Twentythree

Kyoto museum’s ”Ghibli for grown-ups” event collaborates with three Kyoto Zen temples.

Temple architecture and anime artwork are both undeniable expressions of Japanese aesthetic sensibilities. Many would say that some of the finest examples of the former can be found in Kyoto, and the latter within the films of Studio Ghibli, and this fall JR Central is offering something special for fans who enjoy both.

The Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art is getting ready to open its Zen and Ghibli exhibition in October. This first-of-its-kind event is “an immersive exhibition exploring Zen through the works of Studio Ghibli,” drawing from a book of the same title written by veteran Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki. The museum says that “Ghibli films often embody a worldview that does not divide good and evil, leaves space instead of rushing to answers, and embraces the attitude of ‘accepting without fully understanding.’ This resonates deeply with the Zen principles of ‘not dividing,’ ‘not judging,’ and ‘seeing things as they are,’” and the exhibit is structured around The Boy and the Heron, arguably Ghibli’s most open-to-interpretation anime ever, in particular.

▼　The poster for Zen and Ghibli, which the museum is also promoting as “Ghibli-for grown-ups,” features a line of The Boy and the Heron’ s floating warara creatures.

At-the-door admission is 1,900 yen (US$12), but getting your ticket in advance via JR Central’s EX ticketing service will save you 300 yen if you book by October 2, and it’ll still save you 100 yen after that date. More importantly, though, booking through EX will get you some beautiful Ghibli/Kyoto collaborative artwork in the form of goshuin papers.

Goshuin are stamped certificates provided at temples in Japan, certifying the bearer’s visit and said to bestow blessings upon them. They also look really cool, and many travelers enjoy them as a culturally artistic way of commemorating that part of their journey. In the most basic arrangement, the goshuin is transferred onto plain white paper, but the JR Central-reserved Zen and Ghibli ticket includes Ghibli-themed goshuin papers to be used at three famous Kyoto temples. Pictured above is the paper to be used at Shokokuji Temple, with Totoro flying above the temple’s main hall, and there are also papers for Nanzenji and Myoshinji Temples.

▼ The Nanzenji paper features Porco Rosso protagonist Porco.

▼ The Myoshinji paper has who appears to be Howl’s Moving Castle’s Howl in his avian form, but with a bit of a simian touch.

▼ Maybe it’s meant as a nod to “Withered Trees and Monkeys,” a famous work by 16th/17th-century painter Hasegawa Tohaku which has been in Myoshinji’s collection of artwork.

The goshuin papers start off with their left halves blank, as the stamps are to be added upon visiting the respective temples. Alternatively, if you’re a hybrid Ghilbi/goshuin enthusiast who wants something more substantial to be stamped, JR Central is also offering a package with a Zen and Ghibli admission ticket and a goshuin book, with multiple blank pages inside, a front cover illustrated with the adorable warawara, and Princess Mononoke’s San on the back.

Note that while admission to the Zen and Ghibli exhibit is included in the JR Central packages, admission to the three associated temples is separate, as are the fees for the goshuin stamp to be applied.

The packages can be reserved now through the EX website here, with the museum ticket/goshuin papers set 1,600 yen and the ticket/goshuin book bundle 3,300 yen until October 2, and the prices for both going up by 200 yen after that. Zen and Ghibli is scheduled to run from October 3 to December 6, but the goshuin papers/book can be used after the exhibition closes as well.

Source: PR Times (1, 2), Kyoto City Kyosera Museum of Art, Zen and Ghibli official website
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times (1, 2)
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A beniharuka shake rolls into Sukiya as sweet potato season gets underway.

Japan never met a seasonal sweets flavor it couldn’t find space in its heart for, and with sweet potato season here, it’s an especially sweet time of year. The flavor of sweet potatoes is so loved in Japan that there’s even a whole sub-category of sweet potato dessert drinks that arrives every autumn, such as Starbucks Japan’s sweet potato Frappuccino.

But cafes and coffeehouses don’t have a monopoly on drinkable sweet potato treats, and one of the best we’ve had so far this year is at none other than one of Japan’s biggest beef bowl chains.

Along with Yoshinoya and Matsuya, Sukiya is one of Japan’s big three gyudon (beef bowl) restaurants, and their take on the dish has a subtle hint of refreshing citrus to the broth the meat is simmered in.

But Sukiya is ready to satisfy not just carnivorous cravings, as they’ve also got a selection of desserts that they collectively call the “Suki Cafe” line, which includes their Suki Shakes, and as of September 8 they’re serving up sweet potato shakes!

If you’re ordering in Japanese, the flavor is called yakiimo, which translates literally as “roasted potato” but is always used to refer specifically to roasted sweet potatoes. Suki Shakes are generally a vanilla base with another flavor mixed in for an enticing marbled appearance, and in this case the special guest is a sweet potato sauce made with beniharuka grown in Ibaraki Prefecture. Beniharuka are Japan’s sweetest variety of sweet potato, so we had high expectations as we took a sip.

The first thing to register on our taste buds was the milky sweetness of the vanilla portion, which is so creamy that it reminded us of soft-serve ice cream. After that came the sweet potato sauce, which not only tasted delicious but had a stickiness to it, evoking thoughts of the caramelized sugar that seeps out of sweet potatoes during roasting. It was a fantastic combination, and with the crushed pieces of imo kenpi (crisp candied sweet potato chips) sprinkled across the top, you also get some stimulating crunchiness.

Our taste tester Yayoi Saginomiya was so impressed that she’s ready to call this a dark horse contender for the best sweet potato drink you can find this season. In addition to being a far, far more delicious dessert than most people would expect of a beef bowl restaurant, it’s a very affordable one too, costing just 210 yen (US$1.30) for a small size, 260 for a medium, and 350 for a large, so stomach capacity, not budget concerns, is going to be the only limiting factor as to how many of these we can drink during the limited time they’ll be on sale.

Gyudon photo: Sukiya
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High in both cuteness and calories.

The advent of the Internet enabled sharing of strange ways to eat food to a degree never before seen in human history. Whether it’s putting pudding in ramen, eating ramen in a bathtub, or adding sake to ramen, there’s no shortage of ideas that make you wonder both why they thought of such a thing and why you never thought of such a thing.

The latest such creation is going by the name of “Dot Butter” on social media. It’s both incredibly simple and unheard of at the same time, simply consisting of a piece of butter with sprinkles. I personally have never felt the urge to eat a spoonful of butter, and I’m not sure sprinkles would sweeten the deal all that much, but one look was enough to give our writer Mai Tsubomi the urge to try some Dot Butter for herself.

She headed to her local supermarket and came home with a pack of sprinkles and some butter. Mai figured the type of butter sold in pre-cut and individually wrapped squares would work well for this particular snack.

Making Dot Butter is extremely simple. Just coat the piece of butter in sprinkles and eat. However, after plopping in her pre-cut butter, Mai noticed a problem.

The piece of butter was a little too small compared to the size of the sprinkles. Because of this, the sprinkles wouldn’t stick everywhere on the butter, leaving bare patches here and there. It turned out that this recipe wasn’t quite as easy as it seems.

It didn’t quite have the visual impact she was hoping for and still felt like she was about to bite into a chunk of butter. Our writer initially panicked, thinking she somehow managed to screw up one of the easiest recipes around. However, once she tasted it, she was pleasantly surprised. The saltiness of the butter mingled well with the sweetness of the sprinkles.

Luckily, Mai’s first experience with Dot Butter was a good one, but she still felt like it could have been better. So she went to the kitchen, got a stick of regular butter, and cut off a piece large enough to fully accept the sprinkles while also keeping her own health in mind as one should when eating pure butter.

It looked much better and tasted just as good at first, but a few more bites in and she began to notice an oily film form in her mouth. It became too much to bear, and she decided to spread the remainder on some toast instead. Clearly, balance was the key in creating Dot Butter that’s both good-looking and pleasant to eat.

With this new taste sensation under her belt, Mai started to wonder what if more commonly edible dairy squares were used in the place of butter. So she also prepared the ingredients to make Dot Cream Cheese and Dot Mozzarella.

Fortunately for our writer, both came out surprisingly good. In fact, she’d say they were both better than Dot Butter. The Dot Cream Cheese was the better of the two, with a delicious tang and the feeling of eating some cheesecake. Dot Mozzarella, on the other hand, had the same delectable balance of sweet and salty that the butter had, but without the greasy mouthfeel.

She still felt Dot Butter itself is a really nice treat when done in moderation and had a certain forbidden charm that the other squares were somewhat lacking in. One thing to point out is that most sprinkles in Japan are made from chocolate, and results may vary when using sugar-based sprinkles, though I can’t imagine how. So go ahead and add a little color to your life from time to time.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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We find out if a convenience store kebab can compete with the real thing.

In recent years, kebab stores have become common around Tokyo, with huge barrels of meat no longer being a strange curiosity but a serious craving. 7-Eleven is now catching on to this trend by serving up its own version of a kebab, in the form of a Chicken Kebab Sandwich.

This was something we were surprised to see when we visited a branch the other day, and our curiosity immediately got the better of us. Keen to find out just how kebab-like the sandwich would be, especially with sliced white bread instead of pita holding it together, we plucked one off the shelf and took it home for a taste test.

The first thing we noticed upon opening it, was the filling, which seemed to have everything you’d want in a kebab sandwich – chicken, tomato, cabbage and lettuce. Though it was generous, it wasn’t overflowing to the point of falling out everywhere, which is what usually happens when we hold a kebab.

The fact that we could hold it in one hand and easily bite into it made this a very convenient kebab, which is what you’d ideally want from a convenience store, but the big question was… how would it taste?

Taking a bite, our eyes widened with glee as we were amazed by just how authentic the fillings were! For us, the sauce is always the key to a good kebab, and that distinctive, spicy sauce with a slightly herbal accent had been properly recreated.

The sauce helped to lift the ingredients and bring them together to deliver an authentic kebab flavour. One thing that really surprised us, though, was the kick, as the sauce was quite spicy, despite only measuring one out of three chilli peppers on the rating scale. It was a hot, tingling, slightly fiery spiciness so if you don’t like spicy food, you might want to tread with caution here.

As lovers of spicy food, this was no problem for us, though, and in fact, it was a very welcome surprise. The heat only added to our overall appreciation for the sandwich, but before polishing it off, there was one more thing we had to test: the cross section. Convenience stores are known for committing what’s become known as “cross-section fraud”, where the sandwich looks full at the cross section but lacks ingredients towards the back of the slice.

Peeling the sandwich apart, we were happy to find there was no cross-section fraud here, as the sandwich was nicely filled to all three sides. This earned it another tick in our books, making it an all-star in terms of looks, ease-of-eating, portion size and flavour. There was only one point of contention, as it could be argued that, at 429 yen (US$2.79), it’s not that cheap, so you might be better off buying an actual kebab from a kebab shop.

However, there’s something to be said about the convenience of being able to pick up a tasty kebab at 7-Eleven. Not only is it a treat to know you can satisfy a craving for a kebab at any hour of the day or night, it’s especially nice for people outside of big cities, where kebabs aren’t as readily available.

Much like the taco burrito that came before it, 7-Eleven’s kebab sandwich is a great way to introduce more people to flavours from around the world, and remind us all that Japan knows how to do a great sandwich, even when it’s not filled with fruit and chocolate chips.

Images ©SoraNews24
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Or should we call them hot can?

With September here, it won’t be long until Japan’s vending machines start getting stocked with hot beverages. On a crisp autumn afternoon or chilly winter night, there’s a special kind of comforting relaxation that comes from warming yourself up with some green tea or coffee, but this year you’ll also be able to get hot pot from Japan’s vending machines.

I suppose you could make the argument that, linguistically, these should be called hot can instead of hot pot, based on the containers they come in. That said, inside those cans is broth from the nabe (Japanese hot pot) base brand Shimenabe, produced by food company Mizkan. Shimenabe is one of Japan’s most popular brands of hot pot stock for home chefs, and now, thanks to a partnership with beverage company Dydo, two types are going to be sold as ready-to-drink canned hot pot soups.

The first, pictured above, is the Goma Tonyu, or Sesame Soy Milk, canned hot pot. Made with a chicken and vegetable stock, Dydo and Mizkan promise a rich, deep taste and enticing aroma. The second flavor is the Hotate and Hamaguri (Scallops and Clam) seafood hot pot, with a fish-based dashi stock and shellfish extract for a robust, complex flavor.

Both of the canned Shimenabe soups are done in a zosui style, meaning they have rice in them too, making them drinkable snacks for when you’re feeling both a little chilly and a little hungry. While the preview photos show their contents poured into a bowl and served with a spoon for a classy presentation, like all vending machine drinks these are actually meant to be sipped straight from the can.

Both versions of Dydo’s canned hot pot are priced at 160 yen (US$1) and will be appearing in vending machines, and in stores as well, starting October 26.

Source, images: PR Times
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We test the Okome Pouch, which uses a patented method to make rice more delicious… and easier to wash.

As much as we love rice, one thing we don’t particularly love is the work that goes into preparing it. Not only do you have to wash and knead the grains, but you often find yourself scrambling to pick up errant grains when rinsing, before they disappear down the drain.

So when we heard about a product that claimed to “reproduce the ideal way of washing rice using patented technology, bringing out the full potential of each individual grain”, we knew we had to give it a try.

Called the Okome Pouch, with okome being the Japanese word for uncooked rice, the product is made in Japan from a gauze-like material, and comes with a drawstring opening.

The pouch comes in three sizes: 1-3 go, 1-6 go and 1-9 go, with “go” being the traditional Japanese unit used for measuring rice, which works out to be about 180 millilitres (about 0.76 U.S. cups).

We chose the 1-6 go variety, and after following the instructions to boil it before the very first use to sterilise it, we popped it into our rice-washing bowl and added the rice and water.

Pulling the opening closed, we then rinsed the rice by dunking the pouch up and down, before draining the water. Then we fully closed it by wrapping the rope around the opening, and kneaded the pouch for 15 to 30 seconds.

We tried “underwater kneading”, which involves kneading the pouch while it’s submerged in water, but apparently you can also do “air kneading”, where you knead without submersion or “rolling kneading”, where you roll it across a chopping board.

The underwater kneading turned the rice-washing water totally white, but after changing the water and rinsing it another two times, the prep was done, and best of all, no grains of rice had been spilled in the process.

While we usually leave the rice to soak in a bowl for around 30 minutes at this stage, when using this method you leave it to soak inside the pouch, for the same amount of time.

Then all that’s left to do is cook it the way you always do, which for us is in a donabe clay pot.

As soon as the cooking was done, we were very keen to test the results, starting first by judging their appearance.

▼ Regular bowl of rice on the left and the Okome Pouch version on the right.

At first glance, we didn’t notice much of a difference in appearance – perhaps the Okome Pouch version was a tad glossier. However, as soon as we tried a mouthful, we could tell it was clearly different from the rice we regularly make.

▼ The texture of the Okome Pouch-washed rice was noticeably softer, and each individual grain was wonderfully plump, without being soggy.

It wasn’t just us who noticed the difference, because when other members of the family, who knew nothing about the experiment, tasted the rice, they asked, “Is today’s rice different from usual?”

Though it’s hard to convey the difference through photos, it’s very noticeable in the eating. It was so noticeable that we took a closer look at the product description, where we learned that the secret apparently lies in the way the pouch forces most of the rice grains to come into contact with each other. When combined with the kneading motion, countless tiny scratches are created on the surface of the rice in a short amount of time. This allows the heat to penetrate the heart of each grain more effectively, producing plump, glossy rice.

After using the pouch, we were totally sold on it. Not only did it give us an easy and better way to wash the rice, it prevented the rice from spilling, and because it’s all contained within the pouch, it’s a handy way to prepare rice in less-than ideal environments, like while camping outdoors, or when you’ve just gotten your nails done.

You do have to wash the pouch after every use, but it only needs a quick wash, and it’s also dishwasher-safe, so it isn’t that much trouble. Priced at 1,920 yen (US$13), it can be purchased at homeware stores and online marketplace sites like Amazon and Rakuten, so keep an eye out for it if you want to upgrade your rice skills in the kitchen.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Mr. Sato and his crew strut through Shinjuku like cocks of the walk, but can their meat beat the heat?

So…our plans to beat the summer heat haven’t exactly been going very well. Sure, the results have been moderately effective, but slapping 68 adhesive cooling patches on the upper body of our crack reporter Mr. Sato was also a pretty expensive endeavor. Likewise, yes, freezing our boss Yoshio’s hat in a block of ice did cool him off, but also took us more than a day and required an electric cutter and hand file to make wearable, making the process both time and labor-intensive.

And so it was that, once again, Mr. Sato sat at his desk in SoraNews24 headquarters, racking his brain for another countermeasure to the hot, humid weather.

Suddenly, inspiration struck, bringing with it a flash of glee to Mr. Sato’s face.

He rose to his feet, and his steps grew quicker and more excited with each step as he headed towards the door.

Honestly, at this point, we’ve stopped asking him questions when he does this sort of thing. All you can do is sit back and wait for the Sato surprise.

30 minutes later, Mr. Sato came bounding back into the office, holding…

…handy fans!

▼ “Hey guys! Look what I’ve got!”

Handy fans have become a trendy item in Tokyo these days. Advancements in mobile battery technology have brought them to a point where they’re affordable, relatively lightweight, and can run for a long time on a charge. Granted, they’re now commonplace enough to seem a little light on outside-the-box impact for one of Mr. Sato’s schemes, but Yoshio and fellow writer Seiji Nakazawa, who also happened to be in the office this day, were thankful all the same for Mr. Sato’s gifts.

Mr. Sato: “Here ya go, handy fans! The air conditioner alone doesn’t cut it on days as hot as this, right?”
Seiji: “Wow, thank you!”
Yoshio: “Thanks.”

Seiji: “Ahhh…so nice and cool!”
Yoshio: “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

But while smiles spread across Seiji and Yoshio’s faces, the one on Mr. Sato’s quickly vanished.

Mr. Sato: “Whoa, hold up! You’re just using them like normal? Did you dudes go brain-dead?”
Seiji: “Wha-?”
Yoshio: “Yes, what?”

Snatching their handy fans back, Mr. Sato fly into a rage and launched into a tirade.

Mr. Sato: “How many years have you ditzes been working at SoraNews24? ‘Ohhh, this feels so nice on my face’? That’s bush-league! That aint how we do things around here, and you know it!”

Mr. Sato: “I’ll show you both what to do! Geez, you’re not even worth wasting too punches on…here’s one for the both of ya!”
Seiji: “Gyahh!”
Yoshio: “So efficiently degrading!”

Mr. Sato: “Here, like this! If you’re a man, shut your mouth and hang the handy fan on your crotch!”

Mr. Sato: “Check it out! It makes you look awesome, like a Kamen Rider superhero belt!”

▼ ZUGYUUN (ズギューン), the sound of boldly showing off your crotch fan (see, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, you’re not the only one who can make up crazy sound effects).

▼ ZUGYUUN!

Mr. Sato: “OK, now you two guys do it!”
Seiji: “Like this?”
Yoshio: “Is this correct?”

Mr. Sato: “Yeah, that’s more like it.”
Seiji: “You know, this really is cooler.”
Yoshio: “You could almost say it’s cold.”
Mr. Sato: “See? I told you guys.”

Mr. Sato: “OK, time to move out.”
Seiji: “We’re going outside dressed like weirdos again?”
Yoshio: “I’m not so sure about this.”

Mr. Sato: “Not so sure? Come on man, you’ve gone outside wearing stranger stuff than this. You know what’s going to get us in trouble, and it’s not this.”
Seiji: “Well, I guess he’s right…”

Yoshio: “So where are we going?”
Mr. Sato: “Yoshio, baby, you don’t need to ask that. You know exactly where we’re going.”
Yoshio: “Well, yeah, but if I have to ask to establish context for our readers, don’t I?”
Mr. Sato: “Well, how very proper and responsible of you.”

Seiji: “How many times does this make that we’ve gone ‘there’ doing stuff like this?”
Mr. Sato: “I can’t even remember. Doesn’t change anything though. Gotta be done.”
Yoshio: “At this point, it feels like some mysterious sense of obligation.”

Mr. Sato: “OK, stay sharp until we get across the street.”
Yoshio: “Why?”

Mr. Sato: “Dude, because we’re passing in front of the police box.”
Seiji: “Hey, weren’t you the one saying we weren’t going to get in any trouble?”
Mr. Sato: “Hey, just being extra cautious.”

Mr. Sato: “Once we get across, we’ll be out of the danger zone.”
Yoshio: “Focus…focus…”

Mr. Sato: “See, we made it. Back again at our good old local Starbucks.”
Seiji: “Seems like we always find our way back here at times like this.”
Mr. Sato: “Is there anyplace better?”
Yoshio: “I’ve got to admit, you’re right about that.”

Mr. Sato: “Aaaand coffee cheers!”
Seiji: “The coffee here always feels like it comes with a sense of accomplishment on the side.”
Yoshio: “Somehow, making it here always feels like we just crossed a finish line.”

As we wrap things up, we should mention that our lawyers would like to remind everyone that handy fans are not actually designed to be used in this manner, and that placing rapidly rotating blades so close to your crotch carries a non-negatable risk of very painful collision with what most men would consider some of their body parts they’re most attached to. So as always, even when Mr. Sato’s crazy ideas produce the desired result, we recommend utilizing non-crazy measures for yourself.

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