Blog | FindingSachi – Japanese Food, Cycling Japan, Foodie Adventures | See Japanese food found on a bicycle tour

Day 31 Cycling in Sakura Petals

May 11 • Blog, Kyushu • 947 Views

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“Sakura, Sakura…” There is an old song called, Sakura, in Japan. Sakura, cherry blossoms, is a national flower of Japan, along with chrysanthemum. The hype around the blooming sakura in the spring is shared by everyone in the country, and it is one of the best things to see if you visit Japan in early April. We have “sakura forecast” during this season along with the regular weather forecast on the news. Approximately one week long full bloom sakura blossoms is what everyone is waiting for after the cold winter. Because it is so short and extravagant, it is a national outdoor party time called “Ohanami”, as I did in Kagoshima. In a shop between Akune and Yatsushiro, I found a sakura dessert with the blossom and a cherry inside. It’s so pretty I wouldn’t want to eat it! A team of high school baseball players were also surrounded by full bloom sakura blossoms. Even a hard practice is nicer with all these pretty flowers around? Even a
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Day 29-30 Surprise Lunch with Love & My Own Sleeper Train

May 7 • Blog, Kagoshima, Kyushu • 1128 Views

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The morning after the wonderful ohanami dinner with new friends under the night time sakura blossoms, I woke and went down the stairs to leave Kagoshima. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small paper bag with a note placed on top. Ms Jean, the lady who let me stay in her work building, had made bento (lunch) and left it for me. Onigiri, tamago (rolled egg omelet), wieners, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and a green apple. As I took out what was inside the bag, I could not help talking to myself, “Wooooow! Really??” So much love came out of the small black bag as I unpacked. In the letter, she thanked this miracle of having met each other and wished me a safe trip. Even though she is a very busy woman with a small child and a teaching job, she made the time to host and have dinner AND made lunch for me. It made me realize once again that Japan and this world is filled with so much love and caring. My initial fear of being alone and lonely in this trip has been complete
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Day 26-28 See You Okinawa, Hello Cyclists! It’s Ohanami Time!

Apr 27 • Blog, Okinawa • 1208 Views

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Having been taking care of by the kind Oshiro Family for almost a week, it was finally time to say goodbye. I became good friends with the 6 year old Kou-chan, who was about to start elementary school in a week. They told me to stay for a bit longer, but I had to go so I could catch the blooming sakura (cherry blossoms) in the mainland Japan. They came to the ferry port and gave me the colorful paper tapes that you throw from the boat. It was my very first time ever to throw those tapes from a boat. As I was waving my hands, I already missed them. From the same port, a guy wearing a kimono with an instrument got on the same ferry. We chatted about both of our unusual outfits as we were getting on board. I’d cycled in dumping rain for an hour to get to Motobu Port in my rain clothes. His name was Hikaru Miyoshi, and he was a shamisen player. Shamisen is a traditional Japanese string instrument, a bit like a guitar. As the boat ride was for 24 hours, I spent some time with him talk
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Day 23-25 Cycling With Butterflies & Harvesting Onions in Iheyajima

Apr 27 • Blog, Okinawa • 841 Views

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From Nakijinson, I said a temporary goodbye to Mrs Oshiro and her grandson, and took a ferry boat to Iheyajima. It’s the most northern island of Okinawa Prefecture. Geographically, a part of Iheyajima belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture (above 27 degrees northern latitude), but this place has been made an exception, to be politically in Okinawa Prefecture. The reason why I came to this island was because I’d met a guy from here at the house of sugar two days earlier. He said it was a beautiful island, and I was looking for one island to go to before I left Okinawa. So I arrived after an hour and a half of boat ride. 1300 people live in Iheyajima. In October, they hold a race called Moonlight Marathon, where the run starts around 3pm and by the time the runners come to the finish line, the full moon lights up the island. How romantic! Going around the island is about 40km, so it’s perfect for a marathon race. I’m not good at running, but I’d love to participate some
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Day 21-22 There’s A Huge Squid On My Bike & I’m a Sugar Maker

Apr 22 • Blog, Okinawa • 1250 Views

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On this day I cycled to Kourijima, it’s a little island connected by a beautiful long bridge nearby from Oshiro Family’s home. I enjoyed cycling in the sun that I hadn’t seen for some days. On the bridge, I found a fisherman with a bicycle. I asked him what he was fishing for. “I’m looking for squids. Do you want to look for them with me?” We were chatting and looking for squids for 15 minutes or so. We saw three squids swimming, but they went away. I told him that I was heading to Kourijima to cycle around the island. He told me that he was going to be there for a couple hours and wanted to give me a squid if he got one. I said I’d see him on my way back. In Kourijima, I stopped by a place that said “Chaya” which means cafe. “Hellooooo?” There was no one in the cafe. Then I saw some steam coming out of the building nextdoor. I walked up and popped my head in. There they were cooking down sugar cane juice to make kokutou
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Day 19-20 Food & Scenery So Rich in Nakijinson, Okinawa

Apr 22 • Blog, Okinawa • 840 Views

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The kind and generous Oshiro Family treated me with amazing breakfasts and dinners during my stay. Okinawan food was so good I think I may have gained weight while I was there. This is a well known Okinawan sweets called, Sataa Andagi. Oshiro-san sent 200 of these to the victims of tsunami in north eastern Japan. These are like round donuts, but they’re harder and more solid. When they are well made like this one, they last for a month to two. Quite a few families have goats in northern Okinawa. This, you don’t see in the other parts of Japan. They eat goat soup called, yagi-jiru, for festive and celebratory occasions. Apparently that soup can be quite gamey and you either like it a lot or don’t. I didn’t get to try this one, but maybe someday. I got to have these amaaazing pickles at Oshiro-san’s breakfast. As I kept praising about it, Mrs Oshiro took me to her neighbor, Mrs Ganaha’s house. She’d made the pickles, and she served us lunch thoug
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Day 16-18 Cycle, Climb, Food Galore, Emergency Hospital

Apr 16 • Blog, Okinawa • 907 Views

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What do we usually do on a single day? How many people do we communicate with between home and work, and about what? During my cycling trip, I meet so many people, and talk and do all kinds of unusual things almost everyday, even in the country I grew up in. I took my bike to a bike shop in Nago, and left it there for two days for a bit of work. The owner of the bike shop let me use his own road bike, which happened to be also pink. I spent the waiting days cycling around town, and finding a traditional Okinawan house like above. I stayed in the same guest house as the week before, and there I met a group of nine travelers from Tokyo area during the BBQ dinner. As we were eating, drinking and singing, I found out that they were a group of rock climbers. They asked me if I wanted to go and climb the next morning. I said, why not. I cycled to get to the meeting point, where we started hiking to get to the climbing location. I wasn’t really expecting that I’d be going into a j
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Day 15 Free Sweets Mean Cycling in Rain

Apr 10 • Blog, Okinawa • 772 Views

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It’s time for me to go back to Nago to get my bike fixed from the comfort of my caring new friends, Hana-chan and Yuki’s home. With Hana-chan’s suggestion, I made a sign that says I’m cycling up Japan, also with the message to cheer up the mourning country from the tsunami disaster. What I can and should do right now is to keep cycling and show all the wonderful things all over Japan. If the timing of my trip was different, I could have been swept away by the tsunami on my pink bike. I wanted to cycle through all those towns that are no longer there, which used to be beautiful coastal towns. I’ve cried and continue to pray for those victims as I cycle, and hope that my fundraising will be some help in re-establishing those who lost everything. Kind and such caring Hana-chan made a tuna and sweet corn sandwich to take with me. Thank you so much for everything and taking care of me, Hana-chan!!! I can’t thank her enough. Hand-made lunch is so heart-war
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Day 14 Resting with Pork & Pizza

Apr 8 • Blog, Okinawa • 696 Views

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After two days of battering in the ocean, I took a day off to chill (…and of course, eat some more). The weather wasn’t great. My friends had a day off too, so we went to eat lunch. Above is Honejiru. Hone means bones. It’s pork bone soup. Quite literally, it has slow cooked pork bones with little meat on them with a big heap of grated ginger on top. Not much meat? No problem! This was SO extremely good! I was tired and a bit cold, but this soup really warmed me up with such great flavor of pork and with the heat of ginger. I didn’t tell you this in the previous post, but Hana-chan and I had a car accident the day before. It was raining, and the van slipped and made a 180 degree turn to face the way we came. Kind people helped us move the car to the side of the road. We were all OK, but unfortunately Hana-chan’s old van had to be scrapped after that. On this day off, we decided to take it easy with a big pizza and beer, which turned out to be very good. Ok
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Day 12-13 Diving Dream in Okinawa

Apr 8 • Blog, Okinawa • 905 Views

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It’s been a long time dream of mine to get a scuba diving license. I started swimming when I was 6, and my childhood dream was to become a killer whale trainer. I thought it’d be so cool to swim and become friends with a big orca. Somewhere along the way, I thought that could be slightly dangerous, so I thought becoming a dolphin trainer might be better. They seemed more gentle and friendlier. Then somehow I ended up becoming a graphic designer, where I had no danger of being eaten or being pushed down to the bottom of a deep pool. What a chicken. I still haven’t forgotten about my dream. I still want to swim with dolphins in the ocean, and someday I will. The friends that let me stay in Ginowan, Okinawa were diving instructors. I had postponed it long enough, this was the time for me to do it. Being in the middle of March, the water could have been a bit warmer, but I spent two days in the ocean with Yuki, Hana-chan’s husband, to finally get the diving license.
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