We’ve Moved!
Hello everyone!
I’ve consolidated my old websites and future blog posts into one new site. As of April 17th the content is still “beta”, but there’ll be more to come. Thank you for following my writing in 2010 and 2011; I’ll keep this site active, but won’t update it with any new posts so join me in the new location here. Stay in touch!
Liz
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Tagami 2012 in Review
The WordPress.com Statistical Support Squirrels prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Sadly, it indicates that I only posted seven essays this year! I must make the time to write more in 2013…perhaps I shall strive for once per month.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 13,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals
20 Images of Everyday Japan
Here are 20 images of everyday life in Japan from the hundreds that I took on my recent business trip.
When traveling for business the focus is usually on navigation and logistics, business culture and etiquette, and the projects or prospects for which we’re preparing, but one of the joys of travel is learning about history and culture.
These images evoke memories of things I’ve learned or inspire questions which encourage me to learn more. The photo quality is low, being taken on the run with an old iPhone, but they evoke the moment I captured them nonetheless. Please enjoy!
#1 GINZA SUNRISE
Dawn broke just after 5:00 am when we first arrived in mid April. By mid June sunrise will be at 4:25 am, quite early for a city that starts late and works late! Some offices open at 9:00 am, but things really don’t get going until after 10:00 am. Most offices are still buzzing at 7:00 pm, and it is not unusual for managers to be hard at work later than that.
Sunrise in the Land of the Rising Sun (Photo by Tagami)
#2 JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN
According to Yasutaka Sai there are eight core values of the Japanese businessman: 1) diligence, work ethic or persistence, 2) group orientation, a sense of belonging and participation, spirit of harmony in interpersonal relations 3) aesthetics and perfectionism, 4) curiosity and emphasis on innovation, 5) respect for form and practicality, 6) a mind for competition and an outlook for rewards, 7) the value of silence as eloquence, 8) perception of time
Suited up for a day of negotiations (Photo by Tagami)
#3 TOKYO METRO AND TOEI SUBWAY
With 274 stations and 13 lines, Tokyo Metro / Toei Subway combined service over 8 million passengers per day. Clean, quiet, fast and efficient — we traveled quite easily in the world’s most populous metropolitan center. Over 35 million people live here versus 37.3 million in the entire state of California.
The morning commute is a blur of people in Tokyo Station (Photo by Tagami)
#4 JAPAN RAILWAY GROUP
I made a day trip to Chiba for meetings and we used the railroad. JR Group is comprised of seven separate companies moving both people and freight. Rolling stock comprises everything from regular trains to the Shinkansen — The Bullet Train system. Staff bow to customers when the trains enter and leave the station, and the conductors and vendors on board do the same at each car as they move through the moving trains to check tickets or sell food and drink.
JR Railroad Signalman (Photo by Tagami)
#5 BESOBORO
Baseball has been played in Japan for over 130 years. There are two leagues — Pacific and Central — that make up Nippon Professional Baseball. Players and managers are mostly Japanese, however there are some foreigners playing professional ball in Japan also.
Chiba Lotte Marines poster at Chiba Station (Photo by Tagami)
#6 JAPANESE MANHOLE COVER
If you would like to be seriously impressed, do a Google image search for “Japanese manhole covers” or check out this article by Kuriositas. These are some of the most beautiful pieces of iron on the planet, and each municipal area has a distinctive look, emboldened by the fact that they compete with each other on designs. These functional parts of everyday life seem to be inspired by Japanese textile design and remind me of elaborate versions of traditional family crests, or mon, from the feudal era.
Chiba Manhole Cover (Photo by Tagami)
#7 FOOD GIFTS
Japan is a gift giving culture, and the most popular gift is one of food — rice crackers, cakes, tea, snacks, fruit, chocolate, wine, even olive oil. The basement of every department store has food hall which is partly wet market, partly deli and mostly the most amazing packaged gift food center in the world. Stacks of colorfully wrapped boxes are topped with accurate plastic and resin replicas. Busy workers can find the same thing in train stations, and every shop seems to have some sort of nod to the need to not ever show up to an event empty handed. Manju is a traditional fresh soft mochi rice cake filled with sweetened red bean paste, and this set of ten cute little animal-face manju sells for ¥2,800, about $35.00.
Set of cute animal manju (Photo by Tagami)
#8 MANGA (KOMIKKU)
I don’t know too much about manga, except it is very popular worldwide and in 2009 it was a $5.5 billion business in Japan alone. Manga is usually serialized in large manga magazines are read by people of all ages.
Manga Magazine at Narita (Photo by Tagami)
#9 LITTLE DOGS
There are over 13 million pet dogs in Japan, and during the Olive Japan event in Futako Tamagawa we saw a lot of black pugs and long haired dachshunds; Boston terriers and chihuahuas are also popular. Childless couples (a growing phenomenon here) are given to doting on dogs rather than kids, including dressing them, painting their nails and walking them in special dog strollers.
Pug in Pram (Photo by Tagami)
#10 TOTO TOILETS
Much has been written about the Toto Washlet Toilet. Once exclusively a country of squat style toilets (which can still be found in public and private places throughout Japan) increasingly the western-style flush toilet is the norm. I use the phrase “western-style” loosely because Toto makes a uniquely Japanese item. Features vary, but include pre-warmed seat to a constant temperature, automatic sensors that raise the lid upon approach and flush upon completion, sound options such as music or water running, bidet front or back (the famous oscillating comfort wash feature), and more.
Even commercial TP has cool graphics (Photo by Tagami)
#11 JAPANESE EDUCATION
We saw children in uniform for school 7 days per week, either for regular school or cram school. Everyone was quiet on the trains, the children reading or dozing. Not knowing much about the school system, I found this blog about a Chinese mother’s experience with Kindergarten in Kyoto, a fascinating read. It’s just one experience, but interesting nonetheless.
Happy depiction of early childhood education (Photo by Tagami)
#12 COFFEE CULTURE
When I visited Japan in 1988 I was astonished at the quality and sophistication of coffee. The local shop near the Capitol Tokyu Hotel had options for beans, roast, grind and brewing style! Excellent coffee was also available in cans in vending machines on the street or in train stations, if you were in a rush. Coffee has been popular in Japan since the late 19th century, and today you can find Tully’s, Illy, Starbucks, Doutor and many other coffee shops here.
Young boy enjoys a cocoa at Doutor's in Ginza (Photo by Tagami)
#13 KIMONO WEARING
In March 2011 I saw a few kimono, but in April 2012 the number of women in traditional attire seemed much higher — grocery shopping, walking down the street — everywhere. At first I wondered it if was a reaction to the earthquake and tsunami last year — a desire to return to the comfort of the familiar during stressful times, however Japanese friends tell me that more women wear kimono when the weather is fine in the Spring.
Custom kimono fitting at Takashimaya (Photo by Tagami)
#14 NEW & OLD
I snapped this quick image because of the kimono, but even more interesting is the study in contrast between new and old. The young man looking at his phone is as ubiquitous in Japan as it is here at home; young people, head down and engaged with their devices. The iPhone has lost a lot of market share in Japan, from 80% in 2010 down to 18.7% today. There are a lot of choices to take iPhone’s place, especially Android.
On the Ginza Line going home (photo by Tagami)
#15 GREEN TEA
I love Japanese green tea: genmaicha, sencha, matcha, all of it. Green tea is served hot or cold and has become available as a flavoring in many everyday items, including KitKats. During Cherry Blossom season they even have Green Tea/Cherry Blossom flavor!
Green Tea and Green Tea/Cherry Blossom KitKats (Photo by Tagami)
#16 CUTE LITTLE ANIMALS
Cute little animals are everywhere, in confection, as accessories, on signage, and even the on-board video greeting passengers on ANA, All Nippon Airline. Here is a tangle of little silk animals hanging off the steering column in a hired car in Takamatsu. Our driver was a conservative looking gentleman in his late 50s, not one you’d expect to have colorful little silk animals in his car, would you? A friend asked me about the prevalence of so many anthropomorphized animals and I mused that it might be related to the deep-seated Shinto culture here — everything has a kami, a spirit. What do you think?
Cute little animals in a hired car (Photo by Tagami)
#17 MORE CUTE LITTLE ANIMALS
Here is the sign on the elevator on the Olive Ferry from Takamatsu to Shodoshima. Watch out! Be careful to not catch your fingers or clothing in the elevator door! It pinches. Like a crab.
Take care! The elevator doors can pinch! (Photo by Tagami)
#18 WABI-SABI
I paraphrase from Wikipedia here: wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience; sometimes described as an aesthetic of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. We jumped out of our van to take a few photos of terraced rice paddies in the highlands of Shodoshima, and this road sign caught my eye. The last kanji is so strong and stable looking, and the rust from the sea air around it so beautiful.
Sign rusted from the sea air on Shodoshima Island (Photo by Tagami)
#19 SHODOSHIMA 88
We took the ferry to Shodoshima to see olive production, but left with much more. This small island, technically part of Shikoku, is home to 88 shrines and temples, and there is a special pilgrimage you can make with the help of the Shodoshima 88 Association. I love this image of the pine tree (matsu) and rocky coastline with the temple roofs in the foreground.
At Nishi no Taki Ryusuiji Temple looking west (oversaturated photo by Tagami)
#20 JAPAN, RISING AGAIN
This poster appears just before you leave Japan to pass through immigration at Narita. It brought a tear to my eye when I saw it.
Japan, rising again. (Photo by Tagami)
Toshiya Tada – Olive Japan 2012
This article first appeared in the Olive Oil Times.
This morning olive oil judges from Spain, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Australia and California are making their way across the world’s oceans to congregate in a narrow two-story building on a modest lane in the heart of one of the most luxurious shopping districts in the world — Tokyo’s energetic Ginza. Top tasters from Japan will join them to form four tasting panels at the headquarters of the Olive Oil Sommelier’s Association of Japan for the First Annual Olive Japan International Competition.
The Olive Japan 2012 competition and the two day consumer Marché which follows is the culmination of three years of work developing olive oil appreciation in Japan by OSAJ’s flamboyant and dynamic Founder and Chairman, Mr. Toshiya Tada, with the assistance of the earnest and engaging School Dean, Ms. Tomomi Endo.
Toshiya Tada, OSAJ Founder and Chairman (Tagami photo)
A regular fixture in Italy, Turkey and California, Chairman Tada can be spotted wearing his signature bright colors and bringing his joyful approach to sharing olive culture with all people in the world. The former JP Morgan executive and import consultant seems to have found his true passion with olive oil.
“Really, it is quite an honor for us to have such support from olive professionals around the world. People are surprised that there is such interest here, but in fact Japan has had a history with olive oil for over a hundred years because of the Mission Olive farmers on Shodoshima Island.”
When not working with Dean Endo developing curriculum or researching olives and olive oil worldwide Chairman Tada can be found promoting olive oil in Japan through his company’s involvement bridging the culture and language gap in trade fairs and making key connections; most recently that expertise has come to bear on the olive oil world’s newest addition to competitions: Olive Japan.
Over 140 extra virgin olive oils have been received for the competition from makers eager to add authority to their brands in Japan or as part of their overall launch strategy to enter the Japanese market – a market that prizes quality, recognizes the value of brand, and appreciates the health benefits of authentic extra virgin olive oil, making Japan the fourth largest importer of olive oil in the world.
OSAJ School Dean, Ms. Tomomi Endo with the curriculum for the junior and senior olive oil sommelier programs. (Tagami photo)
The OSAJ was established in 2009 to develop the market for olive oil and other olive products in Japan through a comprehensive education program. The certificate programs cover the history of olives and olive production, olive culture, culinary uses, health benefits and sensory skills. To date nearly 500 junior and 110 senior olive oil sommeliers have graduated and additional candidates are entering the school at an accelerated rate; half OSAJ’s graduates gained their certificates in the 12 months following Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami last year.
Sommelier certificate holders are typically product advisors for supermarkets and restaurants as well as importers, distributors and retailers looking to further develop knowledge and skills. Doctors, nurses, dieticians and other health care professionals participate amend the OSAJ staff as lecturers as well as OSAJ students as olive oil is recognized as a reliable source for many micronutrients.
Typical OSAJ Class (Courtesy of OSAJ)
OSAJ Professional Seminar (Tagami Photo)
In 1982 I attended my first SF Fancy Food Show in Brooks Hall, and in the past 30 years have probably trod thousands of miles of industrial carpet past 10,000s of exhibition stands (or booths as we Americans call them). During my peak travel years I might walk 12 trade show floors in 10 different cities located in six different countries in a ten month period.
You learn to walk quickly, your eyes sweeping from left to right 15 feet ahead to catch the sight of something new. We didn’t always buy shelf goods, we developed product; which means that we were at shows to find manufacturers we could work with in the future. [Only then would we enter a stand and start a discussion].
Trade show were primarily for sourcing…factory visits were for development.
Unless this sounds mechanical, let me add that trade shows were (and are) also reunions where producers, former colleagues and other veterans greet in mid-stride with a European cheek kiss — mostly two sides, sometimes three, but never just one — and stride on with an exuberant wave and a cheery, “we must catch up”.
Deals are made, referrals given, and old ties renewed. It was with great pleasure that I read Mike Coldani’s account of his trade show experience — one from inside the booth. Please enjoy!
Our company still consists of all family members and we split up the jobs of farming, sales, marketing, packaging, & distribution. Growing this small family business has been a blast and our best sales pitch to date has always been to simply get someone to taste the oil. We are proud of the unique and elaborate packaging and design but we always say it tastes as good as it looks. Getting a following and people to taste the oil often involves setting up tasting booths which leads me to this topic.
At first glance it seems our yearly calendar has something on nearly every weekend of the year. Our family trades off who attends the events and many of them are attended by all of us as a group. From the Paso Robles Olive Oil Festival to the San Francisco Fancy Food show all the way down to our local Lodi…
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The Spring of 800 Earthquakes
Today I’m thinking of Japan. Land of the Rising Sun, and birthplace of my grandfather, Giichi Tagami.
I’ve had several business trips to Japan over the past 24 years, but none so special as the one March 2011. It was sakura time — cherry blossom time — and all of the shops had pink blossoms in the windows and all of the food merchants had cherry flavored products — from sakura manju on the Shinkansen to Starbucks’ sakura macaroons and Sakura Frappuccinos®.
Sakura Frappuccino®
Big snowflakes slowly drifted and filled the Ginza neighborhood outside of the Olive Oil Sommelier Association of Japan the first day of our olive oil Aisatsu, but fair weather followed us the rest of the week in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kobe.
The tremendous earthquakes which we experienced while we waited for our flight home to California on Friday afternoon were truly surreal and turned sideways everything we knew and felt.
Tagami Boarding Pass - 11 March 2011, Narita
After Jim-san rescued me from Narita Terminal 1 Saturday afternoon we spent time in nearby Narita town where everything was slowed down. It was like being in a quiet bubble. We stopped at a small inn and had some sake — the innkeeper did not speak English and we only spoke a little Japanese. Although the streets were broken up, life carried on around us.
Walking to Naritasan-Shinjoji Temple
On Sunday we hiked up the hill behind our hotel to Shinjoji Temple and heard the priests chanting. We walked the grounds for a few hours and lit incense for everyone who was suffering.
Tagami at Shinjoji Temple
Incense offered for Japan
A somber moment
Time slowed for us that weekend while nearly 800 earthquakes kept a steady wave of shaking throughout the village and rolled or snapped the flexible wooden hotel where we stayed. The earth was heaving and breathing the reminder of our impermanence — a global zazen experience which kept us in the moment.
Tagami View of Pagoda at Shinjoji Temple
Banzai, Nippon. Banzai.
Here is a window into a smaller producer in Morocco. Enjoy!
Olive season has just come to and end…and by olive season I mean that the olives ripened, were harvested, and either pressed for oil or cured to turn them edible. Did you know that both black olives and green olives come from the same tree? Here is a very ripe olive from our family farm.
Did you also know that harvesting olives by hand is a labor intensive business? In Morocco it’s all done this way: a large plastic is laid out under the tree, then you take a long bamboo stick and start to beat at the olives to knock them down. Eventually you have to climb the tree to get to the higher branches. Olives yield about 16 liters of olive oil per 100 kgs of olives, depending on how much the trees were watered. The more they were watered, the juicier the olives.
I will never forget…
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Tagami Food, Wine & Travel: 2011 in Review
The WordPress.com stats “helper monkeys” prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Sydney Opera House via Wikimedia Commons (GNU)
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
PS: We had 121 unique visitors from Australia this year. Thanks for stopping by!
Losing ‘Virginity’: Olive Oil’s Scandalous Fraud and How to Protect Yourself From It
If you’ve not yet read Tom Mueller’s 2007 New Yorker article, “A Slippery Business”, I invite you to do so; in it he uncovers an astonishing world of product adulteration with regard to olive oil. It is a fast and engaging read.
The process of researching and writing the 2007 article was so compelling to him that Tom devoted the past five years to researching and writing further to present a snapshot — a cultural, culinary and criminal history of olive oil — in his new book, Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.
Currently on a book tour in SF, LA and NY, Tom’s 20 minute “Fresh Air” interview with NPR’s Terry Gross today generated 60 comments in the first few hours, many from distressed consumers aching for an answer as to which olive oils to trust, which moves me to offer this post.
Whom do you trust? How do you choose?
It is very “20th century” to assume that EVOO is just a flavorless fat, and it is plain wrong to assign positive or negative attributes to an oil based on its country of origin. As Tom mentions in the interview, modern methods of farming, harvesting and extracting oil have enabled farmers to elevate this lively fruit juice onto an entirely new plane. Yes, there is rampant adulteration and fraud in our industry, however there are also thousands of small producers crafting excellent product and dozens of large producers who are doing the same.
FACT: Dozens of countries cultivate hundreds (thousands, actually) of varieties of olives, each with unique varietal characteristics. Climate, soil, irrigation, variety, harvest and milling methods and blending techniques are just a few of the things that contribute to an oil’s character, and the fresher the product, the better. Olives made into olive oil are as diverse and amazing as grapes are made into wine, and today we have the opportunity to appreciate the nuance and complexity of them as never before.
FACT: There are several certifying bodies which guarantee quality — at time of bottling. More on “time of bottling” later.
Century-old olive tree. Corning, CA (photo by Tagami)
You can trust EVOO producers that use third party labs to certify authenticity via chemical analysis and use trained, internationally calibrated and certified tasting panels to qualify the oils as “Extra Virgin” via organoleptic (sensory) means. The two best known certifying bodies to us here on the west coast are the California Olive Oil Council and the Australian Olive Association. Click through the COOC and AOA links above for lists of growers you can trust, many of whom have their own websites which allow you to buy directly from them.
You can trust winners from major competitions (current year). I’ve given you a short list of three well known competitions below. If an oil has earned a medal in competition they will have a sticker on the bottle. I don’t mean an image of a medal from the 1893 fair in Chicago, I mean a sticker on the bottle from a competition in the past year. These stickers are regulated.
Why do I say that these designations help identify an oil as EV at the time of bottling? It is because olive oil degrades with time and eventually becomes rancid. The reason growers bottle in dark glass is to protect the oil from light and slow down this process. If an importer, distributor and/or retailer does not turn inventory it may be sold to you as already rancid even if it left the producer in fine condition. If oil is stored near heat or light it will age faster, too. If you — as a consumer — keep your oil near the stove, in a sunny window, or in a warm pantry, if you leave the top off the bottle and let air get to it, your oil will age faster.
Olives are washed before milling. Corning, CA (photo by Tagami)
There is a movement now amongst growers to add HARVEST date to the package, not just “Best By” date. Look for this when you shop and buy from the most current harvest year that you can. Generally speaking, northern hemisphere oils are being produced now and will be released in February/March as 2011 Harvest, good through Fall 2013. Southern hemisphere oils were harvested in the Spring, and this year’s harvest is good through Spring 2013.
FACT: You cannot trust a bottle just because it says “First Cold Pressed”, this is a meaningless phrase, completely unregulated, and a carryover from when olives were pressed. Sorry to spoil the romance, but very few olives are pressed today. The modern method is much different. See an example of modern milling methods on this video.
What is the fast and easy answer for EVOO if you don’t want to pay premium prices? The most affordable and accessible extra virgin olive oil in the US today is California Olive Ranch “Everyday Fresh”, found in thousands of grocery stores across America. A company of similar standards and accessibility from the southern hemisphere is Boundary Bend “Cobram Estate”.
The two artisan producers in California with whom I’m most familiar are Lucero Olive Oil in Corning and The Olive Press in Sonoma. I endorse them highly. There are dozens of producers throughout the Mediterranean and South America that I stand behind, too numerous to iterate here. They are active in promoting their brands at top retailers such as Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table and Dean & Deluca and can be found on the lists of top oils in competition.
Vote with your pocketbook. Support the growers.
Quality oils taste good and are good for you.
Liz Tagami at an Arbequina Olive Harvest 2011
Buenos Aires Drive By – Study in Red
We landed in Buenos Aires to a gray day; 1o° celsius (5o°F) and drizzling. The driver was a tad late so I people-watched at Arrivals, wrapped in two pashimas, and tried to look dignified despite 20 hours of plane travel and five hours of airport waiting time. The drive to the hotel was also gray, as it was early Sunday morning. The shops were closed, leaving only their dull steel roll up doors along the avenues to greet me. Except for a stand of pampas grass along the highway, a few churches, and some lovely Spanish colonial and neo-classical architecture, my first impression of Argentina was…gray.
We slowed to navigate a turn on downtown street and the MaxiKiosco (Big Kiosk) on the corner next to a parked car really jumped out in contrast. Here, I took a quick snapshot with my phone for you!
Tomorrow we fly to the interior to see olive harvest and olive oil production; I look forward to sharing a few highlights.
Buenos Aires MaxiKiosco: Study in Red
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Delayed Reaction: Little Boy at Shojoji Temple March 12th
A note to my readers. We hit a milestone tonight with 17,000 unique page views, 3,650 of those alone are for “Shaken, then Stirred” in Tokyo.
Thank you for your many notes of encouragement and interest, and for mentioning your various projects with regard to supporting Japan. I know I owe you Part II, and truly think about it every day. That essay is still somewhere inside, and hope to share it before too long when I can slow down enough to ponder and then write what I feel in my heart.
Tagami Food, Wine & Travel 