First, You Get A Dried Snake…
Make sure it’s a poisonous snake. Then you chop it into little pieces…
…and put it in the Cuisinart. Add some dried ginger and garlic and a few other secret ingredients.
Grind it all up together and pour it in a medicine bottle.
Mix one teaspoon into a cup of hot water every morning before you eat anything, to keep your eyes sharp, your legs strong, and your skin young. Or so I was told by the traditional medicine vendor who comes three times a month to market day on Koshinzuka street, as he whipped me up a batch. I did try a sample of his snake tea first, to make sure it wasn’t killingly horrible, but it was actually a lot less awful than the miraculous OTC Chinese medicine stuff I take when I have a cold.
Apparently, making snake medicine isn’t easy. You have to grow the snakes yourself from eggs, then kill them and coil them up and dehydrate them. It’s not a business that’s very popular with the neighbors, because they’re always sure the snakes will get out. Poisonous snakes are hard to love, it would seem. He also told me that many foreigners stop to gawk at his wares, but I am the first one to buy any. Except for a Columbian woman, but she didn’t count because she was married to a Japanese. In honor of this occasion, he gave me twice as much as I paid for, as a special favor. So now I have plenty to share with my friends, bwahahahaha!
If you’d like to visit the market on Koshinzuka Street, directions and more pictures are on my website, The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had . The market is held every day that ends in a “4″: the 4th, 14th and 24th of each month.
