The municipalities to which I made my “Furusato Nozei” contributions this time are
"Furusato Nozei" is now widely recognized, but are you all taking advantage of it? It’s a great system where you simply pay the taxes you’d normally pay to your home municipality to another municipality instead, and that local government sends you a thank-you gift in return! For more details, please refer to other blogs or Furusato Nozei websites, so I’ll skip the specifics here.
Now, the municipality I made my donation to this time is
Tono Town in Miyazaki Prefecture!
It’s a place rich in nature (*^-^*) Since sleeping in my car and camping are my hobbies, I really want to visit places like this where I’ve made Hometown Tax donations. Before my twins were born, I used to go on car camping and camping trips with my wife and eldest daughter all the time. We’ve been to Tohoku, Kanto-Koshin, Hokuriku, Tokai, and Kinki—all of them.I’ve never been to the
Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu, or Hokkaido regions for car camping or camping trips, so it’s a real regret that I’ll be returning to my home island before I can conquer them all. And here’s where Tono Town is located!
I want to go!! lol
What I Received
When I make a “Hometown Tax” donation, I try to choose local specialties or products made right there in that region. The reason is that I want to experience what makes that place special. After all, I can’t be satisfied unless I get a good deal plus something extra, haha. I want to get a little taste of the warmth—or the atmosphere—of that place.
So, here’s what arrived this time!
As the title says, it’s eel from Kyushu♪
Just looking at the box makes me twice as excited!
Inside…
Five eels!
Here’s what it looks like when I open the bag
They’re bigger than I expected.
Cooking
Time to cook! Since they arrive frozen, we first ran them under hot water while still in their inner bags. The cooking instructions are included in the enclosed guide. It said they’d taste even better if you warmed them up and then lightly grilled them, so I tried simply stir-frying them in a skillet.
Gwaaaaah! This is insane… The aroma alone had me hooked. Sorry about the well-worn cast-iron skillet! After stir-frying
over low heat for about two minutes, it was ready to eat.
My family was all smiles
Time to dig in!
Sorry for the unstylish presentation… One portion for my 6-year-old daughter, one for me, and one for my wife (who’s skipping the rice). We enjoyed our meal while chatting about how, if we were to eat this at the eel restaurant in the next town—which we visit maybe once every few years—it would easily cost over 10,000 yen for our family of five (the twins are only a year and a half old, so they just had rice).Even imported eel is expensive when you go out to eat it, isn’t it? (´；ω；｀) *sniff* Since I ate two eels this
time, the remaining three are still sleeping in the freezer. I’m so happy! Since I’m still
living within the Rakuten ecosystem, I purchased them (is “purchased” the right word?) through the Rakuten Hometown Tax Donation program. Actually, this is the second time I’ve ordered this eel.lol It was so delicious last time that I just had to order it again. One thing that bothers me a bit is that the small bones feel slightly thicker than usual, but even so, the flavor is definitely delicious. I’m truly grateful that I can enjoy this just by changing where I direct my tax donation. I think I’ve been participating in the Hometown
Tax Donation program for quite a while now, so while I wish I’d introduced the places I’ve donated to so far, I’ll be sure to share them when the next shipment arrives.If you know of any great places to donate, please let me know! I’ll sneakily
include a link here
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