In Zen on a Saturday

One of our favorite restaurants in Koriyama is tucked away behind one of the many parks. It comes with a superb view of the cherry trees during Spring and the place is the perfect goal for a random Saturday midmorning walk which is just what we were in the mood for today.

The set course (the only thing on the menu) consists of 6 different dishes and is build around seasonal Japanese ingredients served with a western twist. The menu changes every second month. Here's a few shots of the three dishes we enjoyed the most this day.

Beets soup
I (B) loved the color of this beet flavored soup, and the way it matched the flowers on the table. Quite rare to stumble across anything with beets in our region which is traditionally not an ingredient found in the Japanse kitchen.

Fresh water eel quiche!
Till today, Japan seemed to be conservative when it comes to serving eel (see the bottom of this post), so this innovative savory quiche stuffed with eel and with wasabi flavored dressing on the side was quite a tasty surprise.

...and the dessert plate. Yum!
Green tea ice cream is always a winner as is a square block of dense chocolate cake. The slice of almond tart served with raspberry coulis turned out as a keeper too, not to mention the kabocha creme brulee :o)

Coffee Break
The random wandering continued after lunch, but as Summers are quite hot here (35C), - and not only hot but humid as well, those random walks are only bearable with sewn-in stops at air conditioned places.

It's not that we are the hugest fans of the concept of SB conquering the world, but it just happens to be the most cozy cafe in town. Soft chairs, great music, and soy as an option if one wanna opt out of milk. Also, the staff doesn't seem bothered with one lingering there for hours, so a weekend spent in Koriyama equals at least one cup at SB. It's located near the station, so fun place for people watching as well. The fan on the pic was given to us in front of the station. A commercial flyer one would just through away instantly, but a (free) fan decorated with commercials is a treasure in this climate and commercials or not, - this thing is being waved wildly around town. Hands down for the Japanese art of marketing.

Unagi no kabayaki
Time to end the lazy couple time and get social and adventurous, so we met up with Emiko and Yuko for the above mentioned traditional eel feast. In Japan it is believed that eel provides stamina and for this reason it's popular to eat 'unagi no kabayaki', which is glaze-grilled eel, during summer. It's served on top of rice and with a clear soup (suimono) made with eel liver served on the side. Apart from the soup, the meal is addictively good. Today it was served in a pretty lacquer box. The wood 'bottle' holds Shichimi togarashi which is a traditional chili spice made up of seven different kind of ingredients.

Zazen
We continued on to Fukujyu-ji temple in the neighboring village Miharu for a session of meditation led by a famous novelist and priest named Soukyuu Genyuu. It was our first time to experience traditional Japanese Zen meditation also named Zazen, and something we have been wanting to try for a while.

The fukujuushoku (Deputy head priest) is famous for having been awarded the Japanese award equivalent to the Nobel prize for literature and thus, despite the relatively small village of Miharu, many people find their way to his monthly meditation sessions. We were about 30 people this summer evening, which our good friend Keiko had joined us for as well.

The session started with the fukujuushoku giving a small teaching for then to guide us through a few stretching exercises before we were all asked to sit in either full- or half lotus position. Our recent stay at an ashram in India turned out useful here.

The meditation it self was initiated by a loud clap and the chimes of a bell. During the meditation session, the fukujuushoku would walk amongst us with a wooden stick called a keisaku ready to hit people on their shoulders if they seemed unfocused, fell a sleep or if they asked for it themselves as the hit is said to reset ones (Zen) mind. Not being really sure if he would go for the two gaijins made staying focused on the meditation quite challenging, but we treasure the experience nevertheless. He never did decide to hit us, instead we were treated with tea and cakes afterwards with the rest of the participants while he shared some words of wisdom. In Japanese.

Perfect Saturday.