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I cannot say that I like eating mochi but it is a rich meal for which a spoonful could account for a full bowl of rice. My boss invited me to his very typical rural house with some of my working colleagues. We had fun making mochi and eating it together. The New Year and the days preceding it are the biggest holidays of the year in Japan, and people eat all kinds of special traditional New Year's dishes, including mochi, which is one of the most potentially lethal foods there is. Mochi is made, at least traditionally, by putting rice in a big wooden container and wacking at it with a heavy mallet until it's the consistency of silly putty. A second person stands around and periodically sticks their hands into the container to rearrange the big gluttonous lump of mochi and make sure it gets pounded evenly. This inevitably gives rise to all kinds of gruesome accidents where the mochi wacker accidentally wacks the mochi rearranger with the heavy wooden mallet instead of wacking the mochi itself. |
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The real New Year's excitement, though, comes when you actually eat the mochi, which is served in a hot broth that makes it so gooey that every year, people all over Japan (mostly old people and little kids) choke to death while eating it. The number of mochi deaths each year is reported on TV and in the paper. This, I'm convinced, is so you can serve someone a big bowl of mochi and then start talking about how many people it's already killed this year just as they're in the middle of swallowing. This is really funny in any ways! Hence, that was my party at my boss's place. |
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I have been invited to give a presentation about my country, Canada, to a class of junior high school student by a good friend of mine. Although, both of my parents have been teaching all their life, it was my first time in front of teenagers. The school, located in Kariya nearby the train station, was looking for about 20 foreigners who could tell interesting and funny stories about their respective countries in a good Japanese language. Thus, during the week before the Saturday (yes, every school children has mandatory school on Saturday morning!), I prepared myself by browsing of the Internet some good Web site talking about Canada. I find the most complete one at the official Canadian home page. |
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But it contained too much information. Geee! It is hard to simplify a big country like Canada in approximately 40 minutes. There are so many differences in climate and landscapes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Explaining the historical reasons for French and English presence in Canada is not easy either. But what would be fascinating is the custom of making maple syrup and still hope that Japanese children know what is maple syrup! Therefore, I named my presentation:
From the country of maple syrup...
I brought also a few specimens of other companies' aluminum pistons (studied for comparative purposes) to show what is the career of metallurgist. I was set up for the big day, a bit nervous.
All the foreigners met in what seems to be the teacher coffee room. They were coming from many countries in the world: India, Myanmar, Switzerland (not Gilles who said his Japanese was not good enough but who was probably too shy), etc. to name a few. Some had stayed in Japan for many years already while some others were here for only a few months. After the breakfast coffee, we were all invited to the gymnasium where all the classes were strictly aligned in impeccable rows alternating boys and girls in their usual uniforms. Welcomed like ambassadorial representatives, the orchestra was playing while we walked to the stage. That was very amusing.
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The school's Principal asked each of us to present ourselves in our own language and in Japanese. Some girls from Myanmar and China even sang! Wow! In response to one student's question about the differences between Japanese and our own country's school system, I answered back that there was no school on Saturday morning, provoking a huge laugh among all the students. It was cold in the gym (the winter in Japan is not cold enough to heat the school!) and everybody was happy to move to their respective classes. I was assigned to the first grade hence the youngest ones but certainly not the easiest ones! When I entered the class, there was the same strict order, boys on one side and girls on the other. As soon as I started talking, one of the boys was already annoying me by repeating every last word I was saying. Who said that Japanese were very quiet and gentle students? Anyway, I talked a lot about maple syrup, of course, zoomed rapidly on why French speaking people were historically living in North America and showed my etched pistons which found out to be popular. Ouf! It is not easy to teach at all and I am quite happy to have chosen the career of metallurgist! Ha ha ha |
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