Let's Make Mochi and Have a Prom

Thursday was a national holiday celebrating the founding of Japan, so I had off work. Masamichi invited me to his neighborhood association's get together, where a bunch of people showed up to make mochi.

Mochi is made from a special rice that they soak in water for a night before steaming for about half an hour. Afterward they put it in a mortar and beat it with hammers. Then they roll it into a cake with sweet bean paste inside (I also saw them make a few with chocolate for kids.) It was super cool to watch, and they even let me try my hand at the hammer and the rolling. You can watch the process here:

Everyone was super friendly, and there was even a youngster there who spoke a little English. We talked about Pokemon, which is the usual bridge between me and the young, be they Japanese or not.
After we made all the mochi and ate most of it we got to see an ancient Buddhist statue. The neighborhood association's club house used to be a shrine, so they had a lot of old Buddhist paraphernalia.

Saturday the Mitoyo International Exchange Society threw a Valentines Day Prom. Japan doesn't do the prom thing so much, so it was cool to give them an idea of what its like. To make things even sweeter than the sweaty awkward dances of our youths, there was actually a fellow there who was super sweet at ballroom dance, and he showed us how to do the Jitterbug. After we mixed a bit and I got to know some pretty cool folk.

Here's a couple of us towards the end posing it up. I like to think I dress better now, but I have about as much poise as I did at 18. More tattoos though, so there's that.

On our way back to the train station while we were coming around the mountain corner, a tanuki scurried out into the middle of the road and back again. He was absolutely beautiful. It was the first time I got to see one. I'm hoping next time I get an even better eye full. 

I hope you all are having your own wonderful Valentines Day back home. Catch ya'll soon.

(Just wanna point out I totally held myself to my word and followed my blogging schedule this week. And almost did all the studying and other things I had on my plate. BOOM! High five, me. You are the best. Let's see if we can do it again this week.)

わたしのにほんじんおとうさん

Today was the Marugame International Half Marathon. There were a ton of runners from all over who ran from my city Marugame to Sakaide and back. I went to see it with my Japanese Dad, Masamichi, and his friends. We put meant in the parking garage of a nearby mall and put together a bunch of flags. We were rooting for runners from Masamichi's friend's old college, Senshuu University. That's up in Tokyo. Senshuu also means last week, and I was a little confused by this. When I brought it up everyone thought I was making a joke, so I rolled with it. 

There were tons of runners both professional and non. My friend Laura ran it, but I think we left before she made it to our point. We were right next to the half way point where folks turned around.

Shrine behind the marathon route. 

Masamichi decked out with Senshuu gear. 

Afterward we went to an Okanmiyaki restaurant, which is where you cook your own food on a grill. Me and Masamichi got a dish that was basically like a pancake of a bunch of stuff--seafood, egg, lettuce and meat. He let me try to flip it, which was a disaster. You can see my failure at the end of this montage of me and Masamichi kicking it:

 

Then the group split up for a little bit and Masamichi showed me this super popular view from the top of a nearby mountain. Like that famous place in Europe I know pretty much nothing about other than it exists, lovers put locks on the wire fence in celebration of their bumping uglies. 

 The Seto Ohashi Bridge

 What is a Bridal Mother?

You tried so hard to English. 

(says the girl who misspells everything she writes in Japanese 

and 1/3rd of the shit she types online)

Afterward we all gathered back together at a little cafe where I played Majong for the first time. We played two rounds of games, and with the help of Masamichi I came out on top the first time and SO CLOSE to number 1 the second time. Don't ask me how though. I understood maybe a 3rd of what I was doing. 

This is an automated majong table. Somehow it spit out the same color tiles each time. No fucking clue how. 

Masamichi is a pretty rad dude. I'm really lucky that he's taken me under his wing. I learn and see a lot thanks to him. Like about Koukai, who brought zen Buddhism to Japan and built the 88 temples on Shikoku. So far Masamich and I have visited 74-78. He's also taken me to the Marugame Fan Museum. Marugame is famous for its paper fans, and you can watch people build them by hand there. It looks mega mega hard. Also we've gone to the Seto Ohashi museum, which was hella rad.

I'm working on re-stabilizing myself after the death of both Matt and Steve Watkins. Part of that involves sticking to a schedule for awhile. So hopefully if I stick to it, I'll be updating this more. 

Hope you all are doing well. 

-Couri