Okinawa Exile #3: Black Humor / 沖縄＃３：黒光

Things are calming down. The disasters in Japan are last week's news for the major American news sources, and even Japanese television has returned to its rotation of melodramas and insipid game shows. Today I had a another 'first talk since this all went down" with a Japanese friend, an Okinawan woman in grad school in Tokyo. She laughed as if she was letting out a long-held breath: "There's a lot to talk about, so let's get a drink when you get back to Tokyo."
ちょっと落ち着いて来たね。アメリカのニュースでは日本の被災よりリビア、日本のテレビでも芸能人の番組が戻って来た。地震、津波、などが起こってから話ができなかった友達と電話で話すと、ほっとした笑い声で：お疲れさま。また東京に着いてから飲みにいこう。

The situation is still very serious in the Northeast, but it sounds like there's room for some laughter there, too. My friend in Sendai reported that there is a healthy does of gallows humor.
まだまだ東北は大変。それでも、仙台にいる友人とチャットで冗談を書いたりできると。。。宮城でもブラックユーモアが盛んだって。

A pregnant friend in Tokyo responded to a worried text of mine that she was not panicking, but picnicking. There's been all kinds of talk about Japanese stoicism in the face of this crisis, many Western observers doing all but coming straight out with the phrase "Samurai spirit." Spare me. There are cultural reasons for the relative calm in Japan, but they have specific historical reasons. A quick refresher course in the public reaction to the Great Kantô Earthquake of 1923 (murder of ethnic Koreans and socialists) will remind us all that there is no unbroken line between the Japanese aristocracy of the Tokugawa Era (1600-1868) and the average middle-class Japanese citizen. But now I'll put the little historian in me back in her box.
東京にいるもう一人の妊娠している友達のメールによると今はパニックよりピクニックだって。いいね、日常生活が戻ると。武士の精神より日常の魅力じゃないですか？

Black humor in Miyagi. Black outs in Tokyo. Black moods here and there. And... a sneaking suspicion that I may be lactose intolerant, leaving me staring into my cup of black black coffee.
宮城にブラックユーモア。東京にブラックオウット。機嫌もたまに黒くなるさー。それで、最近牛乳が飲めない私がコーヒーをブラックで飲みながらいろいろ考えさせる。

So no more cream for me for a while. I feel inspired to give a black dinner, like Esseintes in À rebours. His feast of all-black dishes was given to mourn his lost virility; mine would be to mourn the passing of my voracious omnivorousness. Of course, I can barely believe my enormous good fortune that it is my luxury to lose so little when others have lost so much.
もちろん、牛乳をもう飲めないということはいやだと思っても、ラッキーだなーと考えざるを得ない。

Great also is my fortune that Okinawa's access to fruits of the sea offers me access to squid ink of the deepest blue-black.
沖縄に黒くてもおいしいものあるということもラッキーね。イカスミにはまっている。

I mentioned my desire to cook with squid ink to newly befriended mainland Japan expat, as I sipped my coffee (hold the cream) in a snug stall at the Sakae Machi Market. She guided me over to her favorite fish monger, and he gave be a small bottle of squid ink. He insisted that he had gotten it as a gift, so I shouldn't pay for it. I bought some salmon steaks from him to make it easier to accept his generosity.
イカスミ使って料理を作りたいと栄町市場のカフェで出会ったばかり女性にいうと、魚屋さんに連れて、イカスミをもらちゃった。

The squid ink truly resembled ink, and tasting it straight offered a salty flavor, deep in umami.
本当に炭のようなイカスミをストレートで味見すると：うまみが深い。

The fishmonger had recommended that I cut the ink with awamori (distilled rice liquor). I added both the ink and the awamori to some sauteed onions and garlic.
泡盛で薄めると魚屋さんに言われた。ですので、イカスミと泡盛をソテーしたタマネギ、ニンニクに入れた。

I had bought some fresh Okinawa noodles, and was eager to besmirch them in this black goo.
新鮮な沖縄そば麵で食べよう！

Rotating pans on the single burner, I also managed to make a light miso soup, using the yomogi and taaimo from my previous post:
みそ汁も先のよもぎ、ターイモを使って、作った。

The salmon was pan fried with salt, brown sugar, black pepper.

サーモンを塩、黒砂糖、コショウで焼いた。

Because I could not really bear such a somber mood, I introduced a bit of play to the meal. Our "green" for the meal would be "sea grapes," another variation on the theme of seaweed.
「サラダ」と言えば、海ぶどうも出した。

I plucked a couple of nasturtiums from the little plant I had bought to brighten my temporary lodgings. The nasturtiums that are plentiful here in Naha evoke California for me, and offer a hint of familiarity within the unfamiliar. I guess I can't seem to give myself over entirely to the black arts...
借りた部屋を明るくするために買ったノウゼンハレンの花も使った。那覇によく見えるノウゼンハレンで出身のカリフォルニアを思い出す。。。

The plate was plenty exotic, dark, and mysterious, however...

It proved to be a delicious harvest from the sea that surrounds us:

It yields darkness...
人生に暗いところもあれば。。。

And it yields life...
いきいきしてるところも。

Over the past few days I've thought a lot about the terrifying rapidity of destruction, and how much longer... frustratingly longer... it takes to build, sow, and reap. It feels like chaos and confusion, uncertainty and danger, are never really that far away.
最近、被災の影響でよく人生の暗いところについて考えてしまう。被災は早い、また人生を立つのは時間がかかる。だれの人生にも、不安、闇、カオス、危険は思うより近いじゃないですか。

It's a tired observation, I guess. But I've never felt it with such urgency. Don't wait until tomorrow to call your friend back. Don't put off that visit. Don't postpone life.
それでも、って言ったら。。。それこそ人生は毎日いきいきと生きるしかないじゃない。言葉でうまく表現できないので。。。

But please, please: also let yourself have the patience for it.

Obligatory end shot of happy colors.

食卓で表現します。

Ever so humbly: Itadakimasu.
いただきます。