Now, I work my 40 hours and have to make choices on what I will do afterwards – study, see friends, or work out. After deciding on one of those three, I usually arrive back to my home around between 7 -9pm – whereby, I try to take care of personal matters or stuff that needs to get done around my house, on my free time. I don't like it. I need a more convenient lifestyle so I can cram in all my past times. I am not excelling in anything because I have to make so many decisions on what I will focus on this week.
Thus, my blog is a month outdated. I've decided to take some of the best stories and write about them now. You see, even if you're uninterested – I want this blog to be a reminder of my life here 10 years from now, for myself. I'm taking events from this past month and telling small stories of them, if for nothing more to jog my memory when my brain gets older. I can't believe how I recognize how forgetful I have become and how my brain really does seem to be getting “older.”
A Party at my Pad
I had so much fun at the bonenkai that Yumie' took me to; I decided to have a dinner party with all the people I had met that night. Prior to flying out to Korea, Yumie helped me invite all my favorite farmers in the area. It was arranged that the party would be at my place on January 6th. I told them I would cook for them. I'm really a crappy cook, I really am. I try to cook well, but my food always ends up bland or just not done right. I have never really had much experience cooking; however, I wish I was better because I'd invite people to dinner more.
Katie showed me a really delicious homemade spaghetti sauce recipe a few months ago.
I decided that I would make that again. It's hard to think of strictly American recipes; I always receive those types of questions and it's always hard to answer. What is America? It's a country made up of diversity. Thus, we have no one way of doing anything. In Japan, it's quite the opposite – there are many strictly Japanese customs, foods, clothes, ways of doing things. In turn, they ask well how do Americans do “this” or “that”? Whereby, I always answer “There is no one way to do anything. My family does it this way, but that's just my family, and that does not speak for all of America.”
I told them I'd cook them American food. Spaghetti it was. You can get spaghetti in Japan – but I just hoped (and still do hope) that it is not as popular as it is in America. All of my guests but two showed up. When you go to a Japanese person's home or they come to yours – it is customary to bring gifts to show appreciation. Thus, my house was filled with all sorts of different foods. My friends being farmers – meant I received all sorts of homegrown foods. Yoshinori helped me make the spaghetti sauce while Yumie entertained in my living room. Yumie is wonderful at that – she is a little social butterfly. As a host, sometimes I get overwhelmed that everyone may not be enjoying themselves – but I was lucky in that Yumie' is so social. The night was wonderful, my house was filled with laughter, food and Japanese language. One of the guys, Katsu brought some homemade sake'. This concoction literally still had rice floating in it. It was so hard to get down; but I did. This is one of those memorable
moments for me. I came to Japan because where else in the world can I get homemade sake'? To me, that's a cool thing.
My favorite story of this night was about a pooping reindeer. Do you know those toys where you put jelly beans in them- and you can make the toy poop out the jelly bean? My cousin's Dianna & Brian sent me one for Christmas. I had it chilling in the living room that we were drinking in – one of the guys found it and discovered just what a “pooping reindeer” is. I would never have thought two men – aged 27 and 32 would ever be so entertained by a toy animal that poops. I was just as entertained; but more or less amused how this toy became a ridiculously universal success. We were all quite drunk at this point, and were placing all sorts of candies in it – finding out which ones make it constipated and which ones give it diarrhea - we were all laughing hysterically. Of course, I didn't know the Japanese words for those terms and they didn't know the English terms. However, we were screaming our respective language, following up with an electronic dictionary to confirm we were thinking the same things.
The next morning – I learned what homemade sake' can do to a person. It can make you feel like you drank poison the night before. I had half prepared a soup to serve for breakfast – but it still needed some more preparation. Unfortunately, I could not make it off my futon – without risking serving vomit for breakfast. Yoshinori came to the rescue – and prepared most of it for me – allowing me to finish it up and serve it. My dinner party was a success. I can't wait until my Japanese improves more so I can hold more parties.
A Naked Man Festival
Prior to moving to Japan to become an English teacher, Katie had spent a few experiences here during High School and College. One of her host families invited us to come down to their area for a festival. According to Katie, it would be a naked man festival. How can anyone pass up an opportunity like that? We took my car and drove about 2 hours South to get to this beautiful area located near Zao Quasi-National Park.
Her host family consisted of a semi-crazy mother, 3 daughters and a father who does
some Shinto priest stuff on the side. The family is more well off than most Japanese families and has their own shrine in their backyard. The festival was to commemorate the New Year and a lot of the festivities were built around that.
This story is going down in the books because for about 5 minutes of my life here; it was one of
the most intriguing 5 minutes I've had. At first, a huge bonfire was built near the shrine.
Japanese people write down on little wooden cards – their prayers (mostly wishes) for the New Year. A very common wish for nearly all Japanese people – is that they will pass their entrance examinations into High School and College. Or that their son/daughter will pass their examinations. All of the prayers from 2006 would be burned in this bonfire and new ones would be written this night.
It was a really cold night and people began arriving and ate this food, that I wasn't overly fond of, gathered around the bonfire and socialized. There is a ritual that the shrine will throw out little packets of money and candy. Katie and I had been chosen by her host family to be two of the folks standing up on the shrine throwing money to the wanting eyes below. This was my most memorable 5 minutes. About $5.00 is enclosed into little pieces of wrapped paper. Katie and I were ushered up about 4 steps – bringing our feet to about eye level of the onlookers below us. There was also an adorable little kid with his father there to help throw candy, along with Katie's host father. We were all given a wooden thing to hold onto that held the money pieces we would be throwing. It basically looked like a tray with little sides and a long pole attached to hold onto.
And then, the naked men. They weren't entirely naked – but just about. They basically were wearing white loin around their groin. The older men covered their genitals and had a thong-like concoction covering their butt crack – but with their cheeks hanging out for all to see. The boys – probably high school students – wore what basically represented a diaper to me. Reminder: it was a really cold night. My first thoughts were how cold I was standing there with no shoes on – but fully clothed – and just how cold they must be. They come running in under a torii - with white pieces of paper folded into a triangle that were in their mouths. The white triangles represented the purity of these men.
Imagine this if you can. Here I am, already feeling celebrity status since I get to throw the money. I have town citizens surrounding the temple hoping I'll throw the $5.00 their way and a bunch of naked men running with things in their mouth towards me. They stop before the shrine and bow while Katie's host father said something or other in Japanese. Then, they take off and we start throwing the money to the people.
I have always been on the receiving end of these things. It's so hard to choose who you will throw your money to! I feel bad for everyone that didn't catch it and everyone looked so needy! And BAM! It was over. I had such a rush – I can't tell you how enthralling those 5 minutes were to me. I got off the shrine – all smiles and telling Katie that was possibly the most interesting 5 minutes I had experienced in Japan. I wish I had someone take pictures for me. I also wish – I knew more of the meaning behind this event (it's an annual thing).
Afterwards, everyone writes their new prayers for the year on a new wooden card. On the other side of the card – is the animal which represents this year. Japanese use the Chinese calendar of astrology. Thus, this is the year of the inoshishi or a wild boar. It's my year actually! Anyone that was born in 1983 – this is your year. If you are a female this is your LUCKY year! Your lucky year only comes along once every 24 years – so go play the lotto or something. However, if you are a male born in 1983 – this is your UNLUCKY year – so I don't suggest playing the lotto to you. =)
My prayer for this year is that my Japanese will continue to improve. Afterwards, we socialized with Katie's host family before headed back home.
I enjoy Naked Men Festivals.
to be continued...
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running off traveling this weekend to Sapporo, Hokkaido for a snow festival. I hear my pictures will "wow my friends for years" Can't wait!
1 comment:
great stories sara!! and i think that you might have more time to do things when it gets warmer outside, so you can run outside instead of going to the gym!!!
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