I didn’t intend to post this so late, but last week was a hairy week. :p

Anyhow, my daughter made this calendar in school for February¹ and the theme was around Setsubun, which is a popular holiday in Japan that traditonally celebrates the coming of Spring. This is based on the traditional calendar, not the Western calendar, so the dates are a bit different than what people might expect. Setsubun (節分) literally means “seasonal division”, and marks the time when Spring begins along with the new year.

So, the main tradition these days is to drive out the bad luck (in the form of oni demons), and bring in the new luck. Parents might wear oni masks and the kids get to throw roasted soy beans at them. I have a really good video from last year of my daughter, just turned 4, yelling “Kung fu!” as she threw beans at me, then ran to pick them all up. I’d love to post it except for privacy reasons. Kids normally yell oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi meaning “Demons out, luck in!” when they throw beans, but my daughter got mixed up.

So, that explains the two Oni demons for the February calendar. In modern Japanese pop-culture, Oni are depicted as demons with colors like red, blue or green, and wearing leopard-printed shorts (signifying their beastly nature).

My daughter also informed me that the little green thing in the middle is “treasure”, because Oni like to hoard too.

¹ Similar ones for December and Janaury for reference.

Marcus was joined by his wife, and I was joined by my little girl who wanted to spend time with Daddy. Plus, my wife was sick and wanted some sleep . Marcus had invited us to the Fukugawa district in Tokyo, which is pretty far from where I normally stay with my in-laws in Kawasaki City, southwest of Tokyo. I had no idea what to expect at Fukugawa, but suffice to say I wasn’t disappointed.

Fukugawa has a major Shingon Buddhist temple named Fukugawa Fudō Hall (深川不動堂) which is quietly tucked inside an alleyway right next to Monzen-Nakachō Station:

This temple actually is a kind of branch temple to the well-known Narita-san Temple way over in Chiba Prefecture (really close to the airport, oddly enough). Its main figure is Fudo Myoo, a popular figure in Japanese esoteric Buddhism, and someone whom I encountered years ago with reader “Johnl”, when we got to see the famous Goma ritual.

The temple is deceptively large. Here’s how it looks from the outside:

And this building to the left:

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the building is covered in Sanskrit letters or “bonji” used in esoteric Buddhism, called Siddham. You see them frequently used in Japanese Buddhism, but especially in Shingon and Tendai Buddhist sects. Certain Siddham “letters” represent various Buddhist divinities, though further appreciation and understanding comes as part of esoteric Buddhist training, which I don’t have.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures inside. Believe me, the temple is pretty awesome, so I have to try and describe it as best as I can.

We went into the temple, and immediately to the left was a huge auditorium-style room, which is visible here on the temple website. On the far wall, high above was a statue of Fudo Myoo. It’s actually much larger than the picture shows, and the place was packed with people because it was just after New Year’s. Luckily, we found a seat off to the right, and we had come at the right time because we had stumbled into the beginning of the Goma ritual.

As with the one I saw years ago, it starts out pretty slow at first. In this case, they read the names of various people who sought blessings before Fudo Myoo. Once this concluded, then things started to pick up, as a small fire was started in the sacred space in the middle, similar to what is shown here on their website. Meanwhile, the drums started beating, and the attendant priests behind them started chanting. As the fire built up, other priests took some wooden tablets or ofuda and briefly waved them over the fire one by one. Presumably, people had registered for this ahead of time for various blessings, and these were being purified now.

Anyhow, by this point, the chanting and drum beats really got loud and fast-paced, and the fire within the sacred space had grown pretty tall. My daughter, who’s never seen a Buddhist ritual like this, wanted to know what was going on. I told her that this was getting rid of bad things (i.e. purification), and she interpreted that to mean “getting rid of the bad guys“, as in Disney bad guys. The Disney bad guys are the bad people she plays with often at home. So, then she replied that this ritual was supposed to be loud so that they would get startled and fall into the fire. Those were her words, really.

Unlike the Goma ritual I saw before, the priests did not lead the audience to approach and pay respects to Fudo Myoo, and the ritual came to an abrupt end as the drumbeats wound down, and the priests started to file out. One priest stayed behind and gave a brief talk, but the acoustics were not good, and I couldn’t understand much of what he said. I think he was talking about the temple itself, but I am not sure. Once the ritual was over, my daughter asked me if they would do it again. I was really surprised because the whole ritual probably took and hour, but she wasn’t bored.

From there, we filed toward the back of the room where we got some charms, and moved to the second floor, which was a kind of worship hall/musuem. There were several rooms on the second floor, all lined up with many Buddhist deities. One room was cool because it was all in black-light, with prayer wheels underneath glowing images of Buddhist deities. People would gravitate to the Buddhist figure of their choice, leave a coin donation and pay their respects. My daughter and I visited quite a few and emptied out all the spare change in my wallet.¹

The next room didn’t have black light, but had many wooden statues of the same deities under normal lighting. We paid our respects here too, and then moved to the 3rd floor. On the third floor was a huge altar room devoted to Mahavairocana Buddha, the principal figure of devotion in Shingon Buddhism, but the walls were lined with many identical figures of Mahavairocana as well, all in gold.

Again, the temple is much bigger inside than it looks on the outside, but it was pretty awesome. Given that it’s pretty close to downtown Tokyo and Ginza, it’s one of those places I’d highly recommend.

From there, we ate lunch at a nearby restaurant back in the alleyway, where we had some curry and pizza. The pizza was excellent and my daughter enjoyed that alot. Marcus’s wife and I ordered the curry, only it turned out not to be Japanese curry (which is mild), but instead it was VERY SPICY INDIAN CURRY. I enjoyed it because it came with Indian-style yogurt which mixed well, but Marcus’s wife definitely suffered that lunch. The menu never mentioned that it was Indian curry, so we had no idea what we were getting into.

Once lunch was done, we went to nearby Sumiyoshi Park which is the subject of another post coming up.

P.S. For more information about the Goma ritual, and it’s significance in Buddhism, read here.

¹ This happens everytime I go to Japan: I build up a lot of spare change, then use it up at Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines.

I love 7-11 in Japan (and by extension all convenience stores). They have awesome snacks, 7-11 brand drinks which are delicious and cheap, plus the 7-11 ATMs allow foreign cards to be used, which is immensely helpful. I love getting their packaged sandwiches (especially kareipan or “curry bread”) and the 7-11 brand of natto. When my daughter was younger, she drank 7-11 branded soy milk a lot too just because she loved it. Plus the stores are always very clean and friendly, and will even hold open a door for you.

Anyhow, on this last trip in 2011-2012, I had to buy some nail clippers and some more canned coffee (and snacks for daughter). When I got home, I couldn’t find the nail clippers, so I assumed I had somehow lost them. I went back the next day, and to my surprise, they had saved the nail clippers for me, and as soon as they saw me² they came over and apologized for not packing them in the bag by accident.

I was pretty surprised by this. It was a ¥350 pair of clippers ($4 in the US):

…but they had gone out of their way to save them and apologize for the mistake. I told them I was really grateful and that their service was awesome.

If this happened in the US, I doubt they would save the clippers for me overnight like this unless the employee was particularly dedicated. The problem in the US isn’t that people are mean or particularly selfish, internationally we tend to enjoy a reputation for being friendly and warm-hearted (or so I get the impression), it’s just that service tends to be inconsistent and depend on the employee.³

Even though sometimes service in Japan can be really contrived or even artificial, it’s nice to have a level of consistency that you can expect even in your neighborhood convenience store.

Between the great service, awesome snacks and friendly ATMs, 7-11 in Japan will continue to be my favorite konbini.

¹ Likewise, Denny’s in the US is kind of low-end food, but in Japan is a nice family dining. The contrast would surprise you.

² My wife teased me about this saying that the only reason they saved my nail clippers is because I go there so often, and am “easy to recognize”. ;-p

³ A Chinese co-worker of mine also once pointed out that in the US, you can definitely get good service, but only if you can afford it. I have to admit he had a good point… which is kind of sobering.

People might have thought I was joking when I said I ate natto, kimchi and coffee for breakfast almost every morning, but here’s the proof. I like eating this because it’s healthy (fermented foods and such), but also very quick and easy to make. We buy a large jar of kimchi at the store and eat it for a couple weeks. Natto is something you can guy in packs of 3 or 4, and you can keep in the freezer, so we just buy a bunch of it at once. Coffee of course is coffee.¹

For this photo, I was playing around with filters using Instagram. I am not some hipster photographer who likes using antique cameras. I can’t even take good photos anyway. ;p

P.S. On the left, my wife stir-fried some enoki mushrooms in butter, salt and petter under low-head. You can use other mushrooms of course.

¹ Unless you’re from Seattle, where coffee is our raison d’être.

While reading the Buddha’s famous Metta Sutta, and an interesting article about it, I found this interesting sutra from the Pali Canon. This is the Kakacupama Sutta (MN 21): The Simile of the Saw.

In summary, the Buddha is teaching about tolerance, which is also one of the six paramitas in Mahayana Buddhism, and explains it this way:

The Buddha: “Suppose that a man were to come along carrying a burning grass torch and saying, ‘With this burning grass torch I will heat up the river Ganges and make it boil.’ Now, what do you think — would he, with that burning grass torch, heat up the river Ganges and make it boil?”

The Monks: “No, lord. Why is that? Because the river Ganges is deep and enormous. It’s not easy to heat it up and make it boil with a burning grass torch. The man would reap only a share of weariness and disappointment.”

The Buddha: “In the same way, monks, there are these five aspects of speech by which others may address you: timely or untimely, true or false, affectionate or harsh, beneficial or unbeneficial, with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. Others may address you in a timely way or an untimely way. They may address you with what is true or what is false. They may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way. They may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way. They may address you with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. In any event, you should train yourselves: ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare, with a mind of good will, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued with good will and, beginning with him, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will equal to the river Ganges — abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.

I thought this simile of the River Ganges to be very clever. A river cannot be boiled easily, especially by a small fire, so one should train their mind the same way and maintain a sense of good will at all times.

There is a similar story to this in the Lotus Sutra about the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging that reminds me of this sutra as well.

Namu Shaka Nyorai

Anyway, Chukagai is fairly different in many ways to Shin Okubo and the Koreatown there. Where Shin-Okubo is kind of hip owing to the KPop craze, Chukagai has more of a traditional “Chinese” feel without the benefit of a pop-culture fad.¹ However, it was also somewhat different than other “Chinatown” districts I’ve seen in Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver, and I think this has to do with the less contentious history of immigration to Japan. Because Chinese immigrants suffered a lot of discrimination when they came to Western countries, the neighborhoods were neglected and relegated to undesirable parts of the city, while the experience in Japan seems to have been relatively smoother even during the Imperial era. Thus, Chukagai felt a lot friendlier and less intimidating than the Chinatowns I had seen in Seattle and Vancouver in particular, and certainly a lot safer.²

Chukagai is near Yokohama Bay and is pretty easy to miss if you don’t know where to look. We walked past a lot of old Western-style buildings until we noticed this gate:

Once you go past this gate, things change quite a bit. It’s like a hidden world inside of Yokohama’s business district:

As I said before, a lot of buildings have the more traditional (touristy) Chinese look, and it was interesting to hear people speaking Japanese but with a noticeable Chinese accent. We had already eating at Mos Burger, so we just picked up a nikuman instead:

Nikuman is short for “niku manju” I believe and is variation on Chinese-style buns, which often have vegetarian options too such as taro root rather than meat. After we ate, we took a left from the main street and came to a back alley:

…which led to this temple:

This temple, named Kanteibyō (関帝廟）, is a famous temple in Chukagai devoted to none other than the famous general Guan Yu, referred to as Guan Di Miao there. Most Westerners might recognize Guan Yu from the famous 16th century novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or at least the computer games based off it, but in fact Guan Yu is a deeply loved character in Chinese culture. I’ve read elsewhere that many people pray to him in certain fields, such as police officers in Hong Kong. Either way, the temple and Guan Yu have served to unite the people of Chukagai for generations, and it was probably the first Chinese-style I’ve ever seen anyway. Quite a treat, really.

If you step through the gates you see this small shrine here:

I couldn’t take pictures of the main shrine just behind it, but it was pretty awesome. The temple is an interesting fusion of Japanese religious culture and Chinese religious culture. The grilled donation-boxes were very Japanese, but the incense sticks were larger and thicker and more Chinese style. Also, I overheard a tour-guide explaining to visitors that you were supposed to 3 incense sticks at a time, whereas at Japanese temples, it is usually only one.

The inner shrine, which you can see on the temple website by clicking on the blue cloud in the picture twice, also was quite interesting, and another fusion of Japanese-Chinese culture. It was bright red and adorned with a lot of gold color. You can see General Guan Yu there in the middle, with a deep red face and long beard, which is how he is often depicted in Chinese culture. The layout of the room though looked somewhat more similar to what I’ve seen in Japanese Buddhist temples, and to the right there is a statue of Kannon Bodhisattva, who is highly revered in both China/Japan among many other places.

You can also see me here ringing the gong near the entrance like a total tourist:

Thankfully a lot of us were doing it, so I didn’t feel too silly.

Suffice to say, I enjoyed the temple quite a bit. We lingered for a while in the area, buying up some good Chinese tea before we headed to the nearest train station, Motomachi-Chukagai, which looks really cool on the inside:

The high, rounded roof above is something I usually don’t see in train stations in Japan.

Yokohama is interesting in general because of its fusion of Chinese, Japanese and Western culture, but Chukagai in particular was a pretty cool place to visit, and certain worth a visit. As with Shin-Okubo, it’s really interesting to see how a major ethnic minority has adapted and thrived within Japanese society.

Thanks again, John!

P.S. Next post will be on my visit to Fukugawa, and meeting reader “Marcus” for the first time.

¹ That didn’t stop any shops at Chukagai from selling KPop stuff though. I found that really amusing. If there’s profit to be made, someone will find a way. :p

² The point here isn’t to criticize the Chinese communities there, but to point out that history hasn’t been kind to them.

The Buddha described the “Four Sufferings” (or “stresses” as I like to call them) in his first sermon:

• Birth is stress (as a parent, I understand this now after watching my daughter being born)
• Old Age is stress
• Disease is stress (we all know this one)
• Death is stress

Old Age is the worst in some ways. It’s very slow, drawn out and leads to increased chances of disease and death. Someone who’s healthy and robust at 30, may discover at 60 they have colon cancer, or succumb to pneumonia like my wife’s family neighbor did recently. Or as in the case of my late grandfather, dementia slowly sets in, and one simply becomes more and more feeble until one finally wastes away.

But even if we know in our minds that we’re getting older and it’s unavoidable, it still frightens us deep down. That’s really part of something very fundamental to our identity, our sense of self. Or rather, our illusion of self.

I remember a quote from Rev. Fujiwara in his book “What is Zen?” (reviewed here) where he describes the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment like so:

It began to dawn on Shakyamuni that the right way to live is to accept the four sufferings and live our this life one has received to the fullest. And in this fashion, Shakyamuni’s meditation gradually deepened.

But then he noticed a negative energy arising from the depths of his being that refused to accept the four sufferings. He discovered that desire, the refusal to accept the four sufferings as a part of life, was actually the cause of the four sufferings. He recognized a kind of negative energy underlying and controlling that desire, a primal, dark force that could not be dealt with by reason or intellect. That primal darkness is ignorance, or mumyō (無明).

Shakyamuni went on to continue to explore the self. The self that was controlled by the powerful force of ignorance could not be the true self. He concluded that without conquering this fundamental ignorance, it was impossible to accept the facts of birth, aging, sickness and death and liberate the mind.

This is very much how one might feel about their own mortality. We know logically it will happen, but our deeper, primal self will still resist it when we least expect it. And that “hidden” self is our fundamental ignorance, the root of our problems.

Getting old and dying is perfectly natural, but our behavior toward it is something worth observing and learning from.

Namu Shaka Nyorai

¹ For those who may not be familiar, the character in the 4th panel is the Devil. In the Sinfest comic, the main character, often sells his soul to the Devil to get things

Nevertheless, in 1947, the American Occupation insisted that the Imperial family be reduced because of its influence in Imperial times and WWII, and thus the law took effect. However, it seems the law may have worked too well as the existing Imperial family has had very few male heirs. Emperor Akihito has two sons: Prince Naruhito (the current heir) and Prince Akishino. But Prince Naruhito only has one child, a daughter (Prince Aiko, affectionately called “Aiko-sama”), while Prince Akishino has one son, Prince Hisahito. So, currently 3 males heirs exist and two of them are already middle-aged.

So, as the article shows, Prince Akishino who is the 2nd son of the current Emperor Akihito, is suggesting the law be updated especially as the health of Emperor Akihito is declining. The law was promulgated by the Japanese Diet, and so only the Diet can change it, but among the ideas suggested:

• A mandatory retirement age for Emperors. In the old days, the throne changed pretty often, and sometimes ex-Emperors went into retirement but exerted lots of control, but with the benefit of being free from the obligations of the throne. These were called insei (院政) or “cloistered Emperors”. By the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the rules were changed, the throne was maintained until death, so the 20th century only had 4 Emperors total (Meiji, Taisho, Showa and the current Emperor).
• Allow women to maintain Imperial status even after marriage so that the Imperial family could start new collateral houses. In the old Imperial custom, women lost their Imperial status after being married (usually marrying members of the Fujiwara clan), and even today Princesses routinely renounce the throne as they get married. This tradition predates the 1947 law. A few women, who were unmarried, became Empresses but usually as a placeholder until a male heir was decided on. The one major exception was Empress Suiko who reigned during Prince Shotoku and Soga no Umako. I’ve been meaning to write about here one of these days. She was interesting.

Speaking as someone who’s not Japanese, I have little opinion on the subject (I have no right to speak about it anyway), but I thought the article was interesting.

P.S. Blog mis-fire #2 today. ;p

Anyhow, for example, the formal polite word for “to be” is 입니다. If you read it literally, it looks like ipnida, but in fact it’s read and pronounced as imnida (an ‘m’ sound, not a ‘p’). This is due to the complex way the different Korean letters affect each other, and how sounds have evolved over time in Korean language, while keeping their original spelling. Thankfully though the rules are pretty consistent. This post is to cover the common rules so that Korean can be read more easily. If you’re not comfortable with Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, this page is a good primer.

Hangeul Structure

Hangeul letters have consonants and vowels like English. For folks who studied Japanese previously,¹ these are called ko-on 子音 and bo-on 母音 respectively.

Anyway, Hangeul uses the consonants and vowels to create “blocks” of sound called jamo (자모) like 마 (“ma” or “m” + “a”), 도 (“do” or “d” + “o”) and so on. Many jamo will also have a final consonant too called the batchim (받침) or pacchimu (パッチム) in Japanese-language texts on Korean. For the jamo above, adding ㄴ (called “nieun” but acts like “n”), you can make jamo like 만 (“man”, m + a + n) and 돈 (“don”, d + o + n). This point is really important.

Also, there is a placeholder letter called ㅇ which is silent at the beginning or “ng” if the final consonant. It’s needed because all jamo have to start with a consonant, so it helps keep this rule consistent. So, you can make a jamo like 안 (“an”) and although the ㅇ isn’t pronounced, the structure stays consistent with the rules of Hangeul.

Sound Shifts in Korean

Here are 7 rules for sound-shifts in Korean:

Rule 1: softened sounds

Many consonants will soften their sound if they’re inside a word, as opposed to the beginning or end (batchim). In the revised-romanization system, the letter is still written the same, but pronunciation softens:

• ㄱ has a “k” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “g” sound in the middle.
• ㅂ has a “p” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “b” sound in the middle.
• ㄷ has a “t” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “d” sound in the middle.
• ㅈ has a “ch” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “j” sound in the middle.

The example used in my Japanese textbook is that 주소 or “address” is pronounced like chuso while 소주 or “Korean liquor” is pronounced like soju.

Rule 2: Hidden Pauses

If a jamo ends with the batchim ㄱ,ㅂ, ㅈ or ㄷ, and the next jamo starts with a regular consonant, the consonants sound will change to a double-consonant and you’ll hear a slight pause in pronunciation like in the English word bookkeeping.

Case in point: the word for school is 학교 has a ㄱ for batchim and a consonant (another ㄱ) after it, so the second consonant becomes ㄲ and the word sounds like 학꾜. Another word, 학생 (student) sounds more like 학쌩, while the word for magazine 잡지 sounds like 잡찌.

Rule 3: Filling in the blanks

If a jamo ends with a batchim and the next jamo starts with the “filler” letter ㅇ, the batchim letter “shifts” its sound to the next jamo, replacing the filler letter. The word for Korean language is 한국어 but the ㄱ shifts to the next jamo and sounds like 한구거. Naturally, in the process, it softens as well (see Rule 1). The word for Japanese language is 일본어 sounds more like 일보너.

Rule 4: The missing H

The letter ㅎ (h) tends to disappear in a lot of words. For example, the word for phone is 전화 but is pronounced more like 저놔. In other words, if the batchim ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ or ㄹ comes before the letter ㅎ, then ㅎ disappears. Likewise if ㅎ is the batchim itself, it’s pronunciation will disappear if the next letter is the filler ㅇ followed by a vowel (the vowel sound obscures it).

Rule 5: Smoothing things out

This one is kind of tricky to explain. If a certain jamo begins with either ㅁ (m) or ㄴ (n) and the previous jamo has a batchim of ㄱ,ㄷ, or ㅂ then that batchim’s sound will kind of smooth out like so:

• Batchim ㄱ (g) will sound like ㅇ (ng)
• Batchim ㄷ (d) will sound like ㄴ (n)
• Batchim ㅂ (b) will sound like ㅁ (m)

So, going back to the beginning of the post, the formal-polite word “to be” is written as 입니다, but because the middle jamo starts with ㄴ, the previous batchim (ㅂ) sounds like ㅁ. Another example in the book is the phrase “ten years” or 십년 which sounds more like 심년 (p -> m), or the phrase for a plant (e.g. a flower or fern), 식물 will sound 싱물.

Rule 6: H finally makes a comeback

Unlike Rule 4, ㅎ sometimes also makes sounds stronger, more aspirated. If the batchim before is ㄱ, ㅂ or ㄷ (or if ㅎ is the batchim and the next letter is one of these three), then it becomes the aspirated version: ㅋ, ㅍ and ㅌ respectively and ㅎ sort of disappears (actually it fuses with the other letter in a way). So, the word for express is 급행 sounds more like 그팽 because of the way the ‘p’ and ‘h’ sounds fuse.

Rule 7: The double-R one-two punch

The last rule listed in the Japanese textbook I have is for cases when ㄹ and ㄴ are next to each other, regardless of which one is a batchim and which one starts a new jamo. Either way, if they’re side by side each other, the ㄴ becomes an ㄹ, creating 2 ㄹ’s. A great example of this less common rule is none other than Korean New Year, which is 설날 but is really pronounced as 설랄.

Conclusion

This is a brief look at sound shifts in Korean language. It’s an interesting look at how complex sound arrangements kind of naturally “smooth themselves out” in day to day speech. Such things happen in all languages, some more than others, but Korean seems a little more tricky. Also, pronunciation guides in English about Korean seem to struggle to explain this easily, so I was surprised to see how easy it was to understand once I studied it in a language that was closer to Korean (e.g. Japanese). I guess it’s a good lesson in the ladder approach mentioned by AJATT.

All you language students out there, good luck!

P.S. Blog misfire again.

¹ I doubt a lot of people are doing this, but as I studied Japanese for years and now started on Korean, I am trying to leverage Japanese resources where I can. I found studying Korean through Japanese is a lot easier than through English because there’s more material, and the languages are more similar than English, so things like pronunciation can be more easily explained because I already know one language. Also it’s like studying two languages at once, because of the reading practice, etc.

This is the famous Ishigakijima hot Chinese oil that was a huge craze in 2010 in Japan, and was so popular for a time, that orders from Pengin’s small shop on Ishigakijima Island were backlogged for a year. Rather than “going corporate”, they simply fulfilled a number of orders per day until they could work through the backlog. The shop itself is also a restaurant open for people who’d like to try the famous oil along with many excellent delicacies. Now they supposedly even have potato chips flavored with the famous oil.

So what’s the big deal?

“Ishigakijima Pengin” (石垣ペンギン) is a Chinese-immigrant to Ishigakijima Island which is a remote part of the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, far to the west in the Yaeyama area. The name ‘pengin’ derives from the Japanese pronunciation of his Chinese name (辺銀), but also sounds like the Japanese word for “penguin”. Due to his name, and his unusually tasty rayu oil, it became a Japanese hit and started settling like crazy after a movie was made about it.

Pengin’s rayu oil even has its own website for taking orders. You can also see his blog too.

I guess the reason why I am so happy to get this oil is that it kind of embodies all the wonderful aspects of Ryukyu/Okinawan culture. As an island culture, people are pretty laid-back and easy going, but the Ryukyu culture is also very distinct due to its past legacies and influence from both China and Japan. It’s the only thing I have from the Ryukyus even though I’ve often wanted to visit there. I guess I’ll save the bottle afterwards.

So how does it taste? If you’ve had regular rayu oil before, you know how that tastes right? It’s a sesame oil with chili in there, and a deep red color. I love the stuff in general and have tried several imported varieties here in Seattle. One variety had a lot of fried onions and garlic in it, and went very well with natto.¹ Anyhow, Pengin’s rayu oil tastes noticeably different. It tastes saltier than regular rayu, but not too spicy either. My wife chopped up some nappa cabbage into a salad, and we mixed the oil in. It was quite tasty, as the salty/hot oil blended well with watery, bland flavor from the cabbage. I can’t wait to try it on pot-stickers next. ;p

So, if you get the chance, don’t miss out on Pengin’s hot oil, and enjoy a small taste of Chinese/Ryukyu culture.

¹ I’m surprised that anyone would talk with me at work later in the day.