Thanksgiving Travel ~ 行きはよいよい 帰りは怖い

"Going is easy, returning is scary" is the lyrics I always think of when I go on a long distance trip. There are several urban legends around this song, named Toryanse. It is an old children's song in Japan. Nobody knows why, but it says something scary happens in your return trip, usually interpreted as a car accident. The music was often used with the traffic signals, probably warning people to be careful so something scary won't happen to them. The English translation is on wiki.

Return of the Japanese Speaking Table

It has been a few months, but we are once again hosting a Japanese Speaking Table.  All levels of Japanese language skills are welcome to come and practice speaking.  We'll work together to improve or brush up on some vocabulary and grammar.

Our theme this month: What has everyone been doing this winter?

Saturday, March 2
3:00pm
Root Note Cafe (4th Street, downtown La Crosse)

Setsubun Party

Our second annual Setsubun Party is coming up fast!  Join us for makizushi, bean-throwing, and other setsubun activities.

Saturday, February 2
5:30pm
Laura's house (see facebook for address)

We'll be providing the sushi rice and basic sushi ingredients.  Bring some of your favorite things to put in sushi, or a side dish to share.

節分 Trivia

This year’s setsubun is on Feb 3^rd as it was in past years.  But this date actually changes depending on the year.  Setsubun is the day you prepare for the new spring to come and is on the day before the first day of spring.  The first day of spring is not vernal equinox.  It is called risshun, and it is defined as the day that the earth positions at 315 degrees on the ecliptic coordinate system. 

Mamemaki/bean throwing is done to remove evil spirits in a house. It is done on setsubun so that you can have a fresh start in a new season after a long winter.  It is an originally developed Japanese custom, and it is not practiced in any other nationalities.

You are to eat the same number of beans as your age for good luck.  Not many people eat the beans that were thrown for sanitary reason.

Traditionally, the beans you throw on setsubun are soy beans.  However since around 1955, people in Hokkaido started using shelled peanuts instead.  This new custom soon spread toward Touhoku and Nigata area.  Why do you think that is?   The areas with this new custom are where it snows a lot. Throwing small soy beans toward outside made a mess in front of the house, and it was difficult to pick them up in snow.  So people started throwing bigger shelled peanuts, and when it is done, you can pick them up and even eat the peanuts inside. 

Ehoumaki is futomaki, a long rolled sushi, which is said to bring good luck if you eat it while you point the sushi in the certain direction at the night of setsubun.  This direction of luck changes every year based on zodiac and this year’s direction is South South East. You must eat the rolled sushi at one setting without splitting it because otherwise the luck will escape away from it.  It was a custom practiced in only Osaka area since Edo period.  However in the recent years starting 1983, a convenience store, namely Family Mart, decided that this is a marketing opportunity, so they started advertising this custom to sell more futomaki in different areas of Japan.  You can now find ehoumaki in most convenience stores and grocery stores.

Happy New Year

As I am spending the time with my family watching TV and talking about nonsense, I’d like to take some time thinking back this year.  Since Laura and I started the Japanese cultural group in 2011, we had steady growth in our group members. The year 2012 has been very active year for the group, and we accomplished many activities.  In addition to monthly Japanese speaking table, we had following cultural events in 2012:

Feb 3 – setsubun / bean throwing 
May 6 – children’s day / koinobori
July 20 – tasting at Sushi Pirate
Aug 25 – obon
Nov 4 – bunka no hi / culture day
Dec 2 – nabe / hot pot dinner
Dec 31 (planed) – toshikoshi / new year’s eve 

We would not be able to have such great turn out without you all.

I like to thank you to everyone, and additional thank you to people who hosted the events or brought great foods to share.  I appreciate if you can continue supporting the group and help us host events, cook cultural foods, and bring ideas on what we can do to make the events more fun and meaningful.  

Happy New Year to you all

ゆく年くる年

Christmas and New Year is around the corner.  It's getting cold and we had some snow just in time to prep for the white Christmas.  Everyone, please have great holidays and eat lots of warm foods.  The Japanese Nabe party was awesome.  We should do it again.  I'll be spending the お正月(oshougatsu) in Japan.  I hope you have some great time getting together with your family as well.  See you next year!

The picture from the Nabe Party.

December Japanese Speaking Table

Thanks to Shuei for hosting a fabulous Nabe Party last night.  We had three kinds of nabe, two kinds of oden, and snacks galore including sushi, squid, onigiri, and more.  Everyone had a good time tasting new and familiar foods and drinks.

The next Japanese Speaking Table will be moved to Sunday in order to accommodate a few more interested participants.

Sunday, December 9
3pm
Root Note Cafe

All levels are welcome to come and practice speaking Japanese.