Toyama - City of Medicine

Medicine manufacturing in Toyama traces back to the late 17th century when the lord of Toyama-han (a Japanese feudal domain of the Edo period), Masatoshi Maeda, ordered pills known as "Hangontan" to be made. Below are photographs of the famous herbal medicine shop I visited in Toyama.

"Ecchu-hangontan" written on the sign is said to be a miracle medicine that reinvigorates one's body.

Medicines manufactured in Toyama were spread by medicine peddlers called "Baiyaku-san". In the photograph you can see that the peddlers transported medicines in a box on their back. The medicine peddlers would leave the box at a customer's house, and later, the customer only paid for medicines consumed.

For 63,000 Yen ($680 US dollars) you can get 3-grams of medicine containing bear gallbladder to cure stomach aliments.

Traditional hand operated pill making machine.

As the hand lever is pulled down the drug paste is pushed through small holes (like Play-Doh). A long metal spatula is used to cut the paste as it is pushed out.

The drug paste is then transfered to a flat working surface via the use of the spatula.

A press is used to swirl the drug paste into small balls; too much pressure can ruin the shape.

I did an okay job manufacturing drugs in Toyama!

Nishida Museum of Fine Arts - Toyama

I had the opportunity to visit the Nishida Museum of Fine Arts in Toyama. The museum featured works of art before Christ and local artists, such as, Josaku Maeda (1926~2007), who was born in Toyama prefecture.

The far right vase (Greece) is from the 6th century B.C.

The granite statue (Egypt) is from 2000 B.C.

Spring.

Summer.

Autumn.

Winter.

View from the second floor of the museum.

Me with the Museum Director.

Food in Toyama

I think I must love food, since I keep on blogging about it. Here is another entry about FOOD! Toyama is famous for masuzushi, which is salmon set atop a circular bed of rice six inches in diameter, wrapped in bamboo leaves, and steamed. I ate some at lunch and it was very, very tasty.

Masuzushi shop.

Wrapped masuzushi ready for purchase.

MASUZUSHI!!!

Bento box for lunch.

This is a very popular udon noodle restaurant in Toyama. They only make so much udon noodles per day and when they run out, they close. The place was packed and people were waiting to be seated.

I had never tried cold udon noodles before so I decided to order them, they were surprisingly good. If you know me, you know that I love nori (seaweed) and there was a good amount placed on top of the noodles! The small bowl to the left contained broth for dipping the noodles in and the lid contained wasabi and chopped green onions to be added to the broth.

Garden at the noodle restaurant.

Ok, after almost two weeks I broke down and had McDonalds! The fries were soooooo GOOD! They tasted just like they do back home.

Mom, this is kamaboko, can you believe it?! I thought it only came in loaves, lol.

Yamada-san, The Paper Folder

When I asked if I could take a photograph of the vase and flowers (below), the firm explained to me their security guard, Yamada-san, had made the piece of artwork. I have folded paper (origami) since I was little, so when I saw Yamada-san's paper folding work I was blown away. I explained to the firm that I often fold paper for kids that are alone and sitting next to me on airplane flights. There is a lot of places here that sale origami paper; it makes me want to do some folding when I get home. As a side note, at the dinner with the firm, we all took the paper our chopsticks were in and did some folding. Most of us made cranes, but a few others were more creative (i.e., a paper ball, hat, and rabbit were made).

The vase and flowers are nearly as tall as I am.

After work I was able to meet Yamada-san, it was a pleasure. He had two books full of photographs of his work that he shared with me. Most of Yamada-san's pieces take hours to make.

Traditional Japanese Dinner

This amazing Japanese restaurant was in walking distance of the hotel. I took lots of photographs so that I could share; enjoy. :)

Garden at the entrance of the restaurant.

The meal started with this small sweet treat and green tea in a separate area where a woman was playing a koto (i.e., a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument). We then moved to the gion.

Inside the restaurant. Our table was located upstairs.

Area where we took off our shoes.

1st course: the green thing in the bowl is actually fish and the noodles in the bowl were made out of fish.

2nd course: sashimi.

3rd course: egg, spinach, and bamboo.

4th course.

4th course: fish and eggplant.

5th course: peppers and battered shrimp balls.

6th course: rice with some strange sticky sauce (the only thing I didn't care for) and miso soup.

7th course: mango.

Me and our waitress.

Sanada-san, me, Usui-san, and Shimoda-san.