Festivals in Japan have a tendency to end up looking the same. Don't get me wrong, for the first time traveler these festivals can be a spectacular sight with traditional dancing, great taiko drums beating out their tattoo and large shrines being carried down the street. However, once you have seen one you really do begin to understand why there are so many vendors selling beer on the streets; it helps to kill the monotony of the same five or six food stalls being repeated over and over again.

However if you look hard enough you will find that Japan also has some unique festivals that are really quite spectacular.

Picture this- You emerge on to a large field crowed with thousands of men in their traditional dress know as the happi. Bugles are blaring out spirited calls to arms while the men heave on hemp cords. Directly in front of you is an enormous square kite several meters across resting vertically on an edge. An alien inscription emblazoned on the kite that matches the back of the coat-like happi worn by its handlers.  

The team of men give a synchronized heave and the kit soars into the air ready to do battle with the 50 or so other kites already far up in the sky. You stare up into the kite-filled sky amazed by the number and beautiful designs painted on the kites.

You suddenly notice a that the cords of two kites have got caught up together. This is followed by the chanting shouts of their owners as the two teams pull and release at their kites in an attempt to cut through the others hemp cord.

Another kite come crashing down into a crowd amidst the frantic shouts of warning. Nearby a fight breaks out between rival teams over takeoff space and is quickly calmed by the older men from the teams.

In the distance more kites are being carried from tents to the field ready to do battle in the sky. 

This is the Hamamatsu Kite Festival or Takoage Gassen.

The festival is said to have its origins over 430 years ago during the Erioku Era. To celebrate the birth of his first son, the lord of Hamamatsu Castle flew a large kite with the name of his son on it. This later evolved into competing neighborhoods taking their kites to the sky during the Hamamatsu Festival. Now there are 164 neighborhood kites all with their own emblem, or machijirushi, competing in the skies over this festival period.

These kites are made from paper and flexible bamboo ribbing. However they are surprisingly strong  and resilient to damage. The kites come in seven specific sizes that run from 1.5m to a huge 3.46m. When they are let out into the sky their line can run out several hundreds of meters.

Takoage Gassen runs from the 3^rd to the 5^th of May each year and is well worth a visit. If you miss the festival you can always visit the permanent kite display at Hamamatsu Festival Hall. The event is held near Hamamatsu's Nakatajima Sand Dunes and there are regular shuttle busses that run from the station during the festival period. 

Scott Donald

ウラシマソウ　Arisaema Urashima or commonly know in English as the Cobra Lily.

The Story

The Urashima plant (ウラシマソウ)was named after the mythical fisherman Taro Urashima.

The story goes that one day the fisherman, Taro, saw some naughty little kids torturing a poor defenseless little turtle. Torturing sea animals is often an enjoyable past time for school children around the world. In Japan, elementary school children go on excursion to the seaside just for this purpose. I have once witnessed the ritualized slaughter of various small crabs in numerous inventive ways that would have put my boyhood seaside destruction to shame.

Anyway I digress. Taro, being a lifetime member of Greenpeace, was enraged by the misbehavior of the children and rescued the turtle from their brutal tiny hands and released the little turtle back into the sea.

Taro must have been hit on the head during the rescue because the next day while he was fishing he could have sworn that a huge turtle crawled up to him and spoke to him. The mighty turtle told Taro that the little turtle he had saved yesterday was none other than his daughter – the Emperor of the Sea’s daughter. Taro, a little stunned from the shock of a massive turtle talking to him and never being too quick on the pick-up, had to have the now impatient enormous turtle-emperor explain more succinctly that he was before the Emperor of the sea and Taro had rescued his increasingly attractive turtle-daughter.

Before Taro could knock the stopper off his second flask of sake, the Emperor gave him gills and brought him to his sea kingdom as…erh…thanks for his daughters rescue. The Emperor’s daughter, suffering from a serious case of White Knight Syndrome and knowing her chances of getting laid are slim because she is a… well… turtle, fell in love with our hero. Likewise, Taro, never being one to shy away from interspecies relations and well on his way to suffering a good dose of Stockholm Syndrome falls in love with his captor, the Emperor’s Daughter.

The emperor, being a fairly open minded fellow, doesn’t seem to mind the new couple’s hot scale on skin love making so long as Taro is responsible and wears a squid.

After two days of sweet love making and a cameo appearance along side Kevin Kostner in Waterworld that didn’t make the final cut, Taro wass feeling a bit raw and thought he may have caught crabs. He made an excuse to his new love that he just remembered that his dear old mum was not feeling too well and he must return to his village to check on her. The emperor’s daughter is a little suspicious but lets him go and gives him a box to take with him. She tells him that under no circumstances whatsoever should he ever open the enticing box with the pretty multi-coloured ‘Open Me!’ printed wrapping paper. Feeling the uncontrollable need to scratch his crutch like a dog digging for its favourite bone, Taro hastily agrees, grabs the box, pecks the emperor’s daughter on the beak and makes for his village.

When he returns, Taro discovers that three hundred years had past but the sake flask he left behind on the beach is still good so after a few swigs he staggers around town asking people if they remember a Taro Urashima. The locals only vaguely recall the name as an old wives tale warning children not to get too drunk by the seaside. By now our hero is feeling a bit wobbly and takes a seat on a step to take the final swig of his sake. In his alcohol induced stupor he gets his hands mixed up and tries to take a drink out of the box the emperor’s daughter had left behind instead of his sake flask.

He shook off his befuddlement and carefully examined the attractive print on the box. He squinted hard trying focus through his blurred vision at the words and was surprised to find that they were in English. Unfortunately Taro was not a particularly good English student when he was in junior high school due to the distracting and treacherous nature of his Australian English teacher’s curves.

He asked a couple of local villagers if they knew what the two words meant and it was not long until a large crowd of villagers were milling around Taro and the box grunting, sucking their teeth and making clipped proclamations of their ignorance regarding the meaning of the words.

Of course all the villagers knew what the two words meant but every one of them was too afraid to translate them for fear of a seagulls’ cacophony of ‘sugoi’ (Wow!) that would humiliate the villager enough for them to flee the village and spend the rest of their life as a hermit in the mountains.

Finally someone suggested to Taro that perhaps the box contained a Japanese-English dictionary and that he should open it so that he could translate the words written on the wrapping paper.

The tension among the villagers immediately disappeared as they mentally discarded their packing list for their exiles.

It was time for curiosity so the all the villagers leaned a little further forward to show their interest. Taro, knowing what was expected of him took one last look at the box, shrugged and tore at the wrapping. Beneath the wrapping was an ornate Styrofoam bait box. Taro gave one last nervous look at the crowd who nodded at him encouragingly before opening it.

You see, the Emperor’s Daughter was a cunning girl. She knew that if Taro was true to his promise he would return to the sea to be with her for eternity, but if he didn’t return he would not be able to control his curiosity for the box and open it. Inside the box lay Taro’s old age and as soon as he opened the bait box the stench of his years overcame him like the smell of off bait in the midday sun.

He immediately started to grow old; first complaining about the weather and then farting without shame, before finally turning to dust; thus ending the sad tragedy of Taro Urashima.

Or does it…

The little known sequel

Little known to the historians of the time and rarely spoken about among those of the sea kingdom is another story. It seems that during the intense love filled two days between Taro and the Emperor’s Daughter, Taro may have found himself a leaky squid.

It seems that the Emperor’s Daughter had fallen pregnant. Knowing the high success rate of interspecies procreation, she knew she was pregnant with at least three children-turtle things. She had to tell her father.

The Emperor was furious. No way was he going to lets some human, and a fisherman-soak at that, interfere with his noble bloodline. Unfortunately the sea kingdom’s pro-choice lobby was entangled in a tragic jellyfish accident so the sanctimonious old eels were celebrating their victory in passing the anti-abortion laws through the senate. This meant that the Emperor and his daughter just had to go through with the pregnancy regardless.

The emperor was enraged beyond belief and sort comfort in the numbness a line of blowfish could only offer until his addiction finally overcame him.

His daughter, lost in her grief and shame set forth on the great ocean until it was finally time to give birth to her mutated spawn. She crawled up on a bank of sewage and filth in a strange world of lights and noise where she laid not three but four eggs and return to her kingdom to never again remember those tragic times.

The heat of the sewage kept the eggs warm as the mutated creatures within slowly came to life to crack out of their shells. As this was happening, an old mutant rat - who was the result of a similar interspecies mating - was looking for food and came across these four mutated creatures. He was just about to devour them when he was surprised at their dexterity as they ambled over the sewage filth with tumble rolls and back flips.

Being the enterprising mutant rat that he was he decided to teach them acrobatics so that one day he might make his fortune selling them on to the circus.

However, due to the mutant turtles strong sense of ethics and large supply of kung fu movies that the rat played to entertain the four young creatures another path was chosen for them.

The plant

I first found the Arisaema Urashima (ウラシマソウ) while hiking in the Numazu Alps in Shizuoka prefecture back in 2006. This most recent find was in a cedar grove near my home on the midlands of Ashitaka Mountain.

It is one of the most unusual wild plants I have seen in Japan. Not being much of a botanist buff I thought it might have been some sort of pitcher plant because of its tubular shape and slightly covered top. I am sure the boffins would be chortling over my obvious error.

The Arisaema Urashima is in fact a lily and is more commonly know in the West as the Cobra Lily. When flowering, as you can seen in the pictures, the plant produces a spathe (Yeah I had to look that one up too) that forms an outer sheath that protects the flowers inside.

The spathe (look, now I can’t stop saying it to show you how smart I am) of this lily starts from the stem as columns of white and a purple that is a shade darker than egg plant. As the columns rise towards the mouth of the spathe the purple takes over and the tip of the spathe sweeps over the entrance to the flower.

Protruding from the centre of the spathe is the spadix – the doobalydoo that the flowers attach themselves to at the base – that whips out over the plant and can run as long 60 cm making it look like a fishing line. Thus the analogy of Taro Urashima’s fishing basket (spathe) and fishing line (spadix).

The flower blooms in mid spring along the coastal mountains of central Honshu and well worth a look if you are on a hike. In summer the flower produces red berries that are poisonous and can cause irritation to the skin like Taro’s nasty case of crabs.

If anything I have provided you with some new scrabble words and a plant to impress your friends with on your next hike around Japan. Happy hiking.

Scott. 

As I pondered this deficit in the English language while I continued grocery shopping, I came up with a few suitable collective nouns to get the ball rolling. Later, with the help of my friend, Geoff, I came up with some more. We really should make amends to this and create something to stand side-by-side with that first glorious book of collective nouns, The Book of St Albans. More suggestions are welcome.

Note: some of these sweets are distinctly Australian. I am relying on you to help fill in the blanks in my international sweets market knowledge.

 The list include lollies (Candy for the Americans), chocolate bars, mints and ice creams. 

A brain trust of Smarties.

An adolescence of Snickers.

A murmuring of M&M’s.

A mammary of Milky Bars.

A caravan of Wagon Wheels.

A vortex of Twirly Whirly’s.

A dandruff of Flakes.

A Wonka of chocolate.

A mental health day of Time Out’s.

A pride of Kit Kats.

A croak of Freddo Frogs.

A cinema of Jaffa’s.

A beach of Life Savers.

A sidewalk of Hubba Bubba.

A strategy of Tic Tac’s.

A romance of Tim Tams.

A super nova of Starbursts.

A tread of Tootsie Rolls.

A considerately bit more than a Bit-of-Honey.

A treasury of Minties.

A standard of Goldbars.

A Goldilocks Zone of Mars Bars.

A dynasty of Meiji.

A Blue Oyster of Golden Gaytimes.

A Manhattan of Mr Bigs.

An all girls college of Cherry Ripes. (Okay I felt a little dirty after writing that one.)

A land slide of Wonka Mud Sludge.

A decay of Violet Crumble.

An Australia Day of Picnics.

A main street of Goodbars.

A Gummis of Gummi Bears. (you need to know the cartoon to get this one)

A Mohammed Ali of Jawbreakers.

A deck of Snaps.

A distruction of Warheads.

A dungeon of Black Licorice Whips.

A blunt of Mary Janes.

A Chipmunck's of Big Hunk's.

A backdrop of Extra's.

An accident of Crunchies.

A crusade of Cup-o-Golds.

An obesity epidemic of Eat-Mores.

An harem of Turkish Delights.

An exhaustion of Marathons.

And some from Geoff:

              A clumsy attempt of Butterfingers.

              A herdful of Jolly Ranchers.

              A double time of Twix.

              A gobsmack of Goobers.

              A low-down of Hi Chews.

              An Haven of Hershey.

              A nervous jitter of Skittles.

Enjoy.

Scott.

My book, An Amorous Route: Love and Laughter Along Germany's Romantic Road, is now in paperback currently for sale at Amazon.com and Createspace. 

If you like the book, like me, like laughing at me or feel sorry for me, I would love a review on Amazon. I am not below grovelling. 

I can honestly say that I loathe admin,  and this experience has not improved my feelings about it. Nevertheless, it is good to see the book up and running and I think when it comes time to publish the Vietnam book life will be a lot easier. 

Cheers,

Scott Donald

I know, I know. After I returned from my holiday to Vietnam I was supposed be pining for the Vietnamese Green Orange, the cam sánh, with their green thick green skin and sweet dark orange flesh. I will admit that these oranges were indeed nice but to be perfectly honest, I missed limes from Vietnam most.

Perhaps I need to explain. I live in Japan and the price of limes in this country is prohibitive. Up until today, I would never have dreamed of buying a lime in Japan, but I just wanted to prolong my romance with that oh so sweet floral citrus, the lime. I decided to follow this affair to the bitter end by juicing out a few facts about the lime (Do you think that was cheesy? You should have seen the lime-punned Facebook conversation I had).

After a bit of research I discovered that limes are not generally considered a species or subgenus of the Citrus genus. In my simple primary school mind I believed the basic grouping of Citrus were oranges, mandarines, lemons, grapefruit and limes. How wrong I was.

Lime seems to be a generic term for a number of citrus fruit that are green to yellow in colour, generally sourer than lemons and exhibit a floral aroma particularly from the zest[1]. This type of loosely explained definition seems to be pandemic of Citrus classification. As Scora in his 1975 [2]paper, On The History and Origin of Citrus, attests, “much confusion exists regarding the classification of the genus Citrus, and this confusion is not likely to be resolved soon.” The scientific classification, Citrus aurantifolia, seems to be appropriated for the limes however this seems to more strictly refer to the Key Lime species.

The word lime originates from the early 17th century and might come from the Spanish lima or Arabic lima meaning citrus fruit.

nuoc cham with fresh spring roles

One amusing little nugget of information I found was that limes were used for a time instead of other citrus by the British Royal Navy to prevent scurvy. This was because limes were easier to grow in the tropical climates of the Caribbean where the British had many colonies. This is where the pejorative for the British sailor, limey, originates.

As I was researching my way through limes I was beginning to wonder which particular variety of lime I had tried in Vietnam. It seemed that every where I went the same type of lime was used. They all seemed to be small and slightly oval shaped no bigger than a large hen's egg. It had a very thin rind and was incredibly juicy, the combination making it perfect for squeezing by hand into drinks. There were few seeds and the aroma was rich and floral. The taste was reasonably bitter with no oily aftertaste that some limes have. From what I could gather from a few websites[3] this resembled a Key Lime (Citrus aurantifolia) and the most commonly produced lime.

The lime infused Nuoc Cham with barbecue skewers

These limes were used in a number of food and drink recipes in Vietnam. Most notably is the use of limes in their famed dipping sauce nuoc cham. Nuoc cham is a table condiment used as an accompaniment for many Vietnamese dishes. It can be used as a dipping sauce for dumplings, small barbequed meat dishes or spring roll, or it can be poured over fried rice or stir fry. While it seems that every region, every town and every household has their on special recipe for nuoc cham the general ingredients consist of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic and fresh chili. The lime juice blends well with the salty fish sauce and mellows its pungency. The taste is generally light and permissive to other flavours which it is matched.

Equally as pervasive in Vietnamese cuisine is simply a wedge of lime on the side of a plate. I've seen it with pho, grilled meats, stir fry, fried rice, casserole and salads.

One of the most unusual delights I discovered in Vietnam was Lime and Soda[4]. The first time I tried this drink was on an exhaustively hot morning in Hoi An. We were give a glass full of ice, a bottle of soda water, a slice of lime and a small mound of white sugar on a plate. Our guess was that we were to mix the ingredients together to produce the desired drink. The result was refreshing. It was not cloyingly sweet but well balanced with that definite hint of lime.

In the front the basic ingredients for Nuoc Cham, minus the fish sauce

In Hanoi I ordered the drink another time and discovered that this time instead of a small mound of sugar on a plate I had a small mound of salt. The unfortunate thing was that I had assumed that the white grainy thing on my plate was white sugar like the first time only to find out that it was salt when I took a first swig. No, I didn't spit it out but I did need some time to adjust my palate. However once I had, I discovered that the soda, lime and salt mix was not too bad. I didn't prefer it to the sugar mix but it was still refreshing and a little unusual.

My favourite use of limes in Vietnam was not in any particular traditional drink or dish but in my summer drink, the gin and tonic. The extra acidity, that the lime provides, along with the floral aroma, bind well with the juniper bitterness of my gin.

Me with a bowl of Pho and come salad sides including lime.

 A little over a week after I returned home from Vietnam I finally surrendered to my lime craving and made a special trip down to the supermarket to buy my expensive lime. It cost me a little over $2.50 USD.

Was it worth it? Well, sadly no. The only lime my supermarket had was a Persian lime produced in Mexico. These limes are not quite a juicy nor do they have the bouquet of the Key limes and its acidity seemed a little lower and left a slightly oily after taste that wasn't to my liking. I guess these are the preferred lime to ship internationally because of their thick durable rind.

The most expensive lime I have ever bought. The Persian in Japan.

So now I sit deflated, missing the limes of Vietnam and a little sleepy from my sojourn into the world of the lime. Perhaps it's time for a refreshing drink.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(fruit)

[2] Scora, Rainer W.(1975) On the History and Origin of Citrus, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, http://ww.jstor.org/stable/2484763

[3]  http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/fruits/limes.htm , http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/fruits/types-of-lime.asp

[4] Not to be confused with Soda-Lime a chemical used to extract carbon dioxide from the air in confined spaces. 

I have had to learn a lot about formatting and cover design along the way. And I can tell you that you defiantly need a proof before you get your book out into the market.

The main problem I found was with the front cover formatting. I hadn't used a high enough DPI. Yep, I had no idea what that meant either. Apparently dpi means 'dots per inch' or the number of pixels that occupy a square inch. My mistake was using my ebook image that has a small dpi of 97. When you take this to print it comes out all grainy because a printer prints more finely can handle much higher dpi. I had mistakenly though that if I just increase the dpi of my cover image then that would fix the problem.

Misquoting B.A. Baracus, "Wrong Fool". What I needed was a cover image with a dpi of at lease 300. I was way off and there were no shortcuts to fix the problem. I had to spend today going back to the original high resolution images and copy my design from scratch. I was a pain but now I have a high resolution cover that I can reduce if need be or keep to make posters.

So now I need to get back to Amazon with the new high dpi cover and then I should be ready to release 'An Amorous Route' into the market. I'm thinking that it should be out around late September early October. 

Wish me luck.

Scott 

Just a quick heads up to let you know that I now have a Facebook Page. I will run it along side my Hungry Feet Post.

In the mean time here is the link!

Cheers,

Scott

I have been told that I write with humour but it is usually just a result of something unintentionally silly I have done in a foreign place. Unfortunately this seems to be a regular occurrence. This has led me to believe that the number one job of the tourist is to entertain the locals. 

My food and travel media include:

• My first book 'An Amorous Route: Love and Laughter Along Germany's Romantic Road' a travel adventure about a winter journey through the castles and towns along Germany's famous Romanitc Road. 
• My first blog Numazu Traveler. Since 2007, this blog is a guide to my favourite town in Japan, Numazu. 

With the inception of Hungry Feet I am planing more food and travel media. I thought it would be a good idea to keep it under one title. My current projects include:

• My second book. I had so much fun writing the first one I thought I would jump in and do it all over again (I hear it's just like having a baby. You soon forget the pain and want to do it all over again). This time the book will be based on a one month trip to Vietnam I returned from yesterday.
• A 'Eating Japan' video series based on the seasonal foods of Japan, how they are grown, traditional recipes and some modern adaptations you can do at home. 
• A food and travel blog. Just to keep you up-to-date on were I am going, what I am eating and what I am doing with regards to my projects. 

Enjoy.

Scott Donald