Wednesday, September 24, 2025

We'll Prescribe You a Cat

Japan Book Review: We'll Prescribe You a Cat

ISBN: 978-0-593-81874-9
Penguin Random House LLC, 2024
297 pp; hardback

Five patients who are struggling with life's difficulties find their way one by one to the mysterious Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in the back streets of Kyoto. Each meets the same seemingly uncaring receptionist and not-mentally-all-there doctor, and each of the five is given a two-week "prescription" of a cat to solve their problems. Insightful readers can perhaps glean some of this just from the title of the book.

The patients consist of a troubled elementary school girl, two floundering businessmen, a hard-charging working woman and a young geisha; each with their own sets of challenges. All five are puzzled and a little apprehensive about their unique "medicine," and things go haywire for a few of them before the cats' magic starts to work.

Western readers familiar with the Japanese concept of yokai (often defined as a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore) will see a bit of that in the book, especially in the last two of the five chapters. That out-of-norm storytelling is part of the charm of the book.

The cats (Bee, Margot, Koyuki, Tank and Mimita, among a few others) do the magic, but most of the stories are focused on their short-term owners. The cats don't speak or use telepathy or magic.

Being a cat lover will likely raise the chances of readers enjoying the book, although being a feline fanatic is certainly not necessary to be amused by Ishida's writing. The book was originally written in Japanese and some might complain that a few things get fuzzed up in the translation. Perhaps some of that can be explained by people who don't get the yokai concept. Offbeat and quirky are words frequent used by Westerners when discussing Japanese fiction, and both are appropriate for this book.

Originally written for adults, children can also enjoy the book as it is an easy read because even though it checks in at almost 300 pages, the book size is only 5.2 by 7.25 inches (13.2 cm by 18.4 cm).

The book is gaining international acclaim, and the back cover claims that plans are in place for the book to be published in 17 languages. To date, it has been published in English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Polish.

I wonder how cats say "meow" in Polish.

There is a follow up to this book called, We'll Prescribe You Another Cat.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Japanese Kelp Kombu (Seaweed)

Japanese Kelp Kombu 昆布

Umami | Kombu in Japanese Cooking | Hokkaido Kombu | Buy Kombu

Dried kombu

Japan being an island country, it may come as no surprise that Japanese cuisine relies heavily on products taken from the sea. Not only fish, shrimps, crabs and other oceanic creatures but also a large variety of seaweed.

Wakame and nori may be the most widely known of these seaweeds outside of Japan. Nori as an essential part of maki sushi (sushi rolls), wakame for the delicious wakame soup accompanying many traditional Japanese dishes.

Then, there is kombu, Japanese edible kelp. Kombu, growing in the cold waters around Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku, made a comparatively late entry into Japanese cuisine.

Sure, kombu was delivered to the court of the Shogun as a tribute by the rulers of the northern domains already in Edo times (1603-1868) but kombu really took off in the general Japanese kitchen during the Meiji period (1868-1912) when Japan fully colonized Hokkaido.

Steam ship ferries and the newly constructed railway system made kombu, previously mainly a staple in Ainu cooking, available all over the country at a low price.

Amazingly, the southern-most island group of Okinawa, only recently acquired after a war with China (1894-95) picked up on the kombu the strongest. Okinawans know what's tasty and are generally more than ready to incorporate new ingredients into their cooking.

Fishing for kombu in Rausu, Hokkaido

Umami

Meanwhile, in mainland Japan, Tokyo Imperial University chemistry professor Kikunae Ikeda (1864-1936) sensed during a meal that featured a soup made of kombu dashi (kombu soup stock) a taste he had never encountered before. It was not in the usual range of sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Ikeda immediately focused his studies on that so far unclassified taste. In 1908, he was able to identify Glutamic acid as the source of this particular taste. Kombu is particularly rich in Glutamic acid.

Ikeda named his newly discovered taste variety umami, drawing from the word umai (delicious) in Japanese. Today, umami is a taste variety recognized world-wide.

Rishiri Kombu at Wakkanai Fish Market, Hokkaido

Kombu in Japanese Cooking

Japanese cooks and housewives most likely missed the newspaper stories reporting Ikeda's discovery. They were the ones to actually put that northern sea weed to real use.

Kombu leaves were large and they usually came air dried, the only way to keep them edible after their long journey from Hokkaido.

Cut up into small pieces and boiled, kombu leaves would make for a perfect dashi soup stock, they soon discovered.

Soups based on kombu by itself, soups using kombu in combination with shaved bonito flakes (katsuobushi), kombu combined with shiitake mushrooms, with dried sardines or tobiuo (flying fish), kombu with any type of vegetable. The combinations are endless.

Soon, kombu dashi became the most popular Japanese soup stock, employed in the making of miso soup (a soup that goes with most traditional Japanese meals) as well as in many other types of soup.

Boiled kombu on the other hand could be a great addition to sashimi fish platters.

Small pieces of kombu were frequently added when preparing sushi rice. The strong umami qualities of kombu bringing out the taste of the rice all the stronger and with it, the taste of the sushi.

Boiled and further processed kombu is also frequently employed as tsukudani (rice toppings), and boiled kombu is often served in Japanese salads.

Thick layers of boiled kombu are also rolled up around minced herring. That particular dish, known as kobumaki has become one of the staples of osechi ryori (New Year's Day dishes) but is also enjoyed in other seasons as part of traditional Japanese meals.

It's usually called kobumaki (and not kombumaki) because kombumaki would be somewhat cumbersome to pronounce. The kobu part of the word is taken from yorokobu, meaning being happy or glad.

Rishiri Island

Hokkaido Kombu

Kombu grows as a dense forest on the ocean floor, often in coastal waters.

In the northern regions of Hokkaido, most famously in the waters near Rishiri Island, a small island off the far northwest of Hokkaido, as well as the sea off the Shiretoko Peninsula in the far northeast of Hokkaido, fishermen harvest naturally grown kombu from their boats.

This type of kombu is marketed as tennen (天然), as a product taken straight from the wilds of nature.

Rishiri Kombu and Rausu Kombu are the most famous varieties of tennen kombu sold in Japan today. Rausu being a very picturesque village on the eastern side of the Shiretoko Peninsula, home to many kombu fishermen braving the cold ocean here.

In the south of Hokkaido, kombu tends to be farmed. That is, the kombu forests grow under direct supervision of the fishermen and are regularly harvested.

The two most famous brands from southern Hokkaido are Hidaka Kombu from the town of Hidaka and Shiroguchihama Kombu produced in an area known as Minami Kayabe.

When cutting Shiroguchihama Kombu, the inside of the leaves turns out to be white. Pure mannitol showing up, the sugar alcohol built up inside the salty plant. It's exactly that mannitol that is responsible for the strong umami taste of kombu.

Minami Kayabe, located near the city of Hakodate in the very south of Hokkaido was a Japanese domain already in Edo times. The local ruler not only paid his tribute to the Shogun in Edo with the locally grown kombu but also delivered it all the way down to the Imperial Court in Kyoto.

Rishiri Kombu

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Kombu as such is generally sold in dried form. When you open a package of dried kombu, some of the dried leaves will have a white residue on them. That is not mold, it is the mannitol making its way to the surface. The very substance responsible for the taste of the kombu.

Dried kombu can be shipped internationally. Kobumaki are best enjoyed on your visit to Japan.

Buy a 500g Pack of Hidaka Kombu

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Sunrise near Rausu, Hokkaido

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Cheese Tara Japanese Snacks

Cheese Tara チーズ鱈

What is Cheese Tara? | History | Iburigakko Cheese | Buy Cheese Tara

Traveling around the country or walking across a city, you may suddenly crave a snack. Not something stomach-filling like an onigiri rice ball, just a light snack to be consumed with a coffee or a beer on a bench right outside that castle or whatever attraction you are headed to.

Stop by any convenience store, supermarket or drug store and you will find a large selection of potential goodies. The selection slims down considerably if you decide that you are not in the mood for anything sweet.

Beef jerky? Roasted nuts? Feels too much like the bodega back home? Something more Japanese, please?

Japan wouldn't be Japan if it wouldn't immediately offer a perfect solution to your inquiries.

Grab a bag or two of Cheese Tara. Those are very Japanese products, a bit exotic perhaps but not that strange after all. They are not sweet, they go well with coffee or beer, they are light and easy to transport, they don't need any refrigeration.

Ideal for mountain hikes, as small food at the campfire or when sharing beers with friends in a park.

What is Cheese Tara?

"Cheese Tara", also sold under the shortened name "Chee-Tara" translates to "Cheese Cod" - and that's exactly what it is: sticks of cheese sandwiched between layers of cod.

Sounds strange? Well, try it. The combination of cheese and fish is perfectly balanced, the texture is pleasing and the taste very agreeable to Western palates. Slightly salty, the cheese brings out its full flavor and, amazingly, is greatly assisted doing so by the thin layers of cod.

Once you had a pack or two, you might just develop a crave for it. There is a reason why Cheese Tara is available all over the place including the conbinis inside the train stations. People just like to use it as a light travel snack.

Each pack of Cheese Tara contains two smaller packs at 32 grams each.

History of Cheese Tara

How did Cheese Tara come about? It's certainly not directly rooted in traditional Japanese food or even Japanese bar snacks. Or is it?

In most Western countries, you traditionally have a large evening meal before heading out to the bars for the drinks. Those beers at the bar are then just consumed as such, safe for a little plate of peanuts or so to go with them.

In Japan, however, food and drink are inseparable. You can't just go to a traditional izakaya bar and order drinks only. You have got to eat something while drinking. Typically, small servings of sashimi (sliced raw fish), fried squid or the like but the possibilities are endless, depending on the establishment and the region it is located in.

Post World War II, those izakaya bars also started to offer Westernized snacks to go with the sake, shochu und beers. "Westernized" meaning Japanese creations that had a certain Western edge. Say, something incorporating cheese.

Tokyo-based food company Natori (founded in 1948) was eager to get into the game, creating snacks that would be both popular with drinking izakaya bar customers as well as the general public.

In 1975, they came up with the Uni Matsuba snack. Uni Matsuba translates as "Sea Urchin Pine Needle" and it was a small stick of sea urchin pressed between two sheets of squid.

Those Uni Matsuba became a huge seller popular both with the bar folks and, to a certain extent, people beyond. Ceaseless advertising made sure that every Japanese had at least heard of the product by the late 1970s.

Then, the founder of Natori Foods retired and a second generation took over. A generation that had grown up with Westernized products all around them.

It was this generation at Natori Foods that came up with the idea of creating a Japanese-Western fusion snack incorporating cheese, modeled on the Uni Matsuba. Replacing the sea urchin with cheese but keeping the squid frame outside intact.

They sourced cheese from all over the world and found a way to process the cheese in a way that would keep it fresh even when not refrigerated. Tasting fresh even in the hottest Japanese summers.

That processing would not work well with the attached squid sheets, though. After much testing, cod fish was discovered to be the perfect match for the cheese.

Japan had a large supply of cod, the cheese eventually decided upon came from Hokkaido, Denmark, the U.K., Italy, the U.S., and Australia.

First launched in 1982, Cheese Tara or Chee-Tara became an overwhelming success for the Natori Food Company.

Largely unchanged, their product is still available today all over Japan.

Here you can watch a fun video explaining how the Cheese Tara is manufactured. Filmed at the Natori Cheese Factory in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture. The video is in Japanese but easy to understand even for people not speaking the language.

Iburigakko Cheese いぶりがっこチーズ

Unsurprisingly, other food makers soon developed similar products as well.

Today, when going to shop in a Japanese store you will find a variety of cheese cod products on the shelves produced by Natori competitors next to the original.

The Iburigakko Cheese ("Smoked Radish Pickle Cheese") produced by Kobe-based Inoue Shokuhin may be the most commonly available. They put smoked daikon radish from Akita Prefecture (a very traditional izakaya bar snack in itself) into the cheese mix, making for a slightly spicier version of the snack.

Just pick a bunch of different packs from the shelves when in Japan and decide for yourself which you like best.

Cheese Sticks on a Japanese supermarket shelf.

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Natori Luxurious Cheese Tara 5 packs

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by Johannes Schonherr

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

The Final Martyrs Book Review

Japan Book Review: The Final Martyrs

The Final Martyrs

by Endo Shusaku

ISBN: 0-8048-1956-4
Tuttle Publishing, 1993
199 pp; paperback

Final Martyrs is a collection of 11 Shusaku Endo short stories (11 to 30 pages) written between 1959 and 1985. In this collection, Endo, best known as the author of Silence (later turned into the Martin Scorsese movie of the same name), touches on his oft-used themes such as loneliness, illness, fear of aging, spiritual doubt, divorce and the martyrdom of Christians, particularly in Japan.

As is the case in many of his books, Endo's heroes are often the weakest and most cowardly of us all. At the very least, they are usually badly flawed and living in sad, hopeless situations. However, upon final review, it turns out that the weakest among us are sometimes the strongest, no matter how wretched their lives have become.

Endo's stories often have an autobiographical nuance. He was lonely as a child of divorce living in China, was hospitalized for three years as an adult (split between France and Japan), had a lung removed as a result of tuberculosis and died at 72, which is 13 years younger than the average Japanese at death.

The titular Final Martyrs story and The Last Supper will possibly be the most emotional stories for the reader; the first is a story of Christian martyrs in Japan and the second is a brutal World War II tale.

As for his take on aging, two of the stories are about older men and their sexual yearnings. One is entitled A 50-Year-old Man (partly about a 50s man who joins a dancing studio knowing that he is completely out of place) and the other in entitled A 60-Year-old-Man (about an elderly man who is tempted by a flirtatious high school girl).

Endo sometimes uses the same character in multiple books, and he does so again in this collection. Readers who have read Sachiko (see review here) will recognize the name and story of Father Kolbe, a real-life Catholic priest who served in Japan before being killed at Auschwitz.

Like in a number of his books, the endings of these short stories can leave the reader angry, filled with hope for the world or just plain confused. Often called the Japanese Graham Greene, Endo is a master storyteller. This book will not let down Endo fans.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

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