Japan. Je ne sais quoi

Why walk across Japan?  

The first most obvious reason is that cancer is pandemic and I must take our message and mission international and next year I go to do just that.  

The second reason is Japan is the most progressive society when it comes to animal rights.  When you lose a companion animal federal law mandates a day off for mourning.  Having been there before, it's more than that.  I saw the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station (LINK) and his story has stayed with me since even well before Malcolm first came into my life.

Japan is also a technologically advanced society and it'll be a fact finding mission for me about canine cancer as well.  What's the incidence and prevalence of cancer?  What is the exposure to environmental risks and what's the difference in diet and nutrition?  These things I shall discover.  

There are a few other reasons that, well, I'll talk about later.  

The nearby image is a picture I crudely drew in my moleskin of our next challenge, walking from the Southern most island, Kyushu, to the Northern most, Hokkaido.  From cape to cape it's roughly 2,000 miles.  

Murphy San ミッスタ ー マーフィー

ミッスタ ー マーフィー

I host a monthly Meetup Group, Sushi.Boston, with over 80 members and this past Thursday was a special event at Stephanie's house in honor of the companions we have recently lost.  

On the menu was a Lily blossom - a tempura onion (like an Awesome blossom) with sushi rice, spicy ranch and a pan seared scallop on top.  The inspiration for this dish was when, we first met her on a walk at Shelby Forest in Memphis, I picked a water lily blossom for her.  Lily passed away last week after a long battle with cancer.  

Next on the menu was Sunny Side.  Whenever I make sushi I'm always thinking about different ways of doing things.  We lost Sunny last week as well and aside from her beautiful spirit, her most striking feature was two different colored eyes.  So in honor of her, I made a Hamachi (Yellowtail) and Maguro (Bluefin) sushi with a single cucumber spear and a Wasabi rice cracker with tobiko on top.  

And since it was also the anniversary of my boy's passing last week, on the menu was Murphy san sushi sammich - pictured top and left.  Many of you know about his notorious sammich from previous posts.  I topped a near burnt tortilla brushed with hot chili oil with red scallions, tobiko filled avocados, cucumbers, and tuna dressed with my special spicy soy sesame mayo sauce, a recipe that would've made him proud.  

From my limited understanding of the Japanese culture, they try to balance beauty and sadness in everything they do.  It feels like lifetimes ago when I wrote a blog when Murphy was still with us (LINK) about an untranslatable expression 'Mono no aware'.  

Even, after my darkest hours have receded, it guides me still.