Street food and religion

From what I've observed so far, Japanese culture is full of conundrums.  What is considered professional work dress is so conservative that I'm limited to the same 6 outfits all the time.  To even have your top button unbuttoned is considered a no-no.  And yet, it's not considered shameful for business men to be seen coming out of a scandalous shop.  They don't even try to hide what they've just been looking at!  Love motels advertise freely.  These are ironies I may never understand.

Another example of this can be seen in the festival we stumbled across last Friday.

As we got our tickets to Harry Potter I noticed a row of tents across the street.  Did Shinjuku have some sort of farmer's market on Friday afternoons?  Maybe it was a flea market?  We decided to check it out (after ensuring we got tickets to the 3:20 show of course).  As we crossed the street I realized- they were all street vendors!  It was tent after tent of glorious street food.

Bags of cotton candy

                                       
Now we have street vendors back in DC.  In fact, food trucks are becoming more and more prevalent in and around the city.  But this was serious business.  No hot dogs or soft pretzels here.  I'm talking really good food that sometimes required some pretty specialized equipment.  With every few steps I was more and more amazed at the variety of offerings.  Unlike DC food trucks where one truck offers multiple menu items, most of these vendors tended to offer one specialty.  And they made that one thing REALLY well.  

Skewered and grilled meat

Charcoal roasted fish

Spiral cut fried potato dipped in different salts

Japanese "pancakes"

Obviously, we ate as much as we could.  We tried a little bit of everything- my favorite way to eat.  This is where simple really is better.  That little charcoal roasted fish was just amazing.  crunchy on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside.  I know some of you back home are shuddering at the sight of that whole fish, but it was delicious!

Now, why were all these amazing street vendors here?  Just to celebrate food?  That's good enough for me.  But the further we walked into the maze of tents, we realized there was something else going on.  People were carrying these bamboo flower arrangements.  They looked like the type of thing you might put on someone's grave.  We walked along and came across a surprising sight:

Now, I still don't understand exactly what was happening.  But this is definitely some sort of shrine.  And that is definitely a long line of people waiting to go inside.  I imagine they were there to pay respect to their lost loved ones.  I couldn't believe it.  Here we were gorging ourselves with fish on a stick, and we came across this seemingly very religious and spiritual event.  I felt ashamed.  I stopped in my tracks.  It didn't seem right!  But I looked around and sure enough, there was a guy selling Wii games right next to the darned temple.  So I guess it was all okay.  I guess Japanese people like to get some good street food on their way to honor the dead.  Just another irony I may never understand.

But I don't have to understand.  That's what being lost is all about.  Sometimes you just have to observe what is happening around you, and accept it.  I will say that it was quite beautiful.  Past the temple there were stalls selling the flower arrangements.  Every time someone bought one, the employees of the stand would do a sort of chant and bang on instruments.  I imagine they were thanking their customers and maybe blessing the arrangement to ward off evil spirits.  Who knows if I'm right, but I liked the way this sounded.

So after standing there with my mouth open for quite some time, I did what anyone would do.  I ate more street food!  We found a wonderful little stand in the back that had some stools.  We sat down and had some of the simplest food I've ever had.  Just one huge prawn and one huge scallop grilled before our eyes.  No fancy sauces, no microgreen garnishes.  They were amazing.  The scallop was perfectly charred on the outside but the inside was still raw.  It was the kind of food that makes you close your eyes and make a little noise.  So good.  They left on all the good bits of connective tissue too- my favorite!

Scallop in all it's natural glory.  No, that is not bacon.

So after an hour or so of amazing food, we walked away very happy.  Happy as a scallop, if you will.  As we made our way back through the entrance we passed the shrine again.  The line had grown even longer with people waiting to honor their loved ones.  And while it still didn't make complete sense to me, I felt a little better about it.  Maybe it was the giant prawn in me talking, but I understood it a little more.  Good food makes people happy.  And who am I to say you shouldn't be happy before you go into the shrine to pay respect to the dead?  One conundrum down!  Now if only I can figure out the dress thing...