Japan: Minoh and Osaka
One of the things that is difficult about living in NYC is how difficult it is to get out of the urban and into spaces of nature, stretching one’s legs on a mountain or in a long stretch without seeing lots of humans swirling all around. After too long, I start to feel claustrophobic from all the people. People on people. One starts to lose sight of humanity in the cacophony of moving bodies. Also mountains- I really miss mountains.
Anna likes to go hiking, so I mentioned to her that I would like to go for a hike. This led to our outing to Minoh yesterday. Minoh is famous for maple trees, though the best season for those would be fall. Nonetheless, we made our way on this beautiful sunny day to Minoh for a wonderful “hike” to the waterfall, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch (I was very tempted by the fish on sticks that were being sold to the tourists on the path, but also very satisfied with our tune salad sandwiches).
It was great to be in nature and to be around fewer people, though this trail was still fairly populated. The way that trees grow in the forests in Japan is just different and there is such beauty in that diversity of view. Along the path there was a stream, accompanying our steps and conversation with its gentle giggles as it tumbled down the mountain. It was a great time to relay to Anna some of the hard parts of my life and career right now, amidst happy nature where spring was bursting at the seams to break forth with hope and color. Things feel stuck. It is and has been a season without much color, without many giggles and one where hope comes from a lot of faith and not a lot of sight. Walking a path with your sister on a beautiful mountain in Japan is a lovely place to find expression of that.
When we headed back down the mountain, our final stop in Minoh was the foot onsen. The hike wasn’t that intense, but still worth the experience! We were joined by an older Japanese couple who was very keen to chat. I mostly smiled as Anna translated a story about this couple’s trip to Portland, Oregon. They were so happy to chat. And then, without warning, they ran off to catch their tour bus. So funny.
Anna and I made our way back to Osaka from there and in our attempts to find a cafe with seats available, we struck out and ended up at a chocolate shop that had two menu items available: chocolate drink and chocolate ice cream. We indulged in the latter, amidst much fatigued giggling and then Anna let me go into her favorite stationary store on my own. I thought I would be in and out pretty quickly and wasn’t sure why she wanted to stay at the safe alone. But when I got to the store and started nosing around, I understood. I stayed in this little paradise long enough that Anna started to worry. I LOVE stationary. And Japanese stationery is the best in the world from what I have seen. In New York it’s the best. In Paris it’s the best. So I loaded up. I love it because it is a gift both to myself and my penpals.
Anna and I wandered a bit more in Osaka, in and out of a few shops and through an impressive Lego exhibit, complete with scenes in Osaka made from Legos! We headed home from there to rest our feet after a 20,000 step day.
Tuesday was a national holiday, so Kosuke was also off of work (Anna is on school vacation), in addition to Mark and Isaiah to complete, with Stephanie, the Bartsch clan currently living in Japan. Kosuke and Anna prepared a delightful American breakfast: bacon, eggs and English muffins (2 types of bacon at that!). And then Kosuke took me to the tea shop near the Awaji station to explain the kanji on the bags to me. It was delightful to hear what differentiated the very similar looking bags and I chose a sencha and a gyokuro to bring home. Anna met us at the station and the two of us set off for Osaka to meet Stephanie for tea and sweets, this time in a more traditional setting.
At Osaka-Umeda, which is kind of the Hauptbahnhof/Grand Central Station of Osaka, there is a “basement” full of wonders. When Anna first mentioned wanting to take me to a “department store basement”, I had several images in my head, neither of which was remotely close to reality. First I imagined a dimly lit, grubby clearance-style expanse that one might find in America. Then I remembered a “department store basement” experience in Ethiopia with my grandparents in 2020, where vendors lined the walls with jewelry, scarves and other wares for which one would bargain (with the help of our driver) and would call to you (the foreigner), “Sister, sister!” I must admit that being called “sister” made me much more interested in the wares of those vendors, even though that wasn’t to entice me, it was just the way of speaking to a woman. What a beautiful thought- to consider a stranger as a sister or brother… But back to the subject! This basement was like walking into Macy’s in Manhattan, but decked out in Japanese gastronomic specialties! It was very busy because of the holiday, but so exciting! So many things to taste and not enough appetite to satisfy the lust of my eyes.
BUT! You have not heard enough about tea yet, since we know that tea was my personal objective for coming to Japan (besides the obvious primary objective of seeing Anna and Kosuke!). So Anna took me to a tea vendor, Ito En, classically renowned. I am always shy to peruse when I am not sure how to, but the young woman working there was very friendly and very happy to help us. It has been so refreshing when people seem keen to help this poor foreigner, despite my lack of Japanese. And then to give them a bone by having such lovely translators along with me. Anna and Kosuke have been SO lovely in that regard! She proceeded to explain the qualities of the teas I asked about, the differences in tea types (as in the differences in types of sencha depending on their names), the regions they were from and when and how to enjoy them (with food, with sweets, etc). This was so wonderful and Anna did a brilliant job translating! My tea collection is growing at a proper rate 🙂
We headed to meet Stephanie at the tea house, where we enjoyed classic Japanese treats made from mochi and adzuki beans (including adzuki tea!) and my first legit matcha in Japan!! Oh was it ever brilliant! And then, just as we were about to leave, two of the staff started making the mochi in the little mochi-making room behind glass. It is a very exciting process of slamming a large hammer into rice and adding water and flipping it bit by bit until the consistency is right for mochi dough. Very exciting!
Stephanie and I proceeded to another floor of the department store to look at teaware and kimonos. It was like walking around a museum! Then we headed to meet Mark and Isaiah at Osaka castle. We had originally planned to do hanami as a group- a picnic beneath the cherry blossoms by the castle, but it was rainy. So we just walked and wandered and enjoyed catching up. All three of the Bartsches shared lots of good history and culture with me and asked about my impressions of Japan. I loved getting to be with them. They truly are a second family to us Engles, as they have been close to our family since I was just 6 years old, and we share so much culture, history and roots. I had not seen Mark and Isaiah in many, many years!
We walked around the impressive castle, very different from Western castles, and moat and even got to see a wedding that was happening in one of the temples as the couple and their family was walking out. We enjoyed some combini sweets- Mark said, “Stephanie likes all that fancy stuff,” that being the cafes we had visited together, “I like the simple stuff,” that being, treats from the convenience store. Don’t get the wrong impression- the convenience store in Japan has legit food, nothing like American convenience store food, which one should avoid at all costs. Mark returned from the combini with daifuku and dango (sweet mochi-rice balls on a stick).
Stephanie and I continued back to Umeda with Isaiah as our tour guide, where we accidentally, but very interestingly meandered through the “seedy” part of town. “Seedy” is Japan, though, is still nicer than most parts of NYC… And we ended up at a little shop that specializes in roasted sweet potatoes. It smelled so amazing. We really didn’t need more sweets and we were on our way to dinner, but this ice cream treat with spaghetti-ed sweet potato on top was too bizarre to pass up! So we got one and had ice cream as an appetizer on our way to Anna and Kosuke’s for dinner. It was really delicious!! And so unique! The spaghetti-ed sweet potato was a beautiful purple color!
Anna and Kosuke had prepared a BRILLIANT dinner for us! Kosuke roasted duck, there was sashimi, wasabi chips and cheese, amazing assorted seaweed salad and Anna had prepared some mouth-watering Korean stew as well. It was a regular feast! I also had some umeboshi drink as well 🙂
Then Anna and I took off for Umeda again, because we had reserved a haircut appointment for me with an English-speaking hairdresser. I know this seems like kind of an odd thing to do, but it was so much less expensive than pretty much any haircut, especially in NYC, I needed one and she did a phenomenal job. She was also so fun to chat with! So, so sweet. She made some food recommendations as well and I told her in my bad Japanese that her English was so good.
Tune in next time for: tea in the famous tea town of Uji and Kyoto with Stephanie!!
Marie on the Road
