Onsen John: Koshihikari Echigo Beer

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Koshihikari Echigo Beer

COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION

(Translated from the Japanese on the bottle) We’ve used the delicious water and Koshihikari rice that Niigata’s nature has provided and made this in a German-style decoration mash. This is a dry beer with a crisp palate and finish.

This beer is a nice pale lager, pours with a great foamy head. Finishes clean with a nice hint of rice and hops
I buy this at my local Japanese market, not cheap at 4.75 per bottle. The store manager told me this is an "everymans" beer, especially in the country side. Next time I'm there I'll check that. I find it goes great with a steak

some grilled zucchini with some miso paste on top and grilled shishitto (Japanese hot peppers)

If you ever get a chance to try shishito, please do. They aren't that hot, but sometimes you get a tongue burner !

You can buy them at most Asian markets and sometimes at the big chain stores. My favorite way to cook them is to skewer them and grill them on the BBQ with whatever else I'm eating. This time I just grilled them in olive oil and added dried Bonita flakes afterwards. yum yum!! See eating healthy doesn't mean cardboard taste, so might say that a nice thick steak is bad, but hey you want to live forever?

Cheers!

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About this blog

This blog is to document my travels to variuos onsen (hotsprings) in Japan. I will also ramble on about different Japanese resturants I've been to in Southern California in the LA area and in Japan.

An onsen (温泉, onsen) is a Japanese hot spring. Many springs are developed, having an associated outdoor bath (rotenburo (露天風呂, rotenburo) or notenburo (野天風呂, notenburo)) and/or indoor bath. Baths may be either public run by a municipality or private (uchiyu (内湯, uchiyu)) often run by a local inn (ryokan (旅館, ryokan)) or B&B (minshuku (民宿, minshuku)).

Onsens are often found out in the countryside, and are a major tourist attraction drawing Japanese couples, families or company groups who want to get away from the hectic life of the city to relax. Japanese often talk of the virtues of 'naked communion' (裸の付き合い, hadaka no tsukiai)) for breaking down barriers and getting to know people in the relaxed homey atmosphere of an onsen inn. The presence of an onsen is often indicated on signs and maps by the symbol ♨ or the Chinese character 湯 (for hot water).

People often travel to onsen with work colleagues, as the relaxed and open atmosphere helps to break down some of the hierarchical stiffness inherent in Japanese work life. However, most visitors to onsen are not work groups but friends, couples and families. It is not unusual to see a father or mother introducing a small child to the onsen for the first time. Very small children of either gender up to about 10 years old can often be seen in both male and female baths. Mixed-gender bathing is a tradition that persists at onsen in the more rural areas of Japan, although these days there is usually a separate bath for women only in addition to the mixed bath, or a time period designated for female-only bathing.

Onsen etiquette

Ensuring Cleanliness

At an onsen, as at a sento, guests are expected to wash their bodies and rinse themselves thoroughly before entering the hot water. The indoor baths have faucets with removable shower heads and little stools to sit on, for showering and shampooing.

Swimsuits

Many traditional onsen out in the countryside have rules forbidding wearing swimsuits into the bath, saying that these make it harder to clean. Some modern onsen in larger towns though have more of a waterpark atmosphere, and actively encourage the use of swimsuits, especially in their mixed baths.

Towels

Onsen guests generally bring a small towel with them to use as a washcloth. The towel can also provide a modicum of modesty when walking between the washing area and the baths. Some onsen allow one to wear the towel into the baths, while others have posted signs prohibiting this, saying that it makes it harder to clean the bath. In this latter case, people normally set their towels off to the side of the water when enjoying the baths. However, some people place their folded towels on top of their heads.