ThinkTwisted

Today our Japanese friend took us out to Mashiko to try our hand at traditional Japanese pottery. Mashiko is an area of Japan that is famous for pottery; it is located close to the large city of Utsunomiya where we are currently staying. For breakfast, I was planning to go down to the grocery store and get some yogurt and granola, but the store did not open until 10 am. I was stuck with getting the hotel’s free breakfast. There was a choice between two Japanese breakfasts and a “western” style. One Japanese style consisted of a bake fish and a bowl of soup, the other was three different soups.

I of course opted for the western style, not being a fan of fish or Japanese soups. The western style consisted of runny scrambled eggs, three slices of salted meat (salami?), two croissant rolls, a small bowl of soup, yogurt with cornflakes, and the world’s smallest hash brown. The eggs were acceptable, but tasted like they might be powdered. The hash brown was okay, but gone in two bites. The meat was questionable; I ate one slice and declined the rest. The yogurt in Japan is very sour; if you get it make sure you mix something sweet with it. I mixed in the jam for my croissants and it was not bad. Soup was bleck.

Our friend picked us up at 10 am, and we drove to his house. The ride was enjoyable because it took us through many small parts of Utsunomiya, and into the surrounding countryside. The countryside was cool, many small old houses, winding roads, small plots of trees and bamboo, and rice patties or other fields anywhere there was usable land. Our friend’s house was large for Japanese houses, and he had a garage, which is very rare. He proudly showed us his garage filled with his toys – three motorcycles, a scooter, a snowboard, and tools. His house was beautiful from the outside; I really like the more modern architecture here. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the inside. His family (wife and three daughters) came out to meet us, and joined us for the rest of the day.

We followed our friend’s wife since her vehicle (Honda Stepwgn) had navigation. I think the Stepwgn would do very well in the US. It is a tall van/SUV style car similar to the Honda Element. We had some trouble getting to the restaurant for lunch, as no one knew exactly where it was. It was up a very large hill and our friend’s wife was worried her car would not make it. At little encouragement from her husband and we were at the top without problem. The restaurant was tucked away back in the woods. It was a very beautiful multi-level building with lots of windows and blond wood. I think my wife would have loved it.

We ordered our meal; the main dish came with a small buffet bar we were permitted to visit once. We went and filled our plates. I was excited to see tofu, real salad, and broccoli, which I love and haven’t had since leaving the states. I filled up my plate with broccoli; I was pumped. I also got some potato salad and salmon salad. Back at the table, I dug in. The potato salad was very good, the salad excellent. I dove into the broccoli, and was disappointed to notice a fishy flavor. I took another bite to make sure I didn’t get some salmon or something mixed in. Nope, definitely the broccoli. I took a closer look at it, and noticed the “shredded veggies” I thought were mixed in were actually whole tiny fish! This really freaked me out for some reason. I thought I was going to lose it at the table. I’m not sure why it freaked me out so much, the taste wasn’t that bad, just the concept of eating an entire little fish without realizing it caught me off guard. I did not want to finish the rest of my broccoli, but I had filled about half my plate with it. Childhood memories of being forced to eat scalloped potatoes flashed through my mind. I didn’t want to offend or stick out, so I forced myself to polish off the rest of it.

Our main course arrived and was beautifully presented. I was a wee bit concerned how I was going to eat a pork chop with chopsticks, but as I tried to pick up the patty it was obvious it would not be a problem. The pork chop was so tender I was able to pick it apart with my chopsticks. The meat was delicious, definitely the best pork chop I have ever had. I wish I knew how they got it so tender and perfectly cooked. There were more assorted veggies and salad with the chop, also good.

After lunch, we visited the small bakery in the restaurant. It smelled awesome. Inside I saw some muffins with mushrooms baked into the top! If I wasn’t so stuffed from lunch I would have bought one. I didn’t think to take a picture.

We left the restaurant and made our way to the pottery section of town. This was not easy task due to the small gravel winding roads. The navigation system apparently was not accurate and we ended up behind some apartments, stared at by an old woman. We made our way back out to the street and found the pottery area nearby. There was a small food market with some interesting fruits and mushrooms. I tried samples of various Japanese pickles, a Japanese pear, and a persimmon.

There was a lot of beautiful handmade pottery. Everything you could want: rice bowls, regular bowls, plates, cups, teapots, sake sets, etc. If it wasn’t impossible to get a set home without a large hassle, I definitely would have bought some. We made our way to the place that you can try your hand at Japanese style pottery. We opted to only paint some items rather than spin them ourselves due to the restricted time and cost. We had fun decorating our items, but were told we would have to wait a month to pick them up because the kiln was all backed up. Luckily, our Japanese friend will be travelling to the US in February and promised to bring them for us.

We looked around a few more shops, which had some interesting Japanese antiques and more pottery. There were tons of tanuki around! Tanuki is a type of raccoon dog, and is a symbol of either good fortune or fertility, depending on who you ask, in Japan. There are many legends associated with tanuki, he is a mythical creature that likes to play tricks on humans. He is able to shape shift and sing songs. Wikipedia says tanuki must have the following characterists:
The legendary tanuki has eight special traits that bring good fortune, possibly created to coincide to the Hachi symbol (meaning ‘eight’) often found on the sake bottles the statues hold. The eight traits are:
-a hat to be ready to protect against trouble or bad weather;
-big eyes to perceive the environment and help make good decisions;
-a sake bottle that represents virtue;
-a big tail that provides steadiness and strength until success is achieved;
-over-sized testicles that symbolize financial luck;
-a promissory note that represents trust or confidence;
-a big belly that symbolizes bold and calm decisiveness; and
-a friendly smile
Sounds just like me!

After our pottery adventure, we climbed back into the car to go back to our hotel. On the way back our friend asked if we had time to go to the game center. We did, so we stopped at his favorite place on the way back to our hotel. It was not what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be like an American arcade. It was similar, but also had slot machines, all types of claw machines, and other random games of chance. They had some cool interactive card games. Players would place their playing cards on the table and the game can sense what the card is and what properties it has; The cards are moved around to fight battles. Claw machines are very popular in Japan. They seem to be addicted to them, even though you rarely see people winning. I picked a game I knew I could win at since some of the items were hanging over the edge. I won serve pieces out of the machine, the particular one I played was for Japanese candy. When I won, a Japanese girl dressed in a “sexy Santa” costume came running over yelling and clapping for me and gave me a bag to hold my goods, and give us all high fives! The bag reads, “Caught it cause I didn’t give up on it!” In other words, I pumped all my money into the machine until I won!

For dinner, I wanted to try some authentic Japanese ramen. I asked our friend where I could find some, and he pointed out a place on the way back to the hotel. I later walked back to the restaurant. It was pretty fancy inside so I asked to see a menu before being seated. There was no ramen on the menu! I asked the host if they had ramen and he flat out said no. I guess my friend was mistaken, or I went to the wrong place.

No worries, I walked down the street and stopped in a small shop that had some decent looking dishes on the picture menu. I ordered what I thought was going to be a tofu curry. The dish was definitely not a curry, but it was good. In Japan, there is a spice used in some dishes, I do not know what it is, but has a lemon piney taste and makes your mouth tingle. This dish was very heavy on it, my I thought my tongue might run right out of my mouth by the end of the meal. It was also served with a soup, which I didn’t care for.

After dinner, I walked back to a shopping center near our hotel call La La Square. I explored the stores and didn’t find much new; many capsule machines, electronic stores, clothing, restaurants, etc. I did see some type of relaxation pod. I wish was able to ask the store workers what exactly it did. I went back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the evening, sans pod.