Jay Horinouchi / 堀之内ジェイ

Gareki Paintings

2011-11-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

Gareki (瓦礫) is the Japanese term for the debris, and clearing away the gareki caused by the tsunami has been one of our main duties as volunteers in the Tohoku. Literally translated, it means debris or trash, and ultimately we do treat it as such, but I feel it is important to remember where this gareki came from. Especially since most of the debris has been cleared and cleaned away, we're finding less and less debris to work with.

It's sort of an ironic feeling not have gareki to dig and hold in your hands anymore, because holding the scraps of wood/concrete/glass/metal was a constant reminder of what we were doing, and it grounded us in our duties and didn't let us forget who we were doing this for. But these days we have a hard time finding big chunks of debris, unless we put some effort in digging them out of trenches and ravines. So a big part of what we do is supporting the fishermen and clean-up work after bulldozers do their thing in different areas. In a way, the disaster zones have become a very tranquil environment with weeds growing over everything leaving open fields of green alongside beautiful coastlines.

It is indeed a wonderful thing that the debris is almost gone, as one can gauge that as a milestone for Tohoku recovery. But it also gives things a little twist, and people forget that there is still a lot of work to be done. The Tohoku still desperately needs our help. Just because we can't see their needs directly in a tangible way, doesn't mean needs don't exist. Especially since a lot of time is about to pass since the initial disaster in March, a lot of people are reaching their breaking points and need emotional and mental support.

We can't forget about the Tohoku and pretend or assume that everything is A-okay now. We can't assume that for many places around the world that are suffering as well. Let's not forget that this gareki used to be someone's home, someones playground, someones car, someones life savings, someones memories. Generations lived in these houses and many kids were raised within these walls before they were turned into piles of debris. And all in a matter of moments. People's lives also disappeared in a matter of moments.

I created this series called Gareki, and hopefully with more to come, in hopes that these paintings will serve as a visual reminder of what these debris symbolize. I tried to express some of the things and emotions I've felt spending time in Tohoku, and the paint that I actually used in this series is actually paint that I dug up out of the rubble. Little jars of poster color just popped out of a mound of dirt I was carting away one day, and there was no way I could figure out where it came from. And we were told to throw away anything we found. So I felt there would be even deeper meaning if I could create artwork depicting gareki, if I painted with gareki as well.

Road Project: Mission #4 / ROADプロジェクト第４陣

2011-06-22T06:01:00.002-07:00

Gakuvo x NYN Road Project Mission #4: Ojika Peninsula

I've been lucky and honored to be able to be a part of the Nippon Foundation's disaster relief project called the Road Project, which invites college students from all over the nation to take part in relief efforts in the disaster stricken Tohoku area of Japan.

The really awesome part of this project is that Gakuvo, the Foundation's college volunteering organization, jointly with the Nikkei Youth Network (NYN), has been getting international students from all over the world involved in this project as well. These pictures are from mission #4, which happened during golden week (May 3-7), which was also my first mission as a team leader and translator. On this mission alone, we had about 30 international students from 20 different countries from all across the globe, out of about 100+ Japanese University students.

6:30am bus taking us through the main devastation of Ishinomaki City, but most of us were still sleeping. We arrived the night before around 10pm after an extremely long bus ride. Usually takes about 7 hours, but was a little longer because of golden week traffic. Everyone went to bed quickly after a quick group meeting about safety and tasks, but leaders had to stay up to solidify our game plan and perform equipment checks. We all woke up by 4:30am.

The devastation was so surreal, it's so easy to lose track of your thoughts and reality. This gas station easily grounded us, at the same time slammed into our faces the gravity and the seriousness of the situation. Yes, it's a gas station with debris, cars and a whole house jammed into the filling area.

The main bridge we crossed before entering the Ojika Peninsula. The Ojika Peninsula is the piece of land that juts out from the Miyagi prefecture, which is the closest piece of land to the initial 9.0 epicenter.

The Ojika Peninsula is dotted by many small fishing villages tucked into little valleys like this. But because they are all in little valleys, it made the tsunami surge up even higher and cause even more damage. We passed a bunch of little villages like this. Or what used to be villages.

View from my window on the bus after we parked. This giant barge washed up from being swept away from Ishinomaki City about 10 nautical miles away. Barge is still there today.

Other side of the bus are the remains of a lumberyard.

Lumberyard most likely was a large warehouse type setting with sheet metal roofing and steel beams. We saw none of that in this area. But you can see steel reinforced concrete utility poles that washed up in it's place.

Our morning rally point after driving about 1.5 hours. From this point on, the roads were too destroyed for our buses (which were kindly donated to us by the Seibu Lions baseball team), so we waited here for the local fishermen to come pick us up in their pickup trucks. If I remember correctly, there were about 8 houses in this open area, in which half of the residents did not survive.

Two of my teammates silently assessing the damage. Right in front of them used to be a concrete tsunami wall which probably stood around 8-10 feet high, which absolutely nothing remains. Next to them is a giant hole that was not there before, which was probably bored out by the power of the tsunami after the wall was gone.

Tsunami walls, houses, even trees did not stand a chance against the tsunami.

A close-up of the trees in the previous picture. If you look closely to the tree on the right, it's missing most of it's lower bark, with a chunk missing toward the top. That's evidence of how high the tsunami wave was. The top chunk is about 15 feet up, and we're about 5 feet up from the waterline, which means the tsunami was at least 20 feet high in this area. It was a very humbling moment when I realized this.

Pieces of houses, walls, boats, trees scattered yet all entangled together was a sight that we got used to.

This is a little Ainu (Japan's northern aboriginal people) sculpture found in the debris and wreckage. Another humbling thought that hit us was, the debris and "junk" we were looking at, all used to belong to someone. It used to make up someones house, it was someones valuable possessions just a few weeks ago. Even if we were ultimately throwing them away, we were told to handle everything with respect.

We donned on all our gear, not knowing what we were heading into, and hopped onto the back of trucks to be shipped off like troops. Initially thinking we were going to be shoveling mud the whole time, we actually weren't told what we were going to do until we got to our separate locations. From this point our teams split up and dispersed to work at 5 different villages.

We certainly were all pretty nervous at this point. The night before, we were told that we were the very first volunteer to actually set foot in this disaster zone. The SDF (army) soldiers were still looking for bodies at this point, so we were the very first outsiders to touch the devastation with our hands. Which also means no one was there before us to clear out the dangers and clear the way to make work easier for us. Our biggest concern was rusty nails and tetanus. We were literally walking around in a mine field of rusty nails.

This view used to be full of houses and buildings which made up a big portion of this fishing village.

This road to the left leads up to this village's evacuation center, where a bunch of people still live today. It goes up pretty high, and was our designated rally point in case we were hit with another big quake. Big quake = tsunami = run for your life.

For some reason this random sight of a mailbox going through some sort of sign on a bed of oyster and scallop shells stayed in my mind. The Ojika peninsula used to produce some of the finest oysters in Japan, and is going to take years to revive. The fishermen initially told us it might take up to 10 years before everything is back to normal. 10 years.

Our first work site. Our task was to sort the debris in this area and salvage any fishing equipment not too damaged. We were told to enter the half collapsed buildings in the back... only to be told by our overseers who came around, that the buildings were too dangerous. If an aftershock came, the whole thing might fall on top of us.

So we decided to have lunch while we changed our strategy. Lunch for the next few days: calorie mates and soyjoys.

So it was decided for the rest of the week, we would work closer to the water salvaging shells, buoys and other fishing equipment. This photo was taken atop a mountain of oyster shells (the smell was excruciatingly horrid) where we worked on day #3. The ovoids are the buoys, and cost over $100 each. So we tried to salvage as many as we could. I think we collected a few thousand total.

My team #5, at one point, was asked to salvage buoys floating in the water just out of reach in this bay. So we built little bridges and unstable rafts to get to them, but 4 of us fell in the water anyway (including me). The water at this point was still very black and foul, so I'm sure we didn't smell very pleasant afterwards.

This was all very hard work. Lifting, dragging, carrying, moving... so some of us tried to squeeze in naps anywhere possible.

Team #9 was on a different schedule than us, so they were working while we were taking our lunch break. You can see them salvaging blue baskets from atop trees. A very odd and surreal thing to see, but in reality the tsunami washed the baskets away from the oyster processing facilities and they would get caught up in the trees.

It was May already, but the Northeast get their cherry blossom season later because it warms up later. This sakura tree most likely was submerged and swallowed up in the tsunami, but survived. I think seeing the cherry blossoms gave us all a boost of energy to work harder.

3 of my kids from team 5. From L to R, Gengo from Kyoto, Yoshi from the Self Defense Academy in Yokosuka and Nogi from Tokyo. We had one girl fly in from Okinawa just for this trip too.

I am extremely proud and glad that my first team was this team. I learned so much from them, and made me want to continue volunteer efforts in any way I can. Thank you, team 5.

Teams 4, 5 and 9 (out of a total of 11 teams). Our job was to help the village of Makinohama in any way possible, and many times we were just caught up in laughter and stories by the local people of Makinohama. They were all so kindhearted and caring. I think this was a very emotional trip for a lot of us, seeing the devastation first hand and being in that environment really is taxing mentally and emotionally. So being able to interact and have fun with the local people really boosted our spirits and kept us mentally and emotionally healthy.

Team 5 after our very last task of recovering scallop shells from muck. We didn't think we could get this done, had about 45 min left of our day, but we were able to work as one and got it done. The shells are strung on some wire so they look like necklaces, so when they become covered in mud, they can weigh about 50lbs each. Each string had about 30 shells each, but when we were done, we probably recovered several thousand.

Walking back to our main meeting area, we had time to really take in some of the devastation.

The stairway in the middle leads up to the village's temple, which probably dates back several hundred years. The village's ancestors knew to build on high ground, and that high ground is the only safety to tsunamis.

Washing tsunami mud off our boots in the bay. Tsunami mud, called "hedoro", is extremely tough to get off. It's almost a mixture of clay, mud, tar and smells like rotting fish.

Our main overseer Tadano-san and main village recovery leader.

One last team 5 group shot in front of the B&G center in Oosato, where we stayed for one week for free.

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Thank you Makinohama. All of us of team 5 made a vow to return one day, to Makinohama, and eat oysters with the town folk. It may take up to 10 years, but we all will be reunited. Until then, we will never forget you, and will continue to help the Tohoku.

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Sakura #2

2011-05-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Sakura #2 - Ink on wood, 10" x 20"

A little delayed, but here's the scan of the painting I did for my VIVA!Tokyo event last month.

From the title, obviously, I was inspired by the local cherry blossoms to create this piece. As I was running around all over Tokyo like a madman, planning and setting up the VIVA!Tokyo event, I often took little breaks and breathers just to enjoy the cherry blossoms. This was the first time in my life that I was able to experience a full sakura season from start to finish, so I was quite thrilled to be able to witness the life cycle of a cherry blossom. But it wasn't the beauty of these seasonal flowers alone that inspired me to create a painting based on sakura. The nation of Japan is currently struggling to get back on it's feet following the largest earthquake to devastate this island nation, and the cherry blossoms couldn't have come at a better time to cheer this nation up. All year long, people long for and look forward to be able to hana-mi (cherry blossom picnic parties), and just be drunk and merry. The Japanese people truly love this season and these pink flowers.

But because of the large scale of devastation, death and people affected in the aftermath of this natural disaster, the government was calling on the people of Japan to show restraint, and not celebrate the cherry blossoms this year. Indeed, it is inappropriate to be drunk when there are people suffering and in need of aid in another part of Japan, but I personally felt that this was exactly what this nation needed, in such a dark time. I'm not saying we should be obnoxious and forget what's going on, but we are suffering as a nation, and we should be smiling every chance we get to lift up those around us. And what better way to remember the Touhoku than to have a party dedicated to the Touhoku. We can buy foods and sake produced in the areas affected and devastated, to help their local businesses, and also spread that spirit to others. Sake breweries from affected areas even posted messages on YouTube saying that's the best way to help them recover, to buy products and to keep them in business.

Obviously, this is easier said than done. The Japanese people are a very subdued culture and do not like to stand out, so this sakura season came and went without much fanfare. So I was inspired to create this painting to keep the hana-mi spirit alive, remember those in need of our help, and also not to forget to enjoy the moment and smile once in a while.

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VIVA!JAPAN - GLOBAL AUCTION

2011-04-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

...IS HAPPENING NOW!!!!

http://www.myminiauction.com/vivajapan

There are a ton of great art by a lot of great artists up for auction, so BID BID BID!!!

http://www.myminiauction.com/vivajapan

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LIBRE Burrito - Tokyo

2011-04-06T10:39:00.001-07:00

Great Mexican food is something that all Californians take for granted because you can find it almost anywhere, and because it's so damn cheap. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that major Californian cities (eg San Francisco, San Diego & Los Angeles) have better Mexican food than even Mexico itself, just because you can find a lot of variety as well as originality in such high concentrations (or maybe I'm just boasting). And because of the close proximity to the Mexican border, all of the flavors remain authentic. Growing up in California, Mexican food naturally just infuses into your blood, your taste buds and nose hairs. How I miss the Pollo Borracho burrito by La Costeña from back home.

So one of the biggest transitions I had to deal with, when I moved out here to Tokyo, was simply getting used to the fact that I didn't have access to quality Mexican food anymore. You can find decent "Mexican" restaurants here and there, but are quite expensive and the flavors are adapted to suit the Japanese palate, which are just too whimpy. Japanese people usually don't like cilantro and overly spicy things. And burrito specialty shops are pretty much non-existant. So I've had a burrito craving building up for about a year since I moved out here.

Just when I thought that I might not be able to survive another day without a burrito, a friend informs me that her friend is opening up a new burrito joint called Libre in Aoyama. We immediately went to go check out Libre, and only needed one bite to convince us this place is legit. Alex, the burrito guru at Libre, hails from the Bay Area and cooks with the San Francisco style, but is good enough to make any native Californian want to claim this as their own. Alex throws in a little originality by adding raw purple cabbage into the mix, which adds a great texture and flavor that compliments the seasoning of the meats perfectly. The red sauce was the perfect amount of heat for me, and was nice to see that they deep fry their tortilla chips on site. Basically this burrito hit the spot and satisfied my year long craving for some awesome Mexican food.

I will be visiting my new amigos at Libre quite often, that's for sure.

Libre Burrito
東京都港区南青山3-8-34
TEL: 03-6459-2272
http://www.libre-burrito.com/

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Conserving Electricity Posters - 節電ポスター

2011-03-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

With all of the power plants being knocked out of service, Tokyo is anticipating major electricity shortages as the business week is about to start again on Monday. I've heard from friends, as well as on the news, that many businesses are taking this coming week off to help reduce the strain on the grid, but no one knows for sure how short we will be until tomorrow morning. In efforts to keep the strain low, citizens are taking it upon themselves to use social media to spread the word about electricity conservation, and having a fun poster submission forum on tumblr. Each poster is assigned a print code and you can print your own directly at your local 7eleven convenience store, which I think is a brilliant idea.

The poster above is my favorite. Roughly translated, the poster says:

"My thoughts/wishes, please reach - Please participate in electricity conservation."

Check the rest of the posters below:

http://setsuden.tumblr.com/

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"Shoot 'Dem Like Birds"

2011-03-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

"When you think of Jamaica, do you imagine quiet, exotic beaches, a warm breeze, and a cool drink? Most people do, but for LGBT Jamaicans, a completely different reality exists. In a nation considered one of the most homophobic places on earth, gay men are forced to go underground to protect their own lives and lesbians risk corrective rape at the hands of angry mobs." (full description)

The excerpt above is from the fundraising site for a feature documentary I had the privilege of creating some artwork for. Shoot 'Dem Like Birds is by Traveling Muse Pictures and is based in Los Angeles under the leadership of Leslie Foster. In May, the film crew will start filming the stories of heroes fighting for equality in one of the most homophobic places on earth. In a place where hate crimes and lynchings are often overlooked, Leslie and team will attempt to tell the stories of both the courageous heroes AND the mobs. "Shoot 'Dem Like Birds" is a line from a reggae song that is a literal call to arms to kill anyone not heterosexual, and Traveling Muse is willing to jump right in the midst of that. If that's not some serious guts, I don't know what is. But that just shows how powerful this story is, and how much this story needs to be told. Check out the promo video below to get a grasp of what this is all about.

Shoot 'Dem Like Birds Promo from Traveling Muse on Vimeo.

The images below (and bird image at the top) are the artwork I created for the film. With the bird image, I wanted to symbolize the struggle and fight that is going on within the nation of Jamaica. It may seem like two different entities fighting each other, but in reality, they are one. They are equal. Killing one will only kill the other. The images below portray the same thing, but in a more stark and realistic way.

We're constantly bombarded with news/stories of people fighting for freedom and equality from across the globe these days, but LGBTQ freedom is something that is conveniently overlooked and ignored for some reason. I am happy and excited for the changes happening in Egypt and Tunisia, to name a couple. I also hope the Libyans can get rid of Gadhafi soon, too much blood has been spilled already. I truly hope and pray for Libyan freedom. But how can we wish this and ignore what is happening to our neighbors, and even within our own borders.

Help Leslie and the rest of the Traveling Muse team tell this story. If you feel like helping out, please visit the fundraising site below. Donations of $25 or more will get you limited edition prints of all of the artwork I created for this film. I may also be creating more art, depending on how things go. So please help!

http://www.indiegogo.com/Shoot-Dem-Like-Birds

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"The Unseen Sea" by Simon Christen

2011-03-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

A great little short that captures the essence one of the Bay Area's most distinctive features, the climate in and around the San Francisco peninsula. It's something that you can't really describe with words, you just got to feel it and breathe it. Trying to capture this on film is also extremely difficult, as it is very difficult to visually portray the chilly breezes that contradict the stereotype of sunny California. It's not just the cold either. It's the misty yet crisp moisture that you can feel on your skin, the slight salt of the ocean you can taste, and the cool tones the sky gives the environment. The film also captures a lot of San Francisco's most typical physical features. Such as the city's skyline, hills, pines, which made me feel I was atop of Twin Peaks breathing this all in.

The "Unseen Sea" is really a great title for this, as it perfectly describes the rolling fog that constantly surrounds the peninsula. This film really made my day, thank you Simon Christen for reminding me how beautiful the Bay Area is.

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ps- I highly recommend you reopening this on Vimeo (link below) and watching in full screen HD.
http://vimeo.com/15069551

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Cooking w/ Goat Cheese

2011-03-01T06:12:00.000-08:00

My friend, who is a goat farmer from Kyoto, came up to Tokyo a couple weeks back to attend a cheese convention. He was kind enough to share some awesome goat cheese with me, which he had brought as samples for the convention. Yagi-san (as we call him, trans: Mr. Goat) makes these cheeses himself and is the goats' official caretaker at the Ruri-kei farms. Contrary to popular belief, quality & fresh goat cheese is not that gamey or stinky. It does have that slight tangy-aftertaste, but is not overwhelming at all (in my opinion). People seem to be turned off almost immediately just by seeing the word "goat" next to anything edible, and I have to admit that I had that bias for some reason growing up as well, even though I had never even tried goat cheese as a kid. I think especially in America, we grow up being brainwashed that anything cheese related should be akin to Kraft "American" cheese.

The fromage frais w/ blueberry jam on a bagel.

I was able to taste these cheeses when I visited the goat farm last year (pictures), and immediately wanted to cook with them because it was some of the best tasting goat cheese I've ever tasted. So I was overjoyed that I had the opportunity to do so this time around.

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GOAT CHEESE PASTA

First thing I made was a spaghetti pancetta arrabbiata w/ goat cheese.

The rich texture of the chèvre fermier was screaming something spicy/salty, so I decided to cube & crisp up this pancetta that I had sitting in the frig.

I then cheated and added a premade can of arrabbiata sauce along with some spices, a splash of red wine and a nice hefty squeeze of sriracha. Once some of the liquid evaporated, I threw in some chunks of the chèvre fermier and tossed it around gently as to not break up the cheese too much.

Finally threw in my nice and al dente pasta I had cooking on the side, toss it gently just to mix and it's done!

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GOAT CHEESE CHEESECAKE

I still had a lot leftover, and did not want them to go bad, so I decided to make a goat cheese cheesecake with the remaining product. I usually don't like to bake because you actually need to measure things, but I felt this cheese would really make an awesome cheesecake, so made an exception this time. I changed some stuff around, but this is the recipe that I came up with after comparing a few:

crust:
~6 graham crackers (had to use a similar cookie, hard to find in Japan)
2 Tbsp melted butter

filling:
1 stick of cream cheese
equivalent amount of the chèvre fermier
2Tbsp of the fromage frais
1/2 cup sugar (I used unrefined)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup flour
1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon zest

serves 12

Start off by making the crust first. You can use a food processor but don't make the crumbs too fine. Melt the butter.

Combine thoroughly and press into the bottom of the bake dish. Once complete wrap in plastic and throw in the frig to harden.

Throw all the cheeses into the bowl and mix with the sugar. This is where a mixer would come in handy, I do not have one. Make sure the cheese mix is a smooth.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. At this point it will be semi-watery. Then pour the filling into the crust.

Preheat your oven to 350°F and bake for about 45 minutes. Monitor frequently, you don't want it to rise too fast or else you're going to get cracks (like mine). I don't have a real oven here as well, so had to use the microwave with it's built in semi-convection oven feature. I couldn't fine tune the temp so I think I slightly over-baked.

And done! As you can see it's quite cracked like grand canyon, but it tasted pretty damn good.

Surprisingly I found some good blueberries at the market, so I decided to make a sauce with that. I forgot to document this, but I cooked one pack of blueberries in some butter, added some sliced lemon rinds, then simmered in a splash of red wine, about a Tbsp of unrefined sugar and a dollop of honey. I let the sauce cool once, let the blueberry juices ooze out a bit, then simmered one more time to thicken.

Served this with some Hokkaido vanilla ice cream. My grandma said this was the best dessert she'd ever tasted, made me laugh. haha.

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I love goat cheese.

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EvilTHelL Exhibition @ Hatos Bar

2011-02-16T01:50:00.000-08:00

Daniel Hebberd aka EvilTHelL art show happening this coming Friday @ Hatos Bar in Nakameguro, Tokyo.

Opening Party DATE: February 18th @ 7pm, music starts @ 8pm.

Players:
XLII (Raid System, http://raids.jp/)
Repeat Pattern (Lo-Vibes, http://soundcloud.com/lo-vibes)
Blunt (Hatos Rec., http://www.hatos.org/)

EvilTHelL Art:
http://evilthell.deviantart.com/

Hatos Bar:
http://hatosbar.com/

More info at:
http://daniel.hebberd.com/post/2986324841/evilthell-art-exhibition-hatos-bar-daikanyama

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Come out for some good brew, food and some cool art!

ART, DRINKS & MUSIC - WINTER 2010

2010-11-09T00:29:00.000-08:00

The holidays are around the corner and that means it's time for another event by Viva LA Art!! Come out for another night of fun with 100% of proceeds benefitting the CoachArt charity.

I will also be donating my Conversations piece (shown above) which will be up for silent auction. Anyone in need of an awesome Xmas present for a really reasonable price?!

Event details below:

ART, DRINKS & MUSIC - WINTER 2010

Saturday, November 20th @ 8:30p-12:30a
Bidding ends 11p

First and Hope
701 West First St, Los Angeles CA

100 percent of proceeds from the auction and $20 door donation will benefit CoachArt, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses by providing free, personal lessons in the arts and athletics. They do this by enlisting volunteers from the LA community who are willing to devote at least 1 day a week for 10 weeks to coach a chronically ill child in the art, hobby, or sport of their choice.

More artists to come, keep checking back!

CONTRIBUTED ARTWORK BY
Allison Sommers, Andrew Holder, Anthony Williams, Atiba Azikiwe Andrews, Bob Doucette, Chris Sanchez, Dabs Myla, Dave Pressler, David Brady, Deth P. Sun, Jay Horinouchi, Joby Cummings, Joby Harris, Josh Holland, Justin Diamond, Katherine Chiu, Katy Betz, Kevin Mack, Michael Pukac, Michelle Jane Lee, Ramon Cho, Rebekah Waites, Rich Pellegrino, Sarah Joncas, Shannon Bonatakis, Shay Vision, Snow Mack, Sophia Gasparian, Stacey Aoyama, Tony Hong

Raw Melons

2010-11-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

When it gets colder, eat more ice cream.

My current motto as fall has started to make Tokyo a bit chilly at night. Still warm enough where you can walk around outside without gloves and a scarf, but cold enough where you see less people buying ice cream at the stores. BLASPHEMY!! Why would you ever stop eating ice cream?? The decrease in demand has not affected the new types of ice cream seen circulating in the freezer boxes though, which means there are always new things to try! Here are a couple of my newest finds:

Raw Caramel Ice Cream with Caramelized Potato topping

Imagine dipping your french fries into soft serve or a milkshake (come on, everyone does it), but 1000x better with raw caramel ice cream and caramelized potatoes on top! The ice cream itself is extremely rich and typical of the raw caramel phenomenon, and the slightly salty flavor of potatoes compliment the sweetness perfectly. These are also on the pricier side for a little tiny cup, but the experience sure makes up for it. And to top it off, these suckers are available (for a limited time I'm guessing) at your local Japanese 7-eleven.

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Melon Pan Ice Cream

Melon pan ice cream! Well, nothing to really be crazy about, was basically just a mound of vanilla ice cream within a crepe like shell. But as a melon pan fanatic, I had to try this out. The outer shell seemed like it should have been crispier, like a real melon pan cookie crust, but was a little chewy cuz of freezer moisture. But for only a buck, it was easily one of the cheapest ice cream product in the store.

Sunset in Matsue City

2010-08-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Sunset over Lake Shinji, Matsue City in the Shimane Prefecture

Hand Cut Udon (手打ちうどん)

2010-08-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

Homemade udon, or better known as hand cut udon/手打ちうどん, is a classic Japanese comfort food that can be served hot or cold, depending on what season it is. It's seldom made at home outside of Japan, and even in Japan it's not a very common thing to do, just because it takes a LOT of time and effort to prepare. But I decided to take a stab at it, and to my delight it turned out awesome! Here's how it went down.

Ingredients:
Flour - 500g
Water - 225g
Salt - 25g

Serves 6.

*Udon specialty flour is recommended, but couldn't find any so I used regular flour myself. And don't use tap water.

Combine the salt and water, making sure the salt is completely dissolved. Then slowly add the water in increments into the flour and mix thoroughly. Adding water little by little prevents big clumps and makes the kneading process easier.

The flour will be very crumbly at first, but will slowly start to condense as you mix in more water.

After you add in all the water, keep kneading until you can form an ugly lookin ball of dough. Don't try to make it all smooth, it's pretty impossible to do so by hand.

It's nearly impossible to continue kneading by hand, but not by FEET! Place the ball of dough into a plastic bag, double bag it if you're afraid you might rip it and might get some toe-jam kneaded in. Use mainly your heel and knead outward, kind of like flattening out a pizza. When it flattens out, open up the bag and fold up the dough and round it up into a ball again, and continue stomping. Keep doing this for at least 45 minutes.

After you finish stomping, it should look really smooth. Keep it in the bag so it won't dry out, and let it sit for at least 2 hours (or longer). If you don't let it sit long enough, you won't give it enough time for the gluten to form, so will become brittle after you boil the noodles. Start flattening out with a large roller once you can't wait any longer.

I was going for the Sanuki style (thick and square), so I stopped flattening out when I reached about 3mm in thickness. Dust a bit of flour on top, then fold so it's easier to cut.

You can buy these super awesome klingon lookin udon knives to cut, but honestly, any long knife will do. Just have a steady hand and cut straight, consistently. I was aiming to match the thickness, so I was trying to cut every 3mm.

Make sure all the noodles are separated, then sprinkle some flour on top and give it a few gentle shakes/tosses to prep to boil.

Have a large pot of water boiling, and then gently place the udon into the hot water. They will immediately sink, but do NOT try to stir them to the surface, as they're pretty fragile once they enter the hot water. As they boil they will naturally float to the surface on their own, and at that point you can gently stir them around.

It takes about 15 minutes to cook, but it's also a matter of preference. Just make sure not to overcook, so monitor the noodles closely. You can tell when they're close when they start to become semi translucent. Have some cold water (as cold as possible) running when you dump the noodles into a colander and immediately cool the noodles and rinse the residue off the noodles. You can do this for a good couple minutes.

DONE! Zaru udon is perfect for a hot day, and pairs perfectly with some fresh tempura and an ice cold beer!

Honey Soysauce Butter

2010-07-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

Made an amazing discovery this week as I was killing some time at the market, waiting for the bus. As I was admiring the butter section as usual, I noticed a single jar looking a little lonely and toward the back. Puzzlement over the label quickly turned into amazement, as I reread Honey Shoyu Butter, or はちみつ醤油バター, over and over in my head. This could either be a mind blowing miracle stuffed into a jar, or something totally disgusting and a waste of 700yen (pretty pricy for a jar of butter).

Excitement started to turn sour as I opened the jar... it wasn't creamy at all and didn't look impressive at all. The soysauce gave it a pale brown-ish coloring, which really isn't that appetizing.

BUT HOLY COW! I took a bite after it melted and was able to spread it over some toast, and my taste buds were instantly jumping for joy. This butter literally tastes like salted caramel without being too sweet or sticky with just hints of soy sauce, but was not unpleasant at all. It is also lighter because it's not as dense as caramel. Quite an amazing product!!

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Honey Soysauce Butter (はちみつ醤油バター) by Tamariya

Coalition Of The Willing

2010-07-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Coalition Of The Willing from coalitionfilm on Vimeo.

A great video that was sent to me last week, and want to share. It's a great message, and a perspective that needs to be absorbed by the modern world. The video makes me think about what I can do to help change this world. If only I knew the answer to that question...

'Coalition of the Willing' is a collaborative animated film and web-based event about an online war against global warming in a 'post Copenhagen' world.

‘Coalition of the Willing’ has been Directed and produced by Knife Party, written by Tim Rayner and crafted by a network of 24 artists from around the world using varied and eclectic film making techniques. Collaborators include some of the world’s top moving image talent, such as Decoy, World Leaders and Parasol Island.

The film offers a response to the major problem of our time: how to galvanize and enlist the global publics in the fight against global warming. This optimistic and principled film explores how we could use new Internet technologies to leverage the powers of activists, experts, and ordinary citizens in collaborative ventures to combat climate change. Through analyses of swarm activity and social revolution, 'Coalition of the Willing' makes a compelling case for the new online activism and explains how to hand the fight against global warming to the people.

Caramel au Beurre Salé - C.B.S.

2010-07-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Henri Le Roux is probably most well known for his work with Yoku-Moku (at least in Japan), but his salted caramels are absolutely delicious. Not too salty or not overly sweet and sticky, just the perfect blend of butter, sugar and salt. I found a Henri Le Roux speciality shop in Roppongi Hills, in the Midtown shopping center after checking out the Lucie Rie retrospective exhibition, so decided to run in and pick up a few morsels. I was dismayed to see that there was a variety of flavors as well as other types of sweets including ice cream, but was in a rush so I kept it simple and bought only the C.B.S., which is his original caramel. The C.B.S. is studded with hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts. I will be back soon to test out all the other flavors.

http://www.henri-leroux.com/

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David Lebovitz's article on Henri Le Roux.

Grillin up some Ayu (鮎）

2010-07-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

The ayu, also known as sweetfish, is one of my all time favorite fish to eat. A relative of the smelt, it's mainly caught in freshwater environments and has a distinct light and flaky texture with a semi-sweet flavor. The fish thrives in a very clean freshwater environment, so once scaled, the fish can literally be eaten whole (minus the bones of course). The ayu mainly eats algae (although can also eat worms and insects), so the innards are also very clean and delicious. The bitterness of the liver is a nice contrast to the sweet and more subtle flavors of the meat itself. Eating this fish brings back a lot of childhood memories when my family and I used to go to onsens, as this is a very typical fish to be served in a resort setting.

This was my first time cooking this fish myself, but preparation was pretty easy. The scales are small and thin, so they fly off pretty easily with a cooking knife. But the hot water I washed my hands in afterwards cooked the fish protein and fused the tiny scales to my skin. Next time I'll know to wash my hands in cold water.

Once scaled, you skewer the fish in a "wave" shape for a couple reasons. First, it looks pretty and appetizing (a less dead look), and secondly it cooks better this way. Forgot to buy special skewers, so I only had short bamboo sticks to work with. The fish usually is a lot more "wavy", oh well.

Only seasoning is a quick sprinkling of salt over the skin. But for presentation purposes, you cover the head and cake the fins with salt to prevent it from charring too much or burning off completely.

And BAM! Done! The preferred cooking method is to lean towards an intense open flame at a distance (ie campfire), but since I couldn't build a big fire like that in my kitchen, I just used the fish grill. The wave form also helped to prevent the fish from sticking too much to the grill. While I was workin the fish, my aunt prepared nasu-soboro and egg and chive soup.

Delicious. Even the eyeballs.

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random fact - ayu is one of the fish traditionally caught using cormorant fishing in Japan.

VITAMIN WATER INVADES JAPAN!

2010-06-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Any of my former roommates know that I used to be obsessed with Glaceau's Vitamin Water, and that my frig was always stocked with these badboys. So I was quite overjoyed when I spotted a few flavors at Narita Airport earlier this year. I instantly grabbed my favorite fruit punch flavor to quench my thirst, but soon realized distribution was pretty small and they weren't as readily available as I had hoped.

So this was a few months ago, and it now seems they have made a push for wider distribution, even having exclusive vending machines like the one pictured above. They're still a little hard to find in more suburban Tokyo areas, but you can find these all over the busier hip locations (found this one in Shibuya). Now that the heat/humidity is settling in and ushering in the summer days, there's just something about GVW that quenches like no other, even though they do cost more and are slimmer than the US versions.

GVW has also released more flavors (changed a few of the names), and the latest is the refreshing XXX flavor, which really hits the spot during a hot humid day. Love it!

Alphonse Mucha in Mitaka

2010-06-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

Alphonse Mucha is one of my all time favorite artists from the previous century, and the last place I would have expected a quality exhibition of his work is right here in suburb west-Tokyo area, in the city of Mitaka. This gallery is a relatively small space located on the top floor that is adjacent to Mitaka station, and honestly does not look impressive at all from the outside. I've been to other big name exhibitions in the area (ie - Norman Rockwell), and was thoroughly disappointed by what was on display.

But the Mitaka City Gallery of Art did a fabulous job of borrowing works from all over the world, and showcased a very wide range of Mucha's work including oil paintings, poster/designs and sketches/studies. I noticed a lot of borrowed work from Prague. I went with very low expectations so this exhibition ended up blowing me away.

Place had pretty tight security with no photography, so I was only able to sneak a couple shots.

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Alphonse Mucha 150th Birthday Exhibition
Mitaka City Gallery Of Art
May 22 through July 4, 2010

〒181-0013　東京都三鷹市下連雀3-35-1 CORAL(コラル)５階
Phone: 0422-79-0033
http://mitaka.jpn.org/gallery/

Hosogiri (thin) Pretz!

2010-06-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

Pretz snacks have been a favorite snack of mine ever since I was a kid, and they recently came out with "Hosogiri", or thinly cut Pretz. They're maybe half the thickness of normal pretz, and that makes them that much more crunchy and flavorful. Plus all the new flavors are quite kickass, especially BACON!!!! The flavors I have stocked above are fried chicken, edamame, BACON and salt caramel. There are apparently other flavors I haven't found yet, like tomato. Love these things!

"Raw" Caramel Ice Cream

2010-06-13T00:41:00.001-07:00

I blogged about the Raw caramels from Hokkaido earlier this year, and now here's the ice cream version of the caramels! The caramels were extremely hard to come by because of the extremely high demand (not so much now), so the creators wanted to come up with a way to make the caramels more readily available for everyone. So by making ice cream from the same milk source as the caramels, one can have a similar experience, and possibly a more welcome experience during the hot summer seasons of Japan.

The creators weren't kidding when they said they wanted to make this available to everyone, so if you live in Tokyo you can find the plain caramel and chocolate caramel flavors at various retailers all over, including the 7-eleven that's one block away from me. It's quite amazing to find such a high quality product at a place like 7-eleven, but it does cost over $5 a pop.

First impression of the ice cream itself is really quite non remarkable, although it's very creamy and smooth, just tastes like above average vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Did not think it was worth $5 for a tiny little cardboard cup, even if the packaging was gold and all pretty. But like many things, good things come to those who wait. I had to remember why the raw caramels were so good, and that you had to eat them at room temperature.

There are bits of caramel embedded into the ice cream (shown above). You need to let the ice cream melt away then you're left with little bits of caramel on your tongue. Then about a half second later the caramel bits warm up and become awesome orgasmic flavor bombs that bombard and caress your taste buds and the same time.

The chocolate version is also good, but the chocoflav starts to interfere with the delicate buttery caramel flavors. The original vanilla flavor kicks ass.

Mr. Shimada's Bee Farm

2010-06-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Mr. Shimada is a close family friend of ours here in Tokyo, and he maintains many forms of agriculture in and around the Koganei area of suburban Tokyo. He started to keep bees a few years back mainly for fun, but that slowly turned into a small side business and now provides honey to local residents and markets. He only maintains about 40 boxes or so, which is a pretty small number if you're a bee farmer, and I was able to go observe and help out for a day.

I was more excited with the thought of possibly wearing one of those full body bee suits you see on TV... but these guys are super hardcore/oldfashioned, and so they only gave me a dinky hat to wear leaving the rest of my body exposed (I was wearing a tshirt and shorts). But bees for the most part leave you alone unless you're directly hurting them, so I didn't get stung at all. Swatting at them is apparently the worst thing you can do, so if you just ignore them they'll leave you alone too. They also detect intruders by the presence of your breath, or carbon dioxide, so if you keep your breathing shallow and hold your breath when you're really close to the hive, they won't even know you're there.

Mr. Shimada was just checking up on some newly settled in queens, so we only ended up harvesting a few boxes for the day. We used an old school steel spin drum to extract all the honey, and we ended up with some of the best honey ever. Although the Cherry Blossom honey Mr. Shimada gave us a few weeks ago was quite amazing as well, you could taste subtle notes of sakura in the honey. Really quite amazing.

Here are some photos from that day:

Owl Wine Opener by Hagino Mitsunobu

2010-04-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

I'm always a sucker for cool little kitchen gadgets, and this one caught my eye browsing Notcot today. It's quite sexy. Gunna hunt this sucker down when I'm in Japan later this week!!

(images from notcot.com)

Read more here:
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2010/04/kd_style_wine_opener.php

Koshi Kawachi

2010-04-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across an awesome-fun Japanese artist named Koshi Kawachi today on Pinktentacle (via Tokyomango). He finds everyday Japanese things and transforms them into new forms of everyday life and art. Love it.

"うまい仏 - Tasty Buddah" Figures carved out of Japanese sweet snacks, or dagashi.

for more images:
http://www.koshikawachi.com/gallery/02ub

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Also found out he's into gardening. Manga Gardening to be exact.

for more images:
http://pinktentacle.com/2010/04/manga-farming/

Jay Horinouchi / 堀之内 ジェイ