itadakimasu

Recent thoughts:

Food.

One of the reasons I love Japan and continue to live here is the food. It really is incomparable. This nation treats food as one of the great pleasures of life. It is a joy and an art. Today I had lunch at Ootoya, a chain of affordable ‘homestyle’ cooking restaurants that can be found near most train stations. Very popular with people from all walks of life: businesspeople, schoolkids, housewives, retirees; the works.

My lunch:

Grilled salmon served with a little lemon and oroshi daikon finely-grated Japanese radish and shoyu soy sauce.

Piping hot bowl of Japanese white rice.

Renkon sliced lotus-root in a mild mustard sauce.

Bowl of miso soup with long onions, chives, wakame seaweed, and soybean curd fu.

Soft white tofu with dried nori seaweed, katsuobushi dried bonito fish flakes, spring onions, grated wasabi horseradish and tsuyu, a chilled light dipping soup of shoyu, sweetened mirin sake, and dashi fish stock.

Tsukemono salt-pickled slices of Japanese kyuuri cucumber.

Cold spinach leaves seasoned with a kurogoma black sesame sauce.

Water and hot green tea.

All served on conservative wabisabi Japanese-style ceramic tablewear. Pristine light waribashi wooden chopsticks. A steaming oshibori hot towel with which to cleanse ones hands before dining.

Cost?

714 yen inc. tax.

At today's rate, 8 dollars 49 cents Australian. For lunch.

Tell me where I can get this in any other country. Answer: I can’t. Every lunch is a pleasure and a moment of aesthetic appreciation. Its like going to an exhibition. Before I eat I whisper the Japanese expression itadakimasu; often translated as bon appetite, but really it is something much more. An offering of thanks to the chef who prepared the meal with the skill of a master-artisan; to the spirits of the animals sacrificed so that I may live; to the gods of the land in whose soil the plants take root and to the great sun whose light makes them grow tall and strong. To the simple fact that I am alive and able to appreciate the pleasures of taste and aroma and beauty and contentment.

And then, sated, I head back to the office.