week 10 outline

11/15/2012

2 Comments

 
In my paper I’d like to reveal how an ideal of Kyushu has been intentionally constructed through culinary tourism, and with comparisons to other areas of Japan.

1.) Intro of Kyushu, mentioning of Tokyo, Hokkaido and, Okinawa as other culinary tourist hot spots

2.) Relationships of food and foodways, imagined identity, and culinary tourism 

  • Use Culinary Tourism by Lucy M. Long
  • Japanese Foodways, Past and Present Eric Rath
  • imagined “community” and identity *****
  • media/internet’s role...**** (blogs...possibly Ramen Connoisseurs by Fukutomi )
3.) Kyushu brief history******

4.) Kyushu Tourism Promotion Organization (2005) http://www.welcomekyushu.com/about/index.html
5.) How has Kyushu been a good example of application of culinary tourism NOW
  • (in talking about the impact of tourism on cultures) “Renewed interest in local culture, appreciation for local traditions, and an improved sense of cultural worth can result.” (6) Culinary Tourism
  • Nations will look to future foods (after discovering new ideas about food and shifting) because these are “marketed as foods that a civilized, environmentally aware nation will move toward adopting as s standard part of its cuisine in the future, while simultaneously identifying foods with a preindustrialized, romanticized tribal past.” (28)  Culinary Tourism
  • farmers markets, agricultural promotion in regions/communities ****
  • festivals
6.) How Kyushu’s foodscape compares to Tokyo’s foodscape  ****

7.) The product: Kyushu’s identity 
    • sweet potatoes, tonkotsu ramen, chanpon, kurobuta...? 
  • community building through the processes of food  NOW
    • Taste For Civilization (Flammang), Culinary Tourism (Long)
    • becoming Kyushu 
LAST:
So I’ve been changing my topic a lot...but basically I seemed to find more evidence that Kyushu wasn’t what I was necessarily trying to prove, but more a carefully constructed image by tourist organizations, the people and, tourists themselves. Therefore I’m trying to use three basic ideas: culinary tourism, foodways and, identity. They seem to work together to create the ideal of Kyushu. Sections 2 and 3 are basically introducing what I’m going to be discussing, the three ideas that I mentioned before and a brief intro of the place (Kyushu) as an island with history where this construction has taken place. 4 is about the tourist organization, why they came about, what their goals are and who they are trying to attract (the audience for this “show”). 5 is therefore the application of this and how it has worked well. I then take that image and compare it Tokyo, just so that we can see where Kyushu stands in the nation (they are near opposites in the what they stand for...) so that builds more to the identity of Kyushu. 7 is just going to be trying to consolidate everything - pulling examples of how Kyushu has seeped into the realm of tourism as a commodity in itself (a restaurant called Kyushu, adding Kyushu to the beginning of dishes etc...). 

I’m just not at all secure about this right. It’s something I’m very interested in, but I feel like it will be a lot of me trying to fill in the blanks with my own theories and what not...

2 Comments

week 9

11/9/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
http://www.shifteast.com/new-kyushu-shinkansen-targets-rural-nostalgia/

New Shinkansen Targets Rural Nostalgia




“JR is here helping to create buzz about the new railway service by building up a digital community. Interestingly, by getting people from the different regions to upload pictures it connects remote groups together in much the same way as the actual train will do.”

“The appeal for the locals is evident enough: being able to see snapshots of their homes celebrated and shared. But Tokyo users are of course also free to upload pictures they took when visiting the area and no doubt these campaigns stimulate a kind of sentimental pique, even if the practical benefits of the new line are not primarily affecting them. Nostalgia is a powerful market force!” 

My thoughts:

Since I’m just collecting little blips to support my overall idea, I was relatively pleased to stumble across this one. Not only does it bring up contrast between Tokyo and Kyushu again, but it brings up NOSTALGIA which is another point I think could be very powerful. The idea of old Japan that I’ve mentioned before is linked with this nostalgia for rural Japan. It is fairly recent that people have run away into the cities and are able to live this double life by occasionally paying visits to family in the countryside (perhaps collecting hand made treats, home grown vegetables etc..., just enough to keep them linked to their childhood or parents’ lives). 

The first quote also I feel supports the idea of the imagined community. This kind of came up in the ramen article we read. The “Gendered Space in Virtual Consumption” section supports this idea of communities. I feel that there is a difference between virtual and imagined, however, the internet acts as a place for this imagined community to be defined and created, virtually. 



http://books.google.com/books?id=iz06xSmiDqMC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=Kyushu+and+Tokyo+regional+differences&source=bl&ots=7Zz_rsmNMk&sig=WcYusIg_4VotIUdGV7TCsZfzqpw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3-6JUMytGon10gHQm4GgCg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Kyushu%20and%20Tokyo%20regional%20differences&f=false

Key Geography New Places (Geography textbook Key Stage 3 (11-14 yr olds))

In a cartoon of a section called “Recent Changes in Kyushu” (where the reasons of late industrial boom of Kyushu during the 1980s are explained etc...) there are tourists from Tokyo sayings things about their experience in Kyushu:

“The air is cleaner and the sky is clearer then in Tokyo.”

“I want to the see the active volcanoes in the National Parks.”

“I want to see the cherry blossom in early Spring and the changing leaves in Autumn.”

“The climate is warmer in winter and more healthy all year than in Tokyo.”

“I want to visit the health spas and bathe in the hot sands.”

Two Regions Compared:

In this section there are comparisons such as the difference in “Childhood Years” (Tokyo, parents don’t come home until late, they don’t spend much time outdoors and resort to games/tv while in Kyushu, most people are farmers and children are therefore raised by grandparents and spend a lot of time with bugs and what not) there is also a chart for “Marriage” (in Tokyo it is expensive to get on your feet so usually people marry later while in the country young women go away to the cities for work so there is a shortage). 

My Thoughts:

I think first of all, the fact that we are comparing Kyushu and Tokyo is interesting because Kyushu is an entire island with 7 prefectures while Tokyo a single prefecture (though a major one). For the purpose of making a clear cut distinction of the difference between rural and urban Japan, I suppose it makes sense (especially since this is a textbook for middle school children). This does support where this imagined Kyushu might originate. I believe this is a European textbook, but it doesn’t really matter - what does matter is the Kyushu is already being cast as a generally agricultural area, preserved ideas due to the Japan’s historical spiritual connection to nature. Though this has little to do with food by words alone, we can assume that the children raised by their grandparents in the countryside as they spend time outdoors will be the ones to eat   more basic, earthy meals made with produce from their home or nearby versus a Tokyo child who has little access to much other than the endless supply of restaurants at their fingertips - immediately changing the way in which a child will view foodways in their lives. Perhaps as a Kyushu child will grow up with treats of regional ikinaridango, hakata ramen, karashi lenkon, Kagoshima’s pork and more - that are specific to that area for the most part - while a child from Tokyo will know of general food items like okonokiyaki, tonkotsu ramen (hakata), sukiyaki, ramen etc...without any pride/definition to where it belongs in the foodways. Rather, Tokyo is the hub for generalizations in food - with little access to the smaller delights from other regions (making food tourism very appealing OR unappealing). 




http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/japan.htm

The Cambridge World History of Food

Japan: Rice and Staple Food

“Peasants living in mountain areas with low rice productivity, along with poor people in general, formerly mixed millet with rice. The sweet potato, introduced in the eighteenth century, also became popular as a staple in the south of Japan, where it supplemented a low yield of rice. However, even the poor cooked pure boiled rice and pounded rice cake from pure glutinous rice for important meals.”

“Noodles made from flour as a light lunch or snack became popular during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and consumption increased considerably after the seventeenth century, when a processing technique for buckwheat noodles (soba) was developed in Edo, now Tokyo. Since then, soba has become popular mainly in eastern Japan, where Tokyo is located, whereas udon noodles (made from flour) have always been popular in western Japan (Ishige 1991a).”

‘Paddy-field rice cultivation was then under way except in the northern Ainu-dominated region of Hokkaido and in the southern Okinawa islands, an island chain between Kyu¯mshu¯ (the southernmost main island of Japan) and Taiwan.”

My Thoughts: 

I’m thinking that for picking specific foodways for each area, this might help a little. I feel that the sweet potato is very linked to Southern Japan, so I will try and make that my Kyushu food to hone in on. Possibly soba for Tokyo? In some ways, though, I'd like to make a point that the Kanto region is more of a mix. 



http://blog.alientimes.org/2012/02/yaki-imo-roasted-sweet-potatoes-provide-iconic-tastes-textures-colors-and-sounds-of-japanese-autumn-and-winter/

Yaki Imo  Provide Iconic tastes, textures, colors, and SOUNDS of Japanese autumn and winter

“Here in Japan, sweet potatoes ( SATSUMA IMO) are a major part of the food culture, and culture in general- especially important in autumn and winter.”

“Harvested in late October and through November, it is common for the Japanese to hold sweet potato roasting events- using the fallen leaves as fuel! Wrapping the freshly harvested spuds in aluminun foil, and gazing into the fire amid the swirling smoke is one the classic ways of celebrating autumn.”

“The name SATSUMA IMO (薩摩芋) directly translated means the SATSUMA DOMAIN`S POTATO, and this sheds some light on the story of how this food came  into Japan. The Satsuma Domain ( what is now Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyushu) once controlled the Ryukyu Islands ( Okinawa), to which the sweet potato had arrived, after having been first cultivated in the foothills of the Andes Mountains ( or perhaps somewhere in Mexico) thousands of years ago....It was the Satsuma Clan which soon after, introduced it to the rest of Japan in the late 16th or early 17th century.”

“After the Meiji Restoation of 1968, there was a huge YAKI IMO boom, which seems to have lasted up to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. In 1905, there were 900 establishments in the capital specializing in them.” 

“After reconstruction, a craze for everything modern and especially foreign set in, and for a long while roasted sweet potatoes were considered too rustic, and old fashioned- in other words CORNY.”

“As I have mentioned above, with the hardships of the war, the SATSUMA IMO came back again to regain its former prominence.”

“And of course. there are many other ways that the sweet potato is prepared in Japanese cuisine besides roasting. One of my favorites is called DAIGAKU IMO- with large french- fry shaped slices or chunks, coated with a sugary glaze and a dash of sesame seeds.”

“In Tsukuba, we are lucky to have an abundance of high grade locally grown sweet potatoes. Not only can you get them from the traditional trucks, but there are some specialty shops – extremely  atmospheric, which sell ONLY sweet potatoes!”

My Thoughts

I feel that despite the fact that this is a blog with some misspellings and what not, it provides some pretty good information. First of all, this blog is about “Culture, Food, Health, History, Life in Tsukuba” (which is a city in the Kanto Region) and therefore makes the foodway relationship of Kyushu/Kanto more interesting. Especially when as in the last quote, it has in fact become a local specialty in Tsubaka. Though this food was brought through southern Japan, it is now a delicacy throughout Japan. I also think that the “come back” that  satsumaimo made could be connected to the feeling that Japan was growing apart from its “traditional” rituals (like shokuiku). Also, I have to say I love daigaku-imo, and the only context I really saw it in was at Kaitenzushi. Therefore, sweet potatoes have changed their fast food ways similarly to sushi!




I still need a lot more info on Hokkaido and to develop more on the Kanto region. As general form of the paper and the three areas I'm thinking that I will point out geography, bring up a certain food, explain the foodways there then discuss how these foodways are supported/created by the imagined community of the area. Hopefully it works out...
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week 8 

11/2/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
 






http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/eat/40-tokyo-foods-we-cant-live-without-090648
40 Tokyo food we can’t live without by Melinda Joe, W. David Marx, Darryl Wee and Misha Janette




My Thoughts:




This is a little annoying because basically it names a bunch of food including basashi, tempura, tonkotsu style ramen, and satsuma-age (all that are technically Kyushu originated foods). Other foods on the list include foods that are widely considered “Osaka” and “Okinawa” foods. However the title of this is “Tokyo Food”. Basically, food that can be found in Tokyo but so many foods that have deep ties to elsewhere in Japan, places that are very conveniently ignored. I think that since Japan is so small in comparison to at least the USA, it is easy to write off Japan embodied in places like Tokyo and Osaka. However, the size of Japan doesn’t really seem to have changed the variety in culture and all the regions that are spread through the country. How people can so easily generalize an entire country boggles me. 




http://whiteonricecouple.com/travel/tonkotsu-kyushu-ramen/

KYUSHU STYLE RAMEN: IN THE EHART OF TOKYO Todd and Diane Blog

“Kyushu style ramen is notibly different from other style of ramens because of it’s rich, cloudy and hearty broth that’s mostly done with Tonkotsu (pork bone) broth and sometimes combined with a chicken and/or vegetable broth. Kyushu broth is deep, flavorful and it is balanced nicely with a beautiful sheen of fat on top. The depth of flavor and richness of Kyushu ramen broth is definitely for the hungry and the hearty.

Each sip of the distinctly heavier and flavorful Kyushu ramen broth was a fuel for our souls, especially after shaking off the jet lag and walking for about 2 hours in the flamboyant Shibuya district.”

“Although we were in Tokyo, (Kyushu is Japan’s most southern-western island) the man who opened this shop was a Kyushu local and brought his homeland specialty to Japan’s thriving epicenter of Tokyo.  What a treat for us to be able to experience such a delicious regional specialty in the heart of the street fashionably-stylish Harajuku.  Old Japan meets new Japan.  Thanks Chika, for the great tour, wonderful company and delicious ramen experience.”

My Thoughts:

Kyushu doesn’t ever seem to make it past the sidelines in the mind of the Japanese who live elsewhere. There are always these references, like the one above, to it being “Old Japan” or agricultural or even “hillbilly”. In the above passages, it is nice to see Kyushu in a positive light. They recognize how it is “a treat” to be able to eat Kyushu style ramen in the heart of Tokyo. Then they say “Old Japan meets new Japan”, which is interesting because they are labeling both Tokyo and Kyushu. Just why exactly Kyushu is always referenced to as “old” is what I’m curious about finding proof of. 




http://www.japanesefoodreport.com/2008/05/kyushu-style-fried-chicken.html

KYUSHU STYLE FRIED CHICKEN by Harris Salat  (Japanese Food Report)

(this is chicken nanban)

“She [Takako Kuratani] just visited New York and one of the things she brought with her was a slender red notebook -- her own personal cookbook, where she records her recipes and cooking inspiration. While she was here, Takako planted herself in a kitchen, cracked opened that little red book and prepared a wonderful homey dinner for a bunch of friends. Her theme: the down-home cooking of Kyushu, Japan's own Deep South.”

My Thoughts: 

This article is a little suspicious because I tried finding more information on this said “prodigious chef”, Takako Kuratani, and really couldn’t find anything else except for someone’s slideshow presentation that referenced this same a blog/article. So, I’m not so sure what to think... however, I would like to use the quote about the “Deep South” just because it supports the idea of everyone vaguely referencing to Kyushu as the country, the south, the old japan etc....







http://blog.japancentre.com/2012/07/09/jaff-japan-centres-third-japan-food-festival-27th-july-12th-august/

Japan Centre JAFF: Japan Centre’s third Japan Food Festival (Kyushu is absolutely Yokaromon)

“Kyushu has been selected as JAFF’s special region for a number of reasons: it is home to breath-taking and very diverse scenery, which includes ancient forests, sandy beaches, sweeping mountains and active volcanoes. These volcanoes are the reason why Kyushu is often referred to as the hot spring capital of Japan. Thanks to its moderate climate and fertile soil, the island is also rich in fresh produce. All this, together with the island’s long history as a centre for international trade has made Kyushu a true culinary melting pot.”

My Thoughts:

This is promoting Kyushu’s food cultures for the Japan Food Festival, so it pin points some of the main traits of Kyushu (geography, the volcanoes, long history, trade etc). I can probably just use this as support the image of Japan, but this is with more attention to the actual details that are often ignored in the generalization of Kyushu. 

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