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.

Shishimai and Sake

On May 5, an annual shishimai event was held at Yakumo Shrine in Kawai district of Okutama Town, Tokyo. Yakumo Shrine is in a distance of 10-minute walk from JR Kawai Station. I invited some sake-drinking friends to join me to see this event. The style of the lion dances dedicated to this shrine is the one called sambiki-shishimai or sasara-shishimai, which is popular in various districts in the Kanto area including Okutama, Chichibu, Ome, Akiruno, and other cities, towns, and villages.

The front approach way to the shrine consists of two flights of stone stairs. If you look upward from the base of the first flight, you will find a "two-story gate" in the dimness of the cedar tree grove. The approach goes through under the gate leading to an open square beyond it. This "two-story gate," designated as a tangible folklore cultural property of Tokyo, has a unique structure; standing on the mountain slope, the front appears to be a two-story building while the back looks like a one-story building.

The upper floor of the gate on the back side serves as a stage for plays, dances, and other local performing arts. However the three-lion dances are not performed on this stage but in the open square in front of the stage. The front approach leads to this center square, across which there is another flight of stone stairs. At the upper end of these stairs is the front shrine.

Another noteworthy point of this Yakumo Shrine is that there are several stone-walled tiers on both sides of the second flight of stairs. These tiers serve as spectators’ seats so that visitors at this shrine can enjoy watching a play, dance, or any other performance art performed on the stage or in the center square.

High-standing cedar trees surrounding the spectators’ seats, center square, and theater provide good shade for performers and spectators, and usher a comfortable energy flow into the precincts, producing a sacred atmosphere of a realm protected by some mysterious power.

On this day, we occupied our place on the third tier from the bottom on the right, viewed from the stage. We had brought some bottles of sake, wine, and snacks, and set them ready in place, waiting for lion dances to begin.

In these shishimai events, seven performances of lion dances are performed. When we arrived at the place, it was past noon, three performances had already been performed, and performers were taking a lunch break. In the afternoon, still another four performances were awaited.

Here, I would like to explain sambiki-shishimai. This type of lion dances is danced by three dancers and some backup dancers with music played by bamboo flutes.

The dancers wear headgear called shishigashira. They are what the Japanese in olden days thought look like lion heads (since the Japanese did not know what the lion looked like exactly, they never look like lion heads, having horns and feathers on the head). The dancers bear drums tied around their waists, and beat these drums while dancing.

The backup dancers are four, six, or eight kimono-clad people. The number of these backup dancers varies according to the place where dances have been handed down. They play instruments made by bamboo, making frictional sounds along with the melody of bamboo flutes.

Many documents describing the derivation of lion dances are handed down in many places in Japan, and according to these old documents, lion dances have been started in 1245. The story is as follows:

In the spring of 1245, in the ceremonial hall Shishinden in the imperial palace, imperial families and their guest were enjoying a party. Suddenly, the sky turned dark and they heard thunders and saw streaks of lightning. Then, three shining objects appeared in the sky and they flew to these people, finally fell with thuds in the garden of the Shishinden. These objects were something they had never seen before, and they were surprised and scared. Then, after close observation of these objects, the people knew these objects looked like three heads of some animal. No one knew what in the world these things were. The emperor had a fortune-teller see these things to see whether they were a good omen or bad. The fortune-teller said, "these are the head of lions living in India, and they are great auspices," continuing, "if people wear these on their heads and dance, our country stays in peace forever." In this way, people started these lion dances. Of course, this is a legend, and no one take this story at face value.

By the way, I often come to enjoy the lion dances of this Yakumo Shrine, and every time I am at this event, one clown guy first dancing with other dancers but later coming out from the dance place bears a bottle of sake, comes to us, and offers sake to us. This is my most favorite point of these lion dances at Yakumo Shirine.

So, we had been waiting for this time!

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!

Walking along the Okutama Mukashi-michi -- Off-the-beaten Track in Tokyo

Okutama Lake, nestled among mountains in Okutama Town, the western part of Tokyo, is an artificial lake backed up by Ogochi Dam. The construction of the dam started in 1938, and was completed in 1957 after having been interrupted by the war for a period of several years.

From the Okutama Station to Ogochi Dam, you can take a bus, which drives along Japan National Route 411. The road in this section goes along the mountain stream of Tama River, passing through sporadic tunnels. This road is of course essential for people living in this area, but before this road was constructed, they were using an old road, which is now called Okutama Muakashi-michi (literally, old road in Okutama).

Okutama Mukashi-michi, an about 10-km community road, was made in 1899 to replace the about 14-km mountain path connecting the Hikawa district and Ogochi district, and this Okutama Mukashi-michi became a very important path for people in the area. Along the path, there were shrines, temples, teahouses, water vessel for horses bringing baggage or people, etc.

In 1945, the new road, which had been constructed earlier originally for transporting material for the construction of Ogochi Dam, became open to the public, and people became able to use this road for their living. Consequently, the importance of Okutama Mukashi-michi reduced and people became to use the new road more often than this old path.

Some sections of the Okutama Mukashi-michi path are paved with asphalt, and we can see cars and trucks go up and down in these sections. However, some sections are very narrow paths, some sections consist of only a few flights of stairs, and even some sections are mountain trails. There were guideposts at every key location and it is easy for visitors to stay on the right track, and there are benches to take rest and well-maintained public restrooms along the road. So, anyone can enjoy a holiday walk at ease.

It seemed there were many interesting spots to see, and I decided to go for a walk along this road on a late autumn day.

(Start point of the road)

With some food and drink in a daypack, I started Okutama Station about 10:00 a.m., and soon reached the start point of Okutama Mukashi-michi. From the beginning, I needed to walk up a steep asphalt-paved slope, called Haguro-zaka. Halfway on the slope, I found a tori gate on the right. There were stone stairs behind the tori gate. The stairs had to lead to a shrine and I thought I should pay respects to the god enshrined, so I started walking up the stairs, which was longer than I expected. When I finished two flights of stairs, I was in a small open space, and it turned out that the stairs I had been struggling up was just a part of the long approach to the shrine, because I found across the open space a guidepost indicating the way to the shrine. So, I gave up visiting the shrine and went down the stairs back to the main route.

After leaving the tori point, soon the route entered a narrow path. Soon, this walkway began to run along a defunct railroad track on the left. This track was used in the past to transport material for the construction of the dam. I walked on the walkway along the railroad track for a short while, and then the walkway curved rightward to leave the railroad and then leftward to gradually climb up, reach the railroad track, and go over the tunnel through which the track was further extending.

(Defunct railroad track)

Then, the narrow path connected to a wider asphalt-paved road, and soon I reached the point where a well-maintained house of public facilities. Inside the house, there is also a place for walking passengers to take a rest.

(Well-maintained public restroom along the walkway)

The walkway went through mountains and I walked admiring beautiful autumn leaves here and there.

(Road in mountains)

At some points, I could see some part of that railroad track. In a small community called Sakai, I found a railroad bridge above my way. The railroad seemed to have been running almost parallel to the walkway, and I could see its remnants while walking.

(Railroad bridge)

The walkway was generally very comfortable to walk, relatively even, not hard to walk (just a short part in the beginning and about an-hour part in the last were mountain trails).

After leaving the Sakai community, I soon reached the Shirohige Shrine. In this small shrine, a big rock is enshrined as the object of worship. In summer, sanbiki shishimai dances (a type of local performing arts performed by three dancers with headgear resembling the heads of lions, other dancers, and musical instrument players such as bamboo flutists) are performed in the precincts of this shrine as offerings to the god. I have seen their performance before, and it was very interesting.

(Stone stairs leading to the Shirohige Shrine)

(The tilted huge rock on the right of the shrine house is the object of worship.)

  

In a few-minute walk distance from the shrine, I found a maple tree beautifully decorated with red and yellow leaves. The colors of this tree seemed to be brightening up things around this point.

(Iroha-kaede: Japanese maple)

The photo below shows a water vessel for horses to drink. According to the description on the board, there were three teahouses around here so that passengers can rest for a while. The teahouses were selling snacks, udon noodles, bean-paste buns, tobacco, etc. Guests could even drink cups of sake.

(Water vessel for horses to drink)

I had been walking for over three hours since I started walking when it was around 1:30. I felt very hungry and I had been looking for a nice place to have a rest and eat my lunch. And, I finally found a perfect place for my lunch. The place was overlooking the valley, and there were tables and benches surrounded by trees with yellow, orange, red-colored leaves.

(Lunch place!)

After having the lunch, I started walking again and soon the walkway left the asphalt-paved road and turned into a trail in mountains. The walkway was most arduous in a section beginning from this point. However, I like walking on a mountain trail while seeing beautiful trees and leaves. I think this part was the most interesting for me.

(Point where the asphalt road ends and the mountain trail starts)

(Trees with autumn leaves)

(I like walking on fallen leaves.)

At a point close to the end of this walkway, there is a nice lookout platform beside a teahouse named Aome-fudoson Rest Station. From the platform, I could overlook Okutama Lake. I enjoyed a nice lake view.

(Guidepost indicating Aome-fudoson Rest Station)

(Lake view from the lookout platform)

From here, I got to the Mizune bus stop in 30 minutes or something to end my walk this day. It was fun to walk along this old path while enjoying nice views of the valley, mountains, and autumn trees, and giving more than a passing thought to life of people who lived in this area in olden days.

(Movie)

Yudofu and Matsutake-sake party

Recently, I bought an interesting sake product from the shop of Reijin Shuzo (麗人酒造) in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture. This is called Matsutake-sake, a bottle of sake with matsutake mushrooms in it. Matsutake is very popular and expensive mushroom and Japanese people like matsutake so much that they import the mushroom from China, Canada, and other countries.

In the bottle, there are cut matsutake. So, I thought, we could grill and eat the mushroom while drinking this sake, and I called some friends to held a party.

Another theme of the party was yudofu. Yudofu means boiled tofu. We place pieces of tofu in hot water to warm up them, and enjoy tofu hot. To enjoy the original taste of tofu at the maximum, we boil tofu just with a piece of kombu (kelp, or Laminaria japonica), and no complex recipe is necessary. We dip the warmed tofu in soy-based sauce and eat it.

And, to make the party more attractive, this time I introduced a new device for yudofu, which is called yudofu-oke (wooden pail for making hot tofu). The pail is made of sawara cypress and equipped with a brazier in which burning charcoal is to be placed. When you put water in the pail and burning charcoal in the brazier, the heat of the charcoal warms the water. So, you put cut tofu pieces in the water to warm them up.

However, I had some problems about the yudofu-oke. The opening of the brazier was small and I can put only small pieces of charcoal in the brazier. Also, the brazier itself is not very big to contain much charcoal. Maybe, yudofu should not be eaten at so high a temperature, or I can preheat water with another pan or kettle.

By the way, the small pot with handle set on the yudofu-oke (see the picture below) is for warming the sauce for yudofu. You just put some sauce in the pot and set the pot on the yudofu-oke. However, if you love warmed sake, I think you can put your sake in the pot and set it on the pail to warm it.

Well, what about the matsutake sake? The sake was in a 1.8-litter bottle, and I had some difficulty to take out the mushrooms. The mushrooms were first floating in the upper part of the sake, but later they sank deep in the bottle. So we need to empty the bottle first. We were five people, and some kindly brought 720-ml bottles of sake. So, we had another three 720-ml bottles. After emptied these three bottles, emptying another big bottle was hard for us. After all, I needed to move some of the sake to an emptied small bottle.

The matsutake sake has a slight smell of the matsutake mushrooms. The mushrooms, which we grilled and ate, tasted alcoholic from being soaked in the sake for a long time. 

Kamisuwa drinking tour

October 6, the sake breweries of Maihime, Reijin, Honkin, Yokobue, and Masumi held a sake drinking event called "Kamisuwa Kaido Aki no Nomiaruki" (autumn sake-drinking walk along the Kamisuwa Kaido street). These five breweries are located along Route 20, close to JR Kamisuwa Station.

Incidentally, we were a six-people party and the five except me were women, with a high lady rate of 83%. I don't have so many male acquaintances who love sake, and I think I drink sake with women more often with men. As to my recent association, I feel women drink sake more than men.

Well, I get back to the original topic. Each of us first paid 2000 yen for a tag ticket and a kikichoko, Hanging the ticket from the neck, we walked along the street to visit the breweries. At each brewery, we could drink prepared sake as much as we want using the given kikichoko. There were some food stands from which we could buy some snacks to pair with sake.

We started walking from the brewery closest to Kamisuwa Station, in the order of Maihime, Reijin, and Honkin. Then, we skipped Yokobue (since the brewery was on the opposite side of the street to the first three breweries) and went to Masumi. On the return path toward the station, we visited the last brewery of Yokobue.

The Miyama-nishiki version of Maihime Junmai Ginjo Suiro Namazazke (舞姫純米吟醸翠露生酒) had a very mild taste, and I liked it. My companions liked the Bizen-omachi version of this sake, but I feel my preference is leaning toward Miyama-nishiki.

At the Reijin brewery's shop, they were selling special sake, Matsutake-zake (sake with mushrooms loved by the Japanese in it) although this was not prepared for drinking in this event. The bottle of this sake contains some Matsutake mushroom. I dropped in this shop on my way home next day, and purchased a bottle of the sake. I want to drink this sake warmed, while grilling the sake-steeped mushroom on burning charcoal and eating it. The pairing of this sake and grilled mushroom would be fine.