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| "Women's Life and Health" is the interview series that features active professional women about their health, lifestyle and career. |
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| Interview
vol.6 |
Natsu Shimamura -Part1 |
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| In everyday life we are pressed for time. If a person feels that they would like to practice slow food, am I right in thinking that that person would have to change their lifestyle to a certain extent? |
| Yes, that’s true. If the independent people working as office ladies in Tokyo began to practice the slow food lifestyle, I think Japan would change. And after them, the old men (laughs). If these two major groups of people changed there would be huge change. That’s the most difficult part. But, if we think about it ourselves, and open ourselves up to the sensation of making things with our own hands, I think it would shake up our view of life, if only just a little bit. |
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| In what way is the “joy of making” connected to the joy of living? |
| Well, there’s a great feeling of fulfillment in making the little things that we eat everyday. One way to do this is to make the things we eat more a few times each week, such as rice, green tea leaves, and altering the stock and seasonings that we use for the bases of flavors. We can use stock flavored with katsuobushi (dried pieces of bonito), iriko (dried sardine), and also konbu (kelp). Simply by making your own stock, the flavor immediately improves. In renewing our approach to food using these basic methods, you start to notice the real flavors of the ingredients. But, you don’t want to upset your friends by always refusing to eat out with them, so it is important to not hesitate to go out to dinner with friends (laughs). |
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| So people are able to cultivate such senses on their own? |
| Taste is a stimulus that directly affects the brain, so I think that for people, like retired fathers, going to cooking class is a really good thing. Even in the case of elderly people who live by themselves in old apartment buildings, even those who are in their late 90s, if they make their own breakfast by themselves, even if it is quite basic, they’re really taking good care of themselves. That means that they can take care of their own health first and foremost. Another thing is that taste helps to revitalize the brain. So, in a way, those who cook their own food are confident in taking care of their own bodies. That’s why I think food plays such an important role. In this way, slow food would also no doubt help to reduce medical costs. |
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| That’s so true. It would also help to contribute to public finance (laughs). |
| Exactly, exactly. Elderly people in Italy get together at bars and piazzas, but in the case of Japan elderly people are saying at hospitals, asking each other “How do you feel today?” I think that’s a real failure, and so people have started promoting dietary education. |
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| Ah, I see. Dietary education is targeted at adults rather than children. |
| Absolutely. And another way is to try and change what we buy as souvenirs. I also used to presume that “I’m so busy!” and just bought any mentaiko (marinated cod roe), which is a famous food in Fukuoka Prefecture, that I would find, etc. This would then receive a straight thumbs down from my friends in Tokyo who understand the real taste of food. At first I thought, “What do you mean you don’t need it!?” but I rethought my approach and definitely made the effort to find something good. In doing so, I discovered a liquor store that has been in business for 260 years within 20 minutes from my house. There’s a lady about the same age as me who is working really hard, saying that, “Although this place was passed on to us, it is not easy to run a business in a place that looks like it might appear in the suspense movie Yatsuhakamura” (laughs). The store is made out of wood with a thatched roof. And those kinds of places are also good in terms of the sort of scenery we want to maintain in Japan. |
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| So, in a sense, a person doesn’t really need to go to great lengths to practice slow food. |
| Everybody presumes that, “It’s not possible, I have no time,” but in reality it is just your head that’s busy. When people go back to their hometowns, they could go for a drive with their brothers, sisters and friends and take a bit of a look around the area, and they will no doubt find that there are some quite amazing people closer than they think. |
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| I think I would like to find people practicing slow food where I live too. |
| In the case of a woman working in a large city, it would be better to find a good chef whose kitchen could serve as her own. If the owner of the restaurant is someone who visits farms and cares about getting the finest ingredients, and if they also think of their customers as part of their own family, even if you go there when you’re completely exhausted, you can still say, “Ah, today I’ll try this,” with peace of mind. One way of practicing slow food is to visit stores like that. |
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| I see, it doesn’t really have to take so much effort, does it? |
| There was a famous photographer who lived up until his 90s called Shoji Ueda. His wife passed away before him, so he lived for a long time by himself. He used to say that, “I eat oatmeal in the morning,” so people used to think he was a bit westernized (laughs). In his case, apparently, at night he almost always went to an old local restaurant. When he went there he got to eat elaborate food together with his friends, so all in all he enjoyed himself. |
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| 3/3 |
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