I have more friends planning a trip to Japan. This group of friends is going to Hokkaido and asked if we could meet and talk about Hokkaido stuff as they prepare for their trip.

This meeting, like my other Japan meetings, was a delicious pot luck gathering with good-fun friends talking about good-fun stuff. I forgot to take pictures of the food before we started eating but you can see how we dug in to the yummy food. We had an assortment of food including noodles, korean chicken, teri beef, fried rice, and pigs in a blanket as well as a delicious dessert from Moonstruck Patisserie.

It was a rainy day on this Japan-meeting day so I decided to make tonjiru, which is a hearty vegetable and pork miso soup. I used Just One Cookbook’s tonjiru recipe as the starting point for my soup.I sauteed some pork belly and ginger in sesame oil.I added some chopped gobo, onions, and carrots to the pot. I simmered the mixture in a dashi and miso broth.I added enoki mushrooms, lotus root, konnyaku, tofu, and shiitake. The soup hit the spot on this rainy day in Hilo. Living Hilo Style.