"The memories of WW2 are fresh in the minds of the three generations who experienced it-the very old, prewar generation, those educated during it, and the children of war survivors- who learned the lessons first and second hand. For such people time is marked from the war years, and a sense that the experience shaped them is common.
"Saying that the young do not understand hardship is common - - the expression kuro saseta hoo ga ii, it's good to experience difficulty, is common among such people, when referring to child development. "
*SUEHIRO SOBA SHOP
*SOBA SHOP
Shigeru's mother, Mrs. Miyagawa, relates:
"Mr. Takayama started working in the soba shop while he was still in high school. When I went to the US to be with my husband for six months, he ran the shop. I couldn't have gone without his help. When we decided to stop running the shop, he wanted to have his own business, so we gave him the equipment and let him use the store name.
"He ran the shop until he died of a heart attack when he was about 45. Since his death his wife has run the shop with their son."
*JAPANESE RESTAURANT
The Japanese enjoy dining out and they dine out often. Japan has a vast profusion of restaurants, from sushi shops to the exclusive ryotei restaurants, as well as some of the best Western-style restaurants in the world.
All but the most exclusive restaurants in Japan provide a kind of sample menu--wax models displayed behind a window in the storefront--so customers can see how their food would look. Each diner receives an oshibori, or hot towel, to cleanse the hands before dining. Tipping is unknown.
*SOBA.
Corky White writes about soba:
"There are three main kinds of noodles in Japan: udon, which are thick white wheaten noodles, usually freshly made; soba, thin buckwheat noodles; and ramen, which are wheat noodles, very thin and curly, served as a quick meal or a late night snack. Of course, spaghetti and pasta of all kinds are also popular, served European style with sauce and cheese.
"Japanese noodles tend to be eaten in a soup with vegetables or tofu and meat, but there is one kind, zaru soba, which is eaten with a dipping sauce, cold, and is very popular in the summer. Zaru means basket, and the cold cooked noodles are attractively curled in a wreath on the basket, to be dipped in a soy based sauce and eaten with shredded fresh ginger and scallion.
"One of the very best ways to acquire noodle lore, if you can't get to Japan for "field work," is to watch Juzo Itami's movie Tampopo in which all the refinements of making the world's best ramen are depicted in the course of a very funny plot.
"One lesson of the movie is that eating the noodles is an art in itself. It is polite, no, compulsory, to slurp the noodles noisily as you suck them in--and it also adds to the pleasure!"
*SUEHIRO NAME
Shigeru's mother, Mrs. Miyagawa, talks about the name of the Miyagawa soba shop:
"The word suehiro refers to a Japanese folding fan (sue = future, hiro = fan). The idea is that, like the future, the bottom of the fan starts out small, but as it opens up it becomes big and wide. The Miyagawas liked this hopeful name.
"Suehiro was the name of the Miyagawa's soba shop. There was only one soba shop in Hiratsuka with that name. The restaurant Shigeru's grandparents started that burned down during the war was also named Suehiro. People in Hiratsuka knew the Miyagawas by the name of their shop.
"Sensu is the ordinary everyday word for a Japanese folding fan. Suehiro is not an everyday word. It is a fancy word for sensu, so young people might not know it."
*SAKE
Sake is a wine made of fermented rice, the alcoholic content of which varies from twelve to sixty percent. Before the introduction of wine and whiskey by foreign traders in the sixteenth century it was the only alcoholic beverage in Japan. Originally offered to the Shinto gods, it later became a popular drink for social occasions.
There are three grades of sake: tokkyu (first), ikkyu (second), and nikkyu (third). Both sweet and dry varieties are sold, and there are about 4,000 different brands.
It is the civilized custom in Japan for one never to fill one's own cup or to allow one's drinking companions to pour their own sake, but for each to pour the other's, the pouree holding cup in hand for the pourer.
Drinking in Japan:
More beer per capita is drunk in Japan than any other alcoholic beverage, probably second to tea, among liquids, and followed by sake and scotch. Of course, sake must be considered local or indigenous and beer and whiskey as imported types of drink, but the latter are so common now that no one sees them as "foreign."
In the late 19th century, European brewmeisters came to Japan to help start breweries, especially from Germany and Denmark, and these styles of brew still dominate Japanese tastes. Even scotch isn't Scottish, but Japanese. It is seen as the sophisticated manly drink of businessmen out on the town. Until recently, it was mostly men who drank, but now women too have their favorite drinks and bars. Wine has also become a favored cosmopolitan drink.
The rates of alcoholism in Japan are said to be quite high as after-work drinking sessions with workmates and clients are nearly compulsory among white collar workers. Teenage drinking is also said to be high and access to alcohol by those under twenty is relatively easy. Outdoor vending machines may shut down after 11PM, but before that teens have no problem buying liquor.
The older tradition of sake-brewing is alive and well and sake companies tend to be family-run, proud of their recipe and quality--certain towns are especially known for their breweries, such as Takayama.
*MR. OGUSHI
The owner of the liquor store interviewed by Shigeru in the video.
