Refuge of a Maladjusted Moose

• The word for rice is "Gohan", of which the "go" part is an honorific.


• The literal translation for breakfast, lunch and tea are morning rice, afternoon rice, and evening rice.


• Rice is often used in the kind of expressions that bread is used in UK culture. "Daily Bread" etc.
• Its also bad etiquette to leave a single grain of rice in your bowl.
  
• Whenever there is a problem with bad rice, it gets a news story. Its that big a deal.
  
• Everyone owns a rice cooker, and the majority of people eat rice about 3 times a day. Morning, Noon and Night.
  
• A Japanese family of five (one we know) goes through about 10kg of rice a week.
  

To put it bluntly Japan=rice. To make it worse the Tango area we are in is one of the top areas for rice growing and rice quality. We just can't avoid the stuff.

Whilst living here we have upped our rice intake considerably, and we now find ourselves eating rice about twice a day. When we came we bought 10kg's of the cheapest rice we could find, its rice right? A few weeks ago while dining out however we got the chance to sample some top quality local rice (that happened to be produced by our hosts uncle). We were very impressed. Its hard to explain how the rice was better than the one we bought for ourselves but it was, undoubtedly, in every way better. Tastier, silkier, softer, harder, it sounds a bit double negative but it really was good rice. In a single meal we were converts and aimed to get this better rice next time we ran out.

About a week ago our rice supply ran low and so we asked for some advice on where to get this good rice. One thing led to another and in a few days the same friend had polished some of his uncles rice and sold us a 10kg bag for a very reasonable price (about what we paid for the cheap stuff, knowing the right people has its advantages). Now we can look forward to happily tucking into 10kg of the finest Japanese rice for the next 6 odd weeks. We have already realised it makes for a good fried rice, next week maybe I`ll get a chance to use it in a risotto.

On my previously mentioned trip to Osaka I also got the chance to go to 2 Japanese Castles, Osaka Castle and Okayama Castle (a City about 50 minutes away from Osaka by Bullet train).

I found both Castles to be very informative (which is good). The tours of both take you to the tops floors of the Castles from which you can view the surrounding area. This is good for Site seeing and picture taking. Then as you walk down all the levels of the Castle you are slowly told about its history, along with seeing any accompanying artefacts. There are also often chances to get your picture taken wearing old style clothing etc. Not of much interest to me but of note to some.

I should perhaps mention that Japanese Castles tend to differ a bit from their western counterparts. Instead of oft Gothic stone buildings they are high rise wooden structures with a slight Pagoda style to them. There defence tends to be in the form of huge ramparts and moats built in many cases with massive stone slabs. However the wooden nature of the internal buildings does mean that they have a tendency to burn down. Indeed both the castles I looked at were 1960 reconstructions as the originals were burnt down during WW2 bombing.

Osaka Castle is surrounded by a quite impressive park, due in part to the equally impressive footprint of its surrounding defences. Once you have walked for 20 odd minutes to get to the Castle you can start to learn its brief history. I'm not going to go into much detail here but essentially it was built by the Son of a farmer who grew to great providence. So much so he had the Political power to go to war with Korea. After his death though his son promptly buggered it all up and Tokagawa came along and burnt the Castle to the ground. It was rebuilt afterwards but never again reached any state of importance. Its kinda funny that such an impressive Castle had such a short time in the lime light.

Okayama Castle, or the Crow Castle, is of particular note for its dark exterior. I don't have as much to say about this one, but it does have a prominent history of use for a few hundred years (complete with a portrait gallery). One tower is still original but another few towers, gates, and the main building all burnt down in WW2. Still they have done a pretty good job of restoring the Castles I think. Also of note for this Castle was that although the majority of the information contained in it was not in English, I did receive a pamphlet which was packed with useful info about the Castle. This was so much better than Fukuchiyama Castle which has no English and is little more than a small museum with no theme.

Finally here are a few pictures. More can be found in my Albums to the side for those interested.

I'm posting this up before I have had a chance to look over it again and decide to delete it (as I do many other posts of this nature). I felt I should give this one a chance though. Consider this a warning.

Happy New Year all.

Its finally happened. I've been looking forward to this day with dread for months. The snow has finally fallen on Yosano and its a pain. The cold is bad enough but trying to walk around outside is an exercise in futility. It take 3 times the amount of time to go anywhere and the snow isn't even very thick yet. Things don't look good for us getting out and about in this weather. We went out briefly today to go to a shrine (a Japanese new year thing), but since then we have been hiding in doors. Oh well.... I did get the opportunity to take some pics.