Hiroyuki

Good morning, everyone. It's 8:17 in Japan. Just one photo for now. Today's breakfast. I'm busy right now. I'll provide more details later and answer all the questions. Kristin, Helen, and all the participants in the Japan Forum, feel free to entertain them while I'm occupied with my regular work.

Off-topic: Just wanted to post it. On his way back from school yesterday, my son found this: That's exactly what I needed. Sorry for that, moderators. I want to make one clarification before I go to bed. I made preparations for the miso soup and pickle in today's breakfast last night, which I usually do to save time in busy mornings. Finally, this is kiriboshi (lit. cut-and-dried) daikon, together with uchi mame (beaten soybeans): This kiriboshi daikon was made by my father. Much better than store-bought. He has a large slicer specifically for making it. Uchi mame is a great foodstuff. I often use it in simmered dishes. I like it especially because it can be cooked in five minutes or so. This is my last post for today. See you tomorrow!

You can even make a stool with milk cartons.

I'm not photogenic, and I wish I could avoid it. Besides, I don't have many pictures of myself. But if you insist, just for you. This happens to be the most recent photo of me. Did you think I was handsome? Also, this photo was taken at Tabata-ya, where I had lunch today. The reason why I chose that buckwheat noodle restaurant is that when I ask my children, "Where do you want to eat out tonight?", my son almost always replies, "Tabata-ya", and my daughter goes along with the idea.

I'm going to talk about our vegetable gardening tomorrow. I'm already pretty exhausted. No, I didn't. Do they taste good??

At around half past four, when I was working in my work room, my son came to me with this: He gathered some broccoli, parsely, and shiitake mushrooms from our tiny garden. I had thought that I would make vegetable miso soup, but I had to change my plan. He said he wanted me to make clear soup with the shiitake mushrooms. I started to make supper at 5 o'clock. Meet the main ingredient of the shu-sai (main dish) for tonight's supper: Roast pork. Also meet the special ingredient: Instead of the regular dry, medium size panko on the right, I used the moist, very coarse panko for my foodblog. Pork dusted with flour, ready to be coated with the panko: The panko dish was too small for the pork. I used a used milk carton instead : Deep-frying: My special stand, made of a used milk carton: Results: Passable. I was unable to get the most of the coarse panko. I think that the oil was too shallow. Never skimp on oil... I make it a point to filter the oil while it is still hot to avoid it from degrading. Supper's ready: Shu-sai (main dish): Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) Fuku-sai (sub-dish? I can't think of the right word): Boiled touna (a type of green), boiled broccoli, and leftover kiriboshi daikon (dry strings of daikon, simmered with other ingredients). I had the tonkatsu with tonkatsu sauce and karashi (Japanese mustard) and my children had it with takoyaki sauce, which is sweeter. The tonkatsu sauce is still too spicy for them. I had some sake: Kakurei Reishu (Cold Sake) from Aoki Shuzo, a local sake brewery. It's fruity and very good. This is kiriboshi daikon: Sorry for the mess.

At most Japanese elementary schools and junior high schools, they serve kyushoku (school lunch) at lunch time. Parents are required to pay for the ingredients only (about 2,600 yen per month at my children's school). Labor and costs are borne by the local government. According to this month's kyushoku menu They have gohan (cooked rice), daikon leaves dressed with goma sauce, bamboo shoot soup, salmon grilled with mayo, and milk. Just to give you an idea of what they eat at school, I post this photo. This is a photo of a kyushoku lunch that I had two years ago.

After I left my parents at the age of 30 and started to live alone, I tried to incorporate corn flakes into my breakfast several times, only to fail each time. But I really don't think you have to be ashamed... It's just a cultural difference. Gyokuro sounds good, but I have to pay 1,500 to 2,000 yen per 100 g to get really good gyokuro .

I'd love to hear what your father grows in addition to negi, and how much he is able to consume himself. ← Here are some examples: Strawberries in a green house: Several varieties of grape, including Kyoho (called the king of grapes in Japan): You can see lots and lots of grapes hanging in the obon season (Aug. 13-16) and later. Other than these: Chestnut, apricot, persimmon, peach, ume (Japanese plum), several varieties of citrus fruit including yuzu, etc., etc. I can't remember them all! He consumes very little by himself. He likes to offer what he grows to someone else. OK, let's move on to the lunch that I had today. (I had four cubes of chocolates and lots of green tea between breakfast and lunch.) On my way to the restaurant, I took some photos. Seimaijo (rice milling station?) where you can mill your brown rice into white rice yourself for 100 yen per 10 kg. Daiso 100-yen shop!! My blog won't end until I mention 100-yen shops and convenience stores. More on them later. I arrived at the restaurant, Tabataya. It's a soba-ya (buckwheat noodle restaurant). I like wooden structured buildings, and this is no exception. At the entrance, you can see them: Big wooden bowl for kneading soba dough and a wooden tray, called a hegi, used to arrange soba beautifully. The soba in the tray is not real, it's a "food sample" (shokuhin sanpuru in Japanese). Inside: Where's the ceiling? Entrance from where I sit at the counter: They have a zashiki (straw mat) room. The Japanese like zashiki a lot. It makes us comfortable. Zashiki with separate compartments: A nice addition to the decoration: (Sorry, blurry) I ordered tenju set: 1365 yen. Tenju is a misnomer. It's a tendon. Tenju comes in a rectangular box with a lid on top. Anyway, it's quite good. Later, the waitress brought me this: Soba yu. It's hot water used to boil the soba. It contains rutin, and is said to be healthy. Just add it to your soba tsuyu (buckwheat noodle dipping soup) and drink it.

I haven't yet mentioned how much I like green tea. I've kept ordering green tea from a single source by mail order since I was 18. I drink more than 2 liters of green tea a day. Here is the source: Ichikawa En (Watch out! Japanese only) I have tried almost all types of green tea they offer, and I have settled to kuki cha (stalk tea), 500 yen per 100 g. Light and refreshing! Take a look: Since I am the only one in my family who drinks green tea regularly, I simply use the tea filter, without the tea pot. I like the filter, patented "V cut filter". It drains well. I do have a tea pot: and tea cups (called yunomi jawan in Japanese, lit. water-drinking bowl). Japanese tea cups don't have a handle. The pot and the cups are for guests only.

OK, I will do it when I visit Yuzawa some day during the week.

Lactose intolerance is very common among a large percentage of the population of this planet, beyond a young age, after which the proper enzyme is no longer produced to digest that sugar. I would expect that this would be even more pronounced among the population in Japan, since dairy products are rather expensive there. How much is a quart of milk where you live, these days? Not a lot of dairy grazing land in Japan, I'd guess. Barley tea? I didn't know that barley tea was popular in Japan, as I usually associated that with Korean food. Do you always drink it unsweetened? Hot or cold? Very exciting blog! Thank you ever so much for sharing your views of Japan, as it is a country that I'd love to visit! So interesting that you like cheese, too! Have you had the Japanese cheese snacks that are made of fish? I'm looking forward to learning so much more! Thanks again! ← Thanks for your scientific explanation. Sorry, I'm not familiar with "quarts" . I can get a 1-liter carton of milk for 158 to 168 yen. Barley tea is a very popular summer beverage in Japan. Unlike many other Japanese, I like to drink it all year round. I always drink it unsweetened, and I like it both hot and cold. Here is a thread (started by me) on barley tea (mugicha in Japan), which is the oldest tea in Japan! Cheese snacks that are made of fish?? Can you tell me what they are? Cheese kamaboko (shortened to chee-kama)?

I missed those questions of yours. I liked milk when I was much younger, but now I find myself intolerant to it. (Some medical explanation for that?) My two children like milk a lot. I seldom buy them juice or any other sweet beverage, and I ask them, "Which will you have, barley tea or milk?" The two packages contain cheese. I like cheese!! I'm the biggest consumer of cheese in the house. I usually don't use milk when making Japanese dishes. In Hokkaido, where dairy products are produced in large quantities, they like to use milk in their nabe (one-pot dish), ramen, and so on.

Most of all, making bento is a way to show affection to someone you love. A girlfriend making bento for her boyfriend, a mother making bento for her children. Some people can go to extremes. I recently saw a TV show where a mother wakes up 4:30 every morning (if I remember correctly) to make her child a kyara ben (character bento), which is a bento featuring an anime character(s).

I previously posted a recipe for that omelet in the RecipeGullet. The trick is to pour beaten eggs in three parts. If you find chopsticks hard to use, simply replace it with a turner. I don't know why, but the Japanese like to sweeten eggs! I like mine unsweetened.

Well, I once made something similar to cornbread , in my mediocre oven. Other than that, sorry to say I don't. You were surporsed by the small number of seasonings that I have? I really don't have many seasonings.

Thanks, DCP. And, thanks for your interest in Japanese culture. Have you ever seen the movie Tampopo?

Hi, Helen, good to see you here. The pickle is daikon stems and leaves. Boil for 2-3 min., drain, sprinkle some salt, let stand for 5 min., and then squeeze. Milser? To grind sesame seeds. You will see it in action later. Do they look serious? They are shy, that's all, like I am. As I implied, I didn't take this photo as a teaser photo. I casually took it before going to see my parents on April 7 and 8.

Marlene: Thanks for your comments. Here's some discussion about how to call negi in English in the Japan Forum. Cadbury: Thanks for your reply. You saved my time. It's 11 o'clock, and I haven't finished talking about the breakfast! My daughter, who is much pickier than her brother, said she wanted to have granola instead of rice, as she sometimes does. Granola, together with the rice, miso soup, and fish she left uneaten. Maybe she is a new type of Japanese. I can't think of granola or corn flakes as a meal. Don't bite me for saying so. I like them as a snack, but not as a meal. Dishwasher with dishes and other stuff in it: This is one of the latest models (as of 2005), but I still need to wash some items manually. I'm off to have lunch. See you later.

sanrensho: OK, I will, but later. Abra: Just plain boiling water, used to make green tea. BarbaraY: Thanks for your compliment! Now, the breakfast photos, at last!! Gin zake saikyo zuke (a type of salmon marinated in saikyo miso: I selected this fish for my first eGullet foodblog breakfast because some people talk feverishly about black cod marinated in miso. Here's a little secret I need to tell you. I have a fish grill in my kitchen (like in so many other Japanese kitchens), but I have never used it since I moved here in October 2005. It's rather cumbersome to clean it after grilling the fish. So, I use the toaster oven instead! You can remove the miso by washing under running water, or you can just scrape it with a paper towel or your hand. Either way, it tastes good. This time, I scraped it with a paper towel. Another dish: Atsuyaki tamago (thick omelet). It's rather time-consuming to make it, but my children like it, so I made it. Negi, washed, skinned: Just in case you are wondering, I use a used milk carton for a cooking board. (I do have a wooden cooking board.) I have plenty of them here: I used to wash milk cartons and take them to the supermarket for recycling, but no more. See, I do have a cooking board: Finely sliced negi, together with two packs of natto: Don't jump to the conclusion that I am an adventurous eater simply because I eat natto. In fact, more than 80% of the Japanese like it, according to a recent survey. There are still some die-hard natto haters in the Kansai area (area in and around Osaka). My Osaka-born brother-in-law, for example, hated natto before she got married my Tokyo-born sister. Now he likes it. It's the power of... love? Here is it! Cooked rice!! It can be very, very misleading to say that rice is Japan's staple depending on your perception of the word staple. It's much more appropriate to say that rice is the king of foods in Japan. You may not believe it, but it is. I'd like to talk about it later in detail, because it is VERY important! My breakfast: A bit of table manners in Japan: The photo shows the proper way to place the three main items, chopsticks, rice bowl, and soup bowl. The rice bowl is placed on the left, and the soup bowl on the right. The chopsticks are placed sideways, along the edge of the table, near you, with the pointed end facing to the left (sorry for the lefties). I'd like to write more, but I have to go back to my regular work. (BTW, working with ImagGullet is torture!

So much for fridge photos. (BTW, it didn't realize that image uploading takes so much time...) Next, some items in my kitchen. First, microwave/oven combo, Milser (small blender), and toaster oven: When I say that I have an oven, I mean that I have one of those microwave/oven combo, like tens of millions of other Japanese. Few houses in Japan have an oven preinstalled. Japanese cuisine doesn't require an oven, anyway. Rice cooker and thermos: They are both indispensable in a Japanese home. Gas stove: When I planned my new house back in 2005, I didn't think of having an induction stove installed in my kitcken for possible health hazards. I learned then that 18% of new home owners opted for an induction stove (as of 2005). Sink: Salt, instant dashi, black pepper, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, etc.: Soy sauce, mirin, oil, sake, vinegar, etc.: These seasonings are about all I need to make Japanese dishes. I'll be back later.

Before the breakfast photos, I'd like you to take a look at some other photos that I took this morning. Negi: My father, who lives in Chiba (adjacent to Tokyo), is retired (ran a small construction company), and grows all kinds of vegetables and fruit. He kindly sends some of them to us. These negi are just one example. I like to eat them with natto (photo later). I usually wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning, but today, I woke up at five. I knew I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up, dressed, went out, and took this photo: The mountains are still capped with snow. My area, Snow Country (with a capital S ), usually has up to 3 meters (10 feet) of snow in the wintertime. But in this particular winter, we had much less snow. Fridge photos (obligatory? ) Appearance: Coincidentally, Kristin, the host of the Japan Forum, has exactly the same model. Even the color is the same . Uppermost refrigerator compartment: Not much to see. My fridge is usually this full. I don't want to pack it with too many things. I usually go shopping twice a week. Middle ice cube and partial freezing drawers: You are going to see some of the items here cooked for supper. Lower vegetable compartment: Lowermost freezer compartment: Freezer compartment, with the tray pulled back: Sorry, I need some green tea now. I'll be back soon.

Hathor: OK, I will see what I can do, later. I'll be back with breakfast photos.

Thanks everyone for their welcoming, sympathetic, and complimentary messages!! And I do hope my wife gets well soon. therese: I read the novel both in Japanese and English versions. I can assure you that the English version is as good as the original. MarketSeEl: You are correct. Yuzawa Station is a JNR station. You can use Joetsu Line, Joetsu Shinkansen (bullet train), and Hokuhoku Line (which actually starts at Muikamachi Station). Yuzawa Station is the nearest bullet train station, about 20-minute ride from my house. Shiozawa Station is the nearest JNR station. It's on Joetsu Line. snowangel: I will post some info about my children's school lunch later. They don't help me cook very much, and I don't ask them to. I'm sorry about that, but it takes a lot more time to cook with them around me. torakris: No, no major plans, except that I will go to Yuzawa Flower Festival on April 30. I reread my initial post here and found an error. (blush)

Good evening! My name is Hiroyuki, I'm 46 years old, and I live in a rural, snowy, rice-producing district in Niigata prefecture, Japan, 210 km to the north of Tokyo. I work at home as a freelance translator. Just an introductory post for now, before I go to bed. It's about 10 o'clock in the evening in Japan. I have a wife (45), a son (11), and a daughter (7). Unfortunately, my wife cannot join in my foodblog for the reason to be described later. I'm not a food lover, I'm just a food eater, and now that I'm in my late 40s (and besides, my children are still small), I'm more concerned about health aspects of food than other aspects. Shortly after she gave birth to her second child (daughter) in 1999, my wife developed some kind of disease, requiring me to help her a lot, especially in cooking. Early this year, her symptoms got worse, and now I am the main cook in the house. When I received a PM from Suzan (snowangel) in early March, asking if I was interested in foodblogging, I was in a very awkward situation. On April 13, my wife was finally hospitalized. Ironically, her hospitalization has made it possible for me to start foodblogging. I still feel uneasy about foodblogging, considering the situation I'm in, and I also feel somewhat guilty, but I hope I can finish my foodblog to the end. Teaser photo: The photo was not meant to be a teaser photo. It's the Komako statue, standing on the premises of Yuzawa Station. Komako is a geisha who appears in Kawabata Yasunari's masterpiece, "Snow Country". I was in need of a teaser photo, and I selected that one because I thought it was representative of the area where I live. Here is a full version of the photo: My foodblog will focus on home-style Japanese cooking because that's what I can talk about Japanese cuisine, and it will also focus on a tour of Snow Country and surrounding areas. As you can tell, English is not my native language, and I'm not very familiar with colloquial expressions because I studied it mainly from books. If you find any errors in my posts, fell free to let me know. Lastly, my sincere thanks to Susan, who did all she could so I could start blogging in time. (I notified her of my intention to start blogging only a few days ago.) My blog officially starts tomorrow. Until then, good night! P.S. Pan: How did you know it was me? Edited to add: Made a correction.