The Lowrider of Tables: Japanese Low Table Part 1: Making a Plan

A Plan Hatches: In which I decide to build a Japanese low table.

Japanese traditional furniture. Picture a traditional Japanese room, the kind with the tatami floor and all the cool, clean lines.

Not a lot of furniture? Well, traditionally, if you need something, you can pull it out. Space is a premium, and you need to think outside the box that you live in. Your living room can also be your dining room and bedroom. It can be anything! (Except a bathroom- that's the rules, man.)

You can add futons. Easy to drag out.

In the morning, pack them away and you can bring out a table.

Not to say that all Japanese houses consist of one room, but I think I'm pointing out how darn practical Japanese furniture can be. And how much I like those low tables. We had a low table in the last trip at Koya-san in the monastery.

I think to myself- no way I can buy furniture in Japan and stuff it in my suitcase. And no way I'm paying crazy shipping either. Solution: make a table.
To start, I wanted to see what variety there is. I quickly learned that there are distinctions between standard low tables like this that can be desk/dining table/coffee table and other types of tables.
You're probably familiar with kotatsu.
Kotatsu

The major difference here is the fact that it's made to hold a flat heater unit insulated with a thick comforter between frame and tabletop. Heavenly for wintery places! Like, not Florida places. Next:

Chabudai

Translation: tea table. Cool. Looks similar to a regular Japanese low table, except...they're mostly round. And kinda intended for tea. Okay, round it nice and all, but I just want a standard grade A table.

Te-buru
I can't find the name of a this. It is just "table"? I know the name of the cushions one sits on at such a table (zabuton), but what about the table itself? The important thing is I know what it looks like.

And I know what it feels like. And I can measure how tall it needs to be to fit over my American thighs. I can personalize it with shelves. I can pick out the wood I want. I can build it, too, because I have an expert wood craftsman on staff, aka "Dad".

The Plan
Here's my Sketchup mockup:

Now to pick out wood! There's a wood warehouse place in town. Lots of varieties, and it looks like a lot of exotic wood if from Africa, and does not have a Japanese vibe. The teak looks very nice, and is the only Asian wood in the place. I would jump on that if it weren't for the fact that it's $17 a board foot. Okay, so I narrowed it down to:
Mahogany, below

Walnut, above. I went back and forth. Both hardwoods, good for furniture. Mahogany is a little cheaper. Walnut has a pretty dusky brown color. Mahogany is reddish. I decided to go for mahogany. Maybe it was that little girl in me that remembers all the pretty mahogany furniture in historic houses I've seen. Maybe I was afraid the dusky brown Walnut would look too dull in a bright carpeted room. I dunno. We'll see how it turns out. Tune in later as this thing gets off the ground. (But only by 12 inches.)

Oh! Onigiri: Riceballs of Sticky Goodness

Sushi is good times and all, but I'm just as happy with a nice, satisfyingly triangular onigiri.
That's onigiri, not to be confused with nigiri. And certainly not to be confused with oni.

Nigiri:

Oni:

Onigiri:

Onigiri can have so much variety.

And comes in such a beautiful, hand-held better-than-a-sandwich level of convenience. And they're pretty cheap, too. And really filling. I love looking at the rows of conbini onigiri.

This one was in Osaka. In Tokyo Station, there's a whole store of onigiri!! Anyway, needless to say I have to try it out.
Here's a handy little illustration of the homemade process, just like grandma and her cat make:

Okay! We start with making rice. I used sushi rice, because, well, I don't know, what do I know? Seems like a good idea. You may have seen the Japanese method before, where you rinse the rice till the water is clear. One website says rinse 2 or 3 times, which was complete bullcrap. Maybe more like 2 or 3 minutes, and it still looks a slightly cloudy. Whatever. Good enough.

Then you dump in water with the rice in a pot, and 25 minutes later, it's done. Yay! Sticky rice! I'm not adding rice vinegar, because this is not sushi. But it's a million degrees steamy hot, and this activity uses your hands to shape the rice balls. Okay, so let's check on the filling part.
Last Japan trip, my favorite was the pickled mustard greens・高菜(takana).

 I found some pickled mustard greens at my favorite local Asian foodstuff store. Fresh Market had sashimi tuna steaks on sale for $5. Why not? And then there's pickled plum, because it's not Japanese until Pickled Plum comes to the party.

I clearly should have done as the grandma picture indicated and had a bowl of water and used wet hands to shape the balls. I had sticky grains of rice clinging to me like crazy and that was with using plastic wrap overtop. Also...triangles are harder than you think.

I was making progress, though. I think you have to make "L" shapes with your hands.

So, lessons learned: Use a bowl of water, no plastic wrap. Sashimi is nice and all, but what you need for onigiri is shredded style- easier to bite. Also, save the nori wrap till you're ready to eat, so it'll be nice and crisp. And this stuff takes a lot of rice. 1 cup dry rice yielded 4 onigiri of moderate size.

Next time: I'm going to try the baked/yaki onigiri. Oooooh.

 Here's some more onigiri from my trip: