柔道のパーティー

On Friday night I went to a party that the Judo families had.They joked that it was my welcome party, but it seems that they hardly need an excuse to throw parties together! I arrived with one of my Judo instructors and his kids to the house hosting the party where the lady of the house was making her preparations. Like most houses I have visited here, it was quite a large house. The party room was the front sitting room situated right next to the kitchen. We set up by laying down blankets on the floor of the front room and then bringing in long low tables to sit around. The man of the house arrived with fresh squid, one of which he had caught himself. He showed me how to prepare it for sashimi by removing the organs and ink sack and then slicing it into thin pieces. 

Other families quickly began arriving with various dishes of food. That night we ate the squid sashimi; akayame sashimi, which is young tuna; sauteed squid; sandwiches (egg salad, tuna, ham and tomato, and katsu); gyoza (she made 150!!!!); stew of eggs, pork and daikon; rice topped with various colorful things; chicken tenders; potato gratin; all completely homemade and delicious! My Judo partner even made tacos especially for me, since I have mentioned in the past that I miss Mexican food. They were so good and it was nice to have such a familiar food! However the people I was with had trouble eating them, trying to take a bite and the crunchy taco shell falling apart. They joked that they needed to learn from me the way to eat tacos. My friend also had made salsa to go in the tacos, and one person spooned salsa onto the outside of the taco instead of inside, and my friend adamantly said no it goes inside! It was so funny to watch. 

We drank wine, beer and shochu. A few people brought bottles of fine red wine, since they had asked me a month ago if I prefer beer or wine. Also someone brought a special bottle of shochu. Shochu is a Japanese alcohol made from potatoes. But this one was actually made from sweet potatoes, and it had a nice flavor I thought. I was told it is an unusual drink to have the opportunity to try. 

The party had a very solid family atmosphere. The adults sat in the the main room drinking and talking, and the kids played in the next room and ran in and out whenever they were hungry to grab some food. The Judo families seem to be very close; they are all friends and everyone treats everyone's kids like their own. 

We talked about Noto-ben, which is the accent/dialect here where I live. It is pretty rough, and even they described it as sounding like two people arguing. Even though people have amicable relations when they are talking it might sound harsh because it is just a coarse variety of Japanese. I imagine this is because I live in the country surrounded by farmers and fishermen, so fancy overly polite Japanese is just not traditionally the norm here. Of course everyone can speak polite Japanese when they want to, but several older people do generally speak in Noto-ben. I had such a great time hanging out with these people. It was just another event that made me so glad to have joined Judo. Not only am I very excited about the sport, but I love the community that I am now a part of. I cannot wait until the next party (they are already planning to have one in December!).

I stayed the night at my friends house with her family. So at 2 in the morning we walked from the party house to where they live. When we were almost there it started to rain, so she handed me the bags, scooped up here three year old daughter, and we and her two elementary school sons ran the last 150 feet home, laughing the whole way! 

Yes, that is cucumber in the taco!

Some of my recent cooking experiments have included vegetable tenpura and oyako don. I made tenpura which is the Japanese method of frying food. The batter is pretty thin and creates a light crispy shell. I made sweet potatoes, tofu, peppers, akebi, onions, and persimmons. Yes, persimmons seem like a strange thing to fry, but actually they turned out to be the most delicious item! 

Yesterday I made oyako don for dinner, which is a very traditional rice bowl dish. Oyako means parent and child, it gets this name because of its two principal ingredients- chicken and eggs. They are cooked with onions and seasoning and then spooned over a steaming bowl of rice. Delicious!