Judo Christmas Party

On Saturday night the Judo club had a Christmas party. Once a few people arrived, we did an informal beer and wine kanpai (all Japanese gatherings start with a kanpai, no matter how informal- a fun tradition :)) and got the party started.

Like last time, this was very much a family affair. All the adults sitting in the living room/main room drinking and talking while the kids ran in and out and played upstairs. I've noticed the parents really seem to take care of their kids and give them high priority. When the food was all laid out, they called the kids to come down and eat first. The parents all made sure the kids are full and happy, eating everything they wanted before any of the parents started to eat. Also, I took sweet potato casserole for everyone, so the parents had me serve it to the kids and were telling them "This is a special gift from Olivia, American food!" The kids were a bit afraid to try it, because of course they have never eaten it before. But at the parents insistence, even the scared kids ate it and even said they liked it. But a couple of the boys were actually quick to volunteer to try it, so I take that as a sign that they are warming up to me. 

We had so many delicious foods! Handmade sushi, aburage (fried tofu pouches) stuffed with chicken, crab and much more! I also took thumbprint cookies, which were a big hit with everyone. Also, someone brought two little "Christmas Cakes," because eating cake is apparently a "Christmas thing" here. They put candles on them and turned the lights down, and the kids blow them out like a birthday cake. I thought this was hilarious, but then I was discussing it with the parents and they said it is not a normal thing even for Japan. In Japan, like America, blowing out candles on a cake is usually just for birthdays not Christmas. But it was fun for the kids anyway.

Although I was with very different people, in a very different culture, eating vastly different foods than my "normal" Christmas time experiences, it was wonderful to have people to celebrate Christmas with in a fun, family environment.

お正月の生花

立山

The first weekend of October I hiked Mt. Tateyama, one of the three sacred mountains in Japan. Tateyama has an elevation of 3,015 m (9,892 feet) and is located in the Toyama prefecture. Climbing this mountain, and the accompanying range, made for the most fatiguing yet simultaneously rewarding day of my life to this point. 

The journey started at 5:00 a.m. driving to Tateyama station to meet the group of ALT's who decided to make the climb together, about 20 of us in all. From Tateyama station we took a cable car up the mountain and then a 50 minute bus ride to the Murodo plateau station. At this point, elevation 2,450 m, the hike on foot started. 

This was my first mountain climb, and I learned that while ascents are mind-breaking for me, descents are no problem at all! Discussing this with my hiking buddies, I heard that physically the descents are considered to be much harder, because the impact on your knees is much worse. However, I do not seem to find this to be a problem, rather the mental obstacle of overcoming the ascent is what affects me the most. 

After one and a half hours of climbing, we reached the summit of Tateyama! The views were gorgeous, and it was awesome to know that I had just climbed this mountain. We took about half an hour to take pictures, chat about our victory over the mountain, and gorge ourselves on snacks!

The Shrine perched on the rocky summit

Eating and being exhausted (little did I know what was coming!)

First time I have actually seen a sign warning of the danger of losing your phone to the toilet!

I was mesmerized by this cloud that drifted in to surround us at the mountain peak.

A view from the summit

After paying our respects at the shrine, myself and three others chose to continue climbing a loop around the mountain range while the others in our group turned back and went down the way we came up. Our loop extended the climb by four or five hours and granted us the opportunity to see so many spectacular views! Continuing the trail over the mountain range with three or four more peaks was surely the right choice in my opinion, I felt so rewarded after that extended climb, much more than the initial (although it is the main and famous) peak of Tateyama. 

Crossing the range was a pleasurable hike, since we were already on top of the mountain it was mostly ridge walking at this point with some up and down scrambles over loose rocky areas. There were also a couple times when the path narrowly hugged the side of the mountain, and we had to crab walk as the Japanese say to continue the hike. One mis-step could easily have left us tumbling down the dangerously steep side of the mountain. 

While climbing, every so often, we stopped to look back at the mountain range and point out peaks we had just been on like an hour before- that engendered such a feeling of triumph and accomplishment and gave me the energy to keep walking even though it had already been a long day. 

After five hours of steady hiking we came to our final descent down the mountain, already thoroughly exhausted. I was so happy at having this accomplishment behind me, I had climbed a mountain, not just any mountain one of the sacred mountains of Japan. In my feelings of triumph I half skipped, half ran down the mountain, smiling and joyous the whole way! My climbing partner, being the normal kind of climber that finds descents difficult, slowed down, donned a sour expression, and worried over her knees on the way down. But we were almost done with our climb, so with words of encouragement to each other we quickly made our way down, the final thrust of our journey on the mountain!

We finished our descent, and walked through a campground and headed back to Murodo. When suddenly we came upon a huge stone staircase imposing itself between us and the Murodo plateau station. A staircase of about 20 FLIGHTS.

I was not happy. After climbing to the top of Tateyama, hiking a loop around the mountain range over 3-4 more peaks and then descending the mountain, we had to go back up by stairs?!!??! 

We had to climb the stairs in order to reach Murodo station, where our group was waiting for us so we could take the last bus out to get back to the train station. We had received messages from our friends that there was only one bus left, and we did not have time to waste. Here my partner and I switched roles. She bounded up the rocky steps, while I spiraled down from my high of climbing the mountain. 

I was inordinately incensed over having to climb back up after having already finished the mountain climb. Also, at this point the exhaustion really set in, by this time we had been climbing and hiking for over five hours, and I literally had to drag my legs with each step up. Several times I stopped where I was standing, certain that I could not possibly move any more. But then I thought, "Well I can either stand here all night, or I can walk myself up these stairs." Even though my legs felt like lead, I somehow mustered the strength, one step at a time, to overcome the seemingly endless flights of stairs. 

Finally we reached the top and got back to Murodo station, with only twenty minutes to spare before the last bus left. We rewarded ourselves by eating wonderful steamed meat dumplings from a vendor inside the station, our first bites of hot/fresh food all day. The total climb was six hours and was an unbelievably rewarding experience. I have never seen anything so awe-inspiring as the views from the top of the mountain range, and this trip I hope is going to be the first of more climbs to come. 

忘年会

December is the season for bonenkai, end of the year parties, in Japan. This weekend I had one on Friday night as well as Saturday night. 

On Friday night I joined one of my elementary schools's for their party which they held at a local onsen hotel. They hired a driver to pick everyone up and bring us to the hotel together. Upon arriving at the hotel we were shown to our room, already set up for our party in very traditional Japanese style. However this time we had chairs! Usually when parties are held in tatami rooms everyone sits on the floor in front of their little tables. Of course each set was beautifully laid out, each setting identical to its neighbors.

We had a wonderful feast of delicious sea foods, beautifully arranged. One of the most important parts of Japanese cuisine is presentation, and they really care about the details. One dish we had included sea cucumbers, my first time to try this sea creature. It did not really have any flavor, and was a bit tough and chewy. It was not bad by any means, my impression was simply wonder at why you would bother to eat them at all. Allover, however, the dinner was fantastic.

On Saturday evening, I had I joined the Board of Education for their end of the year party. It was in Kanazawa, the capital of our prefecture, and we had an exciting line-up of destinations for the evening. We started at a restaurant for a nabe dinner, where we also had a 二時間飲み放題、which is a two hour all you can drink deal. So of course we kept our glasses full of beer and sake. We followed dinner by going to a snack bar for karaoke. Snack bars are very small bars that always offer some variety of snacks for you to enjoy as you sing karaoke and drink. They are usually quite small, both times I have gone to a snack bar with my BOE, our party (of 16-20 people) alone filled the establishment. After the group had our fill of karaoke, we headed on to the next place. The last place on our list was a small bar owned by the boss's son. We actually had tasty drinks here including white wine and mixed drinks, and he offered us delicious snacks as well. As always, going out with this group made for a lively and fun night. 

生花#3

My favorite so far

Thanksgiving Lesson

Although many American holidays like Halloween and Christmas are well known in Japan, Thanksgiving is not. But this is my personal favorite holiday, and a very important one for America anyway, so I definitely wanted to teach my students about it. So today at one of my junior highs, I taught my students about Thanksgiving. I got the brilliant idea for this lesson from one of my ALT friends (thanks, Tricia! :)), and it turned out to be hilarious!  

I made a blank comic and instructed them to look at the pictures and guess what they thought is happening. After teaching them only three keywords: settler, Native American, and corn; I gave them the comics to write their own stories based on the pictures. After working on the comics for about thirty minutes, I told them the real Thanksgiving story. The stories my students came up with were absolutely brilliant, and I was walking around class cracking up as they worked. Here are the results of our lesson:

Third Years

First Years

Second Years

料理の時間

Yesterday was my second cooking class, we made nabe, chuwanmushi (egg custard), cucumber and radish tsukemono, and milk mochi for dessert.

We met at the community center and then walked to a nearby grocery store to shop for the ざいりょう (ingredients). We walked through the small store and our instructor explained to us why she was choosing the vegetables, meats, etc. She also pointed out different products we might not understand and answered our questions. After we finished purchasing our ingredients we headed back to the community center to start cooking.

First we prepared the tsukemono, which is a common Japanese side dish. It is like freshly pickled vegetables. We chopped the cucumber wagiri which means in rounds, just thin slices. And we chopped the radish into triangles pieces. We put them in bags, sprinkled salt on them and then massaged the salt into the flesh for a few minutes.

While letting the tsukemono sit, we prepared the chuwanmushi. Chuwanmushi is a savory egg custard that is made by beating eggs and mixing them with broth, which is then poured into cups over the other ingredients. In our cups we layered chicken pieces, mushrooms, seaweed, and fish cakes. Then the cups are steamed in a big pot for twenty minutes.

Next we prepared the nabe, which was surprisingly simple to make! We made a winter nabe with hakusai cabbage and pork. I've eaten nabe in a restaurant once, and it was not nearly as beautiful as what we created! The specific type of nabe we made is called ミルフィーユ鍋, because the cabbage and pork are made in layers. So we layered cabbage and thin pork slices five layers thick, then cut that into the three pieces and stood the pieces up in the nabe pot to look like a flower. After that, we sprinkled a small package of instant dashi seasoning over the top, and poured in two cups of water and then put the nabe pots on the burner to cook!

Lastly we prepared the milk mochi for our dessert. The dessert we made was actually based on potato starch, not rice, but it has the texture, appearance and stickiness, as well as the name! We made a mixture of sugar, milk, and potato starch and then slowly cooked it with continually stirring. Our teacher encouraged us to keep an eye on it, because when it would just thicken out of nowhere and is interesting to watch. So while one person stirred the rest of us gathered around to watch without a blink! After a few minutes, like she said it would, it went from totally liquid to all of the sudden thick and gel like! After it was solid enough we took it off the heat to cool. Later we kneaded it and then cut it into pieces which we dusted with kinako and sugar. Kinako is a powder made from soy beans, and is often dusted on bread or mochi desserts.

At around 8:30 we were finally ready to serve the food and eat, and by that time everyone was starving! So we squeezed around one of the counters, laid out dishes for everyone and dug in. After eating the first round out of the nabe, we put in tofu, mushrooms, and udon; let it cook for a bit and ate the next round! Again, the food was delicious!