Mochitsuki, the Basics

Okay, believe it or not, I actually keep a list of things that I want to write about in my blogs. It is just a matter of finally getting around to them....well, you know.

Today, there is a little thing I'd like to talk about called, mochitsuki (literally, "mochi making"). Mochitsuki is a tradition activity that has become more of less of a standard beginning of the year company ritual. Organizations set up the traditional equipment and provide the ingredients so that members, friends, and family of the group can come, pound giant mallets, and eat chewy, delicious paste to welcome in the new year. One such mochistuki was held by the construction workers at ICU. They invited everyone in to help them celebrate, and while I was interested in how the rice was actually made into mochi, I came mostly for the free lunch!

Hold on, what? Mochi? Oh, well that's uh.... I mean, it....hmm...right then. We'll call in a professional for this one: Wikipedia.

Mochi is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. Traditionally, mochi was made from whole, polished, glutinous rice, in a labor-intensive process. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time. Mochi is also a prominent snack in Hawaii, South Korea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Further fun fact: The Japanese believe that there is a rabbit (not a man) on the moon and he pounds mochi with a large mallet.

Now that business is done with, let's move on. After the usual Saturday morning Wadaiko practice, I scampered over the the construction grounds just in time for the community's taiko performance. They were playing a piece that I knew which was very refreshing and, to my surprise, many other Wadaiko kids showed up to watch, too. They were on their way to see the latest Harry Potter movie, but had decided to stop off for mochi-on-a-stick instead of pay hundreds of yen for a bucket of Japanese popcorn. As an audience-powered people, the Japanese encourage unison cheering, something which I am also for, but I don't know the words. I tried faking it, but I ended up just saying the of an Arabic rice dish or other nonsensical phrases that sounded close enough. The rest of the mochitsuki was rather uneventful, in truth, but the experience was well worth the wait in line for the soup! I may or may not have had 4ths of the soup, by the way. Don't believe everything you hear.

People were constantly pounding mochi which was then used in every way imaginable by the cooks. Folks of all sizes gave mochi making a go, even little kids. I, apparently, did better than expected, but my friend Kaze wowwed more people than I did. Feeling pretty good about myself, I stood tall and proud until this spindly, little Japanese guy waltzed up, grabbed the largest mallet available and began pounding mochi with the timed precision of a Rolex watch! This man pounded on time, every time, with such force, I couldn't believe it!

Overall, a very enjoyable experience. We should do that again sometime. Next year? Sounds good. Although, this Saturday I'm rather excited for a Udon Noodle Making Party at Musashi-Koganei!! Soup! Soup for everyone!!!

Saitama Soccer Game

Remember back when I mentioned settai? If not, you can scroll back in time to find the blog, but if you do recall this little Japanese vocabulary, let’s pick up where we left off.

Well, waaa~~yyy back, my Wadaiko group was set on a string of settai. One was run by our president ("Nani Sore Something Something" Shunyo, the boy looking at this red phone and standing next to me in that ever-so-flattering photo). He absolutely loves soccer, and practically lived on the soccer field in high school, so he opened up a goup outing to see his hometown, pro-team play. A chance to see a Japanese soccer game AND hang out with the Wadaiko members?! I’m in all the way!! And so were the OYRangers, but the other kids….were busy. But even if it was just the foreign students who promised to come, Shunyo went all out; he brought all of his official jerseys and t-shirts for us to wear on top of all our jackets and sweaters, taught us soccer terms, gave us the team’s stats, showed us chants and cheers, and escorted us from start to finish. Thus were the OYRangers made into Urawa Red Diamonds fans. Or, as they say in Japanese, “We are Redzu!” Engrish makes me smile.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. A few things happened before we even made it to the stadium. First of all, we were running a little late. We had to dash straight from practice, so everyone was pretty tuckered, but had to stay somewhat awake on the series of buses and trains. As we were waiting at one of the many stations that took us to Saitama, Shunyo made a call, and then walked down a narrow hallway, stopping in front of a tall, thin boy with a high school uniform.

“What is he doing?” the Yellow Ranger asked. “Maybe the boy is asking him something” the Red Ranger speculated. “Nah,” the Green Ranger piped up, “He wouldn’t have gone all the way down to hallway to get asked a question.” The Red Ranger gave another guess “Maybe they know each other. We’re near Shunyo’s hometown, you know.” After a moment or two, I noticed something a little strange.“Um…hey, guys…does that kid have a white envelope with him? Yeah, it kind of looks like …Shunyo just snatched it away!! Now he’s pushing that kid around! What’s going on!? He’s, he’s hustling that kid!”

After the brief wave of panic, we were able to find out what was really going on. In actuality, that “kid” was one of Shunyo’s kid brothers and was just dropping off our tickets to his big bro (so rough housing is totally normal).

A. Ny. Way. We finally get to the field and this thing is super! I'm so glad that Shunyo used to pretty much live at this field when he was younger, because just navigating the parking lot was an adventure. It tuns out that although we bought tickets, we couldn't find a place to sit, so instead we all stood in the isle, which wasn't that weird as it turns out. From our lofty spot we could see everyone from the opposing team's fans to the players, the die-hard flag wavers, and the ocean of Reds fans.

The stadium was made especially for the FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan and can hold 63,700, making it Japan's biggest specialized football ground. But more than come to see the game, the fans who fill these stands feel like they are actually a part of the victory. There are dozens of songs, chants, and dances that everyone seems to know. If you don't, you learn them right quick, to be sure. I was worried about using my camera to record them because I figured, "As soon as I turn it on, they'll stop." Not true: one song was repeated for a timed 20 minute interval! The fans feel that if they have just as much energy as the players, it will all be channeled to victory, somehow. We just faked like we knew the words and sang along with the rest of them for the fun of it.

Bad news? Reds lost. Good news? I got to scream at the top of my lungs in Japanese with my friends!!

After the game, there was a huge closing ceremony because it was the last home game of the season/pre-season/actually I'm not sure why they had it. Sorry. I'm sure that you fine folks at home are probably bored to tears with this, so I'll end on some fun videos. Also, if you were looking in my photo gallery and were wondering what the final image that the crowd made was, watch the last video!

For more Reds Fan fun, check out their English website!

http://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/index_en.html

Rack-'o-What?

This past December, I had the honor, privilege, and stress of performing in something called the 落語会 (Rakugokai). Rakugo is a traditional…well, let’s Wiki it, shall we?

“Literally "fallen words", Rakugo is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (落語家 rakugoka) sits on the stage. Using only a paper fan (扇子, "sensu") and a small cloth (手拭, "tenugui") as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head.”

Now back to our story: My school hosted 3 famous Rakugo masters to perform for FREE for the student body and Mitaka locals. And it was for FREE, which means you didn’t have to pay to see it. Because it was FREE! I love FREE!!! But a month and a half before the show, the Middlebury University Office of Something-or-Another called out to the international students: anyone interested in working with the comedy masters and able to perform a short skit in the Rakugo show is encouraged to join. The students who volunteered for the performance would be part of the小話集, or short story segment, of the show, so we wouldn’t have to learn a lengthy tale like the pros. Well, being the cultural nerd that I am, I couldn’t just pass this up. So I signed my name on the dotted line and then completely forgot about the entire event. Typical me. Luckily, the director of the Office of Something-or-Another was not as absent-minded as I (probably why she is the director) and emailed us two weeks before the performance, “Do you all have your scripts memorized? Practice starts on Monday at noon.” Oh, great…

It turns out the first day was more to get a taste of what we were to be doing than of actually practicing, so I was off the hook for the time being. I told the master what my story was and he immediately acted it out in four different versions, each time changing the characters’ ages and speaking patterns. He. Was. So. Funny! No wonder why he’s famous! He took my stupid little punny-joke and made me laugh out loud four times in a row!!! All he did was look this-way and that-way, wave his hand around a bit and do lots of super-inflection on the words, but in that stage-performance sort of way were if it isn’t overdone, then it just looks flat.

And what was the silly snippet I was to perform? In English, it goes a little something like this:

Woman 1: Did you hear? I got something wonderfully useful!

Woman 2: Oh, really? What is it?

Woman 1: It cooks, cleans, washes laundry, and goes shopping for you.

Woman 2: What?! I’m so jealous! Say, where do you buy something like that?

Woman 1: Buy? Why, you don’t have to buy it!

Woman 2: Eh…what do you mean?

Woman 1: Because that wonderfully useful thing is my husband. ;) (Hahahaha, no really, that’s the whole joke, and I had to smirk at the end – that was part of the skit)

Flash forward two weeks, and I’ve worked with the masters for quite a bit, have my skit memorized and everything is good. But on the day of the show, they still didn’t know what I’d be wearing. One master said that since most Rakugo professionals were men, I should wear a man’s kimono. “Besides,” he argued, “it looks very tough and cool when a woman wears a man’s kimono.” “True, true,” replied the younger master, “but shouldn’t she wear a lovely, woman’s kimono instead? She is the only female performer and it would be good to offset the men’s outfits, I think.” The last second decision was made for me to wear a woman’s kimono, so they had another famous person (who I was never told) lend me her kimono to wear. Putting this thing on was such an event, let me tell you, because only the older master knew how to tie the belt! The director of the Office of Something-or-Another was kind enough to help me dress in the undergarments, but when it came to the main layers, we had to call in the professional to wrap, tighten, tie, and adjust all the layers of belt that are apparently needed. Always trust the Japanese to overcomplicate things. And this poor man not only helped dress me (which was equivalent to 10 minutes of solid cardio exercise), but he had to help dress all the boys, too. By the time he came out of the dressing room, he was out of breath, stumbling around, and dog-tired.

Right before the performance, the international students were interviewed for the school news, which is the only reason why I have these pictures from the event. Later, I bumped (figuratively) into a Wadaiko member who was working as part of the stage crew. She took a picture of me and sent a message out to the rest of Wadaiko club to try and get them to support me. A few of them did come on such short notice, but I had been too embarrassed to mention it to them before so most of them asked me to perform it again for the club at a later date. The show itself was really fun! I was the first to go, but I got a great response from the audience (mostly female members, I’m guessing). The other boys gave it their best, too, and it felt great to finally perform what we’d been working on all this time. After that, I got to watch the rest of the show. In between the Rakugoka was a comedian who is known for cutting paper. Trust me, it is funnier than it sounds.

All in all, it was great fun and I'm glad that I signed up for the chance to do this. That's part of studying abroad, right? Doing things that you don't have a chance to do otherwise. I don't plan on going pro in Rakugo, but it was nice to get a few laughs.

Chebu for Christmas

Way back when, I mentioned that I'd make Cheboraashika (Japanese spelling) part of my sister's Christmas present, but I guess she forgot, because when she opened the present I sent her, she nearly fainted! I really wanted to send her a mess of items, but I'm not that rich, and it turns out that little Chebu is experiencing a lot of popularity right now, so there was no shortage of items. What was the problem? I couldn't find the store!!! A few months ago, a friend brought me to Kichijoji and showed me all around; we got tea, ate fish pastries, saw a local festival, and went to a bunch of stores. But it was dark and we covered half of the city and because he knew where we were going, I didn't bother keeping track. Anyway, during that trip, we were looking for a good birthday present for his friend and came upon this little store tucked in the basement of a corner in a back alley. Sounds like a bad horror film? Well, it was actually pretty neat (see Kichijoji photo album for more detail) and they had a mountain of Chebu items. My mission: find the store again, on my own, secure the toys, and save Christmas!

But even the best of plans....well, you know.

I ended up walking around for 2 hours the first day unable to find the store. Now, I've got a pretty good handle on some of the places in Kichijoji now, but like I said before, I haven't seen this particular store in a few months. So, how did I try to track it down? This may sound asinine, but I started walking to places that had a familiar feel and didn't go to places where I knew it was not. And it worked, too! I felt my spider senses tingling as I got in the area where I kind of thought it was and was able to track down most of the other places I haven't been in a long time, but I couldn't for the life of me find that store! It was getting dark and cold and things were starting to all close up, so I gave up for the night and went back to ICU. Back at the dorm, a strange burst of inspiration hit me. "You know, I remember the store being rather popular with younger people. It probably has a website. I could use the internet to find the exact location of the store. That would save me so much time! Why didn't I think of this before?!"Because I was all caught up in the moment before and thought I could track the place down like a blood hound, that's why. Brilliant, right? So with the power of the internet, I went back on the Emperor's birthday and sure enough found the place immediately (go figure).

I would tell you more about the gifts, but let's see the runner ups that didn't make it back to America:

I wonder if Anna liked her gift... let's see!

Looks like all is well that ends well. I actually have the same set of Chebu Tupperware as Anna does, so we match just like sisters should (side note: my little angels, Lucy and Emily, also got bento lunch boxes that matched each other).

Thank You for Your Patience

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Long time, no see!

I just got back (lies - I actually got back yesterday) from my winter vacation trip. Maybe you have heard of it? No? Well, it is just a little thing we like to call the Long-Awaited, Cross-Country, Pan-Japan, Coffee-Infused, Giant Robot Invasion of 冬休み (winter vacation) 2010, sponsored by Lawsons 100 Yen. Phew! Did you get all that? On we go then: I took over a thousand photos in those 10 days and kept an ongoing travel log, but I can't write about anything just yet since Gina has almost all of the pictures and we all know that is the more interesting section of my blog. This short post is just to let you know that I made it home alive (although there were a few close calls) and I'm back into school. I feel like it has been a month since I last logged onto my blog, but I updated almost all my photo albums before I left *hint hint go look hint hint*, so those of you who noticed had something to read while I was gone. Hopefully there will be more frequent posts (once I get those photos!) since my New Year's resolution is.....wait for it.....wait for it.....don't procrastinate!! But I'll worry about that later.

I will say this, we did this trip in what may be a record low budget. Considering the cost of living is so high here, and the dollar is currently the same as Monopoly toy money, Gina and I made sure to stay on the cheap side of everything. Maybe not the best idea for some things, but it all worked out. We still had fun, don't get me wrong, and even spent time lounging in various spa baths for 3 hours, but it was all dirt cheap: 3 hours at the spa was $10 - New Years Special Pricing!!!

On a more serious note, I think that my spoken Japanese has just plummeted since I was so busy being with Gina that I forgot to use Japanese during most of my time. I do, however, have a higher kanji count now thanks to all of the place names and frequent train rides; always a positive side to things. But all things considered? I wouldn't have traded a second of this experience.

Blessed New Year, everyone!