Have you heard of the 100 Mile Diet? In 2005, a Canadian couple decided that, for one year, they would only eat food grown within 100 miles of home. They had some great challenges finding foods they craved and staying within their budget, but over time, they learned how to manage a local diet.

Why eat a local diet? There are so many reasons! You pump money into the local economy, reduce the carbon footprint that consumption of food creates, you meet people at local markets (you get to know the people who produce the food you eat), discover the flavours of locally produced produce and meats, and get in touch with the seasons. There is nothing tastier than a sprig of 菜の花てんぷら　nanohanatempura in spring, or ゴヤチャンプル Goya chanpuru in summer.

Around Japan, interest in local produce is growing. Tokushima Prefecture started a local produce program for schools,  and Japan’s first food miles cafe  in Jiyugaoka this year has proved to be a success.

In the Chibaraki area, you can buy local food at 道の駅しょうなん Shonan Road Side Station near the Teganuma Marsh bridge, and on the Abiko side of Teganuma Marsh, you will find あびこ農産物直売所 Abiko local produce sales. In Ibaraki, you can find a road-side farmer’s market in Tsukuba City, and see the Washoku Saitama blog for food in that prefecture.

Ito Yokado supermarket in Kashiwa this evening has this もりもりけん弁当 morimoriken bento, a lunch box with all kinds of Chiba Prefecture produce in it. The bento hassanma, mushrooms, greens and rice, all harvested here in Chiba Prefecture.

Kashiwa is full of surprises. Take for instance, The Ogori Cafe, as reported by Cabel.

Last weekend, we went to The Big Winner, an American diner caught in time. On the old Mitsukaido, just a 5 minute walk from the east exit of Kashiwa Station, you’ll see the front end of a Cadillac on the building front. Inside is a 1960s jukebox filled with vintage vinyl 45s, collectable mugs, and vintage Coca Cola paraphernalia fill the shop. The burgers remind me of elementary school Hot Dog Day fare – build-your-own burgers, hot dogs all dressed, cherry Cokes, and ginger ale floats.

Kashiwa Station Mall now has Kua Aina Burger, too. When I have a hankering for an avocado burger, I go there.

Next week’s field trip is the Double Six Burger just south of Kashiwa Station’s east exit. Last year, we enjoyed vanilla ice cream with cassis as we were sated from other dining in Kashiwa.

See the Food on the Joban Line page for locations.

In order to pay the rent in Chibaraki, I work in Tokyo. The artery which pumps me and thousands of commuters into Japan’s economic heart is the Joban Line which starts far to the north in Iwate Prefecture, passes through Ibaraki and Chiba and ends at Ueno Station.

The Joban has two tracks, really. The long distance rapid train to Ueno, and the local run which connects to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line at Ayase Station.

I loathed the morning commute. To get to the high school at Shinjuku, I have been riding the train to Ueno, usually tucked into the armpit of a salaryman in a crowded train car, or surfing the space between cars so I could breathe. That first thirty minutes was relieved by the next thirty, changing to the Yamanote bound for Ikebukoro, which mercifully afforded me a seat. But then there is the madness of Shinjuku Station, one of the biggest in the world. Narrow passages with briefcases and bento boxes and smelly, anxious people all trying to exit at the same time can wear on you.

One evening I was exhausted, caught a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the closest Chiyoda Line station, and he dropped me off at Yoyogikoen Station. No crowds. Just lush trees, grass above and the quiet, empty metro station below and nobody on the benches bound for Kashiwa and Abiko.

On the way in every morning, I get the front women only car, an oasis for the female gaijin. It’s quiet, sweet smelling, letch-free and the other passengers don’t stare. I find that Japanese women in that context are more courteous, and the attitude reminds me somewhat of bath house manners – not exactly sisterly but defferential.

There is yet more tranquility to be enjoyed on the western extreme of my commute – Meiji Jingu, the grand shrine. Walking the lane on the western edge of the shrine restores my equilibrium. It’s a green oasis of calm.

Tomorrow is Matsudo Yosakoi festival. Wooooo! Will the weather cooperate? I sure hope so.

So, you ask, what’s Yosakoi mean? It’s a Kochi dialect which means “come at night”, and refers to a really high energy dance form that combines traditional festival dance forms with modern music. The costumes are not traditional but pop versions of kimono and happi coats, the movements make reference to Awa Odori, the classic festival dance of Shikoku, and the music is loud, blaring and a mix of pop and traditional melodies. Whacked out. And fun.

This video, stolen from the Internets, gives you sense of the high coolness factor of the music, movement and energy. Best seen in person, of course.Tomorrow is Matsudo’s Yosakoi Festival.

Last night, we rented bikes from Kashiwa’s east exit bike depot, whooped all the way out to the Teganuma Ohashi Bridge to the east, over the bridge, through Teganuma Park on the Abiko side, and stopped for dinner at グルメ回転すし勢 Gourmet Kaiten Sushi Hazumi right across the road from Teganuma.

The wait was about 15 minutes to get a seat at the revolving sushi bar, but it was worth it. We had avocado roll two ways, one spicy, the other mild, some fresh salmon and flavourful nigima soup.

The weather was perfect on the ride home – moon bright, cool, and the scent of kinmokusei perfuming the air.

There are so many beautiful secrets in northern Chiba Prefecture.  Go see!

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I’ve seen these bikes around town, the ones emblazoned with the Kashiwa Reysol mascot.

So, where do you get one? Kashiwa Station east exit, behind the Sogo Department store, there is a little cycle rental depot. The bike man told me that if you show some ID – passport, gaijin card – and fork over 200 yen, you can rent a bike for 200 yen a day. The rentals are available from 8:30 am and you have to return them by 10:00 pm.

So, where do you go? You can get pretty far on a mamachari – I’ve made it out to the Tone River, sometimes as far as Noda City, and this past Sunday, I biked to Nagareyama City.

It’s really tough to get photos of higanbana, the red spider lillies that bloom on the autumn equinox. Either they look really disorganized, or the light they choose to live in makes the photos look too bright or the shadows obscure them. Weird other worldly things, they are.

They are blooming at Hondoji, the Nichiren temple in Nagareyama City. A few of the maple trees are already turning colours. In order to catch the maples putting on their show, I figure you ought to go in the next three weeks.

On Saturday, September 26th, the temple will host its first Indian classical dance and music festival. The temple itself is the venue. The gate staff were marvelling at the idea, too – how unusual to see Indian dancers perfom to drums and symbals in front of the Buddhist statuary. Admission is ￥1000 on the day.

I also asked the staff about Buddhist instruction. I was told that no services other than mortuary rites are performed. However, twice a year, in early summer when the hydrangea bloom, and again in November when the fall foliage is at its peak, the temple hosts a tour, a priest gives a lecture on Nichiren Buddhism, and a special seasonal meal is served.

So, is the temple dead 10 months of the year? Is it just a pretty garden with a temple as museum piece? I don’t think so. It’s a peaceful place to reflect, and the cemetery is busy every time I’m there. Each time I go, I sit in meditation over the iris garden. Others volunteer to pick weeds or perform tea ceremony there. I think it’s alive, and I think Nichiren would approve. The temple just is.

Alternative-hard rock group This Heart’s Rendition, some guys who live in the Kashiwa-Matsudo area, will play Four Valley at Ryogoku next week.

The show is on September 20th, starting at 6pm. It’s ￥2000 at the door.

To get to Four Valley, take the train to Ryogoku Station. You can see the local map here. You can read more about Four Valley’s schedule here.

The last six months, I’ve been a shoulder to cry on and source of information for some young foreign teachers who have been hired by dispatch companies to work in public elementary and junior high schools in the Chibaraki area.

The conditions that they live and work under are shocking. The dispatch company helped the teachers find accommodation, btu for the most part, the apartment rentals the company set them up with eat up close to half of their net pay.  I did some research on affordable rented apartments and found apartments in the same area for half the rent.

It got worse. Some of them were not paid their full salary. The contract stipulates that they were to be paid once a month on a specified date, and sometimes they were paid late or incompletely. They do not receive the same salary every month – if there is a holiday, their salary is reduced even though the contract school board pays the same fee monthly to the dispatch company. The agreement also stipulated that transporation fees would be paid, but the company failed to compensate the workers, and in the summer, told the employees they were going to change the contract, and transportation would be partially paid. The stress on the employees was too much and some quit.

I was shocked when I learned that some of the employees had gone to the schools and the school board to complain. Under the labour rules, the contracting company must give and receive communication to the employer, not the contracting school. Now, they had the employees so frustrated that they were breaking the law in order to get some straight answers and expose the dispatcher’s failure to pay.

I helped fuel the fire, I suppose, by advising the employees  and providing them with lots of ammo – labour and contract law information in English, labour union contacts, and labour relations offices in their areas. I told them to take it to the media, too. The thing is, these employees were scrambling to survive and formulate exit plans. They did not have the time or resources to expose this incompetent dispatcher. 

This problem with unregulated, illegal dispatching of foreign employees to work in public and private schools is chronic here, and the Japanese media is just beginning to pick it up.

I know, you might wonder, why do I call the ALTs employees? First, there are no regulations from the Ministry of Education (MEXT) to require these employees to be actual teachers. It’s true that some are qualified, licensed teachers from home, or have post-graduate degrees or recognized TESOL diplomas or certifications. But these teachers are the exception, not the rule. At a junior high parent-teacher meeting some years ago, I met parents who did not realize the foreigners in the classroom were not qualified or licensed, and they were quite angry about this situation. Often the school teachers who work with ALTs don’t know anything about the selection process for the ALT jobs.

Even the term ALT is not descriptive of the job performed by these foreign teachers. When I was hired by a dispatch company to work in a Chiba junior high school, I agreed on a contract which described my job as ALT work – assisting a Japanese teacher. When I arrived in Tokyo, I was assigned to be the primary teacher for an entire section of the school. I was essentially responsible for everything in my classroom, and the dispatch company continued to describe my job as (and paying me the salary of) an ALT.  I left after a few months because of a wage dispute, and later learned that the school had three different ALTs in only one year, mostly due to conflicts between the foreign employees and the dispatch company.

No regulation on either end hurts the foreign employees, the students, the teachers and the quality of education in the schools.

Finally Nippon Television (NTV) has exposed the conditions, often illegal, under which ALTs and other foreign English teachers work. Japan Probe did a great job of providing subtitles on these videos.

In the story, you will see a foreign English teacher in Musashino City, Chiba Prefecture, and another from Osaka City. The NTV story does an awesome job of exposing the failings of the Ministry, the dirty practices that hurt the teachers, viable solutions to the problem (direct hires), and the most important part of this situation - the impressions of the children who receive English education from foreign teachers.