Looking out over the Kitakami Poem Park on a beautiful October day.
On beautiful early autumn days like today, the dragonflies come out in swarms. Akatonbo is the generic name for any red-bodied dragonfly.
On beautiful early autumn days like today, the dragonflies come out in swarms. Akatonbo is the generic name for any red-bodied dragonfly.
As the nights get cold and we brace for the approaching winter, here's a photo to remind us of spring and the approaching summer.
If I had to leave Japan knowing about only one new food, it would be takikomi gohan.
Takikomi gohan is rice cooked along with other stuff in water seasoned with soy sauce and other flavorings. It's also called gomoku gohan, five-ingredient rice, presumably because most recipes have five ingredients. This recipe calls for chicken, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, aburaage, and gobou (burdock root). It's one of our favorite fall dinners, alongside some homemade rice-bran pickles. In a country where sharp, craggy mountains dominate the landscape, farmers plant their fields wherever there's a large enough expanse of flat land. Sometimes, cities grow up around those fields.
We spent a weekend at the coast, and found a large number of sea urchins hanging out in some shallow water at a rocky beach. Back Next |