A Travelogue from Tokyo to Kanazawa, with Emphasis on Food

choi

You may or may not be interested in this article. But at least read footnote 11 and the second posting, about sake.


Eli Gottlieb, Japan’s Hidden Culinary Revolution; From Tokyo to Kanazawa on Japan's northern coast, savoring the culinary wizardry of a new wave of creative chefs. New York Times, Jan 24, 2016 (in the section of Travel, Sunday's newspaper).
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/2 ... yo-restaurants.html

Note:
(1) "I was on the Shinkansen bullet train and roaring north toward the Japan Sea at 125 miles per hour when I passed through the wormhole in space-time. The wormhole was on the far end of a long, unlit tunnel."
(a) wormhole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
(b) Hokuriku Shinkansen  北陸新幹線
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_Shinkansen
(i) The "hoku" and "riku" are Chinese pronunciations of kanji 北 and 陸, respectively.
(ii) Elsewhere in the Web: "The Nagano - Kanazawa [石川県]金沢[市] section has five tunnels the longest being the 2.2km Iiyama tunnel, and a number of major bridges spanning rivers."
(iii) Iiyama tunnel is located at Iiyama, Nagano  長野県 飯山市.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iiyama,_Nagano

(2) "Think of the Continental Divide, Japan-style."
Continental Divide of the Americas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Divide_of_the_Americas

(3) "The dozen or so meals I’d had in Tokyo had been a marvel of consistent variation, ringing fluid changes of texture and flavor on those three little words that define the cuisine of this island nation at its heart: iso no aji, or 'tastes like ocean spray.' * * * Exhibit A [is a restaurant called] N-1155 in the hip, hilly Tokyo neighborhood of Nakameguro. * * * Exhibits B and C: a flash-cold-smoked sea perch, and a bagna cauda, both served at the same restaurant. "
(a) ringing (adj; like the sound a bell or alarm makes):
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ringing
(b) Nakameguro 中目黒 is a neighborhood in Meguro ward 目黒区 of Tokyo. For the etymology of the latter, see
Meguro  目黒(区)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meguro

Quote: "The name 'Meguro,' meaning 'black eyes,' derives from the Meguro Fudō 目黒 不動 (Black-eyed Fudō-myōō) of Ryūsenji 瀧泉寺 [天台宗]. The Meguro Fudō was one of five Fudō-myōō statues placed at strategic points on the outskirts of Edo in the early seventeenth century by the abbot Tenkai 天海 [1536 – 1643], an advisor to TOKUGAWA Ieyasu 徳川 家康, to provide protection for the new capital of the Tokugawa shogunate. Each statue had eyes of a different color. (Another Tokyo ward, Mejiro 目白 is named for the white-eyed Fudō-myōō 目白不動).

(i) In fact, Meijiro is NOT a ward name, but a neighborhood name in a Tokyo ward called 東京都豊島区, where the 金乗院 (真言宗) hosts 目白不動.
(ii) 五色不動 is based on 五行思想の五色（白・黒・赤・青・黄）.  
(iii) 江戸五色不動: 目黒不動、目白不動、目赤不動、目青不動、目黄不動
(iv) The "me," "kuro" and "shiro" are Japanese pronunciations of kanji nouns 目, 黒 and 白, respectively.  (The dictionary form "shiro" is changed to "jiro" when placed in the middle of a combined word -- to soften the consonant.
(c) bagna càuda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagna_càuda
(from the Piedmontese "hot dip")

choi

(4) Jim Breen’s online Japanese English dictionary:
* iso 磯 【いそ】 (n): "(rocky) beach; seashore"
* aji 味 【あじ】 (n): "flavor; taste"
* minato-machi 港町 【みなとまち】 (n): "port city"
* omotenashi おもてなし 《お持て成し》 (n): "hospitality; reception; treatment; service; entertainment  <親切なおもてなしありがとうございます。        Thank you for your kind hospitality>"
  ^ omote 表 【おもて】 (n): "(ant[onym]: 裏) surface"
* kanburi 寒鰤 【かんぶり】 (n): "(regarded as delicious because of its higher fat content) yellowtail caught during the cold season; cold yellowtail"
  ^ kan 寒
  ^ buri ぶり; ブリ 《鰤》  (n): "Japanese amberjack (species of yellowtail, Seriola quinqueradiata)"

* nigori-zake 濁り酒; 濁酒 【にごりざけ】 (n):"unfiltered sake (cloudy); unrefined sake"
  ^ nigori 濁り 【にごり】 (n): "muddiness; murkiness; lack of clarity"
* dassai 獺祭 【だっさい】 (n): "(1) arraying a number of reference books in order to compose poetry; literary composition crammed with maxims, ancient episodes, legends, etc; (2) (orig. meaning) otters lining a catch of fish on a river bank; (people) making offerings (esp. of fish)"
* asahi 朝日(P); 旭 【あさひ】 (n): "(See 夕日) morning sun"
* shuzō 酒造 【しゅぞう】 (n): "sake brewing"

* akami 赤身 【あかみ】 (n): "(1) lean meat; (2) lean tuna"
* ōtoro 大トロ; 大とろ 【おおトロ; おおとろ】 (n): "fat under-belly of tuna (considered high-quality)"
* hazawari 歯触り; 歯ざわり 【はざわり】 (n): "texture (eg chewiness, hardness, crispiness, crunchiness, etc) of food"
  ^ ha 歯(P); 齒(oK) 【は】 (n): "tooth"
  ^ sawari 触り 【さわり】 (n): "(1) feel; touch; (2) impression (of a person)" The "sawari" is softened to "zawari" when placed in the middle of a combined/compound word.)

* satori 悟り(P); 覚り 【さとり】 (n): "(1) comprehension; understanding; (2) {Buddh} enlightenment; spiritual awakening; satori"
* kuru kuru くるくる(P); クルクル  (adv,v): "(on-mim [ie, imitative]) whirling; revolving; spinning; going round and round"
* higashi 東 【ひがし】(n): "east"
* chaya 茶屋 【ちゃや】 (n): "tea house"
* ga-i 街 【がい】 (n-suf[fix], pref[ix]): ".. street; .. quarter; .. district  <私たちは買い物に中心街に行く。 We go downtown to do shopping>"
* teriha 照葉; 照り葉 【てりは】 (n): "beautiful shiny autumn leaves"
  ^ teru 照る 【てる】 (v): "to shine  <降っても照っても明日は出発します。 Rain or shine, I will start tomorrow>"

* iyasaka; yasaka  弥栄; 彌榮(oK) 【いやさか; やさか】 (n): "prosperity; prospering; flourishing"
* shino-bue 篠笛 【しのぶえ】 (n): "Japanese transverse bamboo flute (high-pitched; usu. with seven holes)"
  ^ The shino 篠 is dwarf bamboo.
  ^ fue 笛 【ふえ(P); ちゃく(ok)】 (n): "flute, fife"


(5) “It’s no accident that Tokyo has the highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants of any city in the world. But rather than sampling the wares of these warhorses, I’d arrived to try the second culinary wave, a quiet in-house revolution that is afoot all over the country. Driven by chefs mostly in their late 20s and early 30s”

warhorse
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/warhorse

choi

(6) "The next day, a few blocks away [also in Tokyo], it was the turn of a place called Harbor Bar 港町 バル [ バル is katakana pronounced ‘baru’; address is 東京都目黒区 上目黒3-7-8]. Modeled vaguely on a Venetian wine bar and boasting fish from the Sanriku Coast region of northern Japan, the tiny restaurant has a cheerfully casual DIY atmosphere that channels Bushwick. But there’s nothing casual about the food in the least.  The opener was a plate of super-fresh scallop sashimi, enlivened with a ginger sauce whose citrus notes gave the dish the feel of a mollusk ceviche. This was followed up by a serving of raw botan shrimp — as large as langoustines — which arrived paired with a spicy rémoulade of cured carrots. * * * [Bob:] 'I love Japan, but I sell myself as a foreigner who's willing to break the rules and say what's wrong. * * * Two words define Japanese culture. One is "monozukuri," or "the Japanese way of making things." The other is "omotenashi," or "the Japanese way of hospitality." If the country rebuilt itself into such a buff economic specimen after World War II, it did so partly out of its belief in the superiority of both of these things to any other country’s. But then the bubble economy burst, the 21st century happened, and the country lost its way. I call it a nationwide case of the rope-a-dope. Whole industrial sectors have fallen asleep."
(a) Sanriku  三陸
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanriku

In 1869, the war losers were partitioned. Mutsu Province 陸奥国 was divided into 陸奥国（mostly pronounced Riku-ō）, 陸中国 (Riku-chū）, 陸前国（ Riku-zen; these three in the order of north to south), 岩代国 and 磐城国. The first three are collectively called 三陸.
(b)
(i) Bushwick, Brooklyn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwick,_Brooklyn
(a rapidly gentrifying working- and middle-class neighborhood)
(ii) History of Bushwick. Community Board No 4, Brooklyn, New York City, undated
www.nyc.gov/html/bkncb4/html/about/history.shtml
("The areas now called Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick (Community Boards 1 and 4) were originally one Dutch settlement, the Town of Bushwick. The land was purchased from the Canarsie Indians in 1638 and officially chartered by Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1660. He also gave it the name of Boswyck (refuge or town in the woods)")
(c) "The opener was a plate of super-fresh scallop sashimi, enlivened with a ginger sauce whose citrus notes gave the dish the feel of a mollusk ceviche."
(i) note (n): "a characteristic feature (as of odor or flavor)"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/note
(ii) cerviche
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche
(Place of origin  Peru; etymology: disputed; section 3 Preparation and variants)
(d) "botan shrimp — as large as langoustines — which arrived paired with a spicy rémoulade of cured carrots."
(i)
(A) The "botan shrimp" is pronounced "botan ebi" in Japanese, where "ebi" is represented by kanji "海老(P); 蝦" and "botan," 牡丹.
(B) botan ebi (Pandalus nipponensis): endogenous to Japan, particularly Hokkaido; up to 20 cm in length; can see through shell for internal organs; habitat 300-500 m in deep sea; meat tastes slightly sweet)  ja.wikipedia.org
(ii) For langoustine, see Nephrops norvegicus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrops_norvegicus
(known variously as the Norway lobster and langoustine, among other names; a typical length of 18–20 centimetres (7–8 in), or exceptionally 25 cm (10 in) long, including the tail and claws)
(A) langoustine (n; French, from langouste [qv])
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/de ... english/langoustine
(B) By comparison, American lobster (Homarus americanus) "reaches a typical length of 18–20 centimetres (7–8 in), or exceptionally 25 cm (10 in) long, including the tail and claws, making it not only the heaviest crustacean in the world, but also the heaviest of all living arthropod species."  en.wikipedia.org
(iii) rémoulade
(A) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remoulade
(a photo to show what it looks like)
(B) definition:
* rémoulade (n; French from Italian remolata [not found in en.wiktionary.com]: "salad or seafood dressing made with hard-boiled egg yolks, oil, and vinegar, and flavored with mustard, capers, and herbs"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... de?q=r%C3%A9moulade
* rémoulade (n): "a pungent sauce or dressing resembling mayonnaise and usually including savory herbs and condiments"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/r%C3%A9moulade
(e) The "monotsukuri" 物造り (n) is composed of two nouns (mono 物 and tsukuri). The corresponding verb form for the latter is "tsukuru" 造る (meaning "to make").
(f) For definition of “omotenashi,” see (4) above.

choi

(7) "my attention was distracted by the arrival of something called an iwagaki rock oyster.  Ah, that oyster. It was the largest bivalve I’ve ever seen, with a shell approximately the size and shape of my foot. 'You freeze it while alive and then slow-cook it at low temperatures,' the waiter explained, bowing. 'That makes the umami 旨味 come out.' The monster was dressed in a brightly acid dill-based mignonette"
(a)
(i) You see, "iwagaki" is the Japanese pronunciation for "rock oyster."  Both "iawagaki" (the first "i" in lower case, because it is not a proper name) and "rock oyster" are represented by the same kanji 岩牡蠣 or 岩牡蛎. Both "iwa" and "kaki" (softened to "gaki" when placed in a combined word) are respective Japanese pronunciations of 岩 and 牡蠣/ 牡蛎.
(ii) The oval shell of iwagaki (Crassostrea nippona) is 8 cm wide, and about 12 cm long.
(b)
(i) mignonette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mignonette
(may refer to
* mignonette or poivre mignonette is what roughly cracked or coarsely ground peppercorns are called in French cuisine * * *
* mignonette sauce, a sauce of vinegar and shallots, typically used for oysters"
(ii) For pronunciation and etymology, see
mignonette (n; from French mignonnette, diminutive of mignon 'small and sweet')
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... onette?q=Mignonette

Compare
filet mignon (n; French, literally 'dainty fillet')
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... gnon?q=filet+mignon

(8) "the owner of the restaurant [港町バル] * * * came over to talk. His name was Akira MATSUOKA 松岡 暁 and he’s part of a restaurant consortium that oversees several venues in Tokyo. Rail thin, with high cheekbones, black jeans and alt-rock facial hair, he answered my question as to how he invents his dishes by explaining: 'My partners and I think of ourselves as a food think tank. We don’t care about Michelin rankings. First we come up with the concept, and then we invent the dishes to fit it, sometimes collectively and sometimes individually. Rather than a star chef, we make the food the star.” He smiled and circled a finger in the air to indicate the small space crammed with diners. 'And it seems to be working.' "
(a) 港町バル.  Facebook, undated.
https://ja-jp.facebook.com/pages ... %AB/451535908227550
(b) alt-rock (n; shortened from "alternative rock music"/ First Known Use 1989)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alt-rock

choi

(9) "Over the next few days, the culinary wizardry of Tokyo chefs remained unflagging. Yet, of all the entrees and appetizers I tried ( * * * the cod ovaries baked in Gorgonzola that scattered delicious marine bursts of garlic across the palate; the tiny fish called an ayu, or 'sweet fish,' which is fermented in the dregs of sake for three years to make the bones grow edibly soft) — all of it, no matter how odd, gross or wonderful, would pale next to the one dish that remained dangling, like the holy grail, just out of reach. People spoke of it as the greatest white-fleshed sashimi in the world. * * * The fish was the legendary kanburi, or winter yellowtail, which abounds in the waters off Kanazawa"
(a) Gorgonzola
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonzola
(b) ayu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayu
(Plecoglossus altivelis)
The ja.wikipeia.org says that although it may reach 30 cm long, depending on regions it can be sexually mature at 10 cm in length.
(c) kanburi
(i) For the definition, see (4) above.
(ii) The ja.wikipedia.org has a Web page for buri titled "ブリ" that says: ("鰤、[a kind of] Amberjack、学名 Seriola quinqueradiata"/ 海水魚; 成魚は最大で全長150cm・体重40kgの記録があるが、通常は全長1m・体重8kg); 旬は産卵期前で脂が乗る冬とされており、日本ではこの時期のブリを特に「寒ブリ」と呼ぶ)

I will translate the last sentence: The season [for the fish in Japan] is just prior to the ovulation [ovulation occur in February and march], [when it is] packed with fat to winter. In Japan the buri of this period is given a special name "kanburi"
(iii) There are many types of fish under the name amberjack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amberjack

So is yellowtail (fish).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowtail_(fish)
(iv) 鰤 or Seriola quinqueradiata has the English name
Japanese amberjack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_amberjack

(10) "we found ourselves in a stand-up bar called Choikichi ちょい吉 [name of the pub 居酒屋].  Stand-up means exactly what it sounds like * * * We ate edamame 枝豆 [young, green soybean in pod] and delicious rakkyo (pickled onions) and drank a fairly common but tasty sake."
Actually rakkyō (whose katakana is ラッキョウ) is NOT onion.
(a) The rakkyō may refer to the plant or its sour-sweet pickle of 白色の鱗茎.
(b) Onion is "Allium cepa L (Latin cepa = onion)."  en.wikipedia.org
(c) The rakkyō is Allium chinense
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_chinense
(native to China; names in various languages: Japanese (ラッキョウ rakkyō/辣韮/ 辣韭/ 薤); Chinese (薤 xiè/ 藠头 jiàotou)
(d) This is what rakkyō as food looks like. 自然農法のラッキョウの甘酢漬けのレシピ. L'ovest Farm, undated
http://www.lovestfarm.com/Finish ... callionPickles.html
The レシピ is katakana for "recipe."

choi

(11) "later that night at a bar named, hilariously, Pub Dylan (as in Bob) [at Kanazawa]. There I was served a very expensive sake called Dassai, whose cool, perfect balance gave me the impression of drinking a dipperful of outer space. It was also at this place that Bob (my friend) brought down the house by correctly identifying the Japanese rock band playing on the big-screen TV as the Atomic Bomb Masturbation.”
(a) Dassai 獺祭. Asahi Shuzō Co, Ltd 旭酒造株式会社 (山口県).
(i) Products.
http://www.asahishuzo.ne.jp/english/products/
(five products: Dassai 23 ("With its rice milling of 23% which is the highest milling of all commercial sake"), Dassai 39, Dassai 50 ("the lowest grade in the DASSAI lineup * * * The rice is milled down to 50%"), Dassai Nigori 50 ("Unfiltered sake that looks cloudy; Only available in the US and the UK"), and Dassai Sparkling 50 ("Unpasteurized, and naturally carbonated sake") )
(A) What does 23, 39 or 50 mean?  See the next posting.
(B) The "nigori" 濁り,  獺祭, 旭 and 酒造 are defined in (4).
(C) The "sai" and "matsuri" are Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of 祭, respectively.
(ii) About Dassai: origin of the name "DASSAI." Asahi Shuzō Co, Ltd, undated
https://www.asahishuzo.ne.jp/english/about/origin.html
(A) 獺祭魚
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8D%BA%E7%A5%AD%E9%AD%9A
("捕らえた魚を供物に並べ先祖を祭る様を指す * * * 出典は、礼記月令孟春の条の「東風凍を解き、蟄虫は始めて振く。魚冰に上り、獺魚を祭り、鴻雁来る」")

What does the Japanese quotation say?  Worry not. Russians (!) say it in Mandarin. See next.
(B) 獺祭魚. Словари и энциклопедии на Академике, undated (Академике = academic)
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/c ... A%E7%A5%AD%E9%AD%9A
("亦省作 [abbreviated as]  '<<獺祭>> 。'  1. 謂獺常捕魚陳列水邊， 如同陳列供品祭祀。 《禮記‧月令》： '﹝孟春之月﹞東風解凍， 蟄蟲始振， 魚上冰， 獺祭魚， 鴻雁來' ")
(C) 獺’s Chinese and Japanese pronunciations are "datsu" and "uso," respectively.
(b) "Bob (my friend) brought down the house by correctly identifying the Japanese rock band playing on the big-screen TV as the Atomic Bomb Masturbation.
(i) "Bob (my friend)" to distinguish the other Bob (Bob Dylan) in this travelogue.
(ii) bring down the house or bring the house down: when the audiences "​laugh or ​clap very ​loudly"  Cambridge Dictionaries Online

(12) in Kanazawa: "a small, easily missed, relatively modest-looking restaurant called Yamashita 味処 山下. * * * eponymous owner and chef Mitsuo Yamashita * * * The meal began with a pictorially perfect tray of amuse bouches: thin-cut strips of yellowtail stomach dressed in a vinegar-miso sauce, which tasted smoked though they weren’t, along with a small pile of herrings fermented in the dregs of sake, and a handful of fresh snap peas, each dabbed with tiny blobs of black sesame pesto. * * * a waitress, smiling, brought in plates heaped high with the prized kanburi sashimi.  Why has this fish been elevated to the very top spot among sashimi lovers? Because kanburi uniquely fuses two qualities that are almost never found in the same animal. Take maguro 鮪 [tuna], the tuna whose sashimi is most recognizable to Americans. There’s the red meat, or akami, version, with its firm texture and relatively mild flavor, and the pinker version known as otoro that is filled with delicious oils and fats. The problem is that the tasty otoro has a crumbly, falling-apart texture in the mouth likened disdainfully by Bob to 'eating sashimi marshmallows.' Because texture, along with temperature and flavor, are part of the 'mouth moment' of Japanese cuisine, the challenge is to find a firm fish that is also rich in oil.  Enter kanburi, which for that brief, miraculous period every winter, is both those things. The fish, in thick slabs, now lay fanned out on the plate before me, glistening with oil — oil that had leached out of it because the Master had intentionally let the fish “rest,” or cure for a day or so. Mind you, fish oil like this has nothing “fishy” about it. The kanburi was silky, pliant, yielding and tasted of a distilled, superclean essence of the sea."
(a) Japanese English dictionary:
* aji dokoro  あじ どころ【味所／味処】: "味自慢の飲食店。大衆的な和食店が店名に冠して用いることもある。"

my translation: an eatery that takes pride in the flavor of its food. Also placed in front of low-brow Japanese-style dining hall
(b) amuse bouche
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuse-bouche
(French, literally translated as "mouth amuser")
French English dictionary:
* amuse bouche (noun masculine; amuse + bouche)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amuse-bouche
* bouche (noun feminine; ultimately from from Latin [noun feminine] bucca [cheek]): "mouth"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bouche
(c) The snap peas (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon) and snow peas (Pisum sativum var. saccharatum) are both cultivars (or variants) of pea (Pisum sativum).  Snap peas "differ from snow peas in that their pods are round as opposed to flat" (in the cross section of peapod).  en.wikipedia.org
(d) Definitions of akami and ōtoro are in (4).

choi

(13) squid as dish: "This would turn out to be something called 'spear squid.' Freshly caught and still alive in the kitchen, it was killed, masterfully julienned and brought to the table as sashimi, along with a sauce made of fermented bonito guts, a condiment of pickled wild wasabi flowers, a heated stone and some stern admonitions from the Master as to exactly how to cook the squid — barely — and what the precise protocol was for eating it. Dishes like this belong to a category known for its hazawari, or 'tooth feel,' and produce a dazzling mix of ocean flavor notes while offering an old-fashioned popcorn-like crunch in the mouth."
(a) Dragonlife (name of a blogger), Japanese Cuttlefish/Squids Species. 1: Yari Ika -- Spear Squid. Shizuoka Gourmet, July 27, 2015
http://shizuokagourmet.com/2015/ ... species-1-yari-ika/
("The Japanese call them [squids] Ika/烏賊 * * * Yari Ika/槍烏賊, or Spear Squid")
(b) A "yari" is 槍.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A7%8D
(a painting and photos)

(14) "By the end of such a meal, something has happened to you, something close to the psychic euphoria produced by yoga or meditation. You’ve entered a zone of food satori, mystically zonked by the punch of a culture that has been perfecting its culinary subtleties for thousands of years. What to do?  After an elaborately choreographed goodbye, we took a digestive stroll in the seaside air, passing through the gaudy Kanazawa downtown with its Ginza-style flashing lights, its kuru kuru (conveyor belt) sushi restaurants (Japanese is rich in onomatopoetic words, and 'kuru kuru' is the sound of a conveyor belt; say it fast and you’ll understand), its knickknack shops, bars and omnipresent FamilyMart convenience stores.  Our destination was the beautiful old wood-fronted part of town called Higasha Chaya-Gai. (Kanazawa shares with Kyoto the distinction of being one of the few large Japanese cities not bombed by the Allies during World War II). There, we entered a sleekly minimalist bar called Teriha 照葉 and seated ourselves among the drinkers, conscious that it was our last evening out.
(a) The “satori” is defined in (4), so are components of "Higasha Chaya-Gai."
(b) Higasha Chaya-Gai  東茶屋街
(i) Higashi Chaya District. In Kanazawa Tourist Information Guide 金沢旅物語. 金沢市観光協会, undated.
http://www.kanazawa-tourism.com/eng/guide/guide1_4.php?no=1
(ii) 東茶屋街: "Kanazawa's most famous geisha district"  (Across the city is a smaller 西茶屋街, restored for geisha also).
(c) 照葉. 金沢観光推進委員会, undated.
http://kanazawa.cc/kanazawarepoteriha.html

The "teri" is a noun whose corresponding verb  is "teru."  For the latter, see (4).  (Of note, this "teri" is also the first part of teriyaki 照り焼き (or simply 照焼)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teriyaki
(The word teriyaki derives from the noun teri (照り), which refers to a shine or luster given by the sugar content in the tare (タレ) [basting sauce])

(15) "Shrouded in darkness at the end of the bar [照葉], the owner, an ex-geisha named Yaeko YOSHIGAWA 吉川 弥栄子, began playing a flute. It was a bamboo flute called a shinobue, much used in Noh and Kabuki theater music and part of the essential 'kit' of the geisha."
(a) The definitions of 弥栄 and 篠笛 are in (4).
(b) 篠笛
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AF%A0%E7%AC%9B
(photos)