Sake Matsuri Part I

I'm in Saijo, a town of the larger city of Higashi-Hiroshima, in Hiroshima Prefecture. Riding the bus from Hiroshima Airport here made me realize how country it is here. However, during the weekend of 9th and the 10th, there were so many people here! Why did they come? To take part of Saijo's 酒まつり (sake matsuri), or Sake Festival. Sake is one of the major products made here, and has been for a while, as far as I can tell. On the first day, I went to the main center of the festival, which is around the train station in Saijo proper.

I met up with a friend of mine at the station, and we walked around the station, going on tours through several sake factories. I dont really remember a lot of what was going on there, mostly because it was all in Japanese and I was lazy to make my brain think. But it was interesting to see the process of sake brewing. I imagine it's the same as beer, because they take the rice and have it ferment with a certain bacteria or fungi. And then they let it sit some more, and take the alcohol as sake. But the most fun part of the tour was that they gave out samples of their sake! The various sake that we had ranged from one that had no burn and a slight fruity taste, to one that was so strong I needed to eat something to get the taste of alcohol out of my mouth. But my favorite was 甘酒, or sweet sake. Still not sure if it has any alcohol in it, but I dont really care. It's made out of the leftovers of sake brewing, and is more viscous than regular sake. That is, it is an opaque white, not the clear liquid that's usually sake. Although I dont really care for sweet things, 甘酒 isnt so sweet. I did enjoy that one a lot.

The other draw of the sake festival is the 酒ひろば, or "sake space". For the one time fee of 1800￥ (or thereabouts), you get to enter the hiroba and have as much sake as you can. That's right, the Japanese have a practice of 飲み放題, which is the fee you pay to drink all you can. As you will come to see, 飲み放題 isnt exactly my friend, and I'd much rather have its food version, 食べ放題. You'll see what I mean.

When you enter the 酒ひろば, they give you your own little ちょこ, which is basically a sake shot glass. I'm not sure how good an idea this is, but whatever. It's kinda cute, I think. Around the hiroba are various stands that have sake from all over Japan. They're grouped by their location, and I think they're supposed to be very expensive brands. But what did I know, right? My Japanese friend and I met up with more of his friends, and we started to drink. Since there was a group of us, we started having a few people get everyone sake by carrying it, but after we cleared a box of senbei, we used that as a tray. And if you think that's slightly crazy, that's nothing; there were people that had real trays, the laquered variety, and were using that to get sake. The Japanese came PREPARED. Not everyone was sitting on tarp and eating cookies like us; some people had chairs and were pulling out the bento to eat.


This is the group of people I was with. There were many more.

Now I can just hear the $64,000 question: Did you get drunk?! Answer: Not really. Sorry for the letdown (LOL), but no, I didnt get drunk. However, at the rate we were going, it was unsurprising that I would end up tipsy. I remember everything that happened, so I can tell you that I started slurring my words, and it was very difficult to walk. Also, I became so happy! I remember smiling so much, and I think I hugged everyone there. According to many people, I turn into a cute, happy little Asian boy. Another thing I found out is that I dont get Asian glow! I know it's not a good thing to be proud of, but that makes me feel better about drinking and my body. My older half brother enjoys beer, and he drinnks often enough. My parents and sister, although not heavy drinkers, have engaged in the practice, with few ill effects (that I know of). So I figured I could handle it. And what do you know, I really could! Granted, I did get more messed up than I was planning, but it's not like two sips in and I turned red and passed out. Not quite sure how many times I got sake, but it was enough.


One of many people I hugged. Note lack of Asian glow.

So Sake Matsuri Part I was a whole lot of fun. I have a better appreciation for sake, and also made a lot of happy (and tipsy) memories. Definitely a good part of the program so far!

Matsuri!

On Sunday, the HUSA students went to Yoshiura to see the 吉浦かに祭り (Yoshiura Kani Matsuri), or Yoshiura Crab Festival. One of the main teachers in the HUSA program, Tsunematsu Sensei, is from Yoshiura. It was a small festival, but very enjoyable. I had lots of fun, seeing the different みこし (mikoshi [portable shrine]) go up to the shrine, and of course enjoying the wonderful food for sale there.

The festival is to celebrate the harvest of the year. Yoshiura is near the sea, which gives the word "kani" to the festival. It means "crab" in Japanese, and is one of the things they harvested from the sea. One of the mikoshi that were carried was in the shape of a boat, while a few others had crabs as decoration. It was really quite something. Each ward of the city is responsible for its own mikoshi, and each mikoshi is paraded through the town. It gets carried up the steps to the shrine, where they parade it around there. That part was very exciting, because one of the mikoshi was spun round and around, changing mid way in rotation. Another was rocked back and forth. That one was really scary, because there were four kids hitting the taiko on the inside. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how they stayed in without falling out. The guys holding the mikoshi were jumping up and down on the handles, it was rocking so much. The ship shaped mikoshi was also really interesting. They would charge the shrine, bringing as much of it into the shrine as they could. The energy of the matsuri was just so exciting!





After watching the mikoshi part, the girls I was with decided to walk around the shops in the streets. I love Japanese festivals for this reason. In the little alleyways, they open up various kinds of shops. Many were for kids, in that they had toys and other kinds of prizes available. A few were by chance: you paid your 300￥ and got to pick a small cardboard thing. If you pick up the right number, you get a prize. Others were games, where you had to fill up a bucket thing with balls out of water. That's how I won my tarepanda. And of course, there were food stalls! I loved the karaage, which is basically fried pieces of chicken. I also enjoyed some fruits that were covered in hard candy syrup. But I think my favorite stall was a yakitori stall. The old man running it started a conversation with me. But it was really hard, because I didnt fully understand what he was asking me and everything. He asked me what my father did, but I couldnt answer him fully because I didnt know how to say that he's an engineer for the federal government (of the US). He also asked me if I had a girlfriend because I was with three girls. Even though all of that, I really enjoyed him. His yakitori was so good. I got a picture with him, to remember him.



During the course of the day, there were two cases of my identity being mistaken that I will probably always remember. The first was really actually kinda nice, but the second was not so nice. When all of the HUSA students first got to the matsuri, there was like a mass of white people (the Koreans and Chinese blended in a bit). A nice little obachan pulled me to the side and asked me basically, what are all these white people doing here? I explained that they were foreign exchange students studying at Hirodai and all of that. She told me something about her daughter or something studying at Tokyo University and stuff like that. And then she asked me, 「あの外人たちの通訳ですか。」 That is, "Are you their interpreter?" I had to laugh. I explained that no, I was actually a foreign exchange student myself, and that I was studying Japanese. She seemed a bit surprised, but thanked me for coming to visit their matsuri. She was such a sweetie. On the other hand, there was the woman who was running a toy stall. I didnt really hear, but the girls I was with did. They said that the woman was talking with a bunch of kids that were hanging around, and telling them to talk to the girls. They were apparently very afraid. But to me, she said that I was probably a Chinese! When I heard that, I got really upset. I really wanted to go back and correct her or something. I realise that I dont look 日本人, but really? Am I so different that it is impossible for me to look 日本人?! I ended up just yelling and looking really upset, which perhaps was better than making a scene. idk, I guess I should just file it somewhere under learning about other people's perceptions of me. It just took me by surprise, I guess. I thought I looked Japanese, and I thought that Japanese people would at least recoginize that maybe I'm not one of them, but I'm certainly not like the other Asians around.

Anyways, all in all, it was a fun and memorable trip. While I did not like getting drizzled on, slightly muddied, and mistaken for a Chinese, I had lots of good food to eat, and saw a most wonderful sight. The 吉浦かに祭り was a success!

Dinner at Ajishin!

For better or for worse, Hiroshima University (Hirodai) does not have cafeterias like how the University of Hawaii Manoa (UHM) does. There are places called 食堂 (shokudo), or cafeterias on campus, but these are more like school sponsored restaurants. I guess you could think of it as Campus Center Dining. There's a variety of foods available (and I will probably go over that really soon) and it's run by the school, but students are not required to get their food from them and they are closed on the weekends. The last point is particularly vexing for me, as I dont have pots, pans, or anything by which I can cook myself (but just so you know, if I had them, I could cook). This was my first weekend up here, and I wasnt really sure what I was going to do for dinner tonight. Earlier, I passed by a restaurant that was advertising 親子丼　３００￥, or "Oyako donburi for ~$3.00", which is a steal even in Japan (the school's 親子丼 is about ５００￥ or so).

The restaurant is called 味しん (Ajishin) and is located near the university. On a side note, I passed by a ramen shop and an okonomiyaki place. I will probably blog about them too. They advertise the staples in (Japan) Japanese restaurants: soba, udon, and donburi.



Their menu is posted outside of the store, and all of the food looked pretty good. In addition to the above, there was pork shogayaki and (amusingly) loco moco. However, what really intrigued me was the チキン南蛮定食 (chicken nanban teishoku). I thought it would be somewhat similar to what I make, which is called chicken nanban zuke. For those of you who have made it, you know that it's fried pieces of chicken which have been soaked in a sauce made of shoyu, leeks, and mirin. Well, what Ajishin makes is way more おいしい then mine!

I wasnt going to explain how I ordered, until I thought that it may be interesting to those who have never been to Japan. Instead of telling a waiter what I chose from the menu, I ordered a ticket from the machine in the front. Some restaurants in Japan sell their food in a way to their famed vending machines. After putting in my 五百円玉 (500￥ piece) into the machine, I selected the　チキン南蛮定食. And out popped a little ticket with チキン南蛮定食 written on it, which I gave to the man at the counter. I then paid for my bottle of Qoo (juice) [which I probably wouldnt have, if I had looked around and noticed the water and cups] and sat down.

I waited for a while, watching the television and being hungry. But after a while, the man called my order, and I could eat. It was a pretty standard 定食: the main dish, a bowl of rice, another bowl of miso soup, and some pickles.



The words I will use to describe the food cannot possibly impart the fullness of the experience. This is one of the things you need to experience in person. The chicken was crisply fried to a golden brown and was so crunchy. Not like karaage crunchy, but like, KFC chicken crunchy (and not fatty!). The sauce that was drizzled on it was not vinegary like the sauce I use to soak my chicken in (crunchy!); rather, it was more salty in flavor, and a bit thicker in texture. Not to say that it needed rice to make palatable. I guess you would say it was a shoyu based sauce? The crunchy texture on the outside might make you think that the inside would be a little tougher. But quite the contrary; the chicken was so soft when I bit it! It did not resist being cleaved by my teeth, falling apart at the least pressure I applied to it. Thank the heavens for letting me come across this shop! It could have been because I was so hungry, but I enjoyed this チキン南蛮定食 so very much. I do intend to come here again.

Another reason why I wanted to mention this shop is because of how romantic it was. But I dont mean to say that the interior was decorated with pink florals and hearts, or that I saw hundreds of couples making out in there. But rather, the staff seems to be only a man and a woman, who I suppose is his wife. I think that is the cutest thing I've ever seen. There are many restaurants like this in Japan, that are run by a couple and only the couple. There are some that may say that it's like eating at family establishments like Cafe 100 or Kawamoto, but I must disagree. Those places still feel like businesses, and as nice as the service may be, you know that the workers view their workplace as that, a workplace. They get there when their shift starts, and maybe they interact with the regulars, or they make close friends with their coworkers. But when their shift is over, they put away their stuff and head home, or to their other friends. That's not so in the kind of restaurant that Ajishin is. This store is the hardwork of this man and woman. It is an extension of their home, perhaps also a physical form of their love. I guess you could say it's their baby. I find this situation to be so full of love and happiness, that I want to experience it for myself (not that I'm complaining about what I do have with Curtis!!). Ever since I first saw it in a drama, and actually gone to them in Japan, it's been a silly dream of mine to open such a shop with the person that I love. I suppose there is a hard side to it (working with your spouse means you never get away, so I dont suggest this for couples that fight!), but in my little fantasy world, it's the most sweetest, romantic business venture ever suggested.

There were many things on the menu, and I so enjoyed the meal that I had here. 本当にご馳走だったよ！ And not only that, but I love to support small businesses like this, and if I get to help give satisfaction to a couple, then hey, that's just a bonus. I'm not sure when, but I will definitely visit this restaurant again!

Getting Started...

It's hard to believe, but I've been in Japan for five days. That's almost a week! Maybe it's because I dont have any distractions here (schoolwork, internet, friends), but time has been passing so slowly. It honestly feels like I've been here for so much longer. So far, it's been pretty good. I'll admit, there were some things which really irritated me, and there are some things that were really unfortunate. However, on the whole, things have gotten off to a wonderful start.

I think this was the first time I ever cried at the airport. I've been lucky to go on many trips: to Washington DC, New York City, Texas, and Japan. However, this is the first time that I was so sad to go, and actually cried. I was very happy that my mother, sister and her husband, and Curtis were there to see me off. If I had gone to the airport alone, I probably would have started bawling. That hour before departure was so comforting to me, even if all we did was stand around and talk about aimless, boring things. As I was passing through the security checkpoint, I saw less and less of my family and Curtis. It was at that time that it really hit me: I'm not going to physically see them for almost a year. Holy fucking shit. This is what mainly made me cry off and on during the plane ride to Narita Airport.

(The following story about the flight to Tokyo may make you think twice about flying on a plane. And I dont blame you. Perhaps this is one of the things that you shouldnt think much about.)

The flight to Tokyo took about eight hours. And it was so boring. Like, amazingly, incredibly boring. The only interesting thing that happened to me was the random nosebleed I got halfway into the flight. I woke up from the nap I was taking because my nose was really runny (or so I thought). But I only figured out that it was blood, and not hanabata flowing from my nose when I realized that hanabata is usually viscous, and doesnt flow like water. Sure enough, I started tasting the blood in my mouth. In retrospect, it probably looked like a murder scene: Blood drying on my mouth; some blood on the fold out table; and a huge blotchy spot with a few drips of blood on the blanket. Shout out to UHM Dining Services: if it wasnt for them, I wouldnt have had anything to stop the flow of blood besides the blanket. I quickly shoved some napkins up my nose and put pressure on the vein. (In retrospect, I cant imagine what the Japanese people around me were thinking. What do you do when someone two inches away from you starts bleeding? What about when you see the blood on the blanket?) After what seemed like ages, it finally stopped. While it is pathetic that the only interesting thing on the flight was bleeding, it is a good story, with a good moral: Ask the stewardess if they sanitize the blankets. If it's a no, there might be blood on it.

After arriving at Narita Airport, I took the bus to Haneda Airport. At Haneda Airport, I checked into a Japanese flight by myself for the first time. And what a time it was. Mostly because I apparently had overweight baggage. The poor clerk at the counter didnt speak fluent English, but from what she did speak (which was much better than the average Japanese), the max weight limit on All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights is twenty kilograms. I had twenty one. Somehow, that meant a ￥7500 fine. I paid it, but only because I needed everything in my suitcases (incidentally, that's not even all of the stuff I wanted to bring). And I'd like to say this for Japanese travellers: HOW DO THEY TRAVEL. The tiny bags most Americans just carry onto the plane? That's what they were checking in. I even saw some old guy check in an umbrella. How do they do it?! I'm lucky if I can fit a weekend's worth of clothes in my smallest suitcase. Curtis' suitcases could eat those suitcases for breakfast. That is apparently another thing I need to learn while I'm here.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had our Hiroshima University Study Abroad (HUSA) Program orientation. It was the longest, most grueling, orientation that I've ever been to. While I suppose I did learn a lot about what to expect, and it was good to meet my fellow HUSA students, there were some times that I was like "OMG I WANT OUT". There were so many forms to fill out! We had to fill out the Alien Registration Card form, another one for the National Pension Plan, and yet another for the National Healthcare thing. It was only three forms, but it felt like more. Maybe it was because of all the kanji that we had. Or maybe it's because, with the exception of the first one, they (hopefully) dont apply to me. That is, I dont plan on living in Japan long enough to withdraw from the national pension, and I hope to stay healthy the whole time I'm here. I wonder if it's difficult to become a registered alien in the United States?

I think making new friends is the hardest thing for me right now. One of my new friends is Kawauchi-san. He's my tutor, appointed by the HUSA program to help me with whatever I need while I'm here in Hiroshima. He's actually a grad student in cultural anthropology. And he's been super helpful. Even though he doesnt speak much English (he likes to say "Okay", "Sorry", and "Let's go!"), he makes up for it with enthusiasm and the amount of help he gives me. On the first day, when I had to go buy the basic stuff for my dorm, his car was so helful in carrying all the stuff I bought. Especially because it was raining. I can only imagine how difficult it was for those who's tutor only has a bicycle or something. But yeah, he says that I can call him at any time if I have any difficulties or questions. His car's mobility is also quite attractive, as it means that I can get anywhere I want to go pretty quickly. I'm trying really hard not to abuse this. One of these days, I'm going to try out the bus system in Saijo.

His friend Yuko-san is also another friend that I've made here. She's also a cultural anthropology grad student. From what I gather, she's done the whole tutor thing many times before. She speaks so good English! If there's something I dont understand in Japanese, or something Kawauchi-san doesnt understand in English, she translates, which means we have only a few communication problems. Her experience as a tutor is also wonderful because she knows more or less what to expect. She said that last year, she waited five hours to help the HUSA students get a cell phone, because everyone arrived and tried to get their phone all at the same time. On her advice, we went to the phone store (softbank, in case you were interested) a few days before to learn what different phones they have there, how much they cost, and how much the plan is. We waited only about two hours today, one of which was the actual act of buying the phone and plan.

I realize that buy staying inside and not socializing with the otherHUSA is really not helping my friendless situtation, and I will try to remedy that after this week. I feel that I have little in common with the other HUSA. The Korean and Chinese students stick together, and I would have a hard time talking to them because our common language is Japanese, which is spoken at various levels of fluency. For the white people though, I feel like I have little in common with them. The ones who have not been to Japan before are amused and enjoy the smallest things which I barely bat my eyes at. Plates full of rice, excellent service, and tea are what I've come to expect from Japan, but are amazing to them. The ones who have been to Japan before, though, I feel as if they're still amazed with the culture. That is, the food, language, culture, it's all still alien to them. It's not a part of them, like it is with me. I mean, I'm not 日本人 (and I will probably never be), but honestly. Oyako donburi, chicken katsu, taking my shoes off? Yeah, I do that already. Nothing special. But for them, it's still "Oh wow, I dont do that at home!" Having said that, I'm trying to strike up conversations when I can. In particular, I've talked to two girls that came from Minnesota University quite a bit. And on Tuesday, I talked a lot with the Austrian girl, and the China girl. And the French guy that speaks better Japanese than me? Whenever we run into each other, we talk. So I guess it's not a hopeless cause. But it is still something to work on. If I dont have friends, I'll end up only talking to Kawauchi-san and Yuko-san, and will probably miss out on doing something fun and learning more about other people. One of the things I wrote in my application essay was how I havent really been exposed to many cultures. Yes, I live in Hawaii, the mixing pot of the Pacific, but realistically, we're all "Local". How many American mainlanders am I friends with? Do I know anyone in Europe? I have no Korean friends. The only way I can truly learn about these peoples is if I make friends with them, and talk to them. It's difficult, but I will try to do this. It'll probably be easier once classes start, and we'll have something obvious in common.

Homesickness hasnt fully kicked in yet. I honestly do miss my friends and family in Hawaii, but I'm still enjoying the crisp air, the endless rice paddies, and the constant Japanese. The beginning has been rough, but that just means it can only get better. I still dont know if I'm ready to experience a Japanese university, but I am ready to try.