But I guess I should back up. The All Star Kids program had its bonnenkai at the Ritz Carlton. Yeah, the Ritz. Seven of us went for a very nice Japanese dinner; one of the staff assistants was at a friend's wedding and couldn't come with us.
So the picture is short one staff...and all the student assistants (who work hard on a volunteer-basis but don't get invited...I think it sort of violates some kind social code). Anyway, the seven of us had a nice time. Afterwards, I went with the three staff assistants to get some coffee and chat. I'm very lucky to work with such good people with whom I get along so well. Noriko, Hiromi, Yuka, Jean, Anne, Kathy, me
At this time, I was feeling a bit under the weather, and with my winter break looming, I wanted to make sure I didn't get sick, so I was resting up quite a bit, and by the time I left for Okayama, I thought I had it licked. Christmas day I woke up at the leisurely hour of 11, as I couldn't check into the villa until 4, and got the train to Osaka, then caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) from there to Okayama city. The shinkansen took 40 minutes. By the fastest non-Shinkansen trains it would have taken me over 2 hours...so I shelled out the money (about $50). I arrived in Takebe, the small town north of Okayama city, just before 4 and checked in. I went to the onsen (hot spring) right away, soaked in the rotemburo (outdoor tub) for a while, looking at the scenery appropriately described as not "exactly pastoral." I ate a simple dinner and settled down to watch the first part of Lord of the Rings. I got to sleep around midnight. But come the next morning, I'm sick. WHAT? I felt perfectly fine the night before, nothing at all lingering from the cold I thought I'd beaten off. I even brought my running clothes with me, planning to get in some nice country roads. So that socked me in the gut and I spent the day in my room, napping, watching movies and reading. Two couples with a kid and two infants showed up later that second day, but I was so sick and sleepy I didn't see much of them and didn't notice the noise from the seven year old. I took some generic NyQuil that night for the first time...
and I'm now a believer. I woke up that night to go to toilet, and heck, I could barely walk straight... man, that stuff will put you on your ass. Heed the "Do not operate heavy machinery" warning. I felt pretty good the next day, but still I just hung out at the villa and took it easy, determined to recover before going to Sayo to see Kurara and family. All told, my onsen retreat was spent nursing my cold. I arrived in Sayo on the 28th, the day before the pounding of mochi. Unfortunately, Kurara's father had caught a pretty bad cold, and so he wasn't able to enjoy everything so much. Just to give people who aren't familar a little background: in Japanese tradition (not so commonly done in these days of urban living), people pound mochi rice--a special type of glutinous rice--into a big blob. Pieces about the size of a golf ball are then pinched off and shaped into small, dome-like patties, which are set in boxes to dry. These are eaten on New Year's Day when Japanese tradition prohibits the use of knives. (I'm not sure how these two are connected, but that's how it was once explained to me, so I merely repeat it here.) In any case, on the 29th, a total of 11 people showed up (for some length of time during the day) to help pound 30 pounds of rice into a delicious blob of mochi. I'll describe the process in the next paragraph, if you're interested...if not, skip that paragraph for the next, where I relate my oh-so-exciting New Year's Eve!
The mochi rice is steamed, not boiled as regular rice is cooked, until it reaches an appropriate level of softness. (I don't know what this is, but I could hear the people tending the rice discussing how hard the rice was until suddenly it was ready.) From there it is dropped as a sticky clump into a large wooden bowl carved into a stump of heavy hardwood. Immediately someone begins mashing it with a large wooden mallet, beginning to break down the individual grains. Then someone, in this case Kurara's mom, begins to dip her hands into some warm water and wet the surface of the blob as another person (we took turns) whack the blob with the mallet. Kurara's mom had the difficult job of reaching into wet the blob and also to adjust it and fold it so that it all got beaten. When she deems the blob ready, it's placed on a large tray or pan, coated with corn starch, and then the aforementioned pinching and shaping begins. I think we did about ten cycles of this, which took from about 11 until almost 4. Luckily for all of us, it was a perfectly unseasonably warm day, and I sat outside for most of it with nothing more on than jeans, an undershirt, and t-shirt. We also got to eat the mochi, fresh from pounding, still hot, dipped in a spicy kind of "sauce" made from daikon (Japanese radish) as well as a mix of kinako (soybean powder) and sugar. Delicious, and worth all the effort.I left the following day, the 30th, to get some rest at home before New Year's Eve. On the 31st, I caught some Z's in the afternoon in preparation for the late night. Again, some background: a traditional Japanese New Year's Eve takes one to a Shinto shrine (not Buddhist temple, I think) to literally ring in the New Year with a large bell. I'm not sure what more specific things one should do, but I decided that as I will probably be in Hawaii for subsequent New Years, I would see what the buzz was like in Kyoto. So at around 10:30 I caught the train to Kyoto, got off at Kawaramachi, near the Higashiyama area, which is chock full of temples and shrines, including two of the most famous shrines: Yasaka and Heian. I got out of the train station, followed the crowd east toward Yasaka shrine, and then could barely believe how many people were there. It was shocking to see so many people in one place, waiting to get into the shrine.
Certainly not patient enough for that, I walked around and up toward a much smaller shrine, Jishu, located just in front of the extremely famous Kiyomizu-dera. I took in the New Year there, freezing on what I'm sure was the coldest night I had in Japan in 2007. I took a few pictures, then headed home. In the craziness of everything going on, I still managed to bump into a few people from work who I'd originally planned to go with, but changed my mind as I thought they might be out too late...and sure enough, they were showing up just as I was leaving around 1 AM. As it was, I didn't get into bed until after 2:30. Today I went to Fukui, a prefecture on the northern coast of Japan. It was interesting to see the snow begin to accumulate on the landscape as I headed into snow country. A colleague from work had offered to show me around, and she did a splendid job of it. First we had lunch, eating oroshi soba, a cold noodle dish famous in Fukui. Next she took me to a beautiful, cold, and somewhat business-like temple in the mountains, then along the coast for some sightseeing.
The ocean was a welcome sight, something that always feels a bit like home, even if it's not the warm Pacific waters of Hawaii, and this was a very different looking ocean than I am used to: it was dark with low clouds hanging over it, wispy and almost ghost-like.And no, I haven't forgotten, but I thought I would save this for last, as telling you about Fukui after would have been...inappropriate. New Year's Day. I woke around 10:30, started immediately steaming some mochi rice to try to make a dish called okowa, which I love but had never made before. I cooked up about 3 cups worth, and I think it turned out alright...but I'm not all that picky. But I took what I had made, divided it into two plastic containers I'd bought for this, added a piece of freshly broiled salmon, wrapped each container in a little cheap 100 yen blanket, put each of those in little 100 yen bag, and then I delivered them to two homeless men living in tents by the river. To be honest, I felt more than a bit self-concious, but I hope the gesture was appreciated. My only failure was to remember to take the blankets I'd bought for them as well...so I'll have to deliver those tomorrow. In any case, I did it. And I feel better for having done so. Small a gesture as it is, I do believe it's something, and I believe these are the kinds of things that can make a difference, if enough people join in. The Dalai Lama said something to the effect that we each need to develop our sense of compassion for others. When I think about this, I think that if we did so, if we really developed compassion for our fellow humans, there would be far less tragedy in the world.
Aloha, chip
