Living Food

I suck at this!!!!

July was my last post??!!

Alright. I'm treating this post as an e-mail that I won't have to send to each and every member of my family and all of my friends (amounting to at least a dozen people or so...). Since I've talked to most of you recently, I'll just treat this as an update. Real letters will follow soon (for most of you)...really! Have I ever been wrong when I said that? Save the ridiculing hate mail please...and accept my apologies for any of you that choked on your drink as you read that last line.

Taka and I went to a living food restaurant last weekend. Living foods are a step beyond even our usual diet. They are foods that are either raw or fermented naturally without cooking by heat. Pretty extreme. They use fermentation, natural enzymes and dehydrators. As out-there as I can be with food, this is pretty out there even for me. This place shocked me with how very good it was. I'd go so far as to say that pretty much everyone reading this (Joan gets a pass) would have liked what we had. The downside was that the whole lunch set was like an appetizer and we left straight for another restaurant as soon as we finished "lunch". This is pretty much the whole lunch (which also came with a thimble of uncooked mushroom soup and enzyme-cooked brown rice:


Taka got motivated to try a little more living food, and ordered a book. Last night started the first effort (easiest, and supposedly most healthy). Raw cabbage and water in a food processor left to sit at room temperature for three days before filtering. Then 100 ml before each meal. I was actually scared when I tried it. Surprisingly, it wasn't horrible. Kind of like a very mild sauerkraut juice. It's supposed to dramatically aid digestion. I'll keep you posted (unless, of course, it kills me...safe so far).

I was going to post a picture of a place in the neighborhood with Christmas decorations. The guy must be a decorations salesman or something. A pretty amazing job...but every one of ten pictures on 4 different settings looked like I was jumping up and down when shooting (and 7 were with the camera braced against a rail). Basically that means no picture of that this time around. Christmas decorations aren't the norm, but they are around. There's another near one of the supermarkets I shop at. I can't imagine what these people pay a month on their electric bills (save the Scrooge comments please!).

This year we are visiting Taka's family for New Years. We'll be in Kochi for six days. It's going to be a bit strange. Her Grandmother passed away a few months ago, which means some things will be different. For one thing, Taka had to send out a lot of postcards telling people that she won't be sending or receiving New Year's postcards. I knew about the 49 days thing and the 3, 7 and 13 year things (all ceremonies), but this was the first I had heard that you can't even receive New Year's cards. I don't know if this is a Japan thing, a Kochi thing or a Taka's family thing, but at Taka's (real) family's house there can't be any osechiryori (traditional New Year's food) this year. That one's no skin off my back though...I've never been a big fan (esp. Kochi style).

We'll also be visiting Taka's Momma and Papa (her other family). Momma is the best cook I've had the pleasure to visit in this country. Not fancy, just wonderful. Papa uses me as an excuse to drink way more than usual, so I have fun while Taka's translating skills get pushed to (and occasionally beyond) her comfort zone. A zone that shrinking year by year (I REALLY need more than a week or two of a time studying this language!). For the record...even if my Japanese was good (which it's not), Tosa-ben (Kochi's dialect) would be beyond me. Momma and Papa live next to an onsen, so I get a couple of visits there as well. Taka's mother lives near there as well, but has been occupying Taka's grandmother's place since she passed (the 1st 49 days someone has to be there).

More soon.

Really!