Monday September 15 was a National Holiday in Japan known as KeiRo no Hi 敬老の日 Respect for the Aged Day.
What a novel idea! Show respect and pay attention to the older people in society, who have built this country into what it is today. I am talking about Japan.
In the very beginning of the stage play RUN, which I translated into English from the original Japanese, writer Kuramoto Soh 倉本總 wrote the following;
As for me,…. Well,…. I used to be the same way.
I graduated from college and got a job at a big company.
It was during that time when Japan was still recovering from the damage it had suffered by defeat in the big war.
Anyway, without knowing why, I started running. Running,…… running and doing my best. I lived that way for almost 40 years.
Getting closer and closer to retirement. Today was my last day on the job.
(pause)
Yeah, lately I’ve been really confused.Even though I’ve reached retirement, should I keep on running?
Or, should I just stop around here somewhere, and take a rest?
That’s why I’m just standing around here and waiting.I don’t know what to do.
The main point being that in late 1945, Japan was just a big pile of ashes with a black rain falling.
It is a whole new world today. Because of the slavish work of the millions of survivors from the atrocity that IS every war, Japan has become the most peaceful, most civilized nation on the face of this earth today.
Made in Japan, means something special. Including this rice field in Higashi Kagura 東神楽町. Japonica rice.
I prefer to eat it as unpolished brown rice 玄米.
I could buy it directly from the farmers if I really wanted to, but usually buy it at a WESTERN supermarket.
One of the few supermarkets were you can easily buy unpolished brown rice.
I eat more than 5 kilograms of it every month.
I cook it in a regular rice cooker, in the same way you would cook white rice.
Brown rice smells a bit nasty while it's cooking, but it tastes great.
A bit more chewy than white rice, and not appropriate for use as sushi すし, but it goes great with curry カレーライス and everything else.
Once you have had brown rice, you might like it better than white rice, but I doubt it.
I am not in the majority as a brown rice eater, but then again, I know what I like.
Fiber filled golden grains of locally grown brown rice.
