Happy Children's Day

We had a great get-together on this very nice day. Lots of great foods and the out-door amazake was pretty good too. Happy Children's day!

Setsubun Oni

We had a small get-together for setsubun.  This year, Ninjya volunteered to be oni.  He is such a nice guy.  ha ha.

Happy Holidays!

The December get-together went very well, and we are very glad to add new members.  Our hope is for more people to find us, and our goal is to create the opportunities to share each other's cultural experiences they bring in.  Please don't be shy to contact us and join in our next event.

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.

Nabe, the winter goods

As it reaches toward the end of the year, we may have only few times to get together as a group.  In December, we have an exciting Nabe (Japanese style hot pot) party hosted by Shuei.  We can experiment different flavors, but I'm especially interested in kimchi nabe.  Nabe is a typical winter food in Japan.  We can warm up by eating delicious nabe and mingle with family and friends.  That's priceless.


tag: la crosse wi japanese la crosse japanese club japanese cultural group japanese people japanese language japanese la crosse wisconsin

November Japanese Speaking Table

November's edition of the La Crosse Japanese Club's Japanese Speaking Table is coming up soon.

Saturday, November 10th
3 to 5pm
Root Note Cafe

All levels are welcome to come practice Japanese.
The theme this month might be birthdays, as Saturday just happens to be Laura's!

Curry and Culture

Thanks to all who came out to celebrate Culture Day!  We started out slow with two kinds of curry, but quickly filled up with yudofu, chirashi zushi, mochi, and pumpkin dip.  With the movies of Miyazaki in the background, we learned how to make origami cranes and practiced our calligraphy skills.  Laura gave lessons on the koto, and everyone who tried could play "Sakura, Sakura."

Rumors of the next event being a nabe party were circulating, so tentatively mark your calendars for December 1, and we'll get the specifics out as soon as we know.

Culture Day Potluck

November 3rd is Bunka no Hi (Culture Day) in Japan.
We're going to celebrate by having a potluck and doing some cultural activities.

Saturday, November 3
Noon to 3pm
Laura's house (see facebook event for address, or contact Laura or Hozumi)

Please bring a dish to share.  It doesn't have to be Japanese food.

We'll try these fun cultural activities:
origami
calligraphy
koto lessons
tea ceremony
and more!

Feel free to invite anyone interested in learning about Japan.
See you there!

○○の秋 (~ no aki)

The hot and dry summer has passed and the cold winter is on its way.  And of course there is this beautiful season, fall.  In Japan, fall is considered as the best season to strive for anything you like to do.

○○の秋, which means Autumn of [blank], is a common phrase used around this season in Japan.

There are two circles because you typically fit two kanji characters to make it meaningful for your goal/ambition/hobby/life, etc, but it does not have to be two characters.

The typical phrases used are:

読書の秋 (dokusho no aki) = Autumn of Reading

芸術の秋 (geijyutsu no aki) = Autumn of Art

スポーツの秋 (supootsu no aki) = Autumn of Sports

食欲の秋 (shokuyoku no aki) = Autumn of Appetite

What is your ○○の秋?

Japanese Speaking Table: October

Come out to the Japanese Speaking Table this Saturday (Oct. 13) at 3pm at the Root Note.  We'll chat about fall and perhaps play some Japanese word games to learn new vocabulary.

Feel free to bring any questions you have about Japanese language or Japan as well.  We're always willing to  help out!

How was your moon viewing day?

November 29th was jyuugoya 十五夜, the Harvest Moon. We also call this day otsukimi お月見 , literary meaning "moon viewing".  Due to everybody's schedule, we could not get together for this date, but I hope you had a great night and enjoyed viewing nice full moon.

tag: japanese la crosse wi japanese club cultural group meetup japanese people language culture la crosse wisconsin japan

Japanese Speaking Table: Introductions

Our September Japanese Speaking Table is this weekend!

Saturday, Sept. 8
Root Note (4th Street, La Crosse)
3pm

This week we'll start off by practicing self-introductions.  Come prepared with a few sentences about yourself, or just wing it.  We'll learn new grammar and vocabulary from each other's descriptions of hobbies, jobs, and quirky facts.

If you don't know how to introduce yourself yet, no problem!  We'll teach you the necessary phrases and how to modify them to your own situation.

All levels of Japanese are welcome.

Obon Season - Late-Summer Get Together

We had another nice potluck & movie night, featuring the obon season this time.  Typically in Japan, late summer involves with summer festivals, yukata, yatai (vendor foods), and fireworks. We didn't have fireworks, but some of us wore yukata, and we all enjoyed the foods and watching Japanese documentary.   We also had Shuei's family and friend visiting from Japan. In fact, they just arrived here in Wisconsin on the night before, so I hope the jetlag wasn't getting them too bad. Thank you all coming and hope to see you again soon!

Obon Potluck and Movie, August 25

While the Obon holiday is officially the 15th of August (or July in some parts of Japan), we are going to celebrate on August 25th with a potluck and movie night.

Come dressed in yukata if you have one, and we'll try some bon odori (traditional dance), eat some good food, and watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Obon Potluck and Movie
Saturday, August 25
6pm
Hozumi's house (see facebook event for address)