Making Of Soba Noodles

The following pictures say it all on how to make soba noodles. These were taken during the Salmon Festival in Rokkasho Town. We have to wait for this Japanese guy to finish making soba noodles without saying anything. I will do the same thing.....enjoy browsing the photos!






















Finally he smiled :-)

I should have brought my video camera rather than taking pictures of each steps hehehe, sorry I forgot to bring it.

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According from Wikipedia:
Soba is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It is served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup. Moreover, it is common in Japan to refer to any thin noodle as soba in contrast to udon which are thick noodles made from wheat. It takes three months for buckwheat to be ready for harvest, so people can harvest it four times in a year; it is harvested mainly in spring, summer, and autumn. In Japan, buckwheat is produced mainly in Hokkaido. People call soba that is made with buckwheat that has just been harvested "shin-soba". It has more sweetness and taste than soba.

In Japan, soba noodles are served in a variety of situations. They are a popular inexpensive fast food at train stations throughout Japan and are served by exclusive and expensive specialty restaurants. Markets sell dried noodles and men-tsuyu, or instant noodle broth, to make home preparation easy.

Big Buddha (Showa Daibutsu), Aomori

Big Buddha

Five Story Pagoda in Big Buddha Aomori

Shrine

Pinwheels honor the children who have passed away

Pinwheel close-up

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Daibutsu literally means "big buddha, " this Showa Daibutsu is located at Seiryuu-ji Temple in Aomori City, a one and a half hour drive from Misawa Air Base.

This statue was built in 1984, stands 70 ft high and weighs 220 tons. The Showa Daibutsu is a giant effigy of Dainichi Nyorai , the central deity of worship among Japan’s Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism.

By the way, this was taken last September but forgot to post these in here :-)

Note: Dainichi means Great Sun

Rice Fields

Rice

Ricefield in front of our house

Haystacks

Another Haystacks

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The last 2 photos are snap shots while driving around Misawa, haystacks are now lined up, most of the rice were harvested already. This was taken last October, I've been busy lately and was not able to post these pictures.

Hirosaki Chrysanthemum Festival

Can you guess the design?

Can you read? I've been staring this photo for 2 weeks but until now I can't read it

cute barrel

pagoda made of chrysanthemum

I guess they are chrysanthemum flowers ;-)

Hey, what's your name?? Are you chrysanthemum too?

Finally I was able to take a picture of a bee still on a flower

Apple made of apples

Close-up look

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Hirosaki Chrysanthemum Festival- Nov. 7, 2009- this is the continuation of my post last week. Every year Hirosaki Castle Park holds Chrysanthemum Festival during fall season, from mid October to early week of November.

They have this festival to celebrate the nature and beauty of the fall. There are thousands of maple and cherry trees have its color of leaves turned into red and yellow in this period of season.

Hirosaki Castle- Fall Season

Hirosaki Castle









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Hirosaki Castle, Nov 7, 2009- Last Saturday we visited the Hirosaki Castle Park to see the glorious beauty of fall foliage and the chrysanthemum festival they have. It was a lovely day even we had snow last Nov. 3, the warm weather came back after 2 days. Hirosaki is a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive from Misawa Air Base. Hirosaki Castle is very popular during Sakura or Cherry Blossom Festival.

Salmon Festival- Rokkasho Town

Salmon Pool (without the salmons)- this is supposed to be the pool for the catching of the salmons

Don't ask me what the sign says, I guess it's Salmon Festival hehehe


Salmon 500 yen ~ $5.61 and 800 yen ~ $9



How to fillet the salmon


How to reach the huge bowl of soup lol


spiral sweet potato


This is not a pizza dough, this is how they make the soba noodles

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Salmon Festival- Rokkasho Town

Oct 23, 2009- we went to Rokkasho Town to witness and see their Salmon Festival; last year we missed this event and so I was hoping I could see the catching of the salmon this year. We arrived at around 12:30pm already, we didn't wake up early to get any free tickets for the first 400 people. I knew I'm not that lucky enough to get those free stuff especially if you have to be early, well we're always late :-). As usual we didn't buy any advance tickets to catch the salmon but we were hoping we can buy just 1 ticket from the festival and I'll let my son do the catching. Unfortunately the catching of salmon was canceled, they said they were not able to catch the salmon from the sea because there were too many jellyfish that may catch up along with the salmon and may break their fishing nets (that's what I heard hehehe). So there was a long line for those people who bought the advance tickets; they have options: to get their refunds or to get their frozen salmon (at least they still get the salmon but they don't have to catch it).

So we ended up eating in one of the food stalls, and bought a 500 yen salmon, a bag of persimmon and a bag of tangerines for 500 yen per bag (~15pcs/bag).

Well, there's another Salmon Festival in Shimoda this coming November 14, we'll try to be there too although we went there last year.