Romantic pigs and other fun with food (and drink).

Today I'd like to present a jumble of photos representing my food adventures in Chiba. Without further ado:

Entry #1: "Romantic pig lab" roast ham. Okay, so I made up a translation for the "koisuru" part on my own. This brand name floored me when I first saw it. A colleague in a different department gave this to me as thanks for helping out with some translation work. The meat was incredibly high quality, and apparently really expensive too (somewhere around $1.50-2.00 per slice of ham?). Apparently it's still an up-and-coming brand, but there may come a day when you spot it in the store!

Entry #2: Onion ice cream. I kid you not. Shirako, a little town on the eastern coast of Chiba, is a huge producer of onions...so in typical Japanese branding fashion, I suppose they decided to make this outrageously flavored ice cream. It did not betray...it tasted like sour cream and onion flavoring mixed with vanilla ice cream. Not for the weak of heart.

Entry #3: Soy sauce-flavored cider. The "BO-SO TV" logo signifies that it was created for the local variety show of the same name. A friend gave me a heads-up about it, and then I found it being sold at the convenience store at my work. Not too bad, not that great either - I suppose it tasted like a weak caramel-flavored soda?

Entry #4: Hijiki ice cream. Previously shown in the post here, this is hijiki (brownish-blackish colored seaweed) flavored ice cream. I love hijiki and I love ice cream, but we just weren't meant to be...

Perhaps the oddest combination I've encountered aside from onion...and natto (although that was of course in the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki).

Entry #5: Sweet potato ice cream. Certainly not as strange as the previous entries, I thought sweet potato was a unique flavor for ice cream nonetheless. Good stuff. Apparently Chiba is the largest national producer of sweet potato in Japan - it produces even more thank Kagoshima, the present-day Satsuma region (and sweet potato in Japanese is satsumaimo)!

Entry #6: Bamboo shoot wine. Although it sounds crazy, it tastes just as it appears - like good ol' white wine! Or perhaps I am not enough of a wine connoisseur to tell the difference? This was again in exchange for some translation work - brought back from the Chiba's little mountain town of Otaki.

Entry #7: I hail from the world's capital of hamburgers...but that did not prepare me for this monster - a 6 full-size burger menace. You can experience "leaning tower of burgers" (my personal pet name for this) at Village Vanguard in Chiba City, previously reviewed here.

Entry #8: Sky Anpan. Anpan is Japanese sweet bread, most commonly filled with red bean paste. This product was developed by Narita (home to the international airport of the same name) - I believe it's mainly sold at stores within the city itself. I have yet to actually find it at the airport, but I bought this particular one at the Lawson convenience store near my work. This anpan is filled with sweet potato paste (again with Chiba sweet potatoes!)...and was quite tasty.

Entry #9: Tasty local products. Last but not least...these examples are tamest of the entire post, but I just wanted to remind myself of all the yummy snacks I got at work - usually complements of visitors, or colleagues who brought something back from business trips around the prefecture. Inside the white paper bag is biwa - or a fruit named loquat that I didn't even know existed until I moved to Japan. It tastes like nothing else I've had - but generally it has very low-key sweetness with perhaps a texture a bit firmer than a peach? And pictured in the cup to the upper left is none other than Chiba-grown peanuts! They were covered with some sort of sweet coating - can't remember anything but that they were delicious, because they were gone in no time.

What do you think? Have you run into any interesting foods in Chiba before?

Once every 60 years: the Honkaicho.

Time travel back to 3 months ago.

Bridge of fishing boats!

I headed back down to my 2nd hometown, Kamogawa, for the Honkaicho - to make a complex introduction short - a local festival held once every 60 years.

The main point is that can only go to the shrine located on a tiny island off of Kamogawa's coast during this festival (pictured in the far right of the above photo).

Apparently back in the day these boats were actually used to cross over to the island.

To be quite honest, I've forgotten a good amount of background info on the festival. You can find a slightly longer description here though.

Point is, it was amazing to be there for such a momentous occasion. And apparently much of the townspeople (and other people from the surrounding areas) felt the same way too, looking at the photo below. This is by far the largest crowd I've seen in Kamogawa, and I am unsure I will ever see one of its size again.

Mayor being interviewed by the media (somewhere around the center-right?) 

Braving the epic queue.

It was still relatively early in the day, but an acquaintance was kind enough to let me and my friend know that the line to get into the shrine was growing by the minute! It stretched all around the pier.

Thankfully, I'd bought some snacks for the wait.

As I was strolling around the festival, I had run into another acquaintance (perhaps how I most enjoy such events - seeing how many friends/acquaintances I can run into) - a warm couple who run my favorite sushi place in the city. I bought this, a dish I think they especially thought up for the day! It was roll sushi with sangayaki (fried minced fish burger?) inside. Noms.

But I also got to enjoy some lovely scenery during the wait (despite the excruciating heat):

Satisfying my usual obsession for signs.

Kamogawa from an angle I may never have the chance to capture again!

Entry to the shrine.

And so finally, after a 3 hour wait...we were almost there - the elusive Itsukushima Shrine (not to be confused with the one in Hiroshima).

Tiny main hall.

Photos weren't allowed within the main hall itself, so we'll just have to make due with this. The sacred sculpture that is only viewable to shrine visitors during the Honkaicho was displayed at the alter.

Mission complete!

Since we'd accomplished our main goal - getting to the shrine - we set off for a bit more adventure. Who knows if we'd be able to withstand the 3 hour wait to get to the shrine in another 60 years (or if we'd even be around to take the chance in the first place).

...and for the record, the wait had apparently swelled to 5 hours by the time we left the shrine. Eep.

Katsugi-yatai between the vivid fishing boat banners!

After that, we managed to witness the festivities - basically a more extravagant affair than the annual Godosai in September. "Extravagant" in that the festival participants paraded up and down the pier without taking any or very few breaks.

And my favorite - the mikoshi! (although this is a different one than the one I usually help carry).

After all that excitement, finally my friend and I were starved and exhausted. We headed over to our mutual love, the spectacular Rosso Bianco! (Again I think I've potstd about this multiple times, but just in case here is a past post with some content about Rosso.)

Hamburger steak topped with bamboo shoots! Mmmmmm.

As a special treat, cheese cake and coffee jelly - on the house!

 DROOL. Oh Rosso, how I miss thee already!

Sawara Grand Autumn Festival.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I've been sitting on this post for more than half a year now!

Time slip again - this time to the beginning of October. It was a gorgeous Saturday morning, and I headed up to northern Chiba with some fun company. First we made a quick stop to check out Katori Shrine.

But first, a slight detour at Katori Shrine (香取神宮)! I love the nature here.

Basically, there is an incredible festival called the Sawara Grand Festival (佐原の大祭) held twice a year, once in the summer and the other in the fall. As the title suggests, I went to the autumn festival, but the summer festival is actually coming up this weekend!

Read more about the Sawara Grand Summer Festival here: http://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kokusai/english/information/residents/news/issues/july2013.html#f0702

Anyway, here's a peak of the sights you can enjoy at the festival:

Passing under one of many low bridges. Each boat is operated by two people - someone operating the motor, and another (always a woman?) watching for other boats, obstructions, etc.

After our mini stopover at Katori Shrine, we hopped over to our main destination for the day - Sawara, a historical district in Katori City! We went by car, and from there you can hop on a boat into town for just a small fee.

At the festival! Here comes one of the dashi, or festival floats.

Sawara's really serious about its festivals - they even have dashi on the lampposts!

These guys have the important role of steering the dashi with these giant wooden poles...

...especially when they have to navigate super narrow roads and power lines!

I originally took this because of the adorable kid looking all comfy on the dashi...
the random McDonald's bags surprised me when I reviewed the photo later on.

The guys smashing each other to help push the dashi! Looks fun, but also super painful :/

Love these girls' outfits!

Entrance to JR Sawara Station - the main festival venues are about a 10-15 minute walk from here.

It's festival season again!! I am a little skeptical about whether or not I'll be able to go see a festival before I leave Japan, but I hope you will be able to make it out to some!

One week in Chiba (revisited).

The final installment of my adventures with my dear mum (one month later! sorry) in a photo summary. (Almost all of the photos I've used were her photos, so that's why they've got time stamps on them...and the camera was set to San Francisco time.) But hopefully this offers a little more insight into all the different stuff we got to do.

Part 1: Dinner at Syu's Garden Deli (Chiba City)

The appetizer plate...for one person. At least 4 other full plates of food (again per person!)

Super intense BBQ plate of meat, fish, and fresh veggies!

Oh man. This place is just...epic. I have so much praise for this place I donno where to start. We had the "Garden BBQ" course menu - initially, I thought it was a bit pricey at (I think?) 3000 yen/person, but I knew my mom would appreciate the healthy-ish (ish beacause of the sheer amount of food), veggie-centered menu.

Considering that it was all-you-can-drink (including alcoholic drinks) and an eye-popping amount of amazing food, the price was totally worth it! The restaurant staff was also incredibly nice (very accommodating to our rowdy (but in a friendly way?!) group. I'd love to go back again if I get the chance. It's about a 5 minute walk from Parco in Chiba.

Syu's Garden Deli website: http://www.syuplanning.com/

Part 2: Mitsui Outlet Park (MOP) Kisarazu 

Being silly with the random statue/objects placed around the outlet.

My previous post about MOP Kisarazu: http://ikosa.blogspot.jp/2012/04/grand-opening-of-mop-kisarazu.html.

We went on a weekday afternoon after I got off from work - if you're not a big fan of crowds, this is definitely the perfect time to hit up these outlets. There aren't many other shoppers so you can look around as you please.

Part 3: Sea Festa 2013 in Kamogawa

Rain cleared up just as we arrived in Kamogawa...absolutely gorgeous!

The last day of my mom's visit was the only day we didn't have any reservations or appointments...so I gave my mom the choice between Tokyo and Kamogawa (the two places we hadn't been able to fit into the trip). To my surprise and pleasure, she chose Kamogawa of her own free will, because it was noce and relaxing, and she wanted to see people she'd met during her previous visit.

To male things even better, my mom was visiting just in time for Sea Festa, one of my annual traditions! It's a huge, city-wide event, so I knew we had an incredibly high chance of running into everyone we wanted to.

...and we pretty much did exactly that.

This lovely lady took good care of me when I was in Kamogawa!
She's a part of the women's group within the local Chamber of Commerce...they were selling all sorts of fun Kamogawa t-shirts (and of course, I am a proud owner of a number of them!)

Kamogawa Coffee! This coffee here is seriously epic. I don't actually know where they normally do business...their truck just appears at various local events!

Kamogawa grins all over!

We ran into a ton of people and got tons of delicious food and drink!!! My only regret was that I was duped by the cool weather (and morning clouds!) - found myself pretty well roasted and burnt the next day. I suppose it is a smaller price to pay for a rejuvenating day with friends on the beach though!

Also, found these lovelies at Ichihara Service Area on our way back to Chiba City:

Chiba pride!

To the left - peanut flavored cafe au lait. The peanut flavor was really light - rather, it was the intense smell of...peanut shells? That really caught me off guard. Other than that, I suppose the drink was pretty normal. The packaging was really cute!

To the right - the service area carried a huge variety of I love...Chiba-related place names, so I picked up one for Kamogawa and another for Chiba in general, in honor of my two employers. These'll go on that new suitcase I am overdue to purchase for my trip home. Anyway, the stick come in rectangular and circular shapes, there's one for pretty much every city/town in Chiba...in addition to general "Chiba" ones in hiragana, katakana, romaji...and perhaps others?!

CD debut.

(top) Master CD and lyric sheets with notes from the sound engineer
(bottom left) Entrance to the recording studio
(bottom right) View of Funabashi from the studio building

I love singing and karaoke. This is one of the first things people learn about me. I sing everywhere and anywhere. Even to the point where I go to karaoke on my own for hours on end!

During a conference I attended earlier this year, one of the speakers said to thank you and goodbye to all the people who have supported me throughout these years in a meaningful way. Thoughtful and significant.

A number of people I've met here have told me they would totally go for my CD if I ever made one. Figuring that it would make the perfect thank you gift, I decided to make it happen!

Recording booth...just seeing this photo makes me want to go again!

That said, I had no idea how to go about doing so. After doing all sorts of research on the Internets, I knew I wanted to try recording in an actual studio...and eventually came across the establishment I wound up choosing, RBC's! Not only was it reasonable despite including sound adjustments and direction, but it was super close. The studio is just about a 20 minute ride by train, and located pretty much right next JR Tsudanuma Station. Perfect.

It's a small, homemade studio tucked into what seems like an apartment building (but all the other rooms on the same floor also seem to be occupied by various businesses). It was fantastic though - and I am really happy with the end product!

The spectacular sound engineer, Tamaki-san, hard at work!

I had no idea what I was going into when I walk through the door, but Tamaki-san, the guy who runs the place, was incredibly helpful and great about walking me through the process. I recorded 3 songs over 5 hours (you can rent out the studio on an hourly basis).

If you're recording vocals like I did, you bring in the instrumentals for your songs, as well as copies of your lyrics. Tamaki-san will even provide a little advice on singing/expression - I was just a breath off in my timing for one of my songs, so he pointed that out to me and we fixed it. :)

Anyway, we record one song at a time - usually singing 2-3 "full cuts." Then Tamaki-san will put together the best parts of the cuts, and we can record individual parts if necessary.

After all the songs are complete, there's a little adjustment here and there...and voila! We actually got done earlier than the 5 hour mark, so we spent awhile chatting about random stuff - like how Tamaki-san is from Okinawa (in addition to his sound engineer job, he also does Okinawan music performances here and there!).

He's very professional and thorough, but Tamaki-san is also incredibly easy to work with so that you can relax and create your music just as you imagined it.

And just as he told me - "レコーディングは癖になる,"  or "Recording's addicting"! I think he's right. I wish I'd known about his place sooner - but perhaps the next time I come to Japan, I'll drop by for fun (and maybe record another song while I'm at it?!).

RBC's Funabashi studio official site: http://homepage3.nifty.com/rbc/