True Craftsmanship

 Today was probably my favorite day on the trip.  We got to visit two places doing their craft the old fashioned way and may be the last of their kind.

First we learned about making soy sauce.  This business is owned and ran by an older woman who is still practicing making the sauce by hand in older wooden barrels.  It actually takes quite a bit of time to produce soy sauce at the quality level she’s doing.  Soy sauce is made from soybeans, wheat, and salt.  Koji (we’ll learn about making that in a couple of days) is used to break down the soybeans.  The wheat is also broken down by Koji.  We also learned about the different kinds of soy sauce and were treated to a lunch where we got to sample several of them with food.  Of course we all had to buy some from this lovely woman and will savor the deep umami flavor on our food at home.









For the afternoon we visited a rice farm.  I know you’ll think I’m exaggerating but rice is grown everywhere in Japan.  Where we would have a grass yard they have a rice field.  It’s eaten with every meal and is made into several different products.  We got to see the special equipment used to plant and rice, fertilize it, and put pesticides on to ward off bugs.  As with most things in Japan, the craft is handed down from generation to generation.  Most of the places we visited on the trip dated back over a hundred years. 






Dinner tonight was one of my favorites of the trip.  We traveled to a small town where a husband and wife have restored an old farmhouse and have turned it into an Airbnb(or the Japanese version of it).  The house was very typical Japanese with wood floors, tatami mats (soft mats made of grasses and edged with fabric), intricately fitted wooden beams, and low ceilings.  You could tell this one had been restored with love.  The dinner was a combination of vegetables sautéed inside and meats grilled on a barbecue.  We had actually helped pick the green beans when we visited the rice farmer.  The plates of vegetables kept coming and the Yamato beef was delicious.  It was fun being in a home for dinner.










Tomorrow: Tea culture and Kyoto

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