I know this is not very good. It was actually my third try coloring and shaping the mashed potatoes. At first a Japanese friend didn’t know what to say when she looked at the photo. Then, she said it looks sexy/naked. That was not my intention, I created lines to indicate the folds of cloth. I asked if it appeared disrespectful and should I not use it. She then said that it was cute and I should use the photo. This is not my first time attempting Buddha in food, years ago, I made a quesadilla Buddha. Another time, I used a cookie cutter to make a Buddha shaped tortilla chip on top of a Buddha Bowl meal.

Reclining Buddha – Blue and green food coloring – it also has specks of spinach in it since I first tried to dye it naturally, Peanuts

Inspiration photo for my Reclining Buddha Food

When we first started to plan our trip to Japan, my language partner Maki lived not far from Fukuoka so we planned to visit her for 2 nights. My niece researched places to visit in Fukuoka and found the reclining Buddha which we became excited to see. Then, my Maki’s work transferred her back to Osaka. In reorganizing our trip, we still wanted to see the reclining Buddha and I was excited to get off the island of Honshu and visit Kyushu for the first time. We decided on a day trip to Fukuoka. Therefore we left Niigata, flew to Fukuoka, visited Fukuoka for about 5 hours, then took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto all in the same day!

Wednesday July 3

• Fly from Niigata to Fukuoka
• Put luggage in a locker at Hakata Station
• Reclining Buddha – Nanzoin
• Feed Koi and Relax at Rakusuien
• Buy food at Hakata Station (including mini flavored croissants and Eki-Ben (train station bento)
• Shinkansen to Kyoto

Add Katriel’s wall photo