While it’s obvious that working for a Japanese company gives me countless opportunities to learn Japanese and experience Japanese culture, I believe that I have discovered the secret to guaranteed success in Japan. This secret lies not within language books, countless hours of studying, or anything that involves pain or torment and is best experienced on a beach, in the warm sunlight, with a favorite beer or wine. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience it twice this year and firmly believe that completing one day of this activity is equivalent to one month of hard, strenuous study.
This secret is…
… the Japanese barbeque.
A disclaimer about Japanese Barbeques: Japanese Barbeques always start innocently enough, with your favorite foods an spirits, but be wary of anyone one offering you any special Korean alcohol. While it’s almost flavorless, if consumed in too high of a quantity its impact can resemble that of a ten-ton truck.
In my case, the barbeques were held by the operators of my favorite restaurant Tanoshoku ( 楽食 ). I have all intentions of devoting a whole post to them later. If you are not fortunate enough to have any chef friends of your own, please find solace in the fact that almost everyone in Japan can cook (and pretty well at that).
The grill itself is relatively simple, with no propane or overrated gases required. The grill surface reminds me of chicken wire, but the food that graces its simple face would put any slab of hamburger meat to shame. The barbeque almost always starts with cold beer (I prefer a lighter beer, but any will do, except for Nati Light of course) and usually fresh pork( 豚肉 butaniku) or fish ( 魚 sakana) . In general, Japanese food is about the flavor and visual experience, not about how much tasteless preservative laden meat you can cram into your gullet at one time. Barbeque food is very simple; the slabs of meat are fresh, and only one or two are cooked at a time (enough for everyone to enjoy, but little enough to ensure that none sits stagnant in the sun).
If you are lucky, you’ll also be eating shellfish, or fish right off of the bone. This picture is of a giant shellfish, simply thrown onto the grill.
After the top shell pops open from the heat, adding some beer to the shell meat and allowing it to simmer produces a perfectly succulent symphony of flavor
For those of you who don’t know about Gyoza, it’s essentially everything that’s good about China wrapped into a golden-brown package. The short list is pork, onion, egg, and spices, mashed together by hand until they’re unrecognizable. I think the best comparison would be to the beginning stages of meatloaf, minus the bread chunks. This mix is portioned out into the circular Gyoza dough and pinched shut. The Gyouza is then put into a pan containing a little hot oil (just enough to coat the pan). After all of the Gyoza is in the pan, a little water is thrown in, and the pan is covered, until the pork is tender and juicy. Add some Gyoza sauce, and the results are enough to bring a grown man to tears (or so I hear).
The barbeque lasts for five or six hours or at least until the food and spirits are entirely consumed. After the festivities, I normally enjoy a cold treat to alleviate the pain the sunburn resulting from standing in the sun for six hours with no sunscreen (I always forget that my melanin content isn’t quite up to par)
Besides the excellent food, spending the day with ten or so native Japanese speakers is an excellent way to improve conversational skills, and making new friends never hurts either.
