Random Picture #212

My husband and I recently attended a festival in Japantown in San Jose (as I mentioned in last week's random picture). When I got to these festivals, I'm interested in both what sort of Japanese things are on offer and how those things differ from what I experienced in Japan. I'm not a purist about such things, mind you. I'm not going to poo-poo something that is inauthentic. I experienced enough "American" things which has been adapted for Japanese tastes in Japan to know that what sells in one place in one form doesn't sell in other places. Changes are necessary.

The picture above is manju (Japanese sweets with sweet bean fillings and mochi - pounded rice cake - exteriors). I noted that the manju on offer at the festival was jewel-toned and much darker in color than that in Japan. It also included flavors I didn't tend to see there like peanut butter and coconut. The color coding on these was, at least in part, to help people separate the flavors. My guess is that it was also to stop them from all looking like greyish blobs as sometimes that is how they look when not coated in some sort of powder or having a strong, colorful flavor element mixed in. I also noted that these were bigger than Japanese sweets, but that's no shock either.

The truth is that, though I don't judge the American alternations negatively and I understand where they come from, I suffer as much from the tendency to like what I know better than variations. Since I experienced Japanese food in Japan, I don't tend to like the American (or other) variations as much or feel drawn to them. They don't taste "right" to me, but I know this isn't that they're "wrong", but just a reflection of what I grew accustomed to.

Random Picture #148

We're still in the throes of winter, or what passes for it in northern California, but I thought I'd share an image  from a summer festival in Japan. If you're feeling good and chilly already, this should send a shiver down your spine. During a tanabata festival, we caught a shot of this young fellow plunging his arm deep into a bath of ice to plumb for just the right beverage for a customer. When we saw him do this, we had two thoughts. First, this couldn't be comfortable. Second, despite the discomfort, in the high heat and humidity of an August in Tokyo, it may be preferable to consistently standing in the crowd and sweating. I imagine he had an impulse more than once to just plunge his face into the bath. I'm guessing, however, that customers would strongly object to his sweaty brow coming into contact with water that touched a can or bottle that touched their lips. Of course, they didn't seem to care or notice that his sweaty forearm was swirling around in there.

The tanabata festivals were scattered all over Japan at different times of the year. Our local one was actually quite late compared to most of the ones in other parts of Japan. That didn't generally make it any different than the other ones, it was just a lot more uncomfortable due to the increased temperatures.