Living Abroad: Local Eating in Japan

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The author discovers local eating in Japan. Hadasu, a Japanese farming and fishing village near their home.
The author discovers local eating in Japan. Hadasu, a Japanese farming and fishing village near their home.
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Keita Hanai and Winifred Bird in a house that Keita built.
Keita Hanai and Winifred Bird in a house that Keita built.
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Gardens provide much of the produce for residents of the community.
Gardens provide much of the produce for residents of the community.
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Sitting in a kotatsu, a table with a heating unit below.
Sitting in a kotatsu, a table with a heating unit below.
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Mujin-hanbai, a produce station run on the honor system.
Mujin-hanbai, a produce station run on the honor system.
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Nachi Katsura, a town near the author’s home.
Nachi Katsura, a town near the author’s home.
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A typical way of preserving fish is to dehydrate them.
A typical way of preserving fish is to dehydrate them.
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Visit the Japanese countryside in November or December, and you will see strings of deep orange persimmons drying under the eaves of farmhouses.
Visit the Japanese countryside in November or December, and you will see strings of deep orange persimmons drying under the eaves of farmhouses.

Local eating in Japan. Eating locally takes on a new meaning when living abroad. You have to learn to grow plants that flourish in a different climate, and your food preservation techniques might have to be adapted, too. Simply living comfortably — even staying warm in the winter — might be a challenge.

Living Abroad: Local Eating in Japan

October is a good month on the Kii Peninsula of central Japan. The forest is full of wild chestnuts and mushrooms; the kitchen gardens overflow with persimmons, figs, fall eggplants and peppers; and the new rice is stored for winter. The still-generous sea provides squid, bonito and mackerel (although Japan faces the same issues of pollution and overfishing as the rest of the world). All told, this land I’ve made my home seems endlessly giving and welcoming.

I never thought I’d live in Japan. I grew up in San Francisco, dreaming of one day having my own farm somewhere on the West Coast. Several years of interning and working on farms across America convinced me that my dream could become a reality. But then I met my fiancé, Keita Hanai, who is Japanese, and plans changed.

I doubt Keita ever imagined he’d be living in rural Japan with an American farming enthusiast. He grew up on a huge agricultural commune in Japan, growing organic vegetables and rice, caring for cows and fixing farm equipment. But by the end of his 20s, corruption and conflict had soured communal life, and he left to study log building in Canada. That’s where we met. I was working for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms at an apple, pear and cherry orchard, and he was helping to build a log house at the same farm. We fell in love and a year later moved back to his home region of Japan, Mie prefecture. (A prefecture is a district roughly equivalent to a state in the United States).

  • Published on Aug 21, 2008
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