Japan Trip April 7th (day 7): Wagashi, Ninja district, bento boxes and domestics

Today we spent the first part doing our domestics, like laundry and repairing another bit of the wheelchair which had lost a bolt (got it fixed after finding a Honda shop – here shops fix both scooters/motorcycles AND bicycles – the guy was like my/Linda’s grandfather who kept rummaging in drawers until he found a threaded screw bolt that would work). Even trips of great adventure need times of making clean socks and panties.

We had a quick lunch at a place we found that sells baguettes then it was off to see the historic district where ninja’s resided. Now, to me it looks a lot like the historic place where the geisha’s worked, but that’s just me, I am sure the keen eye can spot the “ninja” aspects. The Ninja temple with boltholes and secret staircases, unlike every OTHER historic site which are closed on Wednesday is closed on Monday (today). Which sucks as you need a reservation to get in to begin with. So we went to a museum of a house on the historic ninja street that had a guide who spoke NO English whatsoever but let us take a picture with his traditional umbrella. Was this the home of a famous umbrella maker? Or an artist? Or a ninja who loved umbrellas? Who knows?

So no ninja temple for Linda; instead we went to an Edo period pottery place begun by a samurai family who created the first kiln in this prefecture. They had VERY nice pottery which took three firings, and a week in each cooling, beautiful but also cost the same as a down payment for a small condo. And as a person who drops a LOT of things on a regular basis we decided this wasn’t the investment for us. We did ask the son of the owner if he could recommend a Wagashi shop. Wagashi is a type of confectionary which is handmade, takes a few years (??) and is only sold in certain older cities (Kanazawa and Kyoto specifically). I had been recommended by Shigeru-san of the disability organization to try and find some in Kanazawa to understand the ‘nature of Japan.’ The son recommended only three stores in all of Kanazawa which he said were ‘true’ Wagashi stores, one named Moroeya was close by so we visited it.

Wagashi is supposed to contain many of the elements of Japanese art, much like Haiku, flower arranging and gardens. There are the seasons, the hand crafting, the different shapes (often influenced by nature or tradition) and the presentation (the types of boxes it comes in). We have a double dictionary, so we would point to a type of Wagashi and the woman at the shop would look up the Kanji and hand it back and we would read: “Salty” and think that MIGHT not be the best gift. We also tried several types she gave us samples of including sweet bean curd (I liked it, Linda did not), and fermented soy (I was sort of, “Hmmm,” and Linda was “Ack!! AHHH! Ack!” and clawing at her bag for water….very subtle!). We found some sweet ones, which were the traditional hand shaped and the oldest types as well as some thin wafers painted with flavours. We decided to get some of these cute two and three box drawers of sweet Wagashi which are the perfect gift, particularly as after being told “Presento” they were wrapped in presentation paper. We picked quite a few different packages as it seemed a good gift to give albeit a little expensive for candy. However this is “historic” candy as the shop has been open since 1878 (our candy is newer). I particularly liked this box with the woman in the kimono on it (I have this thing for Kimono’s – sue me!); it has individually wrapped double hand made sweets – so I got one of those too.
The woman wrapped all of our gifts and then put them in a box and sealed that too. We wheeled about 8 stores down, went into the post office and sent it surface to Port Angeles, where it should show up in about 2 weeks. It was really inexpensive to post too! Haha! Now our Wagashi is safe on the way to our home where we can gloat over it.

After that we went on to the department store Daiwa where I was on the hunt for Bento Boxes (lunch boxes). I found a ton in the Hello Kitty section where the salesperson (woman about 24) was dressed as a schoolgirl. But the boxes were too small, about the size for a 5-10 year old. We went down a floor to find the “adult” bento boxes (I am still hunting Anime Bento Boxes, Boy-love Bento Boxes, etc). I decided to be a good ‘housewife’ and get a Bento box gift for Linda and choose this classic lacquered one which has two sections (hot food below, and cold snacks and sweets above); the bottom section can even be microwaved! I WILL convert Linda! But don't tell her I bought it, I want it to be a surprise. Of course, how could I send her out with just her Bento Lunchbox? I needed a little bag for her to carry it on the bus or attach to her bike (in anime, Bento is how everyone knows that someone cares about you! Anime IS life, right?). I like how they have instructions on how to put the box inside and pull the drawstrings tight.
We are off tomorrow at noon to Nara to see the deer and then the next night to Hamaiji Castle (something like that spelling), followed by a day in Kobe and a night in Hiroshima before going to Miyajima Island (Linda and the monkeys….remember). So tonight we went out to dinner and Linda chose….Mexican. Actually pretty good Mexican for Japan. I do promise we will eat a traditional Japanese Soba or other traditional meal while in Japan. It Is just Linda blames her Bento on being sick (I know it was more than a day later). So we are working back up to it. Also being offered deep fried balls of octopus at festivals isn’t helping (Linda and I don’t eat seafood….and we are in JAPAN).

I would write more but I am determined to try and get 20 postcards done and posted by the end of the day tomorrow so I will sign off now. It may have rained for much of today but we did things that were pretty fun and unique (like trying fermented soy candy!).

Signing out from Kanazawa: a nice couple of days in the “Little Kyoto” on the western shore of Japan.

P.S. - apologies again for the delay in replying and posting as we do not have internet in our room (this city), only a small little portal in the lobby, which means a lot of late night wheeling and bribing of the night staff to let me in to comment and post.