Onigiri at the Franciscan Chapel Center

Onigiri are balls of rice covered with dried seaweed, and usually with something in the middle, such as a pickled plum, or a small chunk of cooked salmon or tuna.  Onigiri are the most common lunch and snack food in Japan.  They are very good!  Most school children who bring their lunches to school bring onigiri, in the same way that many American schoolchildren bring sandwiches in their lunch boxes.  

Several groups take turns making onigiri at the Franciscan Chapel Center each weekday for a special purpose.

Many hands make quick work and we make hundreds of onigiri in about an hour, while we chat away!

The next morning additional volunteers deliver the rice balls to a large group of homeless people living in a Tokyo park.

Several rice cookers stand ready with cooked rice.

We use a bit of salty water to line the molds, and then fill them with the warm rice...

And then insert a pickled plum

And then package them up with a piece of seaweed

Onigiri ready for delivery the next morning

Happy Halloween?

We hear that Littleton is having a snow day tomorrow!  Wow - this will be a Halloween you won't soon forget!  We hope that our friends in Littleton and surrounding towns are able to stay warm and that power is restored very soon!  Here in Tokyo it is about 65 degrees and sunny.  It is hard to believe that it's almost November!  I have worn a jacket just one time since moving here in September!

You may be surprised that people here - mostly young adults - celebrate Halloween with costume parties.  In some big apartment buildings that house lots of American families, children will go trick or treating tonight - but our small apartment building isn't like that.

Yesterday we came across this interesting figure sitting outside a restaurant.  You might say he's the Japanese version of a scarecrow.  We have also seen candy and sweets in the stores, some in packages that say "Merry Halloween." :). 

Dried squid-on-a-stick, anyone?  Or would this be more "trick" than "treat"?

Japanese 101 Cooking Class

Last week I attended a small group cooking class for beginners.  There were about five students from three countries, all there to learn how to make some simple Japanese dishes on our own.  Our sensei (pronounced "sen-say") - or teacher - grew up in Japan learning how to cook from her mother. 

Here are some vegetables we used in our cooking.  The purple vegetable in front is a Japanese sweet potato, which we used in tempura.  Yum!

Here are some ingredients used to make dashi (soup stock) for homemade miso soup.  Yes, those are dried sardines!  You take off the heads and scoop out the insides before using the rest of the fish.  And that is dried kelp in the back.  The teabags are holding bonito (fish) flakes.   These three ingredients when soaked and simmered in water make the beginnings of a delicious soup!  

Korean style seaweed is becoming popular for making sushi, because it is especially spicy and salty. 

Junko-sensei shows us how to form onigiri (rice balls) with a little piece of cooked salmon inside.  The balls are shaped into chunky triangles and wrapped in dried seaweed.  After we each made our own little rice ball, we immediately ate them for a quick tasty snack!

At the end of our lesson, we sat down to enjoy our feast.  The two small bowls on the left are for dipping sauces.  The bowl to the right contains the miso soup, with tofu and seaweed (it's really tasty, actually!).  On the larger plate we have a tofu "steak", some eggplant cooked with ginger, and some tempura vegetables.  

The next day, Mr. Nanto went to the grocery store with me to help me find some of the ingredients I will be using to cook some of these dishes at home:

"Cultural Exchange" in Onagawa

This weekend our family spent some time with "Mormon Helping Hands" in Onagawa, a small coastal town in the Tohoku region of Japan, which was very hard hit by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th.   Onagawa has a population of almost 10,000, making it about as populous as Littleton.  It is located in a small valley along the coast.  Many lives and homes were lost that day, and hundreds of townspeople are still living in shelters.

It took about 8 hours to get there by bus from Tokyo, overnight.   We stopped several times at rest stops, and tried to get some sleep on the bus!

To make your meal choice, you purchase a ticket, and give it to the people behind the counter.  When your food is ready, your number is called.

Curry rice for an early morning meal before our day in Onagawa

As we approached Onagawa, we started seeing evidence of the tsunami and its devastation. 

This house is still uninhabitable.  Hundreds of people in Onogawa are living in shelters. Initial clean up has taken place, and roads have been repaved.  The town has a very long way to go, though.

Mr. Nanto takes a picture of a building laying on its side.

The force of the tsunami waters knocked some buildings down.

This was the advertisement posted in the community in the weeks leading up to the event.  "Cultural exchanges" are a popular thing in Japan.  Of course, there has been a huge emphasis on "cleaning up" after the tsunami, and this time community leaders expressed the need for "cheering up."  That was our goal for the day.  The theme for the day was "the west" (cowboys, pioneers), but members of our group represented 10 countries in all, not just the U.S.!

We held our event on the grounds of this elementary school high up in the foothills, less than five minutes from where the town was devastated.  We got our assignments and organized ourselves to provide a "cultural exchange" day of games, food, and music for a group of school children, some of their parents, and some senior citizens from the community.

In Japan, for any event at all, there is an "opening ceremony."  Here, the mayor of the town is showing us aerial before-and-after pictures of the town.  He explained that nearly 900 townspeople lost their lives in the tsunami, and countless homes and businesses were destroyed, but that Onagawa is still a beautiful place blessed by the ocean and mountains.

Next, groups were formed combining teenagers from our group with the Japanese school children.  The adults set up 10 games (field day style!) and cooked the food.  Each group had a different color bandana.  It is very important for Japanese people to feel part of a group, and for groups to be very clearly identified.

Tommy (orange group!) making introductions

Kaela and Nanako (blue group!) were side by side most of the day:)

Spoon relay (with cotton balls instead of eggs!).  Waters from the tsunami had reached within 1 meter of the fence in the background of this photo (beyond the fence, there is a steep slope down).  Luckily this school was built on high ground.  Townspeople never imagined a tsunami could bring water this high into the hills.

"Field Day" style games

During our "western" style lunch (sloppy joes!), we talked with the Sugiura family.  Mr. Sugiura is a fire fighter in town, and they lived 1 minute from the ocean.  Their story of surviving the tsunami is amazing.  Mr. Nanto blogged about it in detail here.

In late afternoon, we boarded our buses and headed back to Tokyo.   This was an unforgettable 24 hours for our family. 

Small dogs

Inu (pronounced "ee-new") is the Japanese word for dog.  We see so many small dogs here!  In four weeks, I have seen one Black Lab, and Tommy has spotted a Husky, but every single day we see countless small - even tiny - dogs.  Japanese people really love their small dogs!  Most apartment buildings have a rule that you can keep a dog in the apartment only if it can be carried in your arms when it is full grown.   Many apartment buildings, like ours, don't allow pets at all.

 I really got a laugh when I walked out of the grocery store to see these two creatures peeking out of a stroller! 

This dog waits patiently and alertly for his owner to return from the store across the street.

I couldn't resist asking for a photo of this tiny dog.  Its owner was pleased and proud, I think, that a "foreigner" like me was interested in her dog. 

This little guy waits in a bicycle basket while his owner shops.

Most dogs do get walked.  It's harder to get photos of dogs being walked, though!