These are photos of Marunouchi Area side of the Tokyo station taken last year after snow.
This part of the station building includes Tokyo Station Hotel which was established inside of the station from the beginning. The hotel started their business one year after the station opening in 1915. So the station building and the hotel have a hundred years of history.
The whole station building including the hotel was renovated recently. The roofs of the domes are covered by slates made of natural stones. They came from a northern part of Japan, and actually these slates experienced the terrible Higashi-Nihon earthquake disaster in 2011. At the time of the earthquake disaster, they were already finished and waiting in storage to be sent to Tokyo, and some part of them were damaged. The survived slates were used for the roofs of the station domes as planned, and some broken states were used for making a relief which is displayed inside of Tokyo Station.
The beautiful inside view shown in the lower left hand side photo is the original interior designed 100 years ago and just restored during the latest renovation. It is said that the chief designer Kingo Tatsuno tried to make a fusion design of Japanese style with Western style.
Please look at the lower center photo, the flying hawk relief (with Western style decoration) is carrying an ear of rice (major agricultural product of Japan, and the staple food for Japanese people) , and the green plate on the lower wall has a design of one of the Chinese Zodiac Twelve Animals symbol because Japanese people used to use these animals as compass directions in old times. So each corner of this octagonal dome has green plate with an animal relief that represent the direction.
In addition, inside of Tokyo Station Hotel, there is a cafe run by a famous traditional Japanese sweets company "Tora-ya" as shown in the lower right hand side photo. They serve both traditional Japanese sweets and Japanese-Western fusion sweets. They also have lunch menus. At the cafe you can see the original red bricks wall of Tokyo Station. They keep it as a historical monument and people can feel the 100 years history there while they enjoy the cafe's food and drinks.
At very crowded popular sightseeing spots such as Sensoji-Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, we can sometimes find a traditional Japanese street performance called "Saru-Mawashi". The word means "Monkey Operation" and a performer shows a Japanese monkey's acrobatic tricks with comical narration.
In "Saru-Mawashi (Monkey Operation)", Japanese monkeys wearing costumes would play on stilts, show big jumps or somersaults, and play drums as shown in the photos. The performers mostly talks as if they are having a comic dialogue with their monkeys while they make the monkeys do the tricks.
The history of this performance is pretty long. It is said that performances using monkeys were originally imported from China in the 8th century. Although it had been more like rituals in the beginning since monkeys were considered as guardians for horses, it gradually became just an entertainment performance. During Samurai era, it was a very popular performance and apparently "Saru-Mawashi" performers were all over Japan.
However sometime after the Japanese modern government was established in 1868, this traditional street performance was completely exterminated because modern police departments thought these activities didn't fit the Road Traffic Law.
In 1970s, some of those who deplore the disappearance of the traditional performance made efforts to revive "Saru-Mawashi", and today we can enjoy it again. Thus these performers are now using busy sightseeing spots such as famous temple grounds or park for their show and don't use public streets.
If you are lucky you come across this performance while you are visiting popular tourist spots!
The gate shown in the photos is an outer gate of Sensoji-Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. It would be one of the most famous landmark of Tokyo and has been used as a design for many souvenir items of Tokyo.
The big red lantern is the icon of this gate and it has two Chinese characters on it which mean "Thunder Gate". The size of the lantern is 12.8 ft (3.9 m) in height, 10.8(3.3 m) in diameter and weighs 1543 lb(700 kg). Although it is really huge, it's a traditional Japanese style lantern. The red cover is made of Japanese paper "Washi" and the shape of the lantern structure is made of bamboo. Since they are not really long-lasting materials, the lantern is remade every 10 years.
Not so many people would pay attention to the small metal base on the lantern, but there is a black name plate on it as shown in the upper right hand side photo.
The letters say "Matsushita Denki" in Japanese which is actually the old name for "Panasonic", because the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita donated the original lantern in 1960s. Apparently he had a health problem back then and asked the chief monk of Sensoji-Temple to pray for his recovery. After a while he really recovered, then donated the big lantern to show his gratitude.
By the way, there is a statue under the gate building on both sides of the lantern. They are covered in wire nets so that it is difficult to see the figures in the upper left hand side photo taken during daytime, but they stand out illuminated at night as you can see in the lower photo.
On the right side of the lantern is a statue of "God of Wind". He carries a sack on his back and it contains wind. On the other side of the lantern is a statue of "God of Thunder". He carries connected small drums on his back which makes thunderclaps.
Actually the formal name of the gate is "Fu-jin Rai-jin Mon (The Wind-God Thunder-God Gate)" because of the two statues, though it usually goes by the name of "Kaminari Mon (The Thunder Gate)". It is not clear when people started to call it so, but somehow "Wind" was dropped from the name. Perhaps the "God of Wind" maybe jealous of his buddy for remaining in the commonly known name.
Matsumoto Castle in Matsumoto city, Nagano prefecture is one of the rare old castles which still has the original building constructed between late 16th century and early 17th century. Today it is designated as a national treasure in Japan.
The black building in the photos above is the main castle tower of Japanese style castles called "Tenshukaku". The word literally means "Castle Tower Protecting the Sky". This "Tenshukaku" looks all black since the walls are painted by Japanese lacquer. Nowadays some local people affectionately call this castle "Crow Castle" because of the color.
However the castle wasn't always maintained well in the history. After the shogunate government collapsed and Samurai era ended, Japan established the first modern government, and the "Tenshukaku" was put up for an auction and about to be torn down. However, some influential locals acquired the "Tenshukaku" and established an organization to preserve the building.
So, because of the local people's efforts we can enjoy seeing/visiting this beautiful castle now.
Traditionally Japanese sake breweries produce sake once a year in the fall and finish brewing
within the following winter, although nowadays some bigger traditional sake breweries make sake in all seasons. Contrary to the traditional breweries, all large liquor companies make sake all year with high-tech modern equipment.
Regarding the management of the breweries, in old times, making sake used to be a seasonal job for freelance sake brewers who were farming in spring and summer, and many owners of sake breweries were landowners thus it was no problem for everybody to activate sake
breweries once a year. However, this has been changed. Today, most traditional sake breweries became
companies and they have sake brewers as their full-time employees
although there are still some freelance sake brewers remaining.
Do traditional sake brewing companies have entirely the same system as the other modern companies?
Look
at the photos above. These are photos of the president’s house in Ishikawa-Shuzo Sake Brewery. Actually this company still keeps a unique old
tradition, though it is probably a rare case. The
president’s house shown in the photos are located on the company grounds that’s why the wooden
board tells “Private Area”. This wouldn’t be so unusual tradition but the
rare tradition they keep can be seen on the name plate displayed at the
entrance.
It says “Yahachiro Ishikawa” which is the name of the head of
the family and also is the president of the company. Actually the name
has been handed down since the beginning of the family history as a
landowner.
To be more precise, this sake brewing company has kept the same
president’s name. It is not the situation which the former president
named his son “Jr.”.
The tradition is, after the former president
passes away the successor takes over the company and also the "name". He changes his name in all legal registrations
and formally becomes “Yahachiro Ishikawa”. Apparently the current
president is the 18th “Yahachiro Ishikawa”.
Well, I think there would
be some advantages with this tradition. The company doesn’t have to
renew the business cards for the president, and the president's name in
the company information forever!
Tokyo Metropolis is too developed to have many traditional sake breweries, since good water is one of the most important ingredients. In fact there are fewer than 10 Sake breweries and I have to say it is a small number for a prefecture. Compare to Tokyo, Niigata prefecture, which is known as the mecca of sake brewing has 96 sake breweries.
Sake breweries in Tokyo are actually located in West Tokyo area except one. West Tokyo area is close to mountains with easy access to good groundwater. That is to say they tend to be surrounded by beautiful nature. Especially big trees are considered important and treated well by breweries because they are symbols of good ground water.
Therefore, sake breweries are more than places for enjoying sake. People can also enjoy nature and seasonal flowers while visiting the breweries. Moreover many of sake breweries keep their traditional old buildings, so it is a good place to enjoy traditional Japanese architecture, too!
All the photos above are taken at sake breweries in West Tokyo area. If you are interested in these sake breweries, please check my tours!
"Kiki-Choko" sounds like a kind of chocolate, but today's topic is not connected to Japanese Valentine's Day which I introduced in my other blog yesterday.
"Choko" is actually a Japanese word means "traditional small sake cups" which can contain about 50-100 mL of sake. Size-wise, it would be a little similar to shot glasses, but "Choko" can be made from a full range of materials and can have variety of shapes as you can see the examples in the green boxed photos.
The different types of sake cups are all called "Choko" or "Ochoko", because "O" is a polite prefix sound in Japanese. Then what about "Kiki-Choko"? It's one kind of "Choko" sake cups shown in upper photos that is used specifically for tasting and evaluating sake.
The design of "Kiki-Choko" is traditionally regulated to determine characteristics of sake. The base color is pure white to check the color of sake, and there is a blue double circle on the bottom to check the transparency of sake. The circles are called a "Snake Eye". Since Japanese sake includes cloudy and unfiltered types, the "Snake Eye" will not be clearly visible when an opaque type of sake is poured into the cup. The upper right hand side photo shows the comparison.
So, Masters of sake breweries carry "Kiki-Choko" at work and they use it when they examine the quality and the characteristics of their products. Also, as you can see an example in the lower left hand side photos, "Kiki-Choko" is often used at sake tasting corners. People can enjoy evaluating sake as if they are professional sake brewers or sake sommeliers with "Kiki-Choko". It would be fun for sake lovers!
In connection to my previous post introducing a sake event on Feb. 10th, let's talk more about Japanese Sake.
As for the question in the title "can we make good sake at home?", it is actually out of question since brewing sake at home is illegal in Japan. However in terms of technical possibility, can we brew good sake at home?
I would say it is not impossible but very difficult. Actually making sake is different from making wine although both are using the same technique of alcoholic fermentation. Grapes, the ingredient of wine, are originally sweet so that yeasts can work on the fermentation immediately, but the situation is different for sake. Since rice grains don't contain enough sugar initialy, in order to make sake, rice grains need to be steamed and incubated with Koji-bacteria. After this process enough sugar is produced and ready for the alcoholic fermentation, so making sake requires two steps of biological reactions.
In addition, sake ingredients must be treated under sterilized condition during the two processes. That's why most Sake breweries are hanging a sacred rope of Japanese Shinto at the entrance as shown in the lower right hand side photo. Places for sake brewing must be very clean.
Moreover, though it sounds simple when we hear the ingredients of sake are basically water and rice, actually the ingredient rice for sake is not the usual rice we eat. Since the rice needs to get bacteria to increase sugar contents, special kinds of rice are used for sake, and it is called "Saka-Mai (sake rice)". The "Saka-Mai" grains have a white core in the center with a spongy structure containing only starch. Please compare the two photos of rice grains in the lower left hand side. They are both unpolished rice grains, and the "sake rice" has a whitish core in the center though "Usual Rice" looks just semi-transparent brown. Apparently the "sake rice" kinds are not tasty when cooked to make a usual meal.
Thus making sake is not an easy task for unprofessional people. Even in old times when bottling were not available, people didn't try to make sake at home and they went out to buy sake at sake breweries. How did they bring sake back home? This would appear an eco-friendly way nowadays: they rented big ceramic containers from the breweries to bring sake home and kept it until they finish the sake. So old-days ceramic sake bottles always had the name of the sake breweries to show the lender as shown in the lower center photo.
From February 5th, a Japanese sake event is being held at Roppongi, Tokyo. It will continue until this Sunday, February 14th. A total of one hundred local sake breweries will be introduced during the 10 days, and people can taste sake from 10 different breweries each day for a fee.
To join the event, people buy a starter set for 3500 Yen, which includs a small glass for cold sake and a small cup for hot sake as shown in the lower left hand side photo and 6 tokens. Then they can exchange the tokens for sake tasting or some appetizers. Also additional tokens are available for perchase, for the price of 1500 Yen for 6 tokens, 2500 Yen for 11 tokens.
In Japan there are tons of local sake breweries all over the country and the situation is similar to that of local beer breweries in the U.S.A. The tastes of sake are very different in each Sake breweries so that it is fun to try Sake at different breweries. The local sake breweries generally start brewing sake every fall after the harvest of rice, and winter is the season of freshly brewed Sake. Therefore a sake tasting event in winter is like "October Fest" for beer.
The cost for tasting in this event is 3 tokens for a glass of cold Junmai-Daiginjo/Daiginjo sake, 2 token for a glass of cold Junmai-Ginjo/Ginjo sake, and 1 token for a glass of cold Junmai sake/a cup of hot sake. These Daiginjo, Ginjo, and Junmai are classifications for sake. Although the cost is very different between them, it doesn't mean Daiginjou is the highest class/the best tasting sake and Junmai is a low class/tasteless sake.
Actually the differences between them are mainly the extent of rice polished which is the main ingredient. Japanese sake is made of rice and water and "Daiginjo" is using rice grains polished to 50% or less of weight, in other word it is using only core of rice grains which are 50% or less than 50% of the whole grain. For Ginjo, rice grains are basically polished to 50-60% or less of the whole grain, and for Junmai rice grains are basically polished to 60-70% or less of the whole grain.
Thus, the difference of the price between Daiginjo, Ginjo, and Junmai basically reflect the cost for the rice because to make Daiginjo sake would require 1.5 times or more rice grains than Junmai sake. However, the tastes of the three types are in fact very different from each other, since constituents of inner core and outer core of rice grain are different.
Therefore, which one a person likes most would depend on personal preferences, so I hope you will have a chance to try different kinds of sake and find your favorite!
The area around the Port of Yokohama (Yokohama-Kou) is one of the popular spots for a night view close to Tokyo. The Port of Yokohama has been a very prosperous port for commerce and there are many modern buildings for business and shopping as shown in the upper left hand side photo.
However, the area is also a historic town since the Port of Yokohama is one of the first ports opened for foreign trade at the end of Samurai era. Japan closed its door from early 17th century to 1858 and the Port of Yokohama was opened for international trade in 1859. Therefore the area shows a strong influence of Western culture since opening of its ports and many historical Western style buildings remain today. The upper right hand side photo shows a historical building called "Former Yokohama-Shokin Bank Building" built in 1880. The building is Kanagawa Prefectural History Museum now and a nice historical atmosphere can be enjoyed at night. Many old Western residences are scattered in the area, as well.
In addition, near the Port of Yokohama, there is the biggest China Town in Japan called "Yokohama China Town (Yokohama Chuuka-Gai)" as shown in the lower two photos. There are lots of Chinese restaurants and shops and it is also known among Japanese as one of the famous sightseeing spots to enjoy exotic atmosphere.
Thus people can enjoy mixed views of modern Japan, historical buildings, and exotic China Town in this area. Of course during daytime, it is also a nice and fun place to visit, but I think the night view of the area has a different beauty.
