There is one main event in December, which I have not posted yet. The university organized an International Festival, where the international students and the Japanese community displayed parts of each country's culture. For example, the Japanese made rice cakes called "mochi", held a tea ceremony, provided a workshop for calligraphy, performed a Japanese drum session, ... We Germans and the other countries in Europe made a picture show in order to tell how each country celebrates Christmas.
This is "mochi", a Japanese rice cake, which is chewy:
Do you know how mochi is made? Here it goes:
The mochi dough is beaten for a long time until it gets soft and chewy at the same time. It takes alot of force and it is not so easy to hit the dough. I tried it and after a few moments, my arms got tired!
It takes two men to beat the dough
I tried it but was not of great help I fear
After the dough is beaten it is given to the women, who form it into small balls and roll it in some kind of soy powder. And then it is ready to eat! Yummy!
The Koreans made a spicy soup with rice noodles. It tastes very good!
At the festival the community also organized a tea ceremony. It was held in a tent, but we also had to take off our shoes before entering.
As usual the guests eat a sweet okashi first before drinking the green tea.
Okashi made of red soy bean paste and rice flour dough around it.
For those who do not like red soy bean paste it is also possible to eat something else sweet. It comes in this decorative vase. When I saw it the first time I wondered what could be in it.
This is what comes out of the vase. Small candy made of sugar.
And then the big moment came when we had to hold our presentation about Christmas in Europe. In Japanese! I have to admit that I could not remember my words, so I had to read them from a slip of paper.
Getting ready for our presentation
Don't you also havvve to hold Powerpoint presentations in your university or in your company? Have you ever held them in socks? I am serious, we could only enter the building after taking off our shoes. It was the first presentation that I held in house slippers! Haha. But actually everything was informal and it felt like holding a presentation in front of extended family. Kids were lying on the floor and making comments, laughing at everything you say, and I could have held my powerpoint presentation in socks if I had wanted to! It was much fun, especially because our participant from Denmark Soren could speak Japanese very well and could interact with the kids, asking them questions, making jokes and make them laugh. It was hilarious!
Here we are: wearing pretty red house slippers
Our audience: a mixture of our professors (on the chairs)and kids sitting on the floor
Look how much fun the kids had!
And then somebody shouted, "Who wants to make Dangojiru"! (Dangojiru, you remember? One of Oita's specialties) And of course I sprinted to the kitchen, because I wanted to see how the Japanese women cook it. I have already made it once at Eriko's house, when we all were invited a couple of months ago.
A tray with the dough for the dangojiru noodles is brought in
The dough needs to be formed into noodles. It does not matter who has the longest.
Crowded kitchen with busy noodle makers
After forming the noodles they have to be cooked in the broth until they float at the surface
Ready to serve!
Some good soup ^^ It is made of fish and meat stock
Voilà - self made Dangojiru with noodles and vegetables.
And then we could finally enjoy it, standing in the hallway!
Friends enjoying their dangojiru
After Dangojiru making we went to a room where we could try out calligraphy. Our Japanese tutors showed us how to do it. As to be expected, they were good at it, and we sucked at it.
Our Japanese tutor shows our friend from the Netherlands how to do it
These are the utensils
Look at the left side of the picture. My tutor painted the same character (neko = cat) as me. And look how mine looks in comparison to hers...
Having fun painting
I asked my tutor what her favorite Kanji was and here it is. It means true.
But also Japanese are sometimes unsure about how to write Kanji as this video shows! ^^
Japanese kids doing a drum performance
Colorful costume
An untypical Japanese dessert. Japanese like these kind of cakes with cream and decoration. Maybe it is to imitate something like "Kaffee und Kuchen", which Germans like to have in the afternoons. Except that there was no coffee. Everybody jumped at the women who distributed the cakes. I had to fight to get mine!
Japanese like colorful decoration. This one is self made.
Origami at the kid's table. A little kid had to teach us how to do it.
Look at what she made! From childhood on, her fingers are trained to be more skillful than ours. We feel so clumpsy.
We had a lot of fun at the kid's table. I felt very comfortable there!
I made this box. Yokatta!
My tutor showed me how to make ninja stars. It is really fun!
Here it is!
And then the highlight of the day came: the fashion show! The international students put together a show where everybody wore a traditional costume. Not necessarily from their own homecountry, but who cares ^^ Everybody gathered in front of the stage.
The hosts introduce the models, their home countries and what they wear.
The stage
A Thai dress. She actually performed a Thai dance, too.
Wow, look at her! Imagine all the prude Japanese who do not even show bare arms in public. And then this! Look at the reactions of the audience!
And then THIS! One of the international students performing a belly dance in a sexy outfit. You could literally see all the Japanese (older) men in the room stiffen up, making dead serious faces, or even looking away! I guess this was too much for them.Haha!
All the while, with the entertaining show going on, I was at the kid's table, making my ninja stars all the time. It was fun! Watching the lively show and at the same time handcrafting! ^^
This is my wall in my student dorm. This is how many ninja stars I made. ^^
It was such a relaxed and fun atmosphere. The audience laughed alot, the kids played around, the music and the fashion show were very lively, and then the "nakedness scandals" as shown above... HILRIOUS! If you are Vietnamese, you know what I mean when I say it was like being a kid at a Vietnamese wedding... It felt like being around extended family. It was one of the most heart warming experiences in Japan!
