Japanese skinship, food and communion with kami

I have ardent dietary, emotional and other featured "skinship" bonds with Japanese customs and formalities. My mother died when I was still more or less a child. Afterwards I began to live with a Japanese American family in Diamond Bar. In this way, my second mother was Japanese. This is where it started.

Focusing on food, I suppose in ancient agrarian times the Japanese were essentially vegetarian subsisting primarily on rice and preserved vegetables. Consumption of meat, fish or any sort of animal by-product was probably rare. Bauddha instilled morality was likely in place, as well. As the islands were abundant in enzyme-rich forest herbs and other such materials, the Japanese developed incredibly creative and subtle ways of enhancing the nutritional value and flavor of their food. Such patterns of food preparation and consumption were furthermore seen as a way of connecting with the numinous qualities of nature and thought through a kind of ontic absorption with and in the presence of local spirits traditionally known as 'kami'.

Later, as an undergraduate studying philosophy, I had the privilege of studying with Professor Floyd H. Ross. He had lived in Japan on several Fulbright scholarships and had written an influential study titled 'Shinto: The Way of Japan' (1965).