New Years

New Years, I knew, was probably not going to be much fun. I had several offers from students to go to temples and things of that nature, but it's cold here...and I wanted to stay close to home. Close to my heater.

I decided to go to a friend's house for dinner. She had told her parents about me, that I was from America, and they were excited to host a foreigner in the house.

I didn't eat all day, knowing I'd be given more food than I could hope to consume in a week at this dinner. The Japanese take New Years very seriously. It's a big family dinner followed by a visit to a temple or even an onsen (bath house). New Years aside, any time a Japanese family feeds their guest, it's best to come starving. The more you eat, the happier they are.

My friend has a wonderful Japanese style house deep in the countryside of Saijo. The dining area had a kotatsu (table with built in heater/blanket) and lots of comfy cushions to sit on.

The first course was hot soba in a light broth with a tempura shrimp and chopped green onions. Soba is a buckwheat noodle and is sort of greyish in color. I ate about half, knowing tons of sushi and other deliciousness was coming. Also, soba is not my favorite.

Second course was sushi. They had bought a big platter from a specialty shop and it came in a big fancy box. I had some of my favorites, including toro (fatty belly cuts of tuna). My friends dad kept asking me what kinds of sushi I liked. If I named something that wasn't on the tray, he'd shout for someone to get it and they came out with a big plate of it. This is how I ended up with a big plate of incredibly fresh maguro (tuna). I learned quickly when asked what I liked to just point at what I was eating and smile.

Third course was mushroom egg pudding. I forgot what it's called, but it's basically egg mixed with either chicken broth or milk or both and mushrooms and steamed/boiled in a ceramic cup. It's really delicious but I always burn my tongue on it, despite the thorough warnings :-/

The fourth course was salad with daikon, bacon and a creamy dressing.

While we ate, we watched my friend's favorite TV show. The premise is: 5 men are on camera for 24 hours and are led around different places and put in different outrageous situations. They are not allowed to laugh. If they laugh, masked men come out with soft nightstick-looking things and wack whichever of the 5 men that laughed on the bum. Every outlandish situation they get put in is supposed to make them crack up. Lots of cross dressing and general weirdness. It was kind of hard to watch, but some of the humor translated. Kind of a slapstick sort of reality comedy. I kept waiting for one of the guys to snap and turn on his masked oppressors. They kept getting hit on the same general area and after 24 hours I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.

With my stomach achingly full of food and tea, I headed home.

It snowed!