August 25, 2014
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Niigata Rice.
I survived days of walking around like zombies. I took pills to ease the migraine. Tossed and turned constantly in the evenings due to the stubborn jetlag. But, all these turned bearable only because of a gracious gesture made by one of my Japanese guests. Suddenly, future days appear friendlier and especially more appetizing.
Now and then, we get special gifts from dealing with Japanese companies. They are known for their gift-giving tradition. I can do many blogs on the gifts I have received over the years working with them. Most of which are Japanese food, which speak closely to my heart. Few days ago I once again received one of those special gifts… rice. Most importantly, Japanese rice.
Japanese rice is especially loved in my family. We always long for the subtle sweeter flavor that it has over other rice varieties, as well as the plump and slightly soft sticky texture that it tends to give, as our teeth sink into each and every perfect short opaque-white grain. This sticky perfection works well when one prefers to eat rice in a bowl and with a pair of chopsticks, like I always do.
This bag of rice I received is from the Niigata prefecture, located on the western coast of Japan, the origin in location of the company my business guest is working for. It is a region blessed with great seafood as well as quality water from nearby mountain, as I have discovered when I went to their factory a couple of years ago. Niigata is also known as one of the leading regions in Japan to produce a high quality of rice, many which are not exported. And this gift in particular is not just a bag of Niigata rice, but it is a five-kilo bag of Niigata rice. Not one kilo, not two kilos, but five kilos!!
This is not the first time I have received rice as a gift from a Japanese company. It is also not the first time this particular company so generously bestowed a bag of rice to me. This is probably the third time I got rice from them, about once every two years, and it had always been a two-kilo bag. And so to get a five kilos worth of a high quality Japanese rice… well, I’m just so freakin’ blessed. I guess this is a good indication that our business is doing just fine.
The gift makes me miss Japan even more though. I should really go back there in the near future. Maybe in a couple more years, when my passport expires and I get to renew it as an E-passport, which makes it eligible for multiple entries into Japan with NO VISA REQUIRED. I think life is about to get sweeter and sweeter
Comments (6)
Getting frustrated about visa for entry into a country is something I know very well. I have to get visa to go to India! My motherland! It’s a pain in the neck.
I don’t think I have eaten Japanese rice before. Would love to try it sometime.
5k of rice! wow! lucky you. it is interesting to know that rice still comes from japan as here in california, rice production is very big and, i am told, we export much of it to japan!
i prefer sticky rice over any other. 
California cannot grow the long grained rice that the chinese tend to consume. Texas and Louisiana are hot enough for growing that type of rice.
One japanaes manga made a big fuss over a bowl of rice. (It was picked over to remove all the broken grains of rice!)
wait a minute, american passport holders need to apply for a visa to get into india? i had no idea. oh, you never had japanese rice before, they are basically the type of rice used for sushi. but you need to go to a good japanese restaurants to find the restaurants use actual rice from japan, instead of the typical california grown short grain rice.
yes, there are plenty of california grown short grain rice sold even here in indonesia. they are certainly much cheaper in price, another reason why japan imports tons of them. the local quality rice choices there are actually more expensive than the imported ones.
seriously, which manga series is this? i would love to read or watch this manga series.