
November
I attended a soba (buckwheat noodles) making class
held in Ome City
The place of
the class was facilities where visitors can enjoy a BBQ. So after the class, we
had a BBQ party, of course with sake.
I brought a
special sake gadget called kandouko
(sake warmer using charcoal) and used it to prepare warmed sake. I used the kandouko also for grilling mushrooms and
other foods. It was also interesting to warm a food can on the grill of the kandouko.
We tried a
new way of eating grilled mushrooms; grill some mushrooms; warm a shellfish
can; dip grilled mushrooms in the shellfish soup; and eat them. However the
soup was too sweetish!
December
I went to the
amusement park Yomiuriland, where an electric spectacular event called Jewellmination
was being held. However, my purpose was not seeing these LED ornament but
drinking. In this amusement park, they had set up temporary food stands, which
were collectively named the Jewel Hot Dining, and one of the food stands was carrying
sake, and other alcohol beverages. Actually, one of my drinking friends is a
key person of the park and had been engaged in this food service since its
planning stage. He seemed to have been exercising his power to realize his
ideal izakaya in the park. There were
five food stands and one carried a menu quite looking like that of an izakaya specialized in jizake (local sake). Besides sake, there
were, draft beers, whiskies, wines, shochu,
and others. Moreover, snacks and foods selected by him made good pairing with
the drinks.
