A Month in Japan
As of now, unless I decide to drop out, I’m a bachelor’s student at The Culinary Institute of America. My major consist of food studies, that basically consists of what the culture and histories around food intel and outside of that, I have a focus (concentration) primarily around Japanese cuisine. That focus is basically to understand how to use Japanese ingredients and techniques in my own cooking. My cooking would consist of American cuisine, but with Japanese techniques and how I can incorporate those ingredients. So throughout this spring semester, I have been learning about Japan’s history including the different time periods, significant moments in those time periods that helped not only the advancement of their culture, but also of their food.
So, while we studied during the semester, we also prepared to get ready for our trip to Japan. This was only allowed for this specific class consisting of 16 students. This was also a priority for us, meaning we had to go. The trip to Japan was sponsored from the schools collaborators, they funded 90% of our time staying in Japan that was a part of the culinary tour. I say that specifically because the tour only lasted for 10 days. During those 10 days, it was completely covered by our sponsors.
I left to go Japan on March 4th, it was a straight shot from New York to Tokyo, with a connecting flight in Tokyo to Osaka. Osaka is where we would begin our tour. We stayed 4 days in Osaka, 3 days in Kyoto, and finally 3 days in Tokyo. Each day was completely packed with an itinerary, I mean from 7am - 10pm most nights. So these days were long, incredibly long. This schedule lasted everyday until the end of the tour. Their were a lot of highlights from my time in each city, like going to Tsuji academy in Osaka and meeting the president of the culinary school in Japan, going to Suntory’s headquarters and learning the history of their whisky production as well as their other ventures in products like their mineral water and the activist work they do for the environment in Japan, also going to Iga and seeing how a family of generational blacksmiths, specifically sword-smiths, turn their long history of making swords into chef knives now, Going to another small village in Kyoto and watching an 800 year old tradition of making Donabe through a pottery technique was one of my favorite moments on the tour, then afterwards going to Mt. Inari and climbing it into the night, totally unprepared because, like idiots, we took the hard way up the mountain. Then heading over to Tokyo by bullet train was really cool, you really can’t tell how fast the train is going, you blink and you are already in the location you are headed to. The last day of the tour, our sponsors held us a dinner celebrating us and our dedication and interest towards Japanese cuisine and culture.
A lot of the photography that I captured and videos that I recorded did not come from Osaka. I do not understand how I went 4 days without recording much or shooting much from Osaka, that’s on me. Next time I go back I’ll use a whole roll for each place I visit. I tired to savor the film I had on me, because I really did not want the hassle of trying to find film while I was out there, so whatever I had is what I had. A lot of the photos and videos came from Kyoto and Tokyo. Which is what I will be showing in this entry.
- Kal’el
