Snowman

Here's a funny conversation I had with Masumi and Kensuke.

Kensuke: In the middle of December there is a snow festival in Sapporo.
Ben: What do you do at the festival?
Kensuke: You build big people out of snow.
Ben: Snowmen.
Kensuke: Yes.
Ben: Do you use carrots for the nose?
Masumi: No because Japanese people don't have big noses.

I know my nose is big but is it really as big as a carrot! I went to the Sapporo snow festival website and indeed the snowmen have small noses!

The 6 O'clock Song

Every night when I ride my bike home, a song start to play at 6PM. Katie told me that each small city has its own 6 o'clock song that plays every night.

This is such a little thing but I really like it. I think towns everywhere in the world should have a song that plays at a designated time. It's a nice little reminder that work is over and people should enjoy their families and free time.

Gyoza and Takoyaki

You could probably live in Japan for three years and not try all the different types of food. I've only got three months so I'm trying to cram as much into my stomach as possible. Here's two more types of food that are really common in Japan:
(PICTURE: Gyoza at the "Gyoza Master" restaurant.)

Us Americans (and probably the rest of the world) are familiar with gyoza from Chinese restaurants because well, gyoza is Chinese food. However, gyoza are everywhere in Japan. In fact, I've seen them way more here than I ever did when I visited China. I've always been a gyoza fan and used to boil frozen ones all the time in my apartment in LA. I eat gyoza quite often here and recently went to a "Gyoza Master" -- a cook who specializes in making Gyoza. The gyoza were obviously delicious BUT not as good as the ones Masumi's mother made for me. Masumi has promised to teach me how to make gyoza so perhaps some day a few of you ahoy hanoi fans can email Masumi after trying my gyoza back in the states.


(PICTURE: Takoyaki chefs at a festival.)

The other food to mention now is takoyaki. Takoyaki are frend octopus balls. Yeah, I was as shocked as you are that Octopi have balls.

My Japanese Name

(PICTURE: My Japanese name.)

While I was taking the calligraphy class I had an epiphany, "I should ask the teacher to write my Japanese name." You know, you always hear stories about people getting tattoos that they think mean one thing but really mean something totally different. i.e. A girl gets a "peace" character on her arm which really means "bimbo."

I figured I was in pretty safe hands getting my Japanese name from the 85-year-old school teacher. I told Masumi that I wanted to get the characters for my name and she quickly huddled with all of the volunteers. After a few minutes of everyone figuring out the Konji for Ben-Ja-Min, the teacher started to write my name on a piece of paper. He ended up giving me the paper which is now my coolest souvenir from Japan. So here is what my name translates to in Konji:

First character (the one on top) : Studies
Second character (middle one) : Green Tea
Third character (up, on bottom): Light

I am officially "Studies Green Tea Light." I'm told this is a very good name.

Calligraphy

Recently Masumi informed me that the city of Koryama was offering a calligraphy class for foreigners. Despite my utter lack of painting and drawing skills, I excitedly agreed to go to the class.

When I arrived I was the only foreigner. However, the room wasn't empty -- there were about a dozen or more Japanese volunteers. After a few minutes, I was joined by two Canadian girls. The class began and we were given our introductory lesson by an 85-year-old retired school teacher. The lesson was really informative despite the fact that it was only in Japanese!

(PICTURE: My calligraphy sensei.)

After a few minutes we were each given ink and paper to practice on. With each stroke that I made I felt like I was ruining thousands of years of the calligraphy art form. I was horrible. After a couple of pathetic looking characters, the sensei took my hand in his and helped me draw. Minus the initial awkwardness of holding hands with a near stranger, the teacher's guidance was really a huge help.

After a couple of more minutes my characters started to look half decent. In fact, I made one letter that got "ooohs" and "ahhhs". One of the volunteers who spoke some English told me that I had a, "Strong stroke." Yes, friends, this was the first time anybody has ever said that to me.

(PICTURE: Some of my work. The top character on each paper means "big." The bottom character means "small.")

Kotatsu

(PICTURE: The kotatsu at Masumi's parents' house.)








I had heard from a few people that I had to experience a kotatsu table before I left Japan. A kotatsu table is basically a low table that has blankets that hang down over the sides. The table is then heated underneath by a device which makes the warmest and coziest table you can imagine.

As soon as we entered Masumi's parent's house I saw their kotatsu and couldn't hide my excitement. As I ate and drank, I kept thinking how 40% of my relatives (especially on the Zucker side) would fall asleep in roughly 4 minutes and 12 seconds if they were given delicious food, a warm cozy table and pillows to sit on. Then after about an hour of sitting at the table with no back rest, I began to think how 99% of my relatives (including me) would have back pain before dessert.

The Greatest Weekend Of Eating Ever! (Part 2)

(PICTURE: Dinner at Masumi's parents house. Yup, I'm wearing another cardigan.)

After getting the invite to Masumi's parents' house, I asked what I could bring. I offered to bring sake but was told they had plenty. Instead, I said I would make nikujaga. You should be asking yourself, "What is Nikujaga? And how does Ben know how to make this dish?" Nikujaga translates to "meat and potato" soup but everyone here calls it "Mother's Taste" soup. Apparently every mom in the country makes their own special version of this soup. One of my students even told me that a woman is only a good wife is she can make good nikujaga.

A few weeks ago I went to my favorite eel restaurant and was given some amazing nikujaga by the wife of the chef (I was the only person in the restaurant and she was cooking dinner for her family). I fell in love with the soup and asked Masumi how to make it. Masumi took me to the supermarket and showed me all of the ingredients to buy to make her mother's version. She gave me verbal instructions on how to cook it and since then I've been eating nikujaga two times a week. Now if you're following this blog entry you should be saying to yourself, "You offered to bring Masumi's mother's recipe soup to Masumi's mother's house?" Yup, that's exactly what I did.

When I had originally offered to bring my nikujaga I was feeling extremely confident. Frankly, my nikujaga is delicious. However, as soon as we showed up at Masumi's parents house, I started to get nervous. Then to make matters worse, I realized I FORGOT AN INGREDIENT!! That's the bad news. The good news is that everyone truly seemed to like my nikujaga. Now that said, my nikujaga was clearly the worst dish made that night! Masumi's mom prepared about 10 different things for me to try. She told me that she was only making special dishes that a person couldn't buy at a restaurant. Like I said then, "Nothing beats home cooking."

The night before I was completely stuffed and thought that there was no way I could eat as much again any time soon. Well, I was wrong. Masumi's mom fed me and fed me and fed me some more. For the first time that I can remember, I had to actually turn down food at the end of the night when she offered to give me another bowl of a special rice she had prepared. As the title of the last two blogs makes pretty clear, this was the greatest weekend of eating ever!