Snowy Tottori, Mackerel Shabu-shabu, Zuke, and Jime | Kazunori Takashio, Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance

"They said, 'Please, at least let Professor Takashio go home.'"

A voice calls out from the back seat. I was visiting Tottori Prefecture with several colleagues to gather information and request cooperation for a certain project. After finishing greetings and meetings in various parts of Yonago City the previous day, we were in the middle of a long journey from the west to the east of the prefecture for a briefing at the prefectural office. Outside, it was snowing quite a bit. Or rather, a major cold wave had hit, and the San'in region was buried in heavy snow. The voices belonged to the two staff members accompanying me. Actually, my schedule was packed until the afternoon that day, but since I was worried about whether the Haneda flight would take off, we significantly scaled back the plans. I also switched my ticket to an early afternoon flight. The day after my return was the master's dissertation hearing. Of course, it would be quite bad if I weren't there on the day of the master's dissertation hearing.

Somehow, we cleared all the appointments and headed to the airport early. By the time we arrived in Tottori City, the snow, which had weakened, began to intensify again. The question was whether the flight from Haneda could land. If the aircraft didn't arrive, the flight would be canceled. The final flight of the day had already been canceled. Anyone familiar with airplanes would probably understand why. On the ANA website, all flights were listed as "conditional operation." I peered at the Flightradar screen with the two staff members. The plane we were (scheduled) to board had reached the skies above Tottori Airport. However, there was no sign of it descending. It was circling the same course over and over. Whenever the trajectory turned toward the airport, we'd shout "Oh!" and whenever it turned away, we'd groan "Ah" in disappointment. I wonder how long that cycle continued. Seizing a gap when the snow weakened, the nose finally pointed toward the runway. It landed, kicking up a cloud of snow. Cheers erupted from the passengers waiting at the boarding gate.

The reason I was so restless was a trauma from last year. At the end of February, I had come here between various tasks, just like this time. It was to speak at the kickoff event for the Nichinan University HUB concept, which I mentioned in the June Okashira Diary last year, titled "The Future of the Region Created with Universities Kickoff Forum: Co-creation of the Regional Revitalization Nichinan Model." It was heavy snow then, too. Since a very important meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of the day I was to return to Tokyo, I planned to return from Yonago to Haneda on a morning flight. I knew that Yonago Airport shares its runway with a Self-Defense Force base and is resilient against snow, and since the snow had weakened in the morning, I complacently thought it would be fine.

That was a mistake. As boarding time approached, the snow grew stronger. After a long wait, I was finally able to board. However, the plane wouldn't leave the gate because they were spraying de-icing fluid on the wings. When it finally started moving and reached the runway, it stopped; the captain came out of the cockpit and began checking the snow accumulation on the wings. Then, with an announcement of "Actually, it's impossible," we returned to the gate and everyone was forced to disembark. By this time, students who were heading home on later flights had arrived at the airport, and seeing my flight return from the runway, they were apparently wondering, "What's going on?" In the end, although it flew several hours late, I didn't make it to the meeting and sent a "I'm sorry" email from inside the plane.

This time, there was a moment just before the runway where the captain went outside, which gave me a "heart-thumping" scare, but the plane managed to take off a few hours late. Once it took off, a large bird flew into the front camera footage right after takeoff, which was terrifying, and the shaking until we cleared the snow clouds was no joke—it was quite the flight experience. I was relieved to be able to attend the master's dissertation hearing the next day without incident.

Now, speaking of San'in, let's talk about food. Come to think of it, the topic of my Okashira Diary at this time last year was the "3-day course of my home's curry." I'll share a little bit about food this time as well.

For the night in Yonago, I went to a "Saba Shabu" (mackerel shabu-shabu) restaurant I've been into lately. It's a way of eating you don't hear much about in the Kanto region, but literally, you eat fresh, thinly sliced mackerel by swishing it through broth. It's so delicious that my mouth waters just thinking about it. A large amount of sliced onions floats in the broth, and you eat them together with the mackerel (naturally, I added more onions halfway through lol). It all started when Professor Takita, who frequently appears in my diaries, took me there last winter. In the summer, I took my son there, and he was thrilled. The finishing soba noodles are also excellent. I also recommend Mosa-ebi (shrimp not usually found in Kanto), which can only be eaten during this season. Please visit if you go to Yonago.

Another good thing is the Sakaiminato specialties "Zuke" (marinated) and "Jime" (cured). I got hooked on them after a local person told me about them during the summer Camp for Designing the Future. You can buy them frozen at the market, so I order them or have them sent to me. This time, I bought a bunch locally. At my house, we eat the "Zuke" as a marinated bowl (zuke-don), but the "Jime" is also delicious as a base for ochazuke. In particular, "Sea Bream Jime" is the ultimate ingredient for sea bream ochazuke. Make a sesame sauce with ground sesame (1 tbsp), soy sauce (2 tbsp, we use sweet soy sauce), mirin (2 tsp), and sake (2 tsp), dip the kelp-cured sea bream in it, and place it on rice. Sprinkle with rice crackers (bubu arare) and shredded seaweed, and pour hot broth (sea bream broth if possible) over it to complete the ultimate dashi-chazuke. Please enjoy it with Japanese parsley (mitsuba) and wasabi if you like.

Well, as I was running out of material, this turned into a rather rambling diary. I'm sorry. Regarding the purpose and details of this visit to Yonago City and the Tottori Prefectural Office, there are many things I cannot talk about yet, so I hope you will look forward to future updates. See you in the next diary.

P.S.

I hesitated to write the specific names of the restaurants for "Saba Shabu," "Zuke," and "Jime" here, so if you are interested, please ask me. Quietly... (omitted)