skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So here's a little mix of some of the many little Christmas and end of the year parties that i attended...in japan there is always an occasion to eat and drink...the rest is self-explanatory.
the first of the set takes place in an Okinawa style izakaya...this was for my lab's bonenkai (end of the year 'forget everything' party)
C'est Sho-san! 
voila the peoples of my lab...
my tutor, Kacky-san and the infamous Gyus-san...
here is Nishiyama-sensei, who is the sensei of my lab...(qui sera peut-etre en France pour l'année prochaine!)
these delicious looking foods took place in our dorm's x-mas eve party...
...fun with flour...
よっし! kampai!
Christmas is a funny event in japan. Yes it exists, but it doesn't really happen. They set everything up a few weeks in advance, building you up with decorations and a few parties or so, however christmas day is far from being special to Japanese folks here. The christmas spirit in japan is just another excuse for buying stuff, or just another day that everyone can enjoy. The 25th and new years seem to go down in the exact opposite way of what i have experienced elsewhere (usa/france); while we spend christmas celebrating the "birth of baby jesus" with family, they spend it partying or in couples...and then when the new year comes, they pray, while we, well, party like it's 1999- i mean 2008.
Before getting to the paper making workshop, we made a quick stop in this amazing Japanese style house located in Yame. We went to this little town in the country side, about an hour away from Fukuoka city, with a sensei from school that offers these one day themed trips to different places a few times a month...
This house is actually owned by this sensei's family, and dates back to the Meiji period! (1868-1912)
main perspective from the entrance...with the sliding doors mostly opened.
main living space...and of course, no shoes on the tatami!
view on the surrounding hallway and part of the outside garden...
This is the paper making factory/workshop...also situated in Yame.
Step 1: take the bark off the tree, only the skin...
Step 2: then you take the color out of the bark by letting it sit in solution outside in big tubs...(days/months)
Step 3: after letting it sit, you drain the water leaving you with a pasty, fibery material (white/beige)...
Step 4: then you go through a flattening process, making it more compact...
Step 5: once enough fiber, they are again mixed with a water based liquid, and spread out on a flat mold to dry depending on the sheet template...
Step 5': stacked on top of each other...separated by a thin piece of string at one end...
Step 6: then once a stack is finished, they are then ironed (by any family member, yes), low heated and 'cooked' into thin sheets...
Step 7: And finally, dried, the paper comes out like this...
perhaps in different arrays of colors...
and also used to make many things from art canvas', wallets and such, and even into cute little gifts!
yes...this was a little unexpected: I had signed up to help for this event a long time ago and i had forgotten since...all of the sudden i found myself holding a big wooden hammer, repeatedly smashing rice, turning it into what is called mochi; a sort of rice paste, sticky cake looking food...
We smashed the rice until our arms turned into rice...one after the other...
Why did we make Mochi on that particular day?
Apparently there are many traffic accidents in Japan, so the police created this event to promote "safe" driving. In Japanese they say "anzen o MOCHI kaeri" which has the same pronunciation with the food Mochi, so they make a lot of Mochi, so people can take it home, which also means to take "safety" home.
we rolled them up in balls and ate them, adding a little sauce...hot or sweet, as you like! sometime they even put different things in them...kinder surprise!
and of course...as always, a group picture...yay.
...quelques mots de notre compatriote Pauline Sirot, actuellement a Tokyo:
" Voila le monde a l'envers c'est le japon. Tout va bien, c'est normal. Tu ouvres ton bouquin en commencant par la fin, tu conduis a droite, et tu t'excuses quand c'est l'autre qui t'écrase."
The next days of the festival were very interesting as well...besides the many delicious food counters and all the promises given to people such as "come try my counter ok?", many surprising things went down...
surprisingly random: Japanese ukulele freestyle singer...he just went around the different booths freestyling in Japanese...check out his geta! (those heels)
A cute little 'fashion show' put on by undergraduate students...however it looked more like a play with funny but intricate costumes...
a professional wrestling show put on by some of the students...
very popular...
and very funny...they had numerous crazy looking characters...
go Tomosan!)
of course, you always need the cute little school girl songs...by the way these girls are not in high-school, but in college...
This was a long, very long 'water' play set up by some of the students...however we didn't understand too much of it...but that didn't stop la team from having fun though!
Newsflash!: Les japonais arrivent a marcher sur l'eau!
Now this was the beginning of the famous fireshow...the most popular annual event that most of the students take part in. These folks in the picture, before doing anything, had to eat a piece of a pig and then light a torch to then bring it to a bigger bonfire...
We stood around the bonfire watching all the bad things that happened this past year burn away...a kind of purging, that involves chanting and ritual dancing and a lot of alcohol...i had to put away my camera for that.
That was it...the school festival was pretty much over...and everybody had to go back to their everyday student lives. I asked myself if this was unique to our school or if they do these kinds of things on a regular in japan...i am used to these sort of things happening in high-school...actually overseas, this would probably never fly!
And then to top it off, of course...a few days later, who could forget the big thank you nabe party we had with everyone who participated making delicious 'world' food...kampai!
