(Mis)adventures in eating

Today is setsubun which is the celebration of the beginning of spring. A little early in my mind, but somehow in Japan a celebration of spring has already begun even thought it snowed all day and there is no spring in sight! Anyway, Part of the setsubun tradition involves roasted soybeans called fuku mame. First, there is the mamemaki where households throw beans at an oni ("demon"-usually the father wearing a demon mask). As they throw they beans, they shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" which means "demons out, luck in!" Supposedly the beans symbolize purifying the home by sending all bad luck away. Then in keeping with bringing the luck in, you eat fuku mame. You should eat one bean for each year of your life! Unfortunately I did not get to take part in any bean throwing, but I did get to take part in the eating. For school lunch, we got these little bags of beans. I did not look clearly at the bag, and just started eating mine while talking to one of the of the other teachers, and not paying much attention. It was fine, but then I tasted something that was not quite bean-like. So I reached in the bag and pulled out another pinch, actually looked at it, and found myself having a stare-down with a small, dried fish! At that point, I could not eat any more. Something about having my food look back at me is just too much to handle. So I tactfully put the bag in my pocket so I could bring it home, take pictures, and share my misadventure in eating with all of you.

mochi... and a little about snow huts.

I just wanted to share a video of the making of one of my favorite Japanese foods: mochi. Mochi are rice cakes and they are delicious. They can be prepared in a variety of ways including just coating the mochi in flavor powder, pour soy sauce over the mochi, grilling the mochi with nori, or putting mochi in soup. All are delicious. Mochi can be sweet or not sweet, depending on your preference. Today, I grilled mochi in my frying pan and then coated it with chocolate frosting. I am sure that has never been done before, but it sure was delicious!

In the video, mochi is being made! They literally started with freshly made rice (it was still steaming when the put it into the wooden thing... clearly I am informed here as far as terminology), and then just pounded it until it was more doughy. Then they made small mochi and coated them in either kinako powder (soybean flour... slightly sweet) or goma (I think black sesame seeds? sorta sweet and salty at the same time). This time I did not get to try swinging the hammer, but back in December at a different event, I did get to give it a go. It is harder than it looks! better than being the lady who has to readjust the dough after each hit, though. Abunai, yo!



here is the finished product! The black one is goma, and the other is kinako. Both were delicious, and still warm!
Oh, these pictures are from the kamakura summit! A kamakura is a snow hut (see picture below)! There will be a kamakura festival on Feb 13-14 so I will report back then probably with more pictures. The summit was to celebrate the fact that there is a festival, so while we did get to make some snow huts and go inside them, that was not really the focus of the day. We (Alaina, Kim, and I) did manage to get some free food out of the day, however. mochi, soup, onigiri and a butadon (pork and rice bowl) so it was certainly worth going. I also got scolded by cops for being on my cellphone while driving, too. Oops. I was lost and Alaina was talking me through where to go. Me being my somewhat snide self thought about telling them to worry less about the gaijin and more about the native bad driving, but instead I bowed and said "I am so sorry, it won't happen again."
Oh! More pictures! From the actual photographer who was there.

First, we are in the snow hut! The picture came out kinda cool...


Second, us in front of a snow hut. They are pretty massive!

It's official

I turned in my form on Wednesday. I am staying in Japan another year! Who knew that would happen?! Certainly not me! I even sort of made a list of reasons to stay and reasons to go. Somehow, there were more "go" reasons, but many of them were silly.
Here is what I remember of the list I made:

Reasons to stay:
-Another year with the same students. I will get to see the current 2nd years graduate next March!
-Continue to build relationships with people here
-Next winter, I can snowboard some more!
-Improve my Japanese
-I love J-dramas!!
-Delicious Japanese food everywhere
-onigiri
-What am I going to do when I move back to the US?

Reasons to go:
-cheese
-pizza
-sandwiches
-Chipotle
-Air conditioning and central heat
-be among the literate again
-the longer I am out of school, the harder it will be to go back
-I will be 25 when I move back to the US, and probably still single... :-/
-pants that fit
-shoes that fit
-shirts with sleeves that are long enough
-won't be stared at anymore by small children who walk past me
-won't have to take the Japanese driving test

So as you can see, a few of the "go" reasons are somewhat silly, but reasons nonetheless. Another reason to stay? Because when I drive home from work, this is what I see: