Celebrating New Year for the Emperor at the Imperial Palace

On January 2 of this year, I paid a visit to the Imperial Palace to celebrate New Year for the Emperor and other imperial families.

This was my first experience to enter the premises of the Imperial Palace, and I was impressed to see so many people with the same intention as mine gathering in the square in front of the palace (a total of over 80 thousand people paid a visit the Imperial Palace on this day).

Being one among those tens of thousands of visitors, I was waiting for the appearance of His Imperial Majesty and other imperial families. At around 11 o'clock, as soon as they appeared on the deck, the visitors started waving Japanese national flags and praising aloud His Imperial Majesty, wishing him health and longevity. Then, His Majesty and families responded by waving us.

At this time, I felt that all the visitors in that place were spiritually bound with each other as subjects of His Majesty, and realized that the Emperor makes our nation what it is now. Maybe, Japanese are unaware why Japan is what it is now, that Japan is what it is now because of His Majesty. Then, a thought came to me that whenever facing hardship, we can work as one to overcome it because of the fact that we have His Majesty.

Finally, let me add this: one of the greatest things about our Emperor is that the Emperor of Japan boasts the world's longest history of bloodline. Our Emperor is the 125'th generation of the bloodline that started from the first Emperor Jinmu.

Bathing in a Yuzu Bath

Japanese people have a practice of taking a bath in a special way on the day of the winter solstice. They put some yuzu orange fruits in the bathtub and then bathe.

It is said that taking a yuzu bath helps prevent you from catching a cold. The rind of the fruit contains ingredients that are effective in blood circulation promotion and maintaining beautiful skin. Of course, the aroma of the yuzu fruit relaxes you. Then, there is no reason for me to take a yuzu bath.

Making loquat liqueur

In the side yard of my house, there is a loquat tree. No one planted this tree. It seems to have come out from a seed, and have grown up. Now, it produces a lot of loquat fruits in June every year. My family enjoy eating these fruits. However, the tree is too bountiful for us to consume all the fruits and we usually left quit a lot on the branches and let birds to peck them.

This year, I picked these fruits and made loquat liqueur.

The following is how I made the loquat liqueur:

Ingredients

 Loquats                        500 g

 Lemons                           2

 Crystal sugar                 50 g

 Distilled spirit (shochu)  900 ml

1. Put the loquats, lemons, and sugar in a disinfected preserve jar, and then add the distilled spirit.

2. Store it avoiding direct sunlight and high temperature.

After three months of aging, the loquat liqueur will be ready to be drunk.

Cherry Blossom in the Vicinity of the Hamura Diversion Weir

This year, it quickly gets warmer and warmer after the arrival of March. It even seems to me that Japan is skipping spring and just directly jumping from winter into summer. All the cherry trees across the country are hasting to bloom. The cherry tree in the garden of my house also started blooming. So, the day before yesterday (March 20), I went out to the Hamura Diversion Weir to check how the cherry trees there are blooming.

(Filmed on March 20,2013)

The trees had just started blooming, but I know they will quickly reach their culmination and then turn into foliage. Probably, we will be able to see the trees in full bloom at the next weekend and we could enjoy blossoms quite much even this weekend.

Hamura City, where the Hamura Diversion Weir is located, holds "はむら花と水のまつり (Hamura Flower and Water Festival)" in this time of the year (from March 27 to April 15 for this year). The festival is originally seemed to have been planned so that you could enjoy cherry blossom around the weir in the first half of the festival period, and tulip flowers planted in the rice paddy fields located upstream from the weir in the last half.

For cherry blossom viewing, for this year, I guess you should come to Hamura in March. It may be too late to come on the first weekend of April.

The city will hold some festival events on the second weekend of April, including Dashi no Hikiawase (they compete with one another in how well they play their bamboo flutes and drums on their festival floats) on 13th and Mikoshi no Kawaire (they carry the portable shrine and go into the Tama river) on 14th although I think it will be too late for also enjoying cherry blossom viewing at this time.

(Dashi no Hikikawase last year: Filmed on April 7, 2012 at JR Hamura Station)

If unfortunately you cannot make it by the right time of cherry blossom viewing, you will still be able to go upstream to see tulip flowers (tulip flowers can be see until the middle of April).

Cherry blossoms filmed on April 10 last year (on the bank upstream the Hamura Diversion Weir). The cherry blossoms come into bloom far earlier than usual.

(Cherry blossoms upstream of the weir: Filmed on April 10, 2012)

If you prefer bustling atmosphere of the festival, I recommend you to walk around the Hamura Bridge; there are food and drink stands here and there, monkey show, and even footbath service using hot spring water brought from distant onsen places. If you are a person who loves a quieter environment, you can walk upstream to the bank along the river, where cherry trees are planted and you can admire blossoms sitting under a tree in a relaxing mood.

Drinking at Okunitama Shrine

There is a big shrine called Okunitama Shrine in Fuchu City, Tokyo. On New Year’s Day, a lot of people visit the shrine to offer prayers, and commercial business people set up their food stands along the approach way to the shrine building to provide these visitors with food and drink services. On a festival day of a specific shrine or temple, you can often see its approach way flanked by food and drink stands selling ringo-ame (candy-coated apples), tako-yaki (octopus dumplings), yakisoba (pan-fried noodles), and even tornado potato and doner kabab. There are also those who are selling shellfishes such as turban shells and scallops grilled on charcoal fire. This seems to be a nice place for those who want to drink during the daytime. So, having nothing to do in particular during the New Year’s Holidays, I asked one of my drinking friends to come with me to this place.

This was the first opportunity for going out for drink this year, and I felt I could not wait to have nice grilled seafood and sake, but I first gave my respects to the god. This Okunitama Shrine is said to have been built in 111 A.D., during the period of the Twelfth Emperor Keiko. The enshrined god is Okunitama-no-okami, also known as Okuninushi-no-mikoto.

I stood facing the front shrine, threw a coin into the offertory box, and gave prayers to the god, “please, let me drink a lot of nice sake also in this year.” The enshrined god Okuninushi-no-mikoto is worshiped as a god of nation building, agriculture, commerce, medicine, etc. Will the god satisfy my desire, a quite earthly one?

Anyway, I finished what I had to do. Now, I can drink to my heart’s content.

There are a lot of stands and makeshift restaurants on both sides of the approach way, selling various foods and drinks. Among them, there is an area above which a large sheet is set up to serve as a roof. Under the sheet were tables and chairs, and various food and drink stands such as takoyaki, yakisoba, and hamayaki (charcoal-grilled shellfish) stands. There are also sake, beer, and other drinks. You can buy any food or drink at any stand, bring what you bought to a table, and eat and drink them.

Sake sold there are Hakutsuru, Sawanotsuru, etc., which are major brands and popularly drunk across the country. I bought warmed cup sake of Hakutsuru and paired it with a grilled turban shell, scallops, and oyster. I think shellfish tastes nice with sake. Yummy!

Shiromaru Dam Fish Pass--a nice summer resort

A fish pass is a construction built at a dam so that fish can swim upstream or downstream through it.

On a recent Saturday, I visited Shiromaru Dam Fish Pass. This is one of the Japan's largest fish passes, with the vertical interval of 27 meters and the allover length of about 330 meters. On the downstream side, the fish pass lies on the surface of the earth. However, as the fish pass goes upstream, it halfway goes into a tunnel underground.

When fish swim upstream along the fish pass, they first swim up in the part that is build as a series of close-spaced baffles placed along a long slope (I think this is something called a baffle fishway). Water flows through the space between the channel walls and each baffle. Each baffle of this structure slows down the water flow providing resting places for fish. Then, fish get in the tunnel and reach a relatively big pool. This pool provides a resting area for fish, and I saw trout swimming in the pool before although I didn't find any fish here this time. After leaving the pool, fish continue swimming upstream through another part which consists of a series of partition walls. Each of the walls has holes in the lower part of them so that fish can go through the holes.

(Baffle fishway part）

(Partitioned part）

By the way, visitors to this fish pass can go down underground through a big vertical shaft to see the underground part of the fish pass. A spiral staircase along the inside wall of the shaft leads you to the bottom of the hole, where you can easily come to the pool built in the middle point of the fish pass. You can also walk on the passage along the fish way.

I parked the car in the parking lot in front of the janitor building of the fish pass, and then enter the building, in which a janitor booth was found. Sometimes, there is someone in the booth, and sometimes there isn't. Anyway, visitors can see the fish pass free of charge. Inside the building, the big shaft was wide open, waiting visitors to come in.

Visitors circle down along the spiral staircase inside the big vertical hole. This hole seemed very deep. How deep is this hole? The vertical interval of this fish pass is 27 meters, which must be the difference between the water level at the entrance on the downstream side and the water level of the upstream Shiromaru Dam. I felt the hole was over 30 meters deep. Since the janitor building is placed at a place that is quite higher than the dam water level, I think my guess is not an exaggeration. Going down deep underground seemed somewhat thrilling.

Because of such a deep vertical hole, it is of course very cool inside even in midsummer. Shiromaru Dam Fish Pass is a nice place to visit on a sizzling day.

Today's Sake

Shiroyama-zakura and Sawane (しろやま桜 and さわ音)

Recently, I purchased Kisho Junmai-ginjo Namazake Shiroyama-zakura (喜正 純米吟醸 生酒 しろやま桜) and Sawanoi Junmai Namzake Sawane (澤乃井 純米生酒 さわ音) at a nearby liquor shop. I took the photo below long before, and it seems that this time I also purchased these bottles of Shiroyama-zakura and Sawane together. This means that I love the bold taste of Shiroyama-zakura while I want some airy refreshing factor like one Sawane exhibits in summer time?

Looking back on 2011 (September to December)

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. This settlement is a so-called marginal settlement, suffering depopulation and aging of its residents. On one Sunday of September, three-lion dances were performed at Hanaire Shrine in this district.

My car drove along the north shore of Okutama Lake, tuned left halfway, went northward along the Minedani River, and then went up the narrow road on the slope on the left. This was a quite steep slope. Around 8:30, I got the 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 southernmost terminal, and then went backward to reach Tachikawa-Kita Station.

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 played harmonica for us (he is a good harmonica player).

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.

Looking back on 2011 (May to August)

May

May is the end of spring or beginning of summer. Some days, we have moderate weather, and some days, we also have very hot weather like in summer. One day, we had a walk along the riversides of the Tama River in Okutama area. Rivers in summer days are beautiful.

June

On June 2, the ruling Democratic Party had a gathering before the parliamentary meeting. The then prime minister Naoto Kan stated his resignation in this gathering. So, many of the lawmakers of the party decided not to vote against the no-confidence motion against the Cabinet to wait for the voluntary resignation of the prime minister. As a result, the no-confidence motion against the Cabinet was voted down in the parliamentary meeting. However, on the following day, Kan did state his intention to remain at his post. This was the first time to see such a cunning prime minister who deceived people in this way. I was very angry and I sent a protesting e-mail message to the prime minister's office. Hatoyama was certainly a loopy man but still looked quite a good person compared with Kan at this time.

This month started with such an offending political drama, and when I was in such an unpleasant mood, I would rather like to see something tranquilizing such as an old building. Anyway, as we had planned before, friends and I went to visit an old Japanese house in Machida City. This house is called "Buaiso," where Jiro Shirasu and his wife Masako lived before. I went through the front gate, saw a big persimmon tree behind the gate, and there was a nicely maintained garden in front of the main building. This was a nice house! The main building was a big thatch-roofed house. We enjoyed seeing the interior and furnishings of the house showing the taste of Masako, who was quite at home in antiques.

July

I often travel in summer with friends. This summer, we went to the Aizu area in Fukushima Prefecture. Tohoku areas had greatly been stricken by the earthquake and nuclear plant accident in March, and people and business in these areas were quite devastated. We had heard that visitors from other prefectures decreased in number compared with the same season of a usual year. So, we just wanted to visit one of these areas for the sightseeing business of the area.

In Kitakata City, we visited Yamatogawa Shuzo Sake Brewery. "Kasumochi Genshu Yauemonsake" was sweet sake, which used koji about twice as much as usual sake.

August

Chiefly in summer, in the Okutama, Ome, and Akiruno areas in Tokyo, the Chichibu area in Saitama Prefecture, and other Kanto areas, they perform "sasara-shishimai" or "sanbiki-shishimai" lion dances dedicating to Shinto deities of various shinto shrines. This year, we could visit and see sasara-shishimai lion dances at Suwa Shrine in Saitama Prefecture. These dances were familiar to enthusiasts of lion dances of this type.

These dances are performed as prayers for bountiful harvests, lasting peace of the nation, prevention of epidemics, etc. So, when our nation is suffering like in this year, it is meaningful to perform such dances.

Looking back on 2011 (January to April)

January
At the beginning of this year, I visited Sawanoien, the rest station operated by Ozawa Syuzou brewery and bought a fukubukuro (lucky bag). I expected that this year would be a happy year. Of course, I never dreamed at that time that our country would suffer that big earthquakes and subsequent fatal accidents in the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

February

I often played with wild birds. I needed about three months to tame this Japanese great tit, and it finally became to feed directly from my hand. I set a birdhouse on a tree in front of my house. I could also shoot video of birds with a camera set in the birdhouse. Some of my video works show how the birds hatched eggs and brought up chicks. You can access my Youtube channel to watch these works.

March

Niigata-Sake-no-Jin (Niigata Sake Festa) was one of the biggest annual sake events for me. I was to attend the event and have test of Niigata-Seishu-Tatsujin-Kentei (Niigata Sake Expert Test) there. On March 11, I was practicing sake tasting in the morning in preparation for this test, and the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in the afternoon on the same day. Inevitably, the sake festa event and test were cancelled.

April

In this season of a usual year, you can see people having outdoor sake drinking parties under cherry trees in full blossom. However, they were not very willing to have such upbeat parties when it was just about a month after the catastrophic blows caused by that series of the earthquakes and fatal accidents at the nuclear plant. I even thought that the word jishuku (voluntary restraint) would be selected as a one of the most popular words of the year when event organizers were cancelling various happy upbeat festivals, parties, and other gatherings. When people were in such a negative devastating mood, some sake breweries in the Tohoku Area (disaster-stricken area) made a move. They created some video streams and uploaded them to Youtube, The video said, "Please drink sake while admiring cherry blossoms." I felt like I was cheered up by people in the Tohoku area.

Arabashiri, but this is not a sake term

When moromi (fermenting liquid of sake) is pressed and is separated into liquid part and solid part, the liquid is called sake. The part that is pressed in the first stage of pressing is called "arabashiri." Then, "nakadori" is pressed, and "Seme" is finally squeezed. So, even if moromi is fermented in the same tank, the taste and aroma of sake vary depending on in what stage it is pressed.

Probably, the same thing can be said regarding coffee brewing. When you brew coffee with a coffee dripper, the very first dripped coffee is different from the later dripped part of coffee in taste and aroma.

In case of sake, nakadori sake has a better taste and aroma than arabashiri. However, in case of coffee, I feel that arabashiri coffee is better than nakadori coffee.




Today's Sake
Sawanoi Honjozo Shiboritate (Ozawa Syuzou)
Actually, I am not very good at new sake because it is somewhat burning on my tongue and a bit difficult to drink. Of such new sakes, this new sake is easy to drink and, at the same time, has a rich taste. I think we can expect much of this season's Sawanoi sake.