Hi guys. Welcome to the graduate's page.

My name is Yuta Kawamura. I graduated with a  bachelor's degree in 2016. Then, I went to the IUK graduate school. I'm now second year of MA Intercultural studies. I also work as a teaching assistant (TA) supervised by Professor McMurray in English class and overseas internship program in Taipei for undergraduate.

I'm studying at the Taipei Chingshih University of Science and Technology (TPCU) in Taipei, Taiwan as an exchange student from February, 2017. The reason why I'm studying there is because I wanted to cultivate my skill in cooking and learn business management. In my lessons in cooking, I learn the wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets with Taiwanese students. It sounds like strange that Japanese learn wagashi in Taiwan. However, here at this university, we learn very professional, traditional and scrumptious wagashi. I hope I get to share with you about my wagashi making and my days in Taipei on this page.

 

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Yuta Kawamura 

Contact: LINE y.kwcity

             Email calcio.6.mack@gmail.com

 

I went to train on internship programs in Kaohsiung and Taipei, Taiwan three times and also volunteered with an NPO program in Uganda, Africa. While interning in 2016 at a Japanese food style restaurant in Taipei,  came up with a new research idea about exporting Washoku culture (a UNESCO intangible world heritage that was recognized in 2013 as the way Japanese food is made and presented). In addition to developing my culinary skill, I research what Japanese words are needed by foreigners to understand the concept of washoku.

 

春雨の　降るは涙か　桜花　

As for spring rainfall

thoughts of people becoming

the tears of sorrow

--the 88^th waka poem listed in the “Kokin Wakashu” penned in 10th century Japan

On seeing cherry blossoms fall, some deep hidden thought will surely come to mind. Travelers in time, we must all must soon realize the spring season is coming to an end. After the ephemeral cherry blossoms have faded and fallen, which seasonal event can we look forward to next? For me, it is the season of shincha (first picked tea of the year).

Shincha season lasts from late April until early May in Japan. In Chiran, Kagoshima located far to the south of Japan, my grandmother used to go with neighbors to a tea plantation. She assisted in pinching off buds of green tea leaves. I recall carrying a huge tea leaf basket on my back and following in the footsteps of my grandmother.

Footpath down the hill

she knows each step of the way

picking the first tea

Sencha is the most popular green tea in Japan that is produced in many regions. Its leaves are raised outdoors and immediately steamed after harvesting to stop fermentation. They are then rolled to finish. (The Japan education center for the hotel industry, 2015). A blissful moment can be spent enjoying the flavor of sencha with wagashi such as yokan (sweet jellied bean paste), daihuku (sweet rice cake). You can also enjoy fresh green tea flavor from wagashi itself.

We have made matcha an yaki (Baked matcha flavor cake). You might have already heard the word matcha and enjoyed its tart flavor. Both matcha and sencha are categorized as green tea, but they are completely different teas. At first, the tea production process is different from sencha, as it is unique in the way of drying without rolling. The second, the cultivation methods are different as the tea leaves are covered to shut out the sunlight before harvesting young leaves. These tea leaves are called tencha. Matcha is made by grinding tencha in a stone mill.

 

Matcha an yaki  28 pcs

=Ingredients=

White bean paste 100g

Matcha powder 5g

Boiled water 23g

1 Egg

Sugar 10g

Sugar 14g

Cake flour 6.5g

Jyouyou powder 3g

 

=Preparation=

Separate the egg into yolk and white.

Mix cake flour with Jyouyou powder: A

 

=Baking Instructions=

1.     Preheat oven to 302 degrees F (150 degrees C).

2.     Dissolve matcha in a bowl of boiling water and sieve it out.

3.     Put white bean paste in a pan, then stir in the matcha with a silicon spatula.

4.  Mix yolk with 10g sugar in the bowl and add in matcha and mix well.

5.     In another bowl, add 14g sugar to white in batches and whip.

6.     Add the whipped sugar to the bowl of matcha.

7.     Drop 20g of the mixture onto a ungreased pan.

8.     Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven, until the cupcakes spring back to the touch.

 

Miso matsukaze

=Ingredients=

Shiro miso 160g

Sugar 700g

water 500g

Egg’s white 200g

sugar 100g

all-purpose flour 640g

baking powder 12g

sesame

 

=Preparation=

Sieve flour and baking out.

Preheat oven to 356 degrees F (180 degrees C) (upper side) and 284 degrees F (140 degrees C)

 

=Instructions=

1.    Mix sugar with miso and add in water.

2.    Mix sugar in egg’s white and whip up.

3.    Stir in miso with a silicon spatula.

4.    Add in flour.

5.    Drop the dough onto an ungreased pan.

6.    Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven.

7.    Spread sesame onto the dough.

8.    Having let it rest for 10 minutes, cut into rectangles.

みたらし団子

=Ingredients=

Shiratamako (glutinous rice flour) 286g

Granulated sugar　46g

Water 240g

 

~Sweet soy sauce~

Water 180g

Granulated sugar 150g

Soy sauce 60g

Mirin 5g

Potato starch 18g

Water (for dissolving the potato starch)

 

=Instructions=

1.    Combine water and granulated sugar in a pot, and add soy sauce and mirin, and bring it to a boil.

2.    Mix potato starch with water and add in the sauce, and dissolve well.

3.    Having the sauce thickened, turn off the heat. (sweet soy sauce)

4.    Combine shiratamako (glutinous rice flour) and granulated sugar in a bowl.

5.    Stir in water a little bit at a time and knead until the dough become smooth.

6.    Divide the dough into each 15g sized ball.

7.    Gently place dango in the large pot of boiling water.

8.    When they start floating on the surface, cook for 1 min. Remove from pot and transfer into ice water.

9.    Drain well and put three pieces into a bamboo skewer.

10. On the stove top, place the skewered dango on the grill on direct heat over medium high rotate slowly to sear.

11. Using a brush, coat with sweet soy sauce on dango.