Battari-mura was full of these caterpillars when we were there in July.

A friend gave me a bag of satoimo today.



Satoimo are probably better known in America as taro root, the basis of the Hawaiian food poi. Here, they're most often boiled, peeled, and served in miso soup. I have a new Japanese-language cookbook that rather conveniently has a bunch of satoimo recipes in it, so I made one of them tonight.



This is satoimo no kurogoma miso ae, taro with black sesame and miso dressing. It was quite tasty ― the satoimo themselves have a mild flavor that went nicely with the stronger black sesame. And a Manhattan.

The leaves are already starting to change color here. Last weekend, this was the scene around an old farmhouse located in the village that makes up part of the city museum.

Lanterns are a common festival decoration. At the city museum's festival today, the road was lined with small lanterns decorated by children from a local elementary school. This one was particularly wonderful.



The kanji is wa, meaning "peace" or "harmony."

Beverages that come in tall cans have a sketchy reputation in America, at least where I'm from. They're usually full of cheap malt liquor or beer. They can often be found lying in the gutter, surrounded by the brown paper bags used to conceal them from the eyes of people who might happen upon the people drinking them. Which is why these amuse me tremendously:



The all-American drink, now available in tallboys!

Like all kids, young oni are happiest when school is out for the day.



Actually, these boys are preparing to dance Onikenbai as part of a local junior high school's sports day.

I can't believe we've been here over a year and only mentioned our primary grocery store in passing.



Here's hoping the bar associations I belong to don't hold our frequent trips here against me!

A friend gave us a couple of goya this weekend, one green and one white.



Goya, or bitter melon, is a staple of Okinawan cuisine. It's very bitter but refreshing, and tastes of quinine and grass. Its juice is refreshing when mixed with shochu and soda in goya sours, and its flesh can often be found in chanpuru, Okinawan stir-fries.

I made goya chanpuru for lunch today. Besides goya, the chanpuru involved eggs, tofu, thinly sliced pork, ginger, and bean sprouts.

During our meandering around the festival areas last weekend, a friend and I caught the end of this performance:

Tanabata really is the festival that keeps on festing. As we mentioned in last month's post, some communities in Japan celebrate the "Night of Sevens" on July seventh, while others celebrate on or around August seventh, the date of Tanabata on the traditional Japanese calendar. Judging by the prominence and elaborate nature of the decorations that are out now, it seems that the bigger celebrations occur on the traditional date.

Here in Kitakami, Kaminari-jinja is all dressed up for the festivities.



In Esashi, bamboo branches festooned with prayers and big, colorful streamers line the streets.



The streamers are quite beautiful when the wind catches them.