Finally made it to Narita, the international airport near Tokyo. It’s incredibly inconvenient. For a 09:30 flight I had to get up at 04:30 (but I overslept ’til 05:00). For all of Japan’s hi-tech achievements, it can be an awfully inefficient and illogical place.

I’m sitting in the airline lounge now, laptop computer out, hooked up to the net via wireless, compact digital camera in hand, card reader to transfer files to my laptop…all this whiz-bang gadgetry just to upload a photo of sushi (a fish photo of sorts).

Obviously, at this early hour, there’s no way I can stomach sushi. Coffee, a bagel, and some vegetable soup is more than enough.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted anything. Life’s been hectic…meetings, articles to submit, errands to run…the usual.

But also, it’s autumn in Japan. The weather’s been a little funky, but overall, it’s been absolutely beautiful. We had a typhoon pass through yesterday, but today was probably the most gorgeous weather so far this year. And since it was a Sunday, there were lots of people out enjoying the perfect weather. Of course, Pasta (my golden retriever) isn’t one to miss such a golden opportunity (pardon the pun).

After her usual morning walk, Pasta seemed a bit restless. I decided to write-off the long list of “to do” items on my ever-growing, seemingly unending list of tasks, and took Pasta out for another stroll, with a stopover for lunch. Dining alfresco isn’t common in Japan, but there’s a pizza place nearby I’ve been meaning to try for a while, which just happens to have two tables outside…tailor-made for a day like today.

The name of the place is Pizza Salvatore Cuomo, and the pizza is frickin’ awesome. I kid you not. It’s spectacular, so good that I ended up ordering a second pizza after wolfing down the first one plus an order of pasta.

We had a pizza Calabrese (eggplants, olives, anchovies) and a special pasta of the day, then added a pizza Marinara No.1 (four types of tomatoes). If you’re ever in the Tokyo area and in the mood for pizza, this is the place. You will not regret it.

Anyway, one thing I discovered today is that Pasta prefers pizza over pasta, as is clear from the pictures below. Tired from all the walking, she wasn’t the least bit interested when the pasta was served, but the moment the pizza arrived…bingo! She was wide awake and sniffing away. My dog has impeccable taste. The pasta was really good, but let me repeat…the pizza was frickin’ out of this world.

After lunch we wandered around a bit, taking in the sights and sounds of autumn. I got to thinking about a conversation I had last week, while I was in town for a meeting with a person I know from Sea & Sea.

As we sat in the lobby of a big, shiny office building, I mentioned to him that I really love autumn. Being from outside Tokyo, he agreed, and we got to chatting about city people. Sitting in that enormous marble, steel and chrome lobby, we watched as hundreds of people shuffled back-and-forth in front of us, going to meetings, leaving meetings, entering elevators, heading into cubicles…as busy and driven as dedicated workers in an ant colony, and seemingly as oblivious of everything around them.

I commented on the fact that the leaves were turning colours, flowers and trees producing seeds and nuts, air getting crisp and clear…and he noted that most of the people in the building probably had no idea any of this was happening…at least not directly. Most people understand in principle what happens in autumn, but it’s one thing to “know” something in a book-learning, theoretical kind of way, and quite another to experience it directly by feeling, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing it.

It’s a bit sad, isn’t it? There’s so much going on around us, and most city folk don’t have the time or interest to enjoy it.

In my mind, this is the main reason that the world’s in so much trouble. Most urban dwellers are largely, if not completely, out of touch with the world. We live in air-conditioned/ heated houses, travel in cars/ trains/ buses/ planes to an air-conditioned/ heated office, exercise in air-conditioned/ heated clubs, eat in posh restaurants where you don’t get your hands dirty preparing food (much less having to find/ hunt/ fish for it), etc., etc., etc.

There are so many times I’ve had conversations with people, both directly and virtually, when it’s just obvious to me that they’re not connected to the world. The thing I wonder about though, is how it is that many of these people, who live most or all of their lives in urban cocoons, feel so highly qualified to judge what needs to be done to fix nature.

If only the pitfalls of pontificating from afar were more obvious.

We went into our meeting, in a room with no windows, no contact with the outside world, no connection with nature…and then we left. The meeting went extremely well, but I must confess that I breathed a silent but significant sigh of relief when I was finally able to leave the building and go back to the real world.

A grasshopper showed up suddenly and stirred me from my daydreaming, bringing me back to here-and-now. I was just about to take Pasta back home, but reflecting on that conversation earlier in the week, I realised that the to-do list could wait, and my time today was much better spent watching Pasta watch the grasshopper watch me watch the seasons change.

With all the places I go and the people I meet, from time-to-time it’s inevitable that I’ll find myself in a situation with food that I “must try”, even though all things being equal, I’d probably rather not.

A few nights ago, I was taken out by some very nice people to a restaurant that serves one thing, and one thing only…horse meat. The cuisine is from an area in southern Japan known as Kumamoto. The restaurant, called Haruya, is in a part of Tokyo known as Yotsuya, on a street filled with places to eat and drink.

Read the rest of this entry »

While I was in Western Australia, I had some of the best Chinese food I’ve had in years. Ok, perhaps the fact that there’s awesome Asian food in Perth is no big secret, but it was a revelation for me. It was, after all, my first visit to the area.

If you find yourself in Perth, a visit to Billy Lee’s Chinese Restaurant in China Town is a must. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the food…wow.

The acid test for a Chinese-food chef is Hot and Sour Soup. Achieving just the right mix of flavours in this dish is difficult, so if the Hot and Sour Soup is good, you know you’ve got a skilled chef.

The Hot and Sour Soup at Billy Lee’s? Simply out of this world.

Go here: Billy Lee’s Chinese Restaurant, located at the China Town gate on Roe Street, in the narrow street on the left. Open every day from 5:00pm to 4:00am.

Traditional fare on New Year Day in Japan is called osechi ryouri (おせち料理). Like the toshi koshi soba you’re supposed to have on New Year’s Eve, most of the food that makes up osechi ryouri carries a meaning.

First, the term “osechi” probably derives from the term osekku (お節句), which refers to the traditional practice of offering thanks to spirits/ gods for the harvest. This involved sharing a meal, and was practiced five times a year.

Eventually, this evolved into a once-a-year event at New Year, and in addition, took on a different signficance. Osechi ryouri is prepared in large quantities and served for the first three days of the new year. This is meant to give housewives a 3-day break at the beginning of the year from the daily chore of preparing meals.

A few decades ago, it was probably quite common for nearly every household to prepare osechi ryouri. There’s a lot of work involved, and it makes sense when there’s a large gathering of people, like two or three generations living together under one roof.

These days, with more single people and young people who live away from home, the number of people preparing their own osechi seems to be decreasing. Instead, you can order your osechi ryouri sets in advance from department stores and other places, and even have it delivered to your home.

I prefer mine homemade.

Some of the things that are quite common in osechi ryouri (and their symbolic meaning based on play on words) include:

• Seaweed roll (昆布巻き) — happiness
• Black soybeans (黒豆) — smooth progress in work
• Chestnut and sweet potato mix (栗きんとん) — accumulation of wealth
• Shrimp — long life
• Red and white fish cakes (かまぼこ) — red and white are traditional celebratory colours in Japan

There’s more, but that gives you an idea. Basically, there’s lots of good, healthy food (plenty of vegetables, not much fried food, and essentially no red meat), and you’re supposed to feast on it for three days, along with healthy portions of sake.

Crossing over from one year to the next in Japan traditionally involves a lot of food. The evening before the new year, you’re supposed to have toshi koshi soba (年越しそば), which translated literally means something like “soba noodles to cross over to the new year”.

This tradition started some time during the Edo period (1603-1867), and it carries a few meanings. First, the soba, or buckwheat, noodles are long and thin, which symbolises a desire/ hope for long life and luck for you and your family.

In addition, the noodles break relatively easily, which is meant to symbolise a break from the passing year’s difficulties, problems, debts and other troubles.

Though many of Japan’s traditions are disappearing rapidly, this one fortunately seems to be hanging on.

And even if you don’t entirely buy into the symbolism, the noodles are delicious.