Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 1 - Traditions

Over the past few months, as my relationship has developed with U, and a number of my Japanese friends have remarked - either jokingly or with relief - that this likely means I'll be here for the long run, I have started reading the blogs of a number of foreign women married to Japanese men and raising bi-cultural kids in Japan. I'm certainly not anywhere ready to take any vows, but it has got me to thinking about the possibility of that future for me. Reading through past posts (can you tell I'm procrastinating from the thesis?!) written by these women I've realized just how difficult it can be to celebrate occasions and continue traditions important to only one parent.

Since I'll be spending my first Christmas in Japan (thesis is due January 13, not conducive to trans-Pacific travel!), and U, who has never celebrated Christmas before, and I will be spending our first Christmas together, I began to think about the traditions I want to hold on to, and some new ones I want to start.

Growing up, Christmas was a day of family. When I was very young my parents and I would fly to Vancouver to spend the holidays with my father's family. We moved to Vancouver the summer before I started grade one, and I still remember my excitement of living permanently in a city that for me was full of good food, presents, and grandparents and other relatives (I was the first grandchild) spoiling me rotten. We continued to spend Christmas with my dad's family, which grew to include my two younger cousins as well as aunts, an uncle, and my grandparents. Every year we'd gather at my grandparents, then in later years at my aunt and uncle's place. After my grandmother passed away, however, and my cousins and I grew up, getting all of us together for Christmas began to happen less and less. The past few years its been just my dad and I - with family friends joining us for dinner. This year will be only my second one away from Canada and my dad, my first being 5 years ago when I was volunteering in India.

This year, with my thesis hanging over me, I don't have a lot of time, but I don't want the holiday to slip by without recognition, so I'm plotting to include as many traditions as I can. With the cultural collision that is bound to happen, if they end up coming out looking nothing like what I'm used to, that will only make it all the more memorable - like door-to-door caroling at the homes of Hindu friends in the warmth of an Indian evening dressed in a red and green sari and reindeer antlers! So, stay tuned - while there may not be 12 days of Christmas for me this year, there will at least be a few, and who knows what will happen!

my usual Christmas dinner role - making gravy
Only this time it accompanied fried chicken, had to be enough to feed 40 people,
and I had to try not to stain my festive sari!

Unforgettable Behind

I'm wandering the crowded exhibit space, listening to the audio guide and taking notes - lost in my own world. The interview I just conducted for my thesis went well, and my brain is a whir. The exhibits are fascinating and -

"Sarah?"

A short middle-aged woman touches my arm and my train of thought is suddenly interrupted. One word, a simple question, but I am confused. The woman isn't wearing the red jacket or name card worn by all the exhibit staff and volunteers, so she isn't an employee. I have the vague feeling that I should recognize her face, but can't place her or come up with a name.

"Yes, my name is Sarah..."

I let my voice trail off into a question, but all the woman needed was affirmation of my name, and she all but hugs me as she bounces with glee and beams at me excitedly. When she finally notices my confusion she steps back and looks at me.

"I used to be a leader with a Girl Scout troop in Hirakata City..."

Now it is her turn to trail off, and my turn to bounce with excitement and hug her as my jaw dropped. Hirakata City Girl Scout troop?! Its K-leader!! Wow! My mind jumps back over a decade and fills with memories of my exchange year in Osaka, by far the best part of which was the time I spent with a local troop. Despite my lack of language skills the girls and leaders of the troop welcomed and accepted me. They encouraged me, challenging me to use my fledgling Japanese to lead songs and games. After meetings the other leaders (one occasional leader was a fellow university student, then there was K-leader, and then three or four women in their mid-sixties) would hold a meeting over tempura and noodles. I was dragged along every time despite being unable to follow the discussion in rapid-fire Osaka dialect. Hiking Mount Fuji in the middle of a rainstorm, attending a national camp, learning about Japanese festivals, learning about the tea ceremony, and all sorts of other wonderful moments flooded my mind as K-leader continued to beam and bounce in delight.

She asked me what I was doing now, why I was at this museum in a remote area a few hours from Osaka. Without really stopping for me to answer, she continued on in a rush, telling me how she hadn't been supposed to be one of the teachers on the school group she was with, how she had stepped in at the last minute when another teacher got sick. Then she began to tell me how she had recognized me. I hadn't changed a bit, she said. My face was exactly the same. But even more so, she had recognized my profile from behind - in particular my bum was what convinced her it really was me.

Should I take it as a compliment that a woman old enough to be my mother, who saw my 19 year-old ass and everything else in a Japanese hot-spring, says my rear hasn't changed in the intervening decade plus??? Either way, she was terribly amused by this, and showed her amusement and general appreciation of the correctness of her guess by reaching over and pinching that part that she found most recognizable...

We chatted a bit more, and I gave her my card so that she and the other leaders could be in touch and we could all get together next time I visited Kansai. Then she dashed off to find her group, leaving me and my somewhat sore rear to go back to my research.

Rollin' it My Way

This month's Washoku Warriors Challenge was sushi rice with the option of then using it for Rolled Sushi Two Ways, Five-Coloured Foods with Sushi Rice (chirashi sushi), or Sushi Pillows (inari zushi), and then the added option of Clear Ocean Broth with Herbs and Lemon Peel.

U was on hand to help me out - he's quite excited about the whole "cooking challenge" and really enjoy's checking out all the photographs on La Fuji Mama's round-up.

This time around we started with the broth - which while a bit finicky was simple enough to make. I must admit that neither of us were very taken with it and I strongly doubt it'll appear again in our kitchen.



We also made sushi rice - my first time from scratch (I usually use the instant powder packets). Again, relatively straightforward once you get the hang of it - providing you have two sets of arms to pour vinegar, fan, stir, and hold the bowl all at the same time of course!

What to do with the rice was an easy decision for both of us. I've made both chirashi and rolled sushi before, with the latter being my favourite. It is fun - because you get to do what your parents always told you not to - play with your food! And of course since you are the one making it you decide what to put in. My dad and I used to have roll-your-own sushi dinner parties - a big hit (especially when one friend brought her home-smoked salmon... wow)! In university the student union I was involved with ran "Make-your-own-Sushi Lunches" every other month or so. It was fun and a great fundraiser (I pitied the History Student Union who had to rely on bake sales - the East Asian Studies Student Union ALWAYS had the best food!)

So, rolled it was... but... well, that was where we parted ways with Andoh. I had told U that the recipe for rolled sushi called for eel, and although he loves eel he decided he didn't want it cold. So we went looking at the grocery store - on empty stomachs... ALWAYS DANGEROUS! Here is what we came home with:

(clockwise from bottom front: scallops, avocado, red snapper, salmon, tuna belly with green onions, tuna, squid, and cucumber)


Since we were splurging on ingredients we figured we should go the whole way, and bought fresh wasabi instead of powdered or prepared paste. U scraped off some of the knobbly skin and grated it - filling the kitchen with a wonderfully fragrant aroma. The flavour too is incredible - spicy, yes, but with so many other flavours too. Fresh wasabi can be expensive, but it really is so much better than the other choices... mmmm! (and a mite more photogenic to boot!)



With all the choices we got a little adventurous - here I'm combining tuna and cucumber with a shiso leaf and salted plum paste - giving the roll a great tart kick.


in addition to that roll, here's also a salmon and cucumber/avocado roll, and one of my attempts at an inside-out roll - with tuna belly and green onion (my ALL-TIME favourite) and avocado.

Selfish Knitting

After numerous projects for friends, I suddenly became a very selfish knitter - three projects on the needles at once, one each for me, myself, and I! Two are done, and I was waiting for the third to post, but it big and has turned into a black hole of knitting - eating up knitting time but not seeming to show much effect.

So, here go two finished projects:

One was one that had been hibernating for a while. I was given some gorgeous yarn a while back, and wanted to make myself a shawl. Even combining the yarn with a few others, however, I just didn't have enough to make it big enough. I hid it away for a long time, trying to come up with ideas on how to make it bigger. I ordered a few yarns that I thought might match, I thought about knitting or crocheting on a border. In the end I decided I liked the yarn too much to settle for anything that wasn't perfect. So my Muse Shawl turned into a mini-Muse. I still love the colours, however, and am still happy with it. The big button makes me happy too!






The second was an impulse yarn purchase. I made a scarf for a friend with a funky yarn that knitted up well. After seeing the same yarn in some of my favourite colours I just couldn't resist... So I bought one ball and started knitting it up in the same "Dropped" pattern. I knew I wouldn't have enough for a scarf, so instead went for a much skinnier version and - voila! A fun belt!