The Sticky

Another fine fall day this past Saturday, perfect for BBQing with friends and learning an old Japanese custom: 餅つき　or Mochi Making. Mochi, if you recall from a previous post, is a Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice. I believe I originally described the texture of mochi as "playdoh-like".

Kanai sensei, a super friendly Japanese teacher, whose English is excellent, invited some JET friends, his neighbors and myself over to his lovely country home for the day. Upon arrival, we were put to work immediately, taking turns mashing and pounding the rice with a big wooden hammer. I expected it to be a long, tedious process, but in fact we were done in less than 30 minutes.

The tools:


The power:



The product:After finishing, we gorged ourselves on the fruits of our labor, combining the mochi with all sort of goodies like natto (fermented soy beans), anko (red bean paste), kurogoma (black sesame paste), and Japanese pickles.



Mochi is quite sticky and a bit hard to eat. It is tempting to stick the whole cake in your mouth at once rather than take bites, but this is unadviseable. More than a few people die every year from choking on mochi. It is so sticky, it is said, that even the Heimlich maneuver is not effective at removing mochi stuck in the throat. A vacuum is recommended.

After the mochi, Kanai-sensei plopped down two enormous slabs of salmon on an outdoor grill, then covered them with cabbage, bean sprouts, and miso. More gorging.

Then the wives cooked the rest of the mochi on the grill, known as "yakimochi". However, "yakimochi" is also the word for jealousy. You can imagine the "wives cooking up jealousy" jokes that followed...

Another highlight of the day was Masaki-san, the genki neighbor, whose English was not so good, but was a barrel of laughs. Inexplicably, he is a big fan of American football and hates Japanese beer. He ONLY drinks Budweiser. This baffles me. Perhaps its because its made from rice.

体育の日

This past Monday was a public holiday, "Taiiku no Hi" or "Health and Sports Day", so three friends and I opted to get some serious excercise on a long hike. After packing our gear and a very late start on Sunday night, we drove two hours north into Iwate-ken, the prefecture above Miyagi. Not finding the Iwate-san trailhead parking area where we had hoped to camp, we pulled into a nearby campground at the base of the mountain around 1 a.m. We setup our tents as quietly as possible, had a hot lemon whiskey nightcap (provided by Mark) to keep off the chill, and quickly went to bed.



In the morning we were up just past 6, had a quick breakfast of coffee, bananas, rice balls, and red bean paste donuts (I'm ridiculously addicted to these things), broke camp and then found the aforementioned trailhead.

The first kilometers of the hike through dense forest reminded me of Appalachia, though the vegetation was somewhat different of course. We met a single descending hiker who told us we could not get to the top and down in one day. Yet, not wanting to believe the naysayer, we pressed on. After several hours in the woods on a wet and muddy trail, we surfaced on a natural bald, with beautiful views of the summit and the rugged ridgeline leading up to it. We had fine, clear weather for most of the day, but the sky was fickle indeed, clouds blowing quickly in and out like a sea tide.



Stunning views as we walked along the ridgeline, looking much like what I imagine Peru's mountains might. Nearing the the top, we realized we were indeed pressed for daylight, and only one of us carrying a headlamp. Decision time. Akiko, celebrating her birthday, was not going to stop before reaching the summit. Mark, though wheezing from a lingering bout of bronchitis, was not to be outdone by a girl. Thus, they marched on. Kaori and I, both quite hungry, decided however, rather than race to the top and back, to spend the hour on a false summit eating norimaki sushi, ramen, and chocolate, and enjoying the sunshine and immense panorama. I did not regret the decision.





The walk down was stunning as well, with the surrounding mountains looking quite different in the weak afternoon light than they had in the morning. On the descent, I walked ahead of the others, spacing out for about two hours, as I tend to do when I am hiking, lost in my own world of thought and non-thought. The others caught me later, as I took a break on a sunny rock and took in a bit more of the views. We hiked the last kms together, tired but cheerful, oohing, ahhing, and sugoi-ing at the departing sun and its last rays piercing the evergreens and yellowing maples.





We had been looking forward to enjoying one of the nearby Nyuto Onsens (literally "Nipple Hot Spring", so called because the water apparently looks like breast milk) but unfortunately we had a long drive ahead of us and Akiko a train to catch. So we drove home dirty, smelly, and sore, but happy nonetheless after the healthy, 9-hour walk. A day well spent.

The Wall of America

Does this really have a lot of support in America right now? Those who do support it, do they really think it will work?

It reminds me of a situation in Panama. There was a boarding school that had seperate dormitories for girls and boys. The boys liked to sneak out at night, and climb through the windows into the girls' dorm. Many teenage pregnancies followed. So, the school built a tall wall with razor wire on the top around the girl's dorm to keep the boys out. What happened? The GIRLS found ways to get out, and went to the boys' dorm. More pregnancies...

While I am not suggesting that many Americans will be trying to jump over the proposed border fence into Mexico, I do think it (the fence) fails to solve the larger issue(s). In the case of the school, the problem was not the midnight escapes/escapades, but girls becoming pregnant while still in high school. The border fence may succeed in keeping a few more illegal immigrants out, but in no way addresses the issues of those already in America, (un)employment, and immigrants who enter from other points. In addition, it seems it would only hurt US/Mexico political relations. I'm sure I don't have the solution, but there's gotta be a better way to spend a billion dollars.

Tell me what YOU think.

東鳴子お神輿祭り

A break from writing this past week and a half, as I used my free time to rest my body from the many recent adventures, enjoy the onsen of Naruko, begin reading again (two gripping books, Nobel Prize Winner Richard Feynman's "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" and James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces"), continue my Japanese study efforts, and consider what lies ahead for me post-Japan.

This past Sunday, however, I took a break from all that to take part, at the behest of my principal and innkeeper friend, in the Higashi Naruko Omikoshi Matsuri, otherwise known as the East Naruko Portable Shrine Festival. I participated last year as well, and it was moderately interesting, but also miserably cold and wet. This year we had a fine day, and I was much happier to join. The shrine, shouldered by 8-10 folks at a time, is carried from business to business within the town (mostly inns) where the proprietors put out a spread of food, tea, and beer/sake for all the participants to partake. While being carried, the bearers and the rest of the people walking with the procession, chant something like "Wa-shoi", which directly translated, means "Lets all together carry this in harmony". Upon arrival at an establishment, the bearers spin the shrine exactly one revolution, and then hoist it in the air three times before setting it down on its stand. Then, everyone eats and drinks.




I did more my than my share of the carrying, for some reason always on the right side, and thus my left shoulder was still a littl sore three days later. I had hoped to meet some new folks in my neighborhood, but apart from the innkeeper and a few of my students and PTA members whom I already knew, much of the group was made up of out-of-towners (from Tokyo I think) who were none too friendly. One of these city slickers did talk to me a bit, but in a rather rude/drunk fashion. At one inn, he shouted to the old matron of the house, who came out to serve us homemade sake ("doburoku") and wore a hearing aid, "Hey grandma, what do you make of this strange gaijin?" The dear old woman, seemingly indifferent to where I came from, said nothing, poured me a glass of the bitter brew and probably didn't hear my sincere "Arigatou gozaimashita!"



After several hours, we took a break at the community center and had a wonderful Japanese lunch of miso soup, delicious onigiri/rice balls, salmon, tea, and more beer. During lunch I talked to two of my students, whom were much more eager to speak English outside of class, but I had to fend off the Big Shot who continued to bombard me with his attitude/drunkeness. Just after finishing my lunch, I heard my name mentioned, and turned around. A middle-aged lady whom I didn't know was looking at me funny, and turned back to her friend and said "Michael ga yowai nee?" (Michael is weak, isn't he?). Not a clue to what she was talking about, but still offended, I retorted "tsuyoi da yo!" (I'm quite strong!).

Not acustommed to having a few drinks in the morning, I felt quite sleepy after lunch and decided to skip the afternoon procession in favor of a nap. I walked happily home in the warm sunshine, musing about the fine morning, and yet with a sourness in mouth not entirely imparted by the doburoku.