Pizza and Rice

During an online conversation with my mother this week I was asked if there was anything from the Western world that I needed. You folks back home have been extremely accommodating when it comes to my cravings and I thank you all for it. One short mention of Smarties back in March brought me four or five parcels of the candy coated chocolate circles of color. Yummy! With the recent mention of needing deodorant mom was quick to offer sending out a stick or two of roll-on that actually repeals body odor thus allowing me to fling these worthless canisters off a mountain. No…wait…since I will NEVER be climbing another mountain again (at least no this year) I will toss these worthless canisters off a very, very small hill…maybe a speed-bump. I was also asked if there was anything else I “needed” and instantly I quickly typed “PIZZA!!!” and boy is that a fact, Jack. I’m looking now at one of the numerous flyers that are stuck into my mailbox weekly from one of the city’s mysterious pizza parlors. I say mysterious because I have no idea where these places are. From the flyers that have arrived Kashihara has a Pizza Hut, a Pizza Peter Pan (the pizza parlor was NOT the first star on the left and straight on until morning, I am sad to report) and one or two Japanese pizza joints whose name I can’t read. Not being able to read the names isn’t a big deal. The problem here is that I can’t read the addresses as all the flyers have come in Kanji…with Kanji and huge pictures of mouth watering pizza pies, large and in full color tempting me. At night, my friends, I swear I hear these flyers speaking to me. “Come to us…taste us…” I half expect myself to wake with a waded wet piece of flyer in my mouth and scattered pieces of flyer paper around the futon. I have tried to find the pizza parlors in a few aimless walks down the main streets. Kashihara is not a big city so one would think finding these places would be a snap but all I have unearthed are book stores, ramen restaurants and curry joints. Though craving it, Japanese pizza from the looks of the photographs doesn’t appear to be very appetizing. I suspect the ingredients are tossed randomly onto these pies by blindfolded monkeys in chef hats (I just like that image). Let’s take the current flyer here on the table for example:

Pizza #1: shredded onions, seaweed, cheese, pork and some type of sauce that doesn’t contain tomatoes

Pizza #2: pork, cheese, green peppers, onions and no sauce

Pizza #3: cocktail wieners, onions, thinly sliced beef shavings, cheese, green peppers and some unknown white stuff

Pizza #4: corn, seaweed, onions, cheese, and bacon (?)

Pizza #5: Mayonnaise, hot dogs, ummm brown sugar (?) and rice

Pizza #6: shrimp, corn, mayonnaise, green stuff and seaweed

Anyway, you get the idea. Though you can find the Western variety of pizza here (on this flyer the last pizza pictured is a typical all-dressed style pizza from back home) for the most part the Japanese turn the Italian specialty into their own concoction as is the same anywhere, I suppose. We have the Canadian pizza back home…why can’t the Japanese have their ramen on bread version? Pizza is delivered here on scooters…very silent scooters. On the back are trunks that keep the pie hot as the delivery guy rushes through the city. I imagine cars are not used, at least not in Kashihara, anyway, because of how narrow some of the streets are and this might hinder any “30 minutes or it’s free policies” should there be any. Scooters can get down those small dirt paths and speed by the cats in the alleyways as well. They are fast modes of delivery. So fast that I can’t seem to catch one. I’ve been so desperate for pizza since spotting a pamphlet in a Tokyo hotel room for Dominos that I have chased some of these scooters around the city for a block or two before giving up and watching them speed off. DAMN YOU SCOOTER PIZZA PEOPLE! SLOW THE HELL DOWN! I don’t know what I’d say should I actually catch one but give chase I do hoping that one of these people can direct me to their place of work or, better yet, I can disctract them some how and make off with their wares. Mwa ha ha. “Isn’t that Harumi Kurihara? SUCKER!” Whooooooshhhh. And now I sit craving a nice, greasy Cornwall pizza with thick cheese, pieces of meat that could choke an African elephant, rivers of zesty sauce and vegetables so the opposite of fresh they are breaking 17 health standards codes. Now that’s a pizza. No mayo. No corn. Just artery clogging pizza pie goodness. Listen, I know it’s probably against the law and there is packaging to ponder but I really believe you folks could send over a couple of boxes of Olympic Pizza pizzas, huh? What do you say? Be a pal!!!


Meanwhile as I lust after home-style pizza something that is not lacking in this country has sprouted up in beautiful patches of green across the cities over the summer. Rice, folks, it’s everywhere and this the season in central Japan. Rice crops are harvested between August and October in my area of the country. There are an estimated 2.3 million farms here and 85% plant rice. Most of these are small farms, so much so that rice farming can be considered only a part-time gig for some of the smaller farms. On average your rice farm is about 0.8 hectares. Koshihikari is the most popular type of rice planted here for its taste. Rice is grown in paddy fields. These fields need a lot of water to get those little green rice plants popping up so many fields are built near rivers. Where natural water resources are not available rice fields are flooded regularly. The paddies look like organized marshes when the water is high and all the green plants peek out in uniformed rows. On a sunny day in Kashihara these fields are particularly pretty because of the reflections in the water from the blue sky and surrounding mountains. When I first arrived here I took some photos of a rice paddy out in Tenri and today I revisited the paddy which is now a vibrant green. A fine sight, this is true, but I fantasize of pizza fields as far as the eye can see. *Sigh*



Rice Field - FEBRUARY


Rice Field - MARCH