Life In Japan: Lunch Anyone?

A few days ago, my wife Masumi decided we should go to one of her favorite cafés for a special Saturday lunch. She certainly deserved a weekend reward for her hard work — and her job has been especially stressful the last few weeks — teaching music at an elementary school in nearby Inagawa.

This was the lunch set for that particular day at Café Arbour.

Let me be entirely candid. There are many ingredients in this meal I don’t recognize. There are many ingredients you certainly would never find in a typical American lunch: jellyfish, daikon (radish), koyadofu, soumen, sansyo (Japanese pepper), to name a few.

But isn’t that the point? Isn’t that part of the incredible journey of discovery intrinsic to marrying into and living in a completely different culture?

In a way, I end up with the best of two worlds. We still enjoy Western foods — or the best semblance of favorites from the West which are available here — quite regularly, either by my efforts in the kitchen or by going to any number of area restaurants. But I also get to sample, taste, experience and savor a whole new range of cuisine. And trust me, when you get deep into “traditional” Japanese food — as exemplified by our special lunch at Café Arbour — you end up discovering flavors I never could have imagined before. Some take getting some used to, while others are amazing from the get-go.

Let me give a truly unique example of how this cross-cultural pollinization can work.

Anyone remember this Mother Goose poem? . . .

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper;
A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,
Where’s the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

I can’t say this piece of doggerel ever inspired in me anything particular profound. And I frankly assumed that ‘pickled pepper’ was a nonsensical phrase chosen for its alliteration.

But . . . I was SO WRONG!

At our lunch, right there for the taking — and admittedly they were delicious! (in a peppery pickled sort of way) — were . . . [drumroll] . . . are you ready? . . .

And that, folks, is how bridges are built between lands and cultures separated by history and thousands of miles of geography!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ] 

Life In Japan: Lunch Anyone? | John Rachel

War is over if . . . | John Rachel

John Lennon was idealistic and inspiring. His lovely, if somewhat naive Imagine, embodied the hope and vision most of us share for a better, more peaceful world.

Personally, I appreciate Lennon’s genius even more listening to the background vocals and out-chorus of his phenomenal Christmas ode, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) . . .

The beautifully sung line that really catches my ear and fires my imagination is . . .

John and Yoko certainly had the right idea. It’s an idea most of us want to believe in!

At the same time, despite how good I genuinely feel entertaining such a thought, I see a problem here. That sentiment probably wasn’t true back in 1971 when the song was released, and it certainly is not true in today’s world.

The vast majority of people in the U.S. and across the globe want an end to the wars. But given the current configuration of political power, the realities of who decides where and when the next conflict will take place, what we the people think is completely irrelevant.

We everyday, sane, decent, peace-loving folks CANNOT stop the endless wars for a simple and obvious reason.

We are powerless!

I mean that literally, not figuratively.

WE HAVE NO POWER!

And the people who do have all of the power to make peace or wage war have no desire, have zero motivation to end their aggression, to stop creating more enemies, to reduce tensions, to once and forever retire war as the main mechanism of foreign policy.

In fact, all of the rewards and incentives for those now in power — the ruling elite and their lapdogs in government — are to escalate conflict and confrontation, beat the war drums louder and louder, increase misunderstanding, promote fear and mistrust, and accelerate the march into battle. The threat of war, preparation for war, and starting wars will be endlessly recycled until there is a complete, game-changing, paradigm-shifting challenge to the policies which define the way our government now deals with the rest of the world.

War is among the most profitable investments in play. And the turmoil and chaos resulting from war keeps the current batch of warmongers in power. They make money — enormous sums of money — and lock themselves in a position to make even more money.

Why would they lift a finger to seek peace?

Why would they care whether we want peace or not?

Why would they even pay attention to us when we question them?

Why would those who exclusively benefit and enrich themselves selling war, promoting war, manufacturing and marketing weapons, creating more justifications for more lethal fighting machinery, pushing for endless military expansion, why would these amoral, money-hungry, power-drunk empire builders and imperial plunderers declare ‘war is over’ JUST BECAUSE WE WANT IT?

No, as poignant and beautiful as John Lennon’s inspired and inspiring lyric line is, reality demands we reconfigure it. Maybe it doesn’t sing quite as well or create as warm and fuzzy a feeling in us as his original line. But this is the only way things will change . . .

That is the truth about peace in our time . . . or I should say, perpetual war in our time.

It’s up to us to change the disastrous trajectory that we’re on. It won’t be easy. “They” have the money, control of Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the media, most of academia and the think tanks. “They” have been building a permanent war economy from the 1950s, which even President Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us about way back when.

On the other hand, we have the numbers. In fact, we vastly outnumber the warrior-class empire builders, and if we are unified, determined, focused, and have a solid plan, we can turn the country around and create the conditions for a world at peace.

It’s entirely up to us. Please get involved!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

War is over if . . . | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Our New Garden

Yep! It’s that time of year again. Actually, it was that time of year again well over a month ago when we started with the plot of plowed earth pictured above.

Time to plant a new garden!

If anyone doubts just how incredibly hard we had to work to get things in shape, these should dispel any skepticism. (Ignore the smile on our faces . . . admittedly it is fun!)

Cutting to the chase, here is how things are developing.

We’ve had a couple set-backs. My high-tech rain and bird shielding construct made of the finest netting and plastic didn’t do well during the first serious rain. I had to do it all over.

Then there was some low-tech but highly effective pilfering of our first two cucumbers by a Japanese raccoon dog. Yes, it’s a hybrid of a dog and a raccoon. Not quite sure how how that came about. This particular one is about 50 cm long, new to the neighborhood, and apparently loves cucumbers — not the skin, just the juicy insides. I always thought they were nocturnal but I spotted this fellow strolling by our back window in the bright sunshine of late morning, acting quite casual — FOR A THIEF! Masumi was understandable upset. Cucumbers are an important component of our sense of self-worth.

Anyway, here’s what our little garden looks like right now.

I know I know. This whole gardening escapade can’t compete with all that’s going on in the world . . . Ukraine, Biden’s latest gaffes, the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial, the shortage of baby formula, gasoline prices. But it’s not supposed to. Maybe that’s the whole idea, eh?

I’ve mentioned a number of times that we live in the middle of rice and bean fields. Good farming methodology dictates rotation of crops, to keep down soil depletion. Looks like the field in front of our house will be growing rice this year. Here’s our neighbor playing in the mud with his tractor.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Our New Garden | John Rachel