七尾の週末
Two weeks ago, I went to hang out with some friends in nearby Nanao for their fall festival. On that Saturday I met up with one of my friends who lives there and we headed to Ippon Sugi Street. Thus began, Ippon Sugi Street Adventures Part II. (Remember, this is where I befriended the owners of a shop there and then they took me to an old fashioned matcha shop where I learned to grind green tea into powder for tea ceremony)
So we strolled down Ippon Sugi, amid the shopkeepers and vendors who were setting up their stalls for the next day when the festivities would happen. We walked into various shops to admire the Japanese goods, we even found a dishware place that sold laquerware dishes that cost upwards of $1000! About halfway down we entered a shop and began talking to the woman who owned it, she was very interested in us and we had a lively conversation and she even recommended a good restaurant on the next street over for us to try for dinner. Of course she also produced maps of the area, and very carefully made sure we knew exactly where the restaurant was and how to get there, Japanese hospitality! She also recommended we go to the Japanese antique shop next door, so off we went to check it out.
We walked in that shop and that store keeper also was delighted to talk to us! We talked about teaching, Japanese vs. American children, boyfriends, and she even informed us of the shooting at the Los Angeles airport which happened the day before and neither my friend nor myself had heard about it yet! After a few minutes she even made green tea for us and had us sit down at a little table in her shop to continue chatting.
castella cakes, and with a "Choudo des!" She kindly offered them to us. Castella is a traditional Japanese cake, and choudo des is Japanese for "Just right!" as in just the right number, three cakes for three guests.
By this time a third friend had walked by and saw us in the shop and joined us, and the lady of the shop happened to have three mini
After leaving her shop we went down the street further and I saw the shop of the couple that I had
befriended on my previous trip to this street. I walked up to the door and it did not open, sadly the store was closed, so I was not going to be able to say hello. The other two JETs and myself were standing by the road in front of the shop talking when the man emerged from the shop. He said "good evening," and I returned the salutation and asked if he remembered me, which he did! He excitedly recounted to my friends the story of the rainy night that I first visited their shop and he took me down the street to the matcha shop. Soon his wife also came out and was also happy to see me. I introduced her to me friends, and they ushered us inside the shop and began explaining a little bit about the products they sell. In their shop they sell the display cases that are used in temples to hold the images, and candles that are placed in the center of the shrine. The cases are black and gold and are completely made by hand. He explained to us how five different people work on them and he was one of those people. Apparently he works on them in a studio above the store, and their house is even above the store! We mentioned where we were going for dinner, and they affirmed that it was a good choice for dinner, and the man also produced maps and explained to us how to get to this restaurant. After leaving, he even walked us down the street to where we made the right turn to go the restaurant and pointed it out to us to make sure we got there with no problem.
This restaurant, called ICOU, was such a brilliant recommendation. The food was delicious and the atmosphere fantastic. When my friend and I first walked in, the man working asked if we had a reservation so for a second we were like "Oh no!" But the lady working there interjected that just two people was fine, so we were seated. All the furniture and architecture of the restaurant was old fashioned wood, and they had a projector shooting artistic, black and white photos on the back wall. After persuing the menu for a bit, and not really knowing what we were looking at, we called the waiter over and asked his recommendations. He recommended three different dishes, so we ordered all three! They were indeed good choices. We ate a stir-fried rice dish called
chahan, a spaghetti with tomato based sauce dish, and a pizza that was covered in all kinds of mushrooms and had a really special and different sauce on it. The sauce was dark brown in color and tasted hearty, almost like a steak sauce or wine sauce. The cuisine was a great Italian-Japanese fusion. I definitely want to eat at that restaurant again.
On Sunday morning, we met a third ALT and set out for a day of exploring Nanao's Fall Festival. We started by stopping by a "free market," aka flea market. Here they also had a stage set up and a few student groups were performing. We watched a troupe of elementary aged cheerleaders, a high school aged hip hop group, and a traditional dragon dance. While we were watching the performances, our cheering attracted the attention of a strange, old, Japanese man. He proceeded to approach us and then treat us with a harmonica performance. He played his harmonica with great vigor, and even played it with his nostrils. This performance was so shocking that we could only wonder how long it would last. After a few uncomfortable minutes, we were able to thank him and scamper away. When the old man accosted us, my other friend sneakily retreated a safe distance from the harmonica playing and was able to capture the anomaly on video. In order to fully appreciate the spectacle, please notice two points: my expression in the first second of the video, and then later my friend slowly backing away!
After leaving the flea market we ventured to Ippon Sugi street to wander around, it was bustling with people and busy vendors. We found the tents set up by some famous udon vendors who traveled from Marugame city to make and sell udon to the crowds. So we grabbed some udon and it was great!
Next we made our way to the old fashioned green tea shop and were welcomed in by the storekeeper. He set us up on the tea grinder to grind tea leaves into matcha powder and told us all about the history of the grinders and their use in Japan. Apparently the tea grinder was brought to Japan from China in the 13th century, but England also had their own tea grinders at this time; the two countries independently developed this technology. He even told us the ingredients and percentages of each to use when making gunpowder! The old gentleman got out a tray and dishes for each of us to have our tea and sweets on. He put the sugary sweets on our trays and told me to teach the others, since I knew how to do prepare the sweets from the previous time I visited his shop. We sat on the tatami mats of his store for an hour talking to him about the history of green tea, the Japanese hobbies we are all exploring now that we live here, and more.
Next we went to a sumo park nearby and watched an amateur sumo tournament. The players were from elementary to high-school age I believe. As we were sitting there chatting and enjoying the tournament, I suddenly heard little voices running by saying "Oribia sensei! Oribia sensei!" I looked over and saw several 5th graders from one of my schools! They had traveled to Nanao to compete in the sumo tournament. A little bit later I heard my name from the other direction and looked over to see we had sat next to another group of my students from yet another school! At the tournament there were even a few elementary girls competing, moreover a couple of them competed against boys. I thought this was very surprising, since you rarely see boys and girls compete against each other in sports. However I think this is a somewhat uncommon occurrence even for sumo. After three hours of hanging out and watching sumo, we left to go have nabe for dinner!
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| Girls do it too! |
Nabe
