Day with the Sato’s

Jiro and Yoko Sato

I was lucky enough to get to stay with the Sato’s for a second time. When I was here four years ago, I stayed with them as well. They have a large home and a very large garden as well. Most of their meals comprise of several items from their garden. Their biggest meal is breakfast.



This is a typical breakfast. Cucumbers that you dip in their homemade miso that was made from their homegrown soy beans, tomatoes, fried egg plant, fish, fried egg from their chickens at their home, miso soup with tofu and some vegetables like potatoes or beans from their garden, fish, rice and what wasn’t in the picture was the natto (fermented soy beans) that you put on the rice, seaweed, and then at the end of the meal some yogurt with a big spoonful of their bottled strawberries that are from their garden as well. They believe that a big healthy breakfast is the best way to start the day. I don’t know that everyone thinks that way as many of the students say they have salad and an egg or bread and jam for breakfast.

Jiro is really the glue that holds the Sister city Association together on the Japanese side, I think. He has come with the group to Wilsonville several times, and has come on all but one day of the excursions with our group. He seems to be the one constant in the Kitakata group.

There are so many amazing things about these two, but let it suffice to say that that are both hard workers with a variety of interests that are generous to their neighbors and city.




Today the Sato’s took me on a trip to Yonezawa to buy some Yonezawa beef. You may have heard of Kobe beef that is feed beer to make the meat more flavorful. This is the same with Yonezawa beef. We will use the thinly sliced beef for our Sukiyaki dinner tonight. With the current exchange rate of about 87 yen per dollar, the most expensive meat in the store is 1,575 yen per 100 grams or rather $82 per pound! This is meat that literally melts in your mouth. I can’t wait for dinner.



If you live in Yonezawa, you can get your meat delivered from this truck.



We took the scenic route to Yonezawa and stopped to get a view of a gate or Tori in Lake Hibara. Lake Hibara was created 120 years about when there was an eruption of Mt. Bandai. This gate is underwater and the shrine that it leads to was completely submerged as was the small village that was behind it as well.


In Yonezawa we also stopped by a shrine where there was a statue of Uesugi Youzan. A few hundred years ago he took over the ailing and debt ridden area and turned it into a prosperous place. JFK is quoted as saying he thought that Uesugi Youzan was the best politician he had ever heard about. Part of his success was teaching poor people how to be more prosperous and getting the people to eat carp for it’s protein. (We bought some carp and so I think it will be on the breakfast menu tomorrow.)