Inspector Collector

Japanese Seafood: More Colorful than the Aurora Borealis

Smack in the middle of the Pacific, Earth's deepest and oldest ocean, Japan serves what may be the world’s most diverse and toothsome selection of seafood. Sushi (a catgory of vinegared-rice treats that do not necessarily contain fish)is wildly popular today, but it wasn’t long ago that most deemed it rare and scary. I’ll never forget one night in the early 1980s when I tried to impress a date by acting nonplussed as I nearly choked on my first-ever bite of raw fish, a stringy bit of tuna at Lenge restaurant. I recovered quickly and by the time I started enjoying sushi “Desperately Seeking Susan” was released, drawing big laughs when Madonna jumped in a taxi and the driver rambled on about his food preferences: "We used to have Chinese restaurants, Italian restaurants. Now you have these sushi restaurants. Everyone goes for sushi. Sushi. I hate the stuff.  Although, I tell you, I had some the other day. I took it home, I cooked it, it wasn't bad. It tasted like fish."

Every sushi connoisseur knows about the many grades of ultra-pricey toro (fatty tuna belly):

   

A lesser-known delicacy is engawa. The first definition of engawa in a Japanese dictionary is the traditional corridor in the Japanese home, but calling for engawa at a sushi bar will yield crunchy elongated bits of fluke scraped from the fin's edge. Precious little seafood goes to waste in Japan - here a fish monger uses a spoon to scoop up every tidbit of tuna:

Seafood has always been a prominent feature of Japanese culture and things oceanic are gulped with gusto, from refined salt to seaweed to fish so tiny a hundred or so fit in a thimble-sized bowl:

Each Japanese port has a seafood specialty, none more prized than those of the cold northern islands like Hokkaido. Sendai people are known for their love of a particularly funky-looking critter, hoya, aka Pineapple-of-the-Sea.

Hoya, with its salty taste and cuttlefish-like texture, is a sea squirt, a family of gorgeously-ugly blobs ranging in color from screaming yellow and lurid purple to painfully bright blue.

Fishermen on the Hozu River use extremely long poles to catch tiny fish, in particular Kyoto's revered ayu a type of fresh water trout:

A four-ounce salt-grilled shioyaki-style ayu costs about $1 an inch – it was so lip-smackin’ sweet I’d gladly pay double.

While even fiercely-spiked lion fish are powerless to fight the extraordinary rise in global sushi consumption and its threat to the sustainability of ocean life, Mother Nature never seems to run out of variety.  Can anyone identify the type of fish below, the much-beloved mascot of an outdoor seafood market/restaurant on the island of Oshima in Ehime prefecture?

 
He's not for sale but they'll sell you just about anything else, plus a bucket of glowing coals so you can cook for yourself:

Japan: A Photographic Portrait of a People

A month in Japan made me a shutterbug - I took over 2,000 photographs, including these portraits of some of Nippon's 127,433,494 residents.  It's difficult to pinpoint a person's age but I've tried to arrange the 28 images in this post in ascending age order.

Brothers enjoying natto-maki (fermented soy beans rolled in white rice and wrapped in seaweed) and onigiri (triangles of rice stuffed with a teaspoon of anything you'd like - often last night's leftovers).

 
"Mother Hen and Happy Chick" bouncing on the Fuah Fuah Dome, Yoshiumi Rose Garden, Ehime.

Mother and son ferry across the Seto Inland Sea.

Public toys and books make waiting enjoyable, Shin-Hanamaki train station, Iwate Prefecture.

Grandpa Mitzie and the apple of his eye, Kei-kun.

Japan is suffering declining birth rates & aging population? Coulda fooled me! Kyoto Station, June 2007.

Patent leather bags are de rigeur for Japan's legions of student athletes, Umeda Station, June 2007.

Getting out of school -- fun for teens the world over.

Scores of young girls buy photos, t-shirts, magnets, hats, anything emblazoned with images of their hearthrobs.  Teen idols are Tackey, ne - don't you agree?

Gift shop jeweler, Saga Arashiyama.

Japanese Homies - New York rappers set the world standard for urban hip -- yeah boyeeeeeeeeee!

Back on solid ground after the Hanshin-Awaji Daishinsai (the cataclysmic January, 1995 earthquake), the city of Kobe is now known for its youthful population.

Inexplicable to Western eyes, pachinko draws Japanese fanatics of every stripe.

Fortunately Micki, my wife, only went so far as to model this $900 hat at Tokyo's answer to New York's Bergdorf Goodman, Takashimaya.

It's nigh on impossible to find a Japanese person without a cellphone.

Tourleaders scouting and pointing the way - there's so much to see and do in this isolated island nation, it often seems there are more Japanese tourists than foreigners.

Old friends meet by chance in rural Tzuchizawa - a town so small most Japanese haven't heard of it.

 
More than mere flour and water, a lifetime of love and tradition is rolled into every strand of this dedicated chef's ramen noodles.

masks and costumes "Made in Japan."

There's no telling how long this bird-loving Buddha's been around, but homelessness is an age-old concern for compassionate people everywhere.  One thing is certain, there's a great deal of the dignity built into the Japanese language:

Work Ethics in Japan and the U.S.: May We Help? v. Whadda You Want?

The hardest part about returning to the U.S.after touring Japan is putting up with uncaring and disgruntled workers. The strong Japanese work ethic means people strive to do everything in their power to satisfy the customer. There’s no tipping in the Land of the Rising Sun, and every employee, from back-country general store clerk to fancy hotelier, greets customers with the boisterous Japanese welcome Irashaimasen! Not once during a month-long tour did we receive anything but excellent service. For example, aboard Japanese trains all staffers, from conductor to snack seller. unfailingly bow and greet passengers when entering and leaving each railcar (posing the Zen question, if no one is riding in a particular car do employees still bow?). Some mistake the Japanese politesse as subservience, but it’s really a matter of respect and pride. No one skulks about the job and we didn’t see heel-dragging slackers -- even convenience store lackeys (a term that does not appear to have a Japanese equivalent) could be super-enthusiastic.  In hundreds of transactions there were nary any problems getting answers to questions, and correct change was tendered in a jiffy, even when using a ¥100 bill on a ¥1 purchase in a small town.

So the real culture shock came not abroad, but in returning home to dirty old NYC, where in the first hour I was rudely delayed at the grocery store when the clerk had to call the boss to check my $50 bill; treated gruffly at the supermarket because the cashier had no idea how to ring up a sale item; and rebuffed by the alternately apathetic/officious U.S. Postal Service, which had listed incorrect hours of operation. Anxious for my mail, I returned an hour later to receive the curt explanation that my parcel had gone missing because “putting a hold on mail has nothing to do with express mail.” Jaded N’Yawkas in line behind me got a real kick out of that rationale, one of them muttering “always a party here.”

Here’s a firsthand look at the elegant functioning of a true service economy.

noodle soup just as you like it

lavender or baby blue - not uncommon colors for fish farmers

not sure what these "flared balloon knickerbockers" are actually called but they're popular with workers

true teamwork

pointing the way

puttin' on the Ritz

World's fastest trains sure, but the subways also run like clockwork

pride and focus

sea-urchin merchants giving their all at 3 a.m.

   
Wonderful attitudes notwithstanding, there's always work to be done in crowded cities like Osaka (population 2,625,989). Someone please call an electrician!

English Signs in Japan: You May Catch the Interesting Experiment

English in Japan may be imperfect at times, but it's a lot better than my gaijin (foreigner) Japanese!

Sign-spotting is easy in the ultra-pricey Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo...

where skyscrapers have names that really stick.

Japan's most wanted English major is still at large...

and ever-wary with language - one mistaken letter can mean a world of difference. In Japanese, yakuza means gangster while yakuba means town hall (not to mention the Latin meaning of yakuba, a type of African fruit fly).

Viva Fun, Cocktails & Tacos -- I couldn't agree more, and

I love precise graphics that make words superfluous.

My new aunt's wash tub brought me to my senses every morning...

making it difficult to select the right mug...

for morning tea.

I woke up singing every day, Come on baby...

and set out to meet the heart,

 
and learn more about The Art of Hot.

I know that money can't buy love.

so it was difficult to pass by this 59-year old bôite. but

I'd heard good things about a tough-guy club in Imabari...

only to be put off by their customers' unusual footwear.

Touring can leave you feeling fried,

so I frequently sought out heartwarming refreshments,

in "the country of the fruit," where...

I was happy to learn that 'coon is a homonym for kun (a Japanese suffix added to boys' names to indicate familiarity),

but saddened to realize that signs of racism persist -- Eddie Murphy appears in less-than-subtle Japanese ads for black coffee, and this hand-painted window still beckons in seedy Asakusa, the oldest part of Tokyo.

I avoided the addictive fast food,

and restaurants that did little to whet the appetite,

and settled for a perplexing formula of sweat x porno graffiti, which, to everyone's surprise

paired wonderfully with alluring chocolate treats, and

candy bars that would fly off the shelves in rap-loving Memphis.

I too have no love lost for indiscriminate bartering,

so I went shopping for used clothes, but that proved a tad dull.

At wit's end, I sought out the o-benjo (bathroom), only to encounter this seemingly indecipherable sign.  After careful consideration however, I realized "Trylet" is a perfectly-suitable pun for the showroom restrooms at Toto, Japan's friskiest toilet manufacturer. How could anyone resist trying out digital commodes that automatically open and shut the lid; control seat temperature; wash and dry without Charmin; and imitate flushing noises to mask embarrassing sounds?

English T-shirts in Japan: "The Cotton Were Born In An Age When They Were Cotton..."

Communications in a foreign language can be simultaneously challenging, beautiful, educational and hilarious.  You can stay up-to-the-minute on Japanese fashion by reading haute-couture magazines like EW,

or by watching what the kids are wearing.  Here are some English t-shirts spotted in Japan, Spring 2007:

chin up young lady

one can only hope the same holds ture for tomorrow

further proof that getting is better than receiving

yes Maam!

learning starts on the ride to school

Saturday in the Park, I think it was the fourth of July

Lo and behold, "percability" is an actual geological term defining the ease with which gases, liquids or plant roots penetrate or pass through a layer of soil, an important factor in building for sustainability.

La Dolce Vita!


makes ya wonder what's inscribed on their woolens.