What is This? 7

Spotted: At Nishiki Food Market, Kyoto's ancient heaven for gourmet foodies and restauranteurs. What could thin, translucent sheets hanging in a messy room filled with creamy puddles of mysterious liquid be doing in a place that became famous for selling the food used to feed the emperor?


Answer: I took this picture in the back room of a 200 year old "yuba" shop in Nishiki Food Market. Yuba is a type of soy product made from very thin sheets of congealed soy water/tofu that is skimmed off the top. The process starts with raw soybeans that are soaked in water overnight and then put in a machine to grind them into a paste. The paste then goes in to another machine and is made in to very soft tofu that is taken out and put on top of those copper basins to be heated. Under the surface of each copper basin flows boiling water and steam that heats the tofu so as not to burn it. When the tofu boils down, it starts to congeal again after a while (kind of like the grease on the surface of Campbell's chicken noodle soup). The workers then take the thin sheet of yuba off the heat and hang it to dry it out. It takes less time to dry it out during the summer than in the winter, but most people eat yuba in the winter when the dried pieces are thrown into boiling "nabe" pots and become soft again.


Women rolling up the dried yuba into attractive and easily transportable bundles


The wonderful staff at Yubakichi Kyoto, est. 1790

What is This? 6

Spotted: This weekend I did a little traveling on our three-day vacation and went to Osaka, Kobe, and Himeiji Castle. On the streets of America Village or "Ame-Mura" in Osaka I saw several of these tall, slender objets d'art lining the streets at various intervals. Seemingly ubiquitous and anthropomorphic in form, could this be Japan's next step in robotics technology?


Answer: These are the streetlights in Ame-Mura, which I thought looked pretty cool. They come in various positions and add a lot of character to the seeming "placelessness" of Osaka.

What is This? 5

Spotted: Masked women wielding wands and pots of potions in orange robes. A Hogwarts graduation ceremony? Perhaps not...


Answer: Part of the ritual procession at Kiyomizu Temple (my favorite temple in all of Japan!) involved in the annual 3-day Seiryu-e Festival. Today was the first day of the festival and I biked over there from Doshisha to check it out. Right as I arrived with my two friends at the ticket gate, the sound of conch shell horns wavered through the air. This was not my first visit to Kiyomizu temple, but the first time I saw any sort of ceremony there. The procession began with conch blowers parading through the temple grounds followed by these women donning masks porting bowls of sacred water and flicking it about the temple and into the crowds with these long wands. Monks with wooden clappers followed behind them with spear-bearing soldiers interspersed between them. The rhythm of the clapping wooden block, sounding of the conch horns, and chinking of the soldiers' spears on the ground almost created the effect of a choral procession traversing through the temples' gates and halls. Finally, the festival culminated with the emergence and passage of a large very frighteningly realistically rendered dragon! Definitely a traditional Chinese dragon and judging from all the water rituals probably associated with the sea in some way. It was pretty cool and needless to say well worth the 45 minute beautiful bike ride along the Kamogawa River.


The Dragon going up the stairs at the entrance to Kiyomizu Temple

What is This? 4

Spotted: A fusion of east and west found at the 7-11 convenience store.



Answer: The improbable combination of South Asian Naan and an American Hot Dog! Also fused with "Spicy Chili Sauce" to excite your day. I tried this culinary concoction the other day and it was pretty tasty. I can't say that I would have thought of this combination myself, but I really do appreciate gourmet Japanese innovation :)

What is This? 3

Spotted: Green monster doing yoga at Matsuo-taisha Shrine.



Answer: Part of the annual Hassaku festival at Matsuo-taisha Shrine, which was founded in 701 and is one of Japan's oldest shrines. It's dedicated to the god of water and has copious turtle statues and fountains. The rare form of dance is obviously related to Chinese lion dancing, but with a greater emphasis on acrobatics and with only two people in the costume. There was also a cool part at the end when a man dressed in a gold costume kind of like some kind of spider came out and battled with the lion, even shooting out jets of white streamers like webs to entangle its green foe.

What is This? 2

Spotted: During my first few days of orientation at Doshisha University (the home university where I'm doing my language study and taking classes), I noticed several of these signs posted in various parts of campus. At first I was not quite sure what this sign was supposed to be telling me. Lightning bolts + computer = ? Having freshly arrived from Cambodia where lightning bolts come from computers all the time, I thought it was a warning that the computer will shock you if you are not careful.


Answer: Apparently this sign is the Japanese indicator for wireless internet. I thought the universal symbol was the dot with radiating arcs coming from it, but this is what they use here in Japan.

What is This? 1

So since I didn't actually find enough good Weekly Engrishes, I'm starting a new segment in Kyoto called "What is This?" in honor of Nancy Nichols. It will feature a photo of something that I found odd here in Japan that begs the question "What is This?".



Spotted: A field of blue caps and white shirts planted on the central floor of Kyoto Station, the city's biggest train station at

What is this?: Hoardes of school children returning from morning adventures during their current summer vacations.