Red jewels from Yamagata Prefecture

In summer (usually July or August), many Japanese people send gifts called ochugen to their superiors, customers, relatives, etc. to express their gratitude and wish their good health. Yesterday, my parents got such a summer gift from the parents of their son-in-law. They live in Sendai in Tohoku District and send cherries from Yamagata Prefecture (also in Tohoku) to my parents every year. My parents used to send them tea leaves, but in recent years, they have sent beer coupons, a melon, etc.

Every year, as soon as they get cherries from Sendai, my mother goes out to deliver them to me, our relatives, and a neighbor to have us eat them up because cherries spoil quickly. In Japan, fruits can be very expensive sometimes. Cherries from Yamagata Prefecture are one of such fruits and called red jewels. We don’t buy them by ourselves but are glad to receive them as a present. Also this year, I got my portion like this.

As they look, the skins were beautiful and resilient. The pulps were thick and had a stronger sweet taste than I expected. Some people don’t like cherries because they may be just sour and not tasteful at all, but I though this kind of cherries can please even such people. They don’t betray our expectations.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (6) - Sweet corn on the cob in farmers’ market

Visit to Koshoji Temple was so enjoyable that I almost forgot to write about what I did after leaving the temple. Before I went back to Hamamatsu, I only had to buy corn on the cob, one of the specialties of Mori-machi. From Koshoji Temple, it was just 1.3 km to the railway station. On my way there, I dropped in a farmers’ market JA Mori-no-Ichi. Like other shops and stalls, corn on the cob was sold as a set of 5 ears of corn, categorized as Class A and Class B. I bought one set of Class A, expecting a good quality.

I was very satisfied when I arrived at Enshu-Morimachi Station of Tenhama Line, the goal of Sawayaka Walking. I got a stamp on my card from a staff member of the walk. As it was the fourth station from the starting point Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station, the return ticket was a little more expensive than the one to come to Mori-machi. Like Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station, this station was small but looked newer.

As there is only one train an hour, the platform was already crowded with people when I got there. The train had only one car, but all of us managed to come inside. To my surprise, many of them seemed to be local people because they got off the train at Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station. Then, I could have a seat. On my way back to Hamamatsu, I was thinking that it was a pity that public transportation to Mori-machi is inconvenient, and sightseeing spots there didn’t seem to be known to tourists from foreign countries.

If you are interested in the life of people in Mori-machi and their traditional food, I recommend searching with “kippeikun” in YouTube. It’s a series of short videos about a little boy who ran some errands with his sister. At the beginning of the first video, they get some dried fish from their grandfather in a port town, but you’ll also see some vegan food in the local mountain area. The videos are from a popular TV show “My First Errand”, and you can enjoy them even if you don’t understand Japanese, I guess.

The corn on the cob I bought is called “Kankanmusume” that literally means a sweet sweet girl. It was so sweet that you can eat it as it is without boiling. After taking this picture, I bit into the raw corn immediately.

It was sweet and juicy as I expected! Perhaps this is the best way to eat this kind of corn on the cob. But I had to keep the rest of them in the freezer, wondering how I could use them for cooking.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (5) - Koshoji Temple with cute little statues

Finally, I came to Koshoji Temple. As in Gokurakuji Temple, the participants of Sawayaka Walking had a discount for the admission fee to enter the Chinese bellflower garden. This year, it is opened from June 8 to July 25. I paid 450 yen (normally, 500 yen) and got this envelope with a luck-bringing coin in it. I was told not to open it for a year. According to the description on the envelope, the language of a Chinese bellflower is abiding love.

In the garden, there was a small stage beyond these flower beds where two people were playing popular songs from 1980’ with flutes. They played my favorite melodies such as Subaru by Shinji Tanimura beautifully, and I was very glad to hear them. I was more surprised to find that they were playing the vertical and transverse bamboo flutes, old Japanese musical instruments. The vertical flute is called shakuhachi and was often played by wandering monks in former days. Somehow, I wondered if they had played (or would play) Amazing Grace though we were in a Buddhist temple, not in a church.

In Hamamatsu, I haven’t seen Chinese bellflowers so often except at flower shops. I had liked their star-like shape and violet color but hadn’t known the existence of white flowers.

The garden spreads on a hill. Before I climbed to the top, I rang this divine bell,

and made a prayer in front of the statue of Kannon or Guan Yin or the Goddess of Mercy. As a bellflower is a symbol of abiding love, this Kannon is said to help you succeed in love.

On the hillside, you can have a view over the town,

and a tea plantation.

After climbing down the hill, I looked for little statues of Jizo (a bodhisattva originally known as Ksitigarbha) placed here and there in the garden. Each of them had a priest's monolog board with a funny (useful?) message, for example, “Don’t eat too much”,

“Work, earn, and then spend”,

and “Let others make a fool of you.”

I thought the last one was one of the funniest of tens of messages. It seemed to be the most popular, because this little Jizo had got many coins from visitors.

I wanted to take time to stroll in the garden because the concert by the duo was continued. I could hear Amazing Grace as I expected, and Silk Road by Kitaro. Their selection of music was very good, enhancing the relaxing mood in the garden. In addition to Chinese bellflowers, this temple had some lotus flowers in bloom, creating a dreamy atmosphere.

After enjoying the garden to my heart’s content, I had one of the two frozen desserts that are specialties of the temple. At this time of year, they have black currant milk ice cream and red currant sorbet. Both contain Chinese bellflower root that is said to be good for your throat according to Chinese medicine.

I chose the vegan red currant sorbet. It also contained sugar and wine. I didn’t know how red currant and Chinese bellflower root taste when eaten as they were, but the sorbet was delicious. It was rich, sweet, and a little bit sour.

The stand was also selling corn on the cob and shiso (Japanese basil) juice. In Sawayaka Walking, you can sometimes have a chance to taste rare kinds of food and drink that are not seen supermarkets. Maybe I’ll try shiso juice next time.

When you visit a temple, you mustn’t miss seeing the main building. I found a cute little monk in front of it, with a broom in his hands and a towel around his head. Cleaning is one of the most important exercises in a Buddhism temple to keep the mind clean.

I had a very good time in Koshoji Temple. The path to the gate had pots with lotus on both sides, which was unusual to see in other temples.

In front of the gate, there was another statue, which was holding his hands together. Good-bye, little monk! I’ll come back next year.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (4) - Zenshoji Temple with reclining Buddha

From Gokurakuji Temple, I walked more than 3 km without a break. I saw some farms selling their corn on the cob in stalls by the road, however, I intended to buy some immediately before I l left Mori-machi. In addition to corn fields, Mori-machi has many tea plantations, like this one on the hillside.

As it was cloudy, it wasn’t very hot. I could walk comfortably and came to Zenshoji Temple near Enden Station of Tenhama Line. Before I participated in Sawayaka Walking, I had never heard about this temple. When I entered though this gate, I felt richness of the cultural heritage of Mori-machi.

In front of the main building, the temple has a garden with a reclining Buddha. Though it is a common image of Buddha in Thailand, I had seldom seen one in Japan, as most temples only have an image of sitting Buddha. The statue and its surroundings had a peaceful atmosphere. Buddha looked as if he were sleeping comfortably.

Beside the garden, there were some people serving free cold tea to participants of the walk. I also got one cup and found that the tea had a dark green color. Though it was cold, I could feel a strong flavor of high-quality leaves. It was so refreshing. I was grateful for the hospitality of the people who prepared it for us.

Then I made a prayer and entered inside of the building, following other participants. There I saw a garden behind bamboo blinds.

It was quite big.

I sat on the floor and enjoyed this splendid view for a while.

It was amazing that Mori-machi has so many interesting places to visit. Before I went back to the walking course, I found a heart-warming message from the chief priest, which said “Thank you for visiting. Be careful on the way.”

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (3) - Gokurakuji Temple with variety of hydrangea

Gokurakuji Temple (Hydrangea Temple) is about 1.5 km from the station. During the season of hydrangea (from the beginning of June to the beginning of July), you have to pay an admission fee of 500 yen (100 yen for children), but there was a discount for participants of the walking event. I showed the course map at the entrance, paid 400 yen, and got a little wooden votive tablet called ema with a picture of a wild boar, the Chinese zodiac sign of this year, and hydrangea. A nice present, I thought.

The premises were full of hydrangea with various color tones. Before I walked around, I heard one of the monks announcing about a short lecture of the history of the temple. I entered the main building, took off my shoes, and went inside where chairs were prepared in front of the alter.

The lecture was very interesting. Gokurakuji, which literally means a paradise temple, was founded some 1300 years ago. They have kept an image of Amitabha Tathagata (Amida Nyorai,  阿弥陀如来) all the time as the principle image of the temple. As the image is very old, it had numerous worm holes and got extremely fragile before. They asked a craftsman in Kyoto to repair it before it was too late. He managed to repair it, though it took a year.

The monk also told us about hydrangea. Originally, they grew only on the hill behind the temple. They started to plant new hydrangea in front of the temple fifty years ago. They have now fifty kinds of hydrangea that are more colorful than those on the hill. In recent years, while hydrangea has become popular, and they have two kinds immediately in front of the building. One of them is called Annabelle, which I had heard somewhere before.

Finally, he introduced a teacup sold in the temple. It has Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo, 般若心経) written on the outer surface. When tea or something hot is poured into it, Heart Sutra disappears and a picture of Amitabha Tathagata appears. By drinking tea from this cup in the morning, you can have good luck all day long. This idea was funny, but I liked it. (The monk said that it might sound as a sales talk but they had to earn some money to maintain the temple)

After seeing 400-year old ceiling paintings and some other historical objects in the building, I went out and climbed the hill behind the temple.

The view from the hillside was wonderful. But it was difficult to take pictures as the path was not even, and I had to be careful.

There was a place to offer ema. It literally means a picture horse. In former days people donated a real horse to shrines as it was regarded as a holy animal. Later, a real horse was replaced by a wooden tablet with a picture of a horse as it was more convenient to donate. In shrines and temples, you write your wishes on the backside of it, hoping that they will come true. So, I wrote my wishes on my ema given at the entrance and hung it there. In fact, I had thought it was a little souvenir for visitors as it had a date stamp on the backside. Maybe I could take it home if I liked to do so.

On the hillside, there was also a mysterious pocket. At first, I thought it was a bomb shelter. But it was a pocket for Zen sitting medication.

Pale violet may be a typical color of hydrangea.

In front of the temple, paths were neatly prepared.

I had never seen so many hydrangea flowers at a time. The gradation of colors was beautiful.

There were also some lilies.

Gokurakuji Temple was impressive both inside and outside. Though it may be a small temple, it has a long history, and I highly recommend you visiting there especially during this season. If you search for detailed information about it on the Internet, don't forget to add "Mori-machi" after "Gokurakuji Temple" because there are many other Gokurakuji Temples in Japan.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (2) - Station with retro feel

According to the website of JR Tokai, Sawayaka Walking would be started at 8:30. But there were already tens of people waiting in front of the station to get a course map. The service schedule of Tenhama Line is not very convenient, so the next train from Nishikajima would arrive at 8:54. There are only two trains an hour from 7:00 to 9:00. After that there is one train an hour during the daytime. Though the reception time was 8:30 - 11:00, I chose to come earlier. Luckily, the walking event was started earlier than the specified time thanks to their spontaneous staff. Each of us got a map and start walking.

This is the starting point, Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station. It’s a small wooden station with retro feel. Like Enshu, Totoumi is an old province name for western Shizuoka Prefecture. Ichinomiya means a primary shrine or the highest class shrine. The station is named after Okuni Jinja that is the primary shrine in western Shizuoka Prefecture. As the shrine is dedicated to Okuninushi no Mikoto, one of the major gods in Japanese myth, there is his doll in front of the station. I mistook Okuni Jinja to be located near the station, but according to their website, it takes about 40 minutes to walk there. There are shuttle buses on Sundays and seasons of flowers and autumn leaves.

As I wrote in this blog in May, Mori-machi is known as Little Kyoto with its old temples and shrines. This time, the distance of the course was about 7.5 km, and visits to two major temples were included. One is Gokurakuji Temple nicknamed as Hydrangea Temple, and the other is Koshoji Temple nicknamed as Chinese Bellflower Temple. It was cloudy. I thought hydrangea in the temple might look more beautiful in rain but still didn’t want to get wet while walking. So, I set off at a brisk pace.

Soon after I left the station, I saw a corn field. One of the purposes for which I participated in this walk was to buy some good corn on the cob in Mori-machi. My expectation was growing.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (1) - Enshu Railway Line & Tenryu Hamanako Line

Sawayaka Walking is a walking event held by JR Tokai or Central Japan Railway Company. On June 23, it was held in Mori-machi, a town about 30 km from Hamamatsu. Usually, the walking course starts from a JR station, but this time, it was started from Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station of Tenryu Hamanako Line (Tenhama Line). To get there and join the event, I took two different trains. First, I went to Shin-Hamamatsu Station of Enshu Railway Line located on the west of Entetsu Department Store (it is also run by the same company Enshu Railway Co., Ltd. as the railway). There is a H&M shop on the first floor of the building.

Before I took the train, I charged my NicePass at the ticket booth. It is a green smart card usable for the buses and railway line of Enshu Railway (Entetsu). In railway stations, you only have to touch the ticket checkers in the building or platform with your NicePass. At 7:12, I took a train to Nishikajima. This line is called “akaden (red train)” by local people because their trains are usually red. But the one I took was green.

It was comfortable to ride this train. It is an elevated railway, and it was interesting to see the town below. It took 33 minutes to get to the last station Nishikajima. There I got off and took a train of Tenhama Line. The platform was in the same station, and it was easy to find the way though I had only a few minutes to change the train. Like other trains of Tenhama Line, it had only one car, but I could have a seat. There were already many people who were apparently going to join the walking event.

I got to Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station at 8:11. On the platform, there were some station attendants who collected fees. I gave the numbered ticket I got from a machine in the train to one of them and paid 470 yen. The fee of Enshu Railway Line was also 470 yen, so I paid 940 in total.

Later, I learned that there are two kinds of one-day tickets for the combination of Enshu Railway Line and Tenhama Line. One of them is an eastern route ticket including unlimited rides for Tenhama Line between Nishikajima and Kakegawa, and the other is a western route ticket including unlimited rides for Tenhama Line between Tenryu-Futamata and Shinjohara. They also include unlimited rides for Enshu Railway Line and cost only 1450 yen for adults and 730 yen for children. I should have bought an eastern route ticket. Enshu Railway Line and Tenhama Line have also their independent one-day tickets, which cost 1000 yen and 1700 yen respectively (500 yen and 850 yen for children).

Rice cooked with oat

These days, Japanese people eat rice as their staple. But in former days, many of them used to eat rice blended with barley. Barley was less expensive than rice and considered to taste worse. Rice cooked with barley is called mugimeshi and was regarded as food for the poor. However, it is now eaten as healthy food that is richer in fiber, vitamin, and protein compared with white rice.

The other day, I found a very interesting kind of food in a supermarket Bio Atsumi. It is called “rice oat” or oat that can cook with rice. According to the package, you can take resistant starch, β-glucan, protein, etc. from this.

I cooked rice with the same amount of this oat. Before it was cooked completely, I grated Japanese yam to pour on the rice cooked with oat. This is one of most popular ways to eat mugimeshi. Though it was oat, not barley, I was sure that yam would go well with it. Now, they were ready.

The rice cooked with oat didn’t look very different from 100% rice. But it was elastic and lighter than 100% rice. It reminded me of mugimeshi, so I poured the yam on it, added a little soy sauce, and mixed well.

 The combination of rice and yam is called tororomeshi and I like it very much. In MayOne in the station building, there is a restaurant specialized in it. There you can eat rice as much as you like (not yam), however, they use fish broth to add flavor to yam. I don’t think it necessary to use any broth because yam itself is a unique food with stickiness resembling that of natto or fermented soybeans. I like to eat it as simply as possible. I also enjoy the combination of hot rice and cool yam. Whenever I eat it, I have a second helping, and I did so also this time.

In addition, I had salad of tomato, onion, and basil flavored with soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic. I also had edamame tofu containing edamame or green soybeans. I sprinkled some salt according to the instruction of the package.

I found the edamame tofu quite tasty. Unlike ordinary tofu, it was good just with salt. It was pale green and looked beautiful, both outside and inside.

This is the second piece I ate later. There were four pieces of tofu in the package that was sold at a reasonable price. I’m thinking of using the remaining two for salad.

Jelly and soup with watermelon

The other day, I got a watermelon from my mother. She often goes for a drive, and this time she had been a farmers’ market in Iwata and bought it for me. The watermelon was oval and smaller than spherical watermelons sold in supermarkets, however, it was still too big to eat at a time. I wondered how I should eat it up.

I cut the watermelon into round slices. This is the first piece. I was surprised to see that the outer skin was much thinner than expected. I set it in a dish and ate it with a spoon.

It was juicy and sweet. Since it wasn’t a hot day, I didn’t keep the watermelon in the refrigerator before I cut it. But it still cooled me down. Though this piece was big, I thought it ok, because this was the first local watermelon for me to eat this year. I enjoyed eating it.

Next day, I made agar jelly with diced watermelon. I used a pack of agar powder (4g). According to the description of the outer package, one pack of agar powder contains as much dietary fiber as 2.5 heads of lettuce!

The recipe was very easy.
1. Heat about 450cc of water with 4g of agar power in it.
2. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat and melt the agar powder for two minutes.
3. Pour it on diced watermelon in cups. (I also used diced sugared semi-dried apple instead of sugar)
4. After cooling down for a while, put the cups in the refrigerator to cool further.

When I took out the jelly from the refrigerator, it looked like this.

At first, I thought I had messed up because the agar had become cloudy. Furthermore, it was harder than I expected. Later I checked on the Internet and learned that agar becomes cloudy when solidified without sugar, and more water should be added if you want to make it softer. However, the combination of watermelon and semi-dried apple was not bad.

Then I thought of making the best use of the juiciness of watermelon. There were some recipes of soup using watermelon and tomato on the Internet. I made one just by blending 250 g of watermelon and a tomato (both cut in pieces) with a blender. Then I put basil on top.

This simple soup tasted interesting. I had never thought of this combination before. While eating, I added some salt. The recipes on the Internet had some other ingredients such as olive oil, garlic, and some bread (to make the soup thicker). I thought these other ingredients might have made it real soup to distinguish it from juice. But I was still satisfied with my simplified soup and thought it may be good to eat when it is extremely hot in summer.

Later, I tried to make jelly again. This time, I used 400cc of soymilk and 180cc of watermelon juice (made with the blender) instead of water. The agar part looked orangish because of the watermelon.

I found it was much better than the first one made with water. It was moderately soft, and watermelon juice added not only the color but also sweetness to soymilk. I was quite satisfied with my experiment and began to think what to mix next time.

I still have a small piece of watermelon in the refrigerator. I’ll have it as a dessert after eating hot chana masala or chickpea curry tomorrow, which must be one of the best ways to eat a watermelon.