The Mochi Guide

Last month, I attended two mochi-making events at nursery schools. Mochi is rice-paste made from pounding sticky rice with a wooden sledgehammer (kine). The rice is hammered in something that looks like a partially hollowed tree trunk (usu). Usually, several people take turns hammering with a continuous rhythm, while one person quickly readjusts the paste-ball between each drop of the hammer. Once the rice is all homogenized into one uniform ball, it’s divided into bite-sized mochi-balls. Via chopsticks, they are dunked into various flavors (like soybean powder). The mochi-balls are then in final form and ready to be eaten. The hammering is a full-body event if done well – abs, arms, legs, and back balanced with the hammer’s own momentum from gravity. If I am ever made into a video game character, I will likely request a mochi-hammer as my weapon. I loved it. Being the person who readjusts the paste-ball was also exciting. At the second event I attended, I played this role as well. I felt a need to focus. Momentary distraction or disharmony with the hammerer could lead to a brutal situation. Ironically, after spending a few hours making mochi, I found out I don’t like eating it. A lot of Japanese people do like it – it’s a pretty common food here.

-Nick

Photo guide:

Step 1: Watch and study

Step 2: Hammer the rice

Step 3: Make little mochi-balls

Step 4: Flavor the little mochi-balls at the chopstick-station

Step 5: Discretely escape the chopstick-station when your hand gets tired

(photo unavailable due to clandestine nature of its contents)

Step 6: Eat and avoid child cleanup duty

Squid Eyeballs

These are squid eyeballs - they don't taste like much. When you bite them they explode kind of like fried-eggs.

-Nick

Month #2

I am now almost two months into my time in Nanae. I have had a lot of ups and downs, plus a little time in between. My ups have been much richer than usual. Some of the connections I’ve experienced here (with people, culture, and myself) have felt very lucid to me – exhilaratingly real at times. They have also felt very normal, which is refreshing – generally, I find normalcy to be frustratingly elusive. My downs have been amplified a bit too – the support structures I am used to (family, long-time friends, and an adjustable environment) are non-existent here. That leaves me as the only one to catch myself if I become unbalanced.

Something that has caught me totally off-guard is how genuinely nice people my age are here. They are unguarded, open, and pro-actively friendly. I am not used to it at all, and don’t know how to react sometimes. I like it though.

Here is a short “Best of Japan” list I’ve started:

Movies:

“Kurenai no Buta” (directed by Hayao Miyazaki): I have a zero-tolerance policy for giving anything away about good movies, so I’m not going to comment much on this, but it’s a Japanese anime movie I watched last weekend and loved. My only commentary is that I highly recommend it, and I suggest watching it in Japanese with English subtitles. I watched the first 5 minutes in both English and Japanese, and they were noticeably different.

Food:

Odango: These are small, sticky spheres of compressed rice – they come on little trays with maybe 12 balls. Different sauces are put onto them (soy, sesame, and pressed red beans), and you eat them by spearing the balls with toothpicks. I consider it to be a very domestic form of hunting. I imagine a lot of cool things could be done with this concept – the balls are like a benign template for tasting the flavors of different sauces, so they could be used to make tasting samples of a really wide variety of sauces or toppings. I think they could be popular as an appetizer in the US if used in a creative way. The toothpick part is also fairly entertaining for at least the first five balls of each tray.

Music:

Capsule: Capsule is awesome. It’s a Japanese electronic artist I’ve been listening to a lot. I am pretty sure it is one man (producer, music-writer) and one woman (singer), and it’s one of my new favorites. Some good songs to preview on iTunes: Jumper, E.D.I.T., and Flash Back. These three are among many others.

Miscellaneous things without an obvious category title:

Haircuts: The haircuts in Japan should be used as a model for the rest of the world. I have been to a barber once here. My hair was cut well, but that’s not what is important – it came with an hour’s worth of extra add-ons that I didn’t know I’ve been missing my whole life. For example: head massage, hot towel on the face, straight edge razor shave (which is difficult to find near Concord, MA because the barbers are afraid of the liabilities of using straight edges), and an ear-cleaning. Ben (Nanae’s ALT) apparently gets more elaborate massages where he goes, so I will be exploring this more in the near future. My favorite part was the straight edge razor – I got a slight adrenaline rush out of it, and I left feeling like I survived something dangerous. I’m curious how many casualties there are annually from straight edge razor shaving when earthquakes hit (it requires a steady hand). I probably won’t research this. The ear-cleaning was terrifying – the tools were metal, and no warning was given beforehand. I’m still not sure how I feel about that part. I need more time to reflect.

Sensible things the US should import or recreate:

Heated toilet-seats: At first I didn’t like mine. I was worried it would make my day so easy and comforting that I might lose perspective on my life. My opinion changed very quickly. It has never been unplugged.

-Nick

Halloween at the Yakuba by Ben Mirin

By Ben Mirin, CIR

Filming by Emi Kimura

For those of you watching in Concord, “jouzu” means “very good” or “skilled.”

Enjoy the video.

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To submit suggestions for future content, please email concordnanae@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting Concordnanae.com.

Japanese Trash Disposal

by Ben Mirin, CIR

Camera operator: Emi Kimura

… Continue Reading

Japanese Convenience Stores (Live Stream)

by Ben Mirin, CIR

… Continue Reading

Learning to Cook Japanese Food: Shabu-shabu (Part 2)

by Ben Mirin, CIR

There are countless recipes for Shabu-shabu from throughout Japan.  Like Sukiyaki, Oden, and other iconic Nabemono dishes, it is so popular that many prefectures proudly offer their own variations.  I have yet to learn of a specific Shabu-shabu recipe from Nanae’s Kameda Prefecture, so this one is taken from Hiroko Urakami’s cookbook, “Japanese Family-Style Recipes.”

… Continue Reading

Learning to Cook Japanese Food: Shabu-shabu

by Ben Mirin, CIR

Part 1: Visiting the local grocery store. Part 2 is coming soon!

… Continue Reading

New CIR Arrives in Nanae

By Ben Mirin, CIR

I arrived in Nanae under the weight of three checked bags and an additional checking fee.  10,300 Yen, approximately $123.  My second carry-on bag, a red Delsey roll-a-board, usually skirts past security in American airports, but officials at Haneda Airport were careful to enforce the rules on size limitations.

First contact

The flight from Haneda AP to Hakodate was the final leg of a journey that began in Concord, Massachusetts at 5:15am.  An early flight from Boston to Newark, a 20-hour flight from Newark to Tokyo, and a night in the Narita AP Rest House had preceded it.  Still, my spirits were soon lifted.  The Section Chief and International Relations staff from Nanae’s General Affairs Section greeted me with hot tea and a 12-foot banner welcoming me to Nanae.

Left to right: Kouji Teraya, Ben Mirin (CIR), and Azuma Miyata

After first contact and official greetings, our group got into the car and drove to the apartment building that would be my home for at least the next year.  My coworker, Emi Kimura, speaks fluent English, and she translated for me and my bosses as we drove beneath heavy cloud cover and a light mist left by a large snow storm two days before.

The apartment was a studio, and spacious by Japanese standards. I unloaded my luggage and prepared for a crash landing on the futon, but the night had just begun. My coworkers planted me back in the minivan they had borrowed to transport my baggage, and out we went for dinner.

Kaiten sushi. I have eaten sushi in the States many times before, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight I beheld inside this restaurant. Platters of beautifully prepared morsels were circulating on a conveyor belt that snaked its way around three dining areas and a fully stocked sake bar. Waitresses scurried up and down the aisles like clockwork, answering calls from buzzers located in the individual dining booths. Why diners used these call buttons was a mystery to me, as the parade of fish, egg, tempura, and vegetables held my full attention.

There was no time for hesitation. I grabbed small servings of sushi as they came until I had an assortment of platters decorating the table in blots of soft color. Food served in kaitensushi adds up dangerously quickly, and we soon had our individual collections of small plates in stacks of ten or more. Washed down with cups of green tea from the faucet at the head of the table, this meal almost put me to sleep. If I weren’t so obsessive about unpacking my bags I truly would have crashed into bed when I arrived home.

flickr photo courtesy of jetalone (CC licensed)

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To submit suggestions for future content, please email concordnanae@gmail.com.  Thank you for visiting Concordnanae.com.