Lupinus flowers are blooming soon in Fukagawa City!

by Kazu

The people in the northern Sorachi sub-prefectural area had so heavy snow in passed winter that the season of flowers may come a little bit later than usually.

Soon the hills of lupinus in Fukagawa City will be filled with the aroma of the flowers.The world will be colored with natural beauty that was made by God? or their own evolution.
The wind blowing over the hills will be fine with its soft touch on our cheeks. It is the good place to take your girl friend to in Fukagawa City.

Before the lupinus, dogtooth violets are in full flourish at the end of April. I am wondering if we get the starch from the root of this plant actually. Is it true?
Anyway we are longing for the season of beautiful flowers!

Guanshi between politicians and office clerks of prefectural government!

by Kazu

The top dogs of our prefectural government have to visit Bibai City several times a year because a powerful member of the prefectural legislature invites them to the city. He has a special influence to the politics in Hokkaido and is elected from Bibai City.
On the left is "Buckwheat Noodle Soup Lunch" in the yakitori restaurant  "Tatsumi " of Bibai City. I heard that most of the citizen in Bibai City take off the skewered and grilled chicken from the stick and drop them to the buckwheat noodle soup, particularly after bar hopping or binge drinking.

The black seaweed paper beside the noodle soup covers a rice ball.  This lunch set is for 850 Japanese Yen. soybeans curd is on the top of the photo above.
 Besides, on the right is the novelty I prepared for the visitor who was successful to find me and call me Kazu at the venue of "The Well-established Businesses Festival " in Kuriyama Town.
It is a pity that nobody could find me in the festival albeit some expats were enjoying the delicious food and drink.

Anyway, thank you very much for visiting Kuriyama Town and purchasing many souvenirs !

"Men Men" in Iwamizawa City again!

by Kazu

After enjoyed the festival in Kuriyama Town, my wife and I had to deliver my superior and colleague to their flat in Iwamizawa City. Though we had a;ready swelled with delicious food in Kuriyama Town but as my wife and I were cold sober alcoholic atmosphere from my superiors and colleague in my car, our stomach required something light to eat at 14:00.
So we dropped by thin noodle soup restaurant "Men Men" in Iwamizawa again on April 14(Sun.) .

This restaurant had been in front of the construction company as if it were the restaurant for the staff. Actually the restaurant was run by the construction company and it spun out as the independent restaurant.

The current building beside the route 12 was established a few years ago.

Tori-soboro Don is my wife's favorite. Sauteed minced pork flavored with ginger, soy sauce and special spice, and scrambled eggs were on the rice bowl. Thin wheat noodle soup is like "Pho" in Vietnam.

I suppose the comparatively strong flavor is the taste of construction workers who worked very hard.

Thin noodle soup "Soumen" was so nice even if you had a hangover. So gentle for our stomach.

It may be the taste of Mama's or Granma's. It is easy to find the restaurant beside the route 12 in Iwamizawa City albeit in winter, the restaurant may be behind the small mountain of snow and difficult to find.This lunch set is for 650 Japanese Yen. The restaurant set up the branch restaurant in Sapporo recently. Please find and try the lunch set in the restaurant! 

Address :岩見沢市10条西18丁目8-1
Phone   :0126-25-8895

Shinise Matsuri in Kuriyama Town 2 !

by Kazu

The curtain of "The Well-established Businesses Festival" in Kuriyama Town fell on April 14(Sun.).

My wife played the role of table keeper in our group because some people almost made a mistake to take away our chair for their use in the festival. Waiting for the delicious food sourced locally and delivered by myself or my superiors, she was sipping hot drink at the table.

To be honest, it was a little bit cold for me and my wife cold sober albeit drunken my superiors and colleagues were heating up with disputes and puns.

Official opening time was 10 o'clock in the morning but some people began to went home with several bags of souvenir, newly brewed Japanese sake and culinary delights at that time.

The Sake Brewery Museum of Kobayashi Shuzou" swallowed thousands of people in two days. A few youngsters drank too much and were incapable. Before the season of planting seedlings, this festival is the biggest event around this area. It was got started by two private companies. One is Japanese Sake Brewery Kobayashi Suzou and the other is Tanida Confectionery that makes millet cakes called "KIBIDANGO".  As two many people began to visit, the police office asked the municipality to arrange the logistics and the security measures for the festival.

Drinking Japanese sake in the morning is kind of taboo in usual life except for at the beginning of the year in Japan but the tasting of newly brewed sake for free of charge allured thousands of sake lovers. I have never seen such festival started by private companies.  

Skewered and grilled bacon and grilled turkey legs were the big draw in the festival as well as grilled oysters from Akkeshi Town from the east coast of Hokkaido Island.

We really appreciate Mr.Yamamoto in the town hall for providing us the best place and parking area to enjoy the festival in maximum.

I prefer chicken to turkey but the turkey legs so yami yami on the day.

The skewered and grilled thick bacon fit pints of beer to a T, I think, but I did not drink beer on the day as a one day chauffeur with my wife. I could not go straight after binge drinking in the festival last year and my wife got angry with my behavior.  

Many citizens and visitors spread their plastic sheet on the ground or set their director's  chairs along this street and enjoyed sake, blessing from the ocean and the land.

Grilled oysters from Akkeshi Town. The milk of the ocean includes plenty of mineral and power. 5 pieces for 1,000 Japanese yen.

Skewered and grilled  bacon was for 500 Japanese yen.

It's a pity that nobody could find me in the festival and call me "Kazu". The novelty for the winner should be the present to the winner of the quiz for April ?
Please check out the next posting!

Shinise Matsuri in Kuriyama !

by Kazu

A little bit earlier than scheduled, "The Well-established Companies Festival" started in the morning of April 13(Sat.). As the festival is held at the earliest weekend of April among the attractive events held in Sorachi sub-prefectural area, approximately ten thousand of people swamp to the private premises and enjoy the new Japanese sake directly from the barrel of Kobayashi Brewery every year.

Some kinds of new sake flowed like water for the visitors for free of charge and various kinds of delicious food sourced locally were sold at the stands set by the farmers association in Kuriyama Town and other private entities including the fishermen's association in Akkeshi Town on the eastern coast of Hokkaido Island, which sold grilled fresh oysters with cream of the minerals and nutrition from the ocean.
    

The drumming performance played by the adult group in Kuriyama Town was the opening attraction of the festival. As we set our table and chairs in front of the event site in the courtyard of the brewery, we really enjoyed the performance, sipping the new sake brewed by Kobayashi Shuzou. The junior team of drumming performance followed and played the role of "Big Draw".

The oriental traditional lion dance called "Shishi Mai" is played in this festival and on the premises of Kakuta Shrine in Kuriyama Town at the beginning of each year, at 0:00.
The story is a drunken hobgoblin let the lions dance and put them in their ease. The drunken hobgoblin is called "Shoujou" with red face.

It was much more comfortable to watch the performance in this comfortable temperature than in cold atmosphere of minus 15 degrees in Celsius.
With the sound of drum and Japanese wooden flute, the performance reached climax.  

The hobgoblin took the lions to the audience in the vanguard and delivered the welcome drink to the audience .

The new Director-general for Sorachi Sub-prefectural Office of Hokkaido Government Mr. Yasunori Yamane is on the right and the deputy, Mr. Nobuo Hayashi is on the left. The really enjoy the taste of Japanese sake from the barrel, the atmosphere of the festival and the performances of attractions.

Mr. Hayashi bought the magnum bottle of Japanese sake "Maruta" for as all. it is made from the rice crop purified 45%. It means that the rive crop is shaved to the half and boiled, fermented. It may be like a liqueur for occidental people. So nice and tasty.

Before it starts to rain, please visit the festival in Kuriyama today, April 14(Sun.)!

To be continued.

Beautiful V in the sky !

by Kazu

During my jogging early n the morning, many migratory birds such as wild geese, swans and wild ducks were shouting and going across the sky over Iwamizawa City.
The directions of their flights varies but as the marsh called Miyajima-numa in Bibai City is designated as one of the National Heritage of UNESCO, the area is one of the best place in Hokkaido for bird-watching.  

Most of the formation is shaped like the character of "V". Can they be the catalyst of influenza?
 The birds falling down from he sky are the worst sign of epidemic. Even when Alexander the great passed away, those signs could be seen by the tourists.







Good-byefrom the world of snow!                                                                                                                                                                                          

Bariki-ya in Sapporo City !

 by Kazu

Why do we have to eat "Tonkotsu Ramen" from Hakata City in the Empire of Sapporo Ramen?  Because this "Tonkotsu Ramen" is adjusted to fit the taste of Hokkaido people to a T and so nice to beef up our body!
This type is called "Zenbu Nokke Men" which means "Ramen noodle soup topped with all kinds of ingredients.
A wad of salty cod roe is at the center. The egg was boiled and soaked in the special sauce.
Three pieces of grilled and boiled pork rib were also flavored with soy-sauce-base special liquid.  

 Can you see the dried sea weed like a piece of paper at the left and upper corner ? It is not the protagonist on this stage but plays an indispensable role with other toppings.
The characteristics of Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen Noodle is straight and thin noodle compared to that of Sapporo Ramen. The soup is thickened with pork fat that contains plenty of collagen.
At 9:00 p.m., is it too heavy for you ? But the noodle soup is addictive.  

Particularly, after binge drinking, our stomach requires this kind of strong taste even if it is not good to stay fit. the sprout is like an apology to our body. "Bariki-ya"has some restaurants in Sapporo City and near Sapporo JR Station, you can easily find the hole-in-the-wall from the west entrance of Daimaru Department Store.

Have a nice weekend !

We will visit Kuriyama Town and enjoy Shinise Matsuri which means "well-established companies Festival". Please find me in Kuriyama Town and call me "Kazu". You may get a novelty on the site!