The Flavours of Autumn

Did you notice that I neglected autumn in my post about the seasonal flavours of Japan? I enjoy fall foods so much that I thought I would give them a whole post to their lonesome. When I think of autumnal foods, the first things that come to mind are pumpkin, apples, cinnamon, corn on the cob, and traditional Thanksgiving food. In Japan, fall brings with it a whole slew of delicious seasonal treats. There are all sorts of delectable yam, chestnut, and pumpkin goodies. Here are a few sweet snacks in flavours that you can only come across during the fall: 

A maple flavoured version of the normally chocolate biscuit bamboo shoots

A chestnut version of the normally chocolate biscuit mushrooms. These were so good!

A purple yam  and black sesame flavoured version of the normally chocolate biscuit bamboo shoots

Pumpkin pudding Kit Kats

Another food that is representative of autumn in Japan is a thin silver fish called sanma, or Pacific saury. They cost only about 100 yen a fish in this season and are served grilled with grated daikon,  and soy sauce. This fish is one of the numerous reasons that fall is my favourite seasons for food in Japan. It is just so amazingly good! 

This year we had (maybe a new tradition?) a Japanese style autumn feast and of course invited our friends the Oshimas to join us. We barbecued sanma, and made a huge pot of miso soup, steamy rice, and chestnut pumpkin cake for desert. 

Sanma, cut in half and popped on the barbecue. That lone little
pork cutlet was for Dustin, who really only eats fish when
it is absolutely necessary or battered and deep fried. 

Usually sanma is grilled whole, with the head on, and not gutted. Mrs. Oshima wasn't sure the kids would be too fond of that, since the guts are pretty bitter, so she beheaded them, cut them in half, and gutted about half the fish for the boys. I tried one with the guts but found them to be so taste smotheringly bitter that I couldn't enjoy the mild fish flavour at all. I ended up joining the boys eating their gutless ones. Maybe one day I'll learn to eat what the grownups are eating!

A close up of the beauties

All crisp and ready to eat. 

Fish is one of Theo's favourite foods. He really anticipated this meal!

Rosie didn't know what she was missing

But at least she didn't miss out on a good opportunity to have a nap in the cozy arms of Obaasan

Another, not to be forgotten, star of the fall foodscape is the mushroom. Japan in autumn is the place to be for mushroom lovers. There are so many varieties and they so inexpensive that there is no reason no to eat them all the time. I think I could eat them for every meal! 

Fukubukuro

On New Year's Day, we took the kids for a long, enjoyable bike ride along the river and into the countryside surrounding Fukuyama. On our way back, we stopped at a little, out of the way playground and let the children explore for as long as we could stand the cold wind. 

William had fun checking out all of the dinosaur statues. 

There were also lots of things to climb and jump on which pleased Theo.

This tube had really interesting acoustics and William enjoyed a few minutes protected from the wind while hearing his own voice amplified. 

Scattered throughout the playground were little interactive plinths like this one that shows how to draw a kappa, which is a child and cucumber eating water sprite. They are probably my favourite creature in Japanese folklore so I was pretty excited to learn how to draw one.   

We picked up a few Year of the Dragon themed sweet buns from a shop on our way home. Thebuns were made using a plain and green tea flavoured dough and filled with sweet bean paste with chocolate decorations to make them look like dragon heads.

Before we returned home, we stopped at a grocery store near our apartment and bought two fukubukuro, one for the boys and one for Dustin and me. Fukubukuro are mystery bags filled with a random assortment of goods from the store which are sold at a set price which is lower than the actual value of the contents, or is at least supposed to be. I was really hoping that our bag would contain some interesting and surprising new items that I have never had the opportunity of trying. Unfortunately, everything contained in our surprise bag was pretty tame, mostly just snacks. On the plus side, we estimated that we only paid about half of the actual worth of the goods in our bag and we knew that we would be able to use everything in it. Theo picked an Anpanman themed bag for William and himself. It was filled with an assortment of Anpanman candy and cookies which they have both been enjoying over the past week.

The contents of our bag were clockwise from top left: a bottle of tea that tasted like nail polish remover to me, a bottle of water, milk tea mix, 2 cans of coffee, chocolate crackers, senbei, oreos, potato chips, curry mix, seasoning for eggplant stir fry, chocolate covered biscuits, and caramel corn.

The kid's bag contained crackers, cookies, candy, and a sketch pad.

I think that fukubukuro are a fun way for a store to get rid of extra merchandise. I am not sure if they would be terribly successful in Canada though, since people there seem to be pickier when it comes to product selection and have way more allergies, intolerances, and food avoidances.