It's a weed that you eat

Located on the edge of Heiwa no Mori (the fantastic ninja park) is the Omori Nori Museum.  I have been a fan of nori (nor-ee), finely chopped seaweed dried into thin sheets, since I first tasted it in my third grade class.  We were studying Japan and my teacher brought some in for everyone to try.  By that time,  I was already obsessed with Japan and eagerly tried anything labeled "Japanese" or made in Japan. 

The green paper-like sheet is most often used to wrap rice balls or sushi.  It comes in a variety of sizes.  Right now I have long thin sheets for wrapping my son's rice balls, large rectangles left over from a temakizushi party, and some small decorative cut outs that I use to decorate the top of a bed of rice.

For 300 years, Ota city was a bustling nori farming community.  The shallow sea water was perfect for harvesting nori, and the area quickly became famous for its nutritious agricultural product. 

In 1962, the local farmers agreed to move their livelihood to make room for the development and expansion of Tokyo Port, including Haneda airport (a short 20 minutes down river).  Even though the farms moved, the area is still one of the top nori distributers in Japan.

The museum opened in 2008 to teach people about the history of the area.  There are various tools used for gathering and producing nori on display throughout the free museum.  It was interesting to see the narrow and shallow, yet long nori boat on the first floor.  Although they used boats, the farmers actually spent a good deal of time in the water on tall, stool-like  sandals with rocks attached to the bottom of the shoe so it didn't float away. 

I wish I could have seen the walls of nori drying in the sunshine.  It put a smile on my face just thinking about this part of the production, as I remember hanging my hoshigaki and having to wait patiently for it to be the perfect dryness.  Plus, the pattern of framed squares as far at the eye could see would have been really impressive.

While there are not any English explanations attached to any of the artifacts, there is a helpful English brochure available next to the office, just inside the entrance.  I found everything to be pretty self explanatory.  I'm sure I would have walked away with more details if I were able to read everything, but I didn't feel like I was being deprived information at all.  For example, it was easy for me to understand the machine made to weave the bamboo together into nori drying mats.

While I'm sad that Ota city is no longer the nori farming community it once was, I'm glad I was able to learn about the history and tradition of the area.  I'd be curious to see the modern production process.  But first I have to learn where they moved to!