I've been thinking a bit about food recently. For one, I live in Japan so its pretty hard for me not to think about food - as that's a large part of living in a foreign country. I've become quite a big fan of the food produced in this here island nation. Its one of the things that brings me great joy on a day-to-day basis and especially when I travel around. Its one of the things I'll miss most and one of the things I'll try my best to compensate for back in America. Perhaps I'll stare at this blog from time to time and reminisce about all the Japanese food I used to be able to eat. It was created by a husband and wife team of graphic designers-cum-pudding makers who gave up big city life in Tokyo and headed for the sticks of Hokkaido. It makes me hungry and it also makes me nostalgic for Hokkaido, memories of which seem to be flooding my head recently as the temperatures rise and I remember my summer trip there last year. If (when?) I live in Japan again, I'll really want to live in Hokkaido or Okinawa's Yaeyama islands, but in reality I'll probably end up in Tokyo. Or maybe I'll compromise with my other favorite (but not quite so remote) place in Japan - Kamakura.

As someone who has always preferred local eateries (my college town of Harrisonburg had quite a few good ones) to big chain restaurants, I like that in Japan one could easily limit their restaurant going experiences to locally owned shops (coffee shops are a different story). Even better, when I travel and stay at youth hostels, ryokan, or minshuku, I often eat more or less the equivalent of homecooked meals. I've also been lucky enough to come across great vegetarian restaurants in Tokyo and Saitama like this one, this one, and this one.

Also, as someone who has never been one to cook (I always relied on microwave/packaged foods) my time here has made me realize that I really should learn how to cook a decent meal from scratch. Not that I've come anywhere near reaching that point, but at least I can say the simple act of chopping fresh vegetables and tofu everyday alone does wonders for my well-being. And sometimes I pretend the gardens next to my apartment building are my own.

Anyways, I want to be able to cook good, healthy food. I want to buy local produce and not pay for stuff thats been wastefully shipped across the country. I want to make up for living a block from a farmer's market for a year and never even shopping there. I want to live to be 100 like Okinawans and Cretans. I want to hear more from people like Michael Pollan. I want to spend time cooking food and lead a slow life.

As an abrupt counter to the idealism of this post, I should add that the bracken shown in the first photo is known to be carcinogenic and a possible cause of the high rate of stomach cancer in Japan. Also, the koi sashimi (raw Japanese carp) pictured two photos up was probably the worst sashimi I've ever had. Really bad texture and aren't bottom feeding fish generally not supposed to have a good flavor? But the presentation was nice!

In addition, just today I came across an article in Newsweek about slow travel, which could be considered another aspect of the whole LOHAS, slow life, slow food movement. The idea is that one should forsake the fast paced, "cram as much activities and cover as many desinations as you can in each day" approach to travel for a more local, slow paced, "live in the moment" approach. For many people, the 10 cities in 10 days approach holds little appeal. It also involves giving up fuel-wasting means of transport such as air travel for more environmentally friendly means of transport such as train, boat, bicycle, kayak, and even foot.

With my coming trip to Korea on Friday and my plan to again drive across the U.S. come August, it doesn't seem I'm doing such a good job adhering to this philosophy. At the same time, living in Japan, I never travel by car - bike and train are my primary means of getting around. I love that I can travel by bicycle to work or to the grocery store each and every day. I have traveled by plane twice since I've been here and will of course be flying back to California in a few months. Though I can say that when I went to Hokkaido last summer we traveled by boat. A 17 hour boat ride as opposed to a 2 hour flight may seem like self-imposed torture to some, but watching the western coast of Honshu slowly trail by as I sat and read Murakami in the boat's lounge was part of the whole experience. When you travel by boat it seems the cliche of "the journey is as important as the destination" really does hold true.

I plan on taking a trip to Okinawa again in July and would like to travel by boat, though I believe it takes 24 hours to reach Okinawa from Tokyo, so it may be tricky to find the time to make that happen. One thing I really like about traveling to small islands in Japan is that slow travel becomes the norm. So even if you do have to fly there, once you get to the islands you can travel by boat from one island to the next. When on the islands themselves you can easily explore by foot, bicycle, or kayak if you like. Just being on small islands alone forces you to slow down, experience a single place for longer amounts of time, and not feel the need to cover so many kilometers during your vacation.

During my winter trip to Yakushima, the most enjoyable day by far was when I just rented a bike and cycled up the coast with no agenda whatsoever. I walked around a small fruit garden with an 80 year old woman, then sat, slowly eating fresh fruit and satsuma imo ice cream. I cycled through the rock paved streets of a small village and walked up a hill to a secluded shrine. I spent 30 minutes observing a troop of yakuzaru monkeys on the side of the road. I walked up a hill with no idea where it would take me and then got a ride back down with a truck driver, catching otherwise unseen views of the sea from the height of his truck. I drank my favorite Okinawan beer on the beach. I sat soaking with the locals in a beach side thermal pool. The entire time I traveled by foot and bicycle alone (aside from the 10 minutes in the truck) and covered probably no more than 30 kilometers, yet it was the best day of my trip. It isn't the checklist of sightseeing spots that stand out in my mind most, but rather what I experienced along that 20 kilometer stretch of coastline.

I think that staying at youth hostels in Japan, generally quieter and more intimate, also contributes to the slow travel ideal. Recently at a YH I met a girl who cycled from Kanagawa-ken to Kansai, then folded up her collapseable bike and took the train back home. The late Alan Booth is also an inspiration with his long distance walking throughout Japan. His writing and Bryan's Appalachian Trail notes have inspired me from a slow travel point of view. Living a slower life overall is an ideal of mine at the moment and one that seems possible of following through on, considering that come August I have no job, no home, and no responsibilities other than paying off my student loans each month. Luckily I've saved some money in the last two years and I can enjoy this strange, yet liberating feeling for some time. Unless of course I move to Brooklyn, where I'll probably spend all my savings in a matter of several months.