Daily Victuals – Online German Bread Shop
As a resident of Tsukuba for more than four years now, I have always wondered about where I can find various ingredients for making home like recipes. As a Romanian, I was used to usually having Feta-style cheese and bread as staple foods and for a few good years now I have come to like dark or whole wheat bread. So, here are some of the little discoveries I have made during my quest for such bread.
One thing is the difference between the types of bread people eat. In my home country, we do not usually use eggs, milk and sugar for making the bread used to accompany daily meals. The only ingredients used are flour, water, yeast and salt. This in view of Australians (the source of my information, although I am assuming this might apply to others coming from an English speaking background) is called sour-dough type bread. So, when I was looking for a place selling bread, this is what I wanted and not the dessert breads or anything usually sold in bakeries in Japan.
Recently I was recommended a shop that has a variety of German-style breads and delivers to your home door. You can access it here (http://www.kornblume.co.jp/scb/shop/shop.cgi). There are ten varieties of bread and in my experience the bread ordered was really dense and of a fairly big size. What I ordered were the Weizen-Sesambrot, the Fruchtebrot, and the Heildelberger Mischbrot. The Fruchtebrot has some cinnamon and the flavour was a bit too strong for my taste. Yet, the other two were the perfect bread to make sandwiches with ham, cheese, lettuce, olives... and so on.
The delivered package.
Since the delivery costs 600 yen, I preferred to order more and then cut the breads and put them in the freezer. The order needs to be placed for a specific date and time, no earlier than two days from the time of ordering. Since it is a perishable product, I do not know what happens if you miss the delivery time, but I liked the care the shop took in wrapping the bread - adapted obviously to the Japanese market. The website has no English version and shop seems to be a small one that originated in Mie prefecture, although it seems to have a branch in Tokyo. More information on the shop and maps with locations can be found at: http://www.kornblume.co.jp/alia/shopdata.htm.
Recently I did not feel like ordering from "afar", so I have been buying bread from Brotzeit and the shop on the first floor of Seibu in Tsukuba. Each of these has whole-wheat bread or rye bread and the one in Tsukuba centre has a fruit bread that I really like. In the case of deserts-like breads or sandwiches my favourite is Le Pan Gris Gris. Both Brotzeit and Le Pan Gris Gris are family businesses and have been previously discussed about on Tsukublog or Alien Times (for more about them, see the links below).
Perhaps you are not so desperate as me to have a particular kind of bread, but if you are, I hope this helps.
Links to articles related to bread:
http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/02/germany-bakery-in-tsukuba-backerei-brotzeit/
http://www.alientimes.org/Main/BakeryReviewGrisGris
Or here is a link discussing the Brotzeit backery.
http://tsukuba.wikia.com/wiki/Backerei_Brotzeit
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Ecoshop System
They sure do use a lot of plastic bags here in Japan, eh?
When I first came here, I didn't know how to say "I don't need a bag", so I ended up with a bag collection that threatened to take over my whole apartment. In case some of you are in the same position, here are some expressions that might help.
袋は要らないです。
fukuro wa iranai desu
I don't need a bag.そのままでいいです。
sono mama de ii desu
It's fine like that (implying that I don't need a bag).
I usually use the "it's fine" one, but some shop clerks don't get the hint (the bakery staff are THE WORST) and still try to stick me with the plastic, so I am then forced to use the more direct "I don't need a bag" one. When I first started using these expressions (a few years ago), the clerk would almost invariably start to fight with me about it. Recently, awareness of the garbage problem has become more prevalent, so I can usually get away without having to pick up my things and run out of the store while being chased by well-meaning (although not environmentally-friendly) clerks. I have, however, had some problems with people not accepting the very nice bag that I bring with me when I shop and insisting on putting a little piece of tape on everything that I buy. I don't mind that sort of thing if I am only buying one or two things, but I nearly had a fit the other day when I did a "big shop" at Gran Stage (buying about 25 items) and one of the clerks actually stood there and put little pieces of tape on EVERY SINGLE ITEM before I picked the item up and put it inside my bag and zipped up the bag. Unnecessary.
Anyway, the reason for today's post is not to talk about tape and being chased out of stores. No, today I want to tell you about the Ecoshop System and how we should all make a concerted effort to back this system.
Tsukuba City has started accrediting certain shops in the city as Ecoshops. Ecoshops are stores that are making efforts to decrease their environmental loads by engaging in activities such as...
1. Making an effort to sell products that are environmentally friendly (e.g. product that carry the "ecomark", products made from recycled materials, products sold in returnable containers).
2. Dedicating a spot in the store to ecological products.
3. Simplifying or eradicating their wrapping practices.
4. Promoting the use of shopping baskets and the customers' use of their own bags.
5. Repairing their own products.
6. Using recycled paper for their publicity.
7. Recycling empty cans.
8. Recycling empty bottles.
9. Recycling empty milk cartons.
10. Recycling produce trays.
11. Recycling plastic (PET) bottles.
12. Making other efforts to reduce the amount of garbage they produce.
As of January 2007, the following stores have been accredited as Ecoshops.
Ishimaru (Tsukuba)
Kasumi (Asse, Technopark Sakura, Gakuen, Tsukuba, Oho, Umezono, Grand Plechef, Midorino Eki Mae)
Gakuseifuku no Uchiya (Inarimae, Takezono)
Masuda (Kukizaki)
山三硝子 (I'm not sure how to read this... can anyone help?)
Uematsu Information Service
Numaya
For this scheme to succeed, the public has to start modifying its behaviour by choosing to do business with stores like this, so I hope the foreign community can put its buying power behind this idea.
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Faces For Fathers Day ( revisited)- and a bit on the history of that special day as it is celebrated in Japan!
By Avi Landau
A wallet, necktie or new set of golf clubs are fine Father’s Day gifts. But nothing brings a bigger smile to a dad’s face than his portrait executed in crayon by his own toddler. And what better subject is there for all the budding young Hiroshiges and Sharakus out there than that big face, which all googly-eyed, has been cootchy-cooing at them since their eyes have started to focus?
Seibu Department Store has been displaying hundreds of such Father’s Day portraits as part of its Chichi-no-Hi (父の日, Father’s Day) campaign. They are sure to bring a smile to ANYONE who goes up to the 6th floor to check them out. Though these works lack polish and technique (they are by 3 year-olds!), they exude color, love and joy of life — and what could be better than that? And though we are grown up now, we STILL can’t escape those images of the big faces which peered down at US when WE were in OUR cribs. This exhibition will bring back a flood of memories and feelings.
Father’s Day was introduced to Japan after WWll and is held on the 3rd Sunday in June. Though at first completely overshadowed by Mother’s Day in terms of gift giving and spending, Dad’s Day has been slowly but surely catching up as family dynamics have been changing (more time spent with papa) and advertising campaigns have started to sink in.
The 6th floor of Seibu often has special events which are worth checking out. This month they will be having summer gifts (o-chugen) on display, and even if you don’t plan on sending these beautifully packaged and very over-priced boxes of juice, salad oil etc. to YOUR boss, in-laws, professor, or go-between (nakodo), many Japanese people do, and it is interesting to see all the different gifts and the lines of customers doing their duty.
The 6th floor events that I most look forward to are the Eki-Ben Fairs which bring together all the famous train station boxed lunches from around Japan, and the regional food fair which gives you a chance to taste and purchase delicacies for various prefectures, both far and near.
Oh!- and here are two versions of a song I wrote about the joys of fatherhood! They were recorded byThe TenGooz !
Enjoy:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/116593
and
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/569922
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Farmer’s Market in Namiki
Vivian's post "local produce" reminded me to write about another farmer's market in Tsukuba. This one is held on Saturday mornings in Namiki Kinrin Park (並木近隣公園/Namiki Kinrin Koen), which is across the street from Namiki Kouminkan (community hall) by the Namiki Shopping Center. It's officially from 10am to Noon, but the farmers get there before 9am.
This farmer's market has a long history, and the farmers told me that they've started selling their veggies at this park when Tsukuba was still a quiet country town!
Like the farmer's market Vivian mentioned, you can buy various vegetables for very low prices, so it gets extremely crowded especially when vegetable price hikes occur in "regular market." A couple of years ago, price of lettuce went up to 300-500yen each, but you could still get it for 100yen at this farmer's market. Naturally, a lot of people found out about it through word of mouth, and simple task like buying veggies became such a hassle!
What I like about this farmer's market is that the vegetables sold there are organic. The farmers explained to me that they occasionally have to use minimum amount of agrochemicals, however. You'll notice wormholes and some other damages to the vegetables you buy from these farmers, but you'll know why their veggies don't look as good as the ones you see in the grocery stores.
The sign in the picture is asking the customers to bring the 生ごみ(nama-gomi or raw garbage), so the farmers can use them as fertilizers. I always keep banana peels and other "veggie-gomi" in a different bag when I know I'll be visiting this farmer's market. I'm a "eco-minded" person, and since I grew up watching farmers in my neighborhood use raw garbage as fertilizers, it just makes me happy to bring veggie garbage to this place.
The farmers will be there every week, even during major holidays like Golden Week holidays and Obon holidays, and even during severe weather (I'm not kidding about this!).
A fish shop's truck also comes every Saturday mornings, and you can have the fish cut in the way you like. I hear that you can buy the kind of fish you don't see often in the grocery stores.
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Getting Ready for O-Shogatsu ( お正月)- The Japanese New Year Festival (yet again)
Next year will be the Year of the Rabbit according to the Oriental zodiac. Many Japanese will be buying rabbit figurines which they will display for all of next year
It is customary for Japanese families with daughters to pack up and put away the Hina Doll sets they had been displaying for the March 3rd Doll festival on the VERY NEXT DAY (March 4th). You might notice how in a strangely similar fashion most of the Santa-Sans and other X-Mas decorations which could be seen around Tsukuba leading up to Christmas Day will have been whisked out of sight by the end of December 26th, as most Tsukubans ( and Japanese in general start getting down to the very serious business of preparing for O-Shogatsu, the Japanese New Year’s festival.
Traditionally, preparations for this most important of Japanese celebrations began on the 13th day of the 12th month (remember that before the calendar was Westernized in 1873 the Japanese would celebrate O-Shogatsu sometime in late January and early February). In fact that date was when the big End-Of-The-Year Cleaning would begin at Edo Castle. Some people still do a traditional family cleaning on December 13, and this is called susu-harai. First the Buddhist and Shinto altars are cleaned, and then the alcove in the tatami room. Many temples, shrines, companies, offices and shops also hold a big cleaning event on the 13th.
These days, however, it is much more common to begin final preparations, in earnest, just after Christmas (though New Years Gifts, O-Seibo, お歳暮 are usually selected and sent to parents, teachers, and others we are indebted to by early December). Many families have big cleaning events on these days, and when this is finished, houses are ready to be decorated with KADOMATSU (bamboo and pine decorations for the entranceway), shimenawa (sacred rope), and other auspicious decorations such as Kumanote (decorative rakes which symbolize raking it in) and wreath-like door decorations. These can be seen on sale at any home center, department store, supermarket or COMBINI. You can also see all the many different types of decorative zodiac animals for the coming year. Next year’s animal will be the Rabbit, and many Japanese will purchase some sort of Bunny figurine or picture to display for the duration of 2011.
An essential part of any O-Shogatsu is O-mochi (お餅, pounded rice-cakes), and many families in Tsukuba (and the rest of Japan) will be making their own, by machine, or the traditional (and much more fun) way with a giant wooden hammer and mortar. The mochi will be formed into round cakes of decreasing sizes, piled one on the other, to be offered to the God of the New Year, and also enjoyed by the whole family.
Of course there are the many other special foods which must be prepared. Many families in Eastern Japan buy a whole salted salmon (aramaki). However, the essential dishes for authentic O-Shogatsu are O-Sechi (which consists of many different traditional foods which don’t spoil quickly). O-zoni (soup with mochi, etc), and toshikoshi soba (buckwheat noodles).
Preparing these can make these last days, by far, the busiest time of the year for housewives, though now it is possible to order all these from department stores or even convenience stores. In fact this year, with the bad economy, many families are foregoing New Year’s travel and are instead splurging on O-Sechi prepared by famous chefs.
As you can see, O-Shogatsu is complex for the newcomer to Japan to grasp, and this has probably been a lot to digest in one posting (especially after all the year-end parties we’ve been having!). So for the next couple of weeks leading up to O-Misoka (New Year’s Eve), I will go into each of these fascinating above-mentioned O-Shogatsu customs in more detail. And then I will go on talk about how to spend the actual holiday itself. Don’t forget to keep checking Tsukublog!
And, by the way, in Yatabe on Dec.28th, there will be a market which will run from 5-8 pm . All the necessary O-Shogatsu decorations will be available for purchase and being photographed. It’s called the DORO-ICHI. You can find it at the Yatabe Elementary School.
Last year, I checked out one of Japan`s oldest ( from the late 17th century) and most famous pre-Shogatsu markets- The Hagoita Market ( Hagoita Ichi, 羽子板市) held at Tokyo`s Sensoji Temple in Asakusa ( conveniently located along the TX Line).
This market is held every December, from the 17th to the 19th, and specializes in selling one of Japan`s most important traditional ENGI MONO (縁起物), which are auspicious objects, which I guess is another way of saying lucky charms.
Hagoita in my collection Hagoita are highly decorated versions of a paddle ( racket) used in a traditional children`s game (that resembles badminton without a net) called Hane Tsuki. This game was thought to bring good health as batting the fly-like shuttle-cock represented swatting away disease carrying mosquitos.
In the same way, the decorative HAGOITA are meant to represent driving away bad energies and bad luck, etc. These paddles come in various sizes ( size reflects economic status!!) and in the Edo Period they began to decorate them with images of the great Kabuki stars of the day. And though these old stars still predominate on the hagoita designs, every year we can find images of the past years biggest stars- this year Michael Jackson Hagoita were popular.
Last year`s popular Hagoita image-Michael Jackson These ENGI-MONO are bought by or for families with daughters, and put on display at home.
At the Yatabe market ( the Doro Ichi on the 28th you will also find a lot of Daruma Dolls ( as you will at practically all temples and shrines over the holiday).For more on the evolution of this enduring character, read my article:
and for a deeper look at O-Sechi ( New Year`s Dishes):
and more on O-Shogatsu preparations:
http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/12/getting-deeper-into-o-shogatsu-new-years-preparations/
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