Home Alone

I will spending one month in Japan this summer. May 16- June 16. This will be my third trip to Japan and the longest stay to date. The first two times in Japan, we did a lot of sightseeing and shopping, but this time will be different. 

My objective on this trip will be to take a closer look at the community in Kobe.  I am aware there are many blogs of this variety on the web. However, most of the blogs about Japan are focussed on Tokyo, for obvious reasons. My goal is to bring attention to the Kansai area of Japan. Tokyo and Osaka are as different as New York and Los Angeles. After my thirty days, I hope my readers will see that Kobe has more to offer than just beef.

This is a can of ajinashi nori which is seaweed paper without flavor (ajinashi). From what I understand this is the type of nori that is most popular in the Tokyo area. This is nice nori, but we have always have ajitsuke( flavor added) nori at our house. The ajitsuke usually has shoyu(soy sauce), sugar, or mirin added. This type of nori is more popular in the Kansai area. (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)

I made onigiri for lunch which is balls of rice. These were seasoned with salmon and scallion furikake. I also had some raw kale. 

This is houjicha which is is green tea that has been roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal. The tea and the furikake both came from Coop aka Coop-san, a grocery store in Japan.