Tororo

On Sunday 1st October, as part of the local townspeople festival, there was a tororo eating competition. This competition has taken place every year in Ouchi for the last 26 years.

第26回 元祖とろろめし大喰い大会
Dai 26 kai Ganso Tororo meshi Oogui Taikai


Each bowl is carefully measured out to have 120g of white rice with 90cc of tororo on top. We were given a set of chopsticks, two umeboshi and a napkin. And we had 15 minutes to eat as many bowls as we could. Drinking was not allowed.

I was informed many times that participants got to keep the bowls that they eat from. And that each bowl is worth 300 yen, so I should at least eat 4 bowls to come out on top after paying the 1,000 yen entry fee!

The night before had been the Halloween party in the city, so I wasn't feeling my best for the competition. And unfortunately for me both the presenter of the competition and the local TV camera guy decided to try talk to me. I was struggling a lot with forming English sentences that morning, never mind Japanese sentences!


There were 29 participants in the competition. I managed to eat a mouthful short of 6 bowls when the final whistle blew. I tried really hard to finish the last bowl, but I physically couldn't.

The winner of the competition ate 15 bowls! One bowl every minute! When he was walking up to get presented he was walking with an understandable discomfort. The female winner ate 12 bowls. And as you can see she not exactly the biggest of women either.


This last photo appeared in a local Yurihonjo magazine called Shiseidayori　(市政便り) or Koho Yurihonjo (広報ゆりほんじょう).

Halloween Party

Every year in Akita city we have a Halloween Dance Party and the proceeds go to Room to Read. This year we had a bigger turnout; due to relocating to a better venue and possible the fact that Halloween fell on a Saturday night this year.

I'm not a huge fan of getting dressed up for events. The first year I was here my costume was a Kilkenny hurling supporter; simply because I had a Kilkenny jersey and a crazy Kilkenny hat. Last year I borrowed a costume of an anime character who plays tennis - I have no idea of his name! So this year I decided to put at least a small amount of effort into my costume.

Shortly after arriving in Japan, about 2 years ago, a young student told me I looked like Lupin III; a great anime thief. So I decided to go with that look this year. Lupan III's trademark look is a red jacket with a yellow tie. And although the tie was not an issue to acquire the red jacket was. Luckily I found a Lupan III set in a local store.


I was happy with how it looked.


Me with Queen Chika.

Akita CC vs Sendai CC

On October 18th Akita Cricket Team took on Sendai Cricket Team in Sendai. We played two games. Sendai clenched the first game by a single point. But Akita came back strong in the slightly longer second game to claim victory.

The following report was written by our team captain; Tapojoy Mandal.

A mere run separated us from Sendai in the first game, played over 10 overs. The highlights when bowling included a spectacular tumbling catch by Julie, who, by allowing the ball to bounce off her arms, shoulders and hands before she finally grabbed it with a face-forward dive, outdid David Thompson's similar effort (he only let it bounce once and so wasn't as spectacular). The catch gave Wil a wicket in his debut over. Julie followed that up with a wicket in her first-ever over as well, while Abby dismissed their wicket-keeper again. When batting, Paul played a spectacular debut innings - before being forced to retire on 22, he had spanked the ball all over the ground, losing the ball at least twice. Owen matched him with a good innings at the top of the order, but with both retired, the job to take us over the line, at the required rate of a run a ball, fell to debutants Robin and Todd. Very tight bowling by an experienced Sendai bowler made the task very difficult. It came down to us needing 2 runs to win off the last ball, and although Robin made a brave dive and looked to have made his crease, he was declared run out and we were denied even a tie.

Much as that loss irritated us, we now knew we had to cut out the small mistakes in the field. The next game was a longer, 12-over contest, and we bowled and fielded brilliantly to restrict Sendai to a paltry 67 runs. We had the harder job of bowling and fielding in pouring rain, but Robin and Todd picked up their maiden wickets, and Julie and both Davids chipped in with important breakthroughs. Owen showed Sendai that wicketkeeping gloves were for sissys, with two stumpings and a catch with his bare hands. Tapo got into the act with the final two balls of the innings, getting two bowleds including the opposition captain for a golden duck (out without scoring first ball), completing 3 overs conceding only 6 runs. The fielding was effective throughout, with Austin and Julie particularly sharp.

The rain receded but Akita's ballistic batting made Sendai wish it was still raining so that they could go home. Although Austin's foray as an opener ended with the first ball, he ran bravely for Wil, who had managed to tweak a muscle within a few minutes of taking the field. Wil followed Paul's lead in playing a debut innings of bravado, although he often forgot he had a runner and would set off at a hobble every time he connected. After he was dismissed for 23, we had a brief hiccup with some quick wickets, including Tapo when his foot brushed the base of the stumps and a bail dropped - quite unfortunate, considering in real cricket there is no base that sticks out half a foot either side - but then we unleashed Owen and he all but finished things off with a manic 25, retiring with just a run to get. Cue Abby to be in the middle during the winning moment as she has often done before, although it was left to Julie to clout the winning run. We had beaten them comfortably with several balls to spare and shown that the first game was just an aberration.

Kiritampo Party

The nurse at one of my schools is a member of LABO and every year they have a kiritampo party at Sanbouen (三望苑) in Honjo. I went last year for the first time, and she invited me again this year.

This year 6 of the local ALTs joined the party; Paul, Austin, Abby, Todd, Jimmy and myself. When we arrived the barbeques were were already cooking sweet potatoes. We were all handed beers and told to enjoy ourselves!

Kiritampo is mashed up rice that is moulded onto sticks and then cooked over a BBQ. We helped out mashing the rice and forming it onto the sticks.


We didn't get to help out with the cooking of them, but did get given more beer and various salads. And when the kiritampo was cooked we were served kiritampo nabe; a soup with various vegetables and of course the kiritampo.

After eating we went to the park area and set up two slacklines, a kind-of not-so-tight tightrope. Most of us are still learning how to balance/walk on the line. I can balance pretty well, until I try to take a step forward. Its a whole lot of fun though, and easier than you might imagine.


We got to see an amazing sunset just before we left too!

Rice

Today I was at Shimokawa elementary school (下川小学校). During a free period before lunch the principal asked me if I wanted to join the 5th grade students harvesting rice. Every year the kids get the opportunity to plant a field of rice and then help harvest it.

I was delighted to get the opportunity to try it out!


A kamada or sickle (鎌田).


A small inekariki (稲刈り機) or rice combine harvester.


We stacked the rice at the edge of the field.


I spoke to a little old Japanese woman who was working there. She explained the entire rice reaping process to me. But unfortunately about 98% of what she said to me went right over my head. One thing I did pick up on though was that the field we were working in would have a yield of about 240 kilograms; about a years supply of rice for 7 or 8 people.

Yakeyama

The day after Honjo Festival myself and Paul decided to head north to hike a mountain range near Hachimantai (八幡平) in Noshiro. We planned on hiking for 3 days but due to bad weather and multiple bear warnings we cut it back to a short hike up Mt. Yake (焼山) and back.

Yakeyama translates roughly to burning mountain. And we quickly realised why, shortly after we arrived. On one side of the mountain is Tamagawa Onsen (玉川温泉), a very famous onsen because it has the highest acidic water in Japan (pH 1.1). And close to the onsen much volcanic activity can be observed like boiling steam and sulphuric gasses gushing from the rocks.


Many people bring mats and lay down on the ground, as it is believed that the area contains a significant amount of radioactive radium which is believed to cure many different ailments.


We continued up the mountain where at the top we found a crater lake full of white liquid! Gasses from under the liquid gave the impression that the water was actually boiling!



The summit, 1324m.


That evening we went to Tamagawa Onsen. They had many different baths with varying levels of acidity. I tried most of them, but the highly acidic ones were not very comfortable on sensitive areas of the body.

The next morning we went to the far side of the mountain to the more anally friendly Goshōgake Onsen (後生掛温泉).

Honjo Festival

The two Japanese guys who were on our rowing team this year live in the same area as me in Honjo. They invited me and my friends to take part in the local Ōnomichi chōnai (大の道町内) festival on 20 September. We practiced twice at my local community centre (大の道公民館), which I just discovered existed!

We were practicing a simple enough beat on the taiko (太鼓). We needed to have 2 drummers at any given time, one rhythm and the other on main beat. There were also a group of fue (笛) players. And everyone shouts out the word sore (それ）, multiple times!


On our second night of practice, the day before the festival, we had plenty of free food and drinks given to us. We ate what has now become usual to us; yakitori, yakisoba and okonomiyaki. And we drank sake from square wooden cups!

And after a late night we got up and returned to the community centre for 8am the next morning for the opening ceremony of the festival. And it's customary to open any good ceremony with a shot of sake; so that was when our started drinking!

We were the first group to lead the drumming. Basically the group tours around the local area. People watch from the side of the street, and random people come out of their houses and give large bottles of sake to us! Some people even give out envelopes with money inside!


We made our first pit stop after about 15 minutes. We stopped outside a house and were ushered into an open garage. In the centre of the garage was a table with onigiris, pickled vegetables, miscellaneous meats and large bottles of beer and of course sake.


After indulging ourselves for about 15 to 20 minutes we were each given towels and told that we would be carrying the portable shrine, called a mikoshi (御輿, 神興 or 神輿) for a while. The towels were to pad our shoulders as the shrine was quite heavy.

When we picked it up and placed it on our shoulders it quickly became apparent that most of us foreigners were taller than the Japanese guys we were with. Some of the guys could not get their shoulders high enough to take any of the weight! Our chant also changed from sore to wasshoi (わっしょい).


We continued carrying the shrine and chanting for the rest of the day. We made regular stops at houses around Honjo. Eating and drinking without fail at each stop! Some people were even slamming large glasses of sake at 10am!!


I can't actually remember what time the festival ended (probably 5 or 6pm), but when it did we went to Yumiko's house for sushi and alcoholic refreshments. And after about two hours there we headed back to Jez's apt for bit of a party there.

It was one of the most enjoyable days I have had since I arrived in Japan!

Speech Contest 2009

Every year there is a speech contest for all the junior high schools in my area. 2 students from each school take part in the contest. One student does a recitation and the other writes their own speech. The ALTs usually coach the students with pronunciation, intonation and body language etc.

We always start practicing with the students about a month before the contest, and it's usually an enjoyable experience as we get given more responsibility than usual from the JTEs. But it also gets kindof hectic during the last two weeks.


This year one of my kids came in second place (the tall guy). And out of the 4 students I worked with he was by far the laziest. He usually didn't even show up for practice, and twice he told the teacher that he wasn't going to take part in the competition!

Regatta 2009

We had our annual rowing competition on September 13th. Unfortunately this year my team, Aburakoji Guys, had very few practices beforehand. In fact we only had one practice where we all practiced together as a team.

This year our team was made up of Kikunosuke (cox), me (stroke), Jon (3rd), Austin (2nd), and Takafumi (bow). The weather on the day of the competition wasn't the may west. It was quite windy with heavy showers at times.


In our first race there was 3 boats. We were going to go through to the next round no matter where we finished. It was really windy during the race, with the wind helping us down the river. We finished in 2nd place, posting a time of 2:01, which was actually the 3rd fastest time of the day and was a faster time the the winners of the competition last year! But of course it had a lot to do with the wind!


After an extended break, mainly due to the competition moving slower because of the weather, we were back in the boat for our second race of the day. There were 3 boats in that race too. We got off to a good start, and could clearly see that we were not going to have any problems in this race as the other boats were much slower than us. So we didn't push ourselves too hard and easily finished in 1st position.

Our next race had 4 boats and we needed to finish in the top 2 to progress to the next round. Unfortunately for us 2 of the teams in this race were very strong rowers. One had won the competition the year before, and the other had made it to the finals. So we knew we wouldn't have the luxury of taking it easy this time.

When the gun fired we started as strong as we could. But became very obvious to us that our start was our weakest point. The two good teams had great starts, and both got about a boat length of a lead within the first few seconds. We kept on their tails but never the ability to catch up to them. So we finished in 3rd place, and bowed out of the competition for another year!

Akita Mago Uta National Competition

The Akita Mago Uta National Competition (秋田馬子唄全国大会) is held in the building next to my board of education every year. And this year I was given free tickets to go. I was a bit sceptical after the Honjo Oiwake competition we had been to in August but Paul and myself decided to go check it out anyway.

The concert started in the morning but we decided not to go until the afternoon. And when we arrived I was surprised to find that the venue was quite full. We had to stand in the door, and couldn't really see the stage. I spoke to a guy from Yamaguchi ken way down south. He was just after singing in the competition. He told me that Mago uta means packhorse driver song. It is a folk song. I asked if everyone was going to sing only that one song, and sure enough they were!

The brochure we had received on the way in listed close to 200 entrants! Fair play to any judge who can listen to the same song that amount of times! We stayed for only a short while, maybe 5 or 6 entrants and left!

Yamadera

The day after my home county, Kilkenny, won their 4th consecutive All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, a feat that has only been achieved once before in the history of hurling, I had the day off. Unfortunately I didn't get to watch the match live with fellow Irish men and women, as I'm currently the only Irish representative in the entire prefecture of Akita. So I resorted to staying at home and listening to the match on Internet radio.

I had planned to go for a drive with my friend Chika, but we hadn't decided where we would go. I met up with her at about 9:30 in the morning and she said she knew of a nice place to go, but it was a bit of a drive. Well, it just so happened that I was in the mood for driving, and the weather happened to be fantastic too!


So we headed south to a place called Yamadera, just north of Yamagata City. This is a beautiful area is home to a famous old temple called Risshaku-ji (立石寺), which dates back to 860 AD. The monks here spent their time digging holes into the mountain, which kinda resembles Swiss cheese! And there are, apparently, 1110 steps from the entrance to the complex all the way to the Oku-no-in sanctuary at the top.


Boring facts aside though, it's a really peaceful and beautiful area to visit. There are lots of small temples, jizō's, and huge trees! From the top there is a incredible view of the surrounding area.


This was a buddha that people rub for good luck!


I don't know what these were. But there were a lot of them!


It was well worth the 4 hour drive each way!

Fuji-san

On Friday 28th August I got on a night bus in Honjo and 9 hours later I got off in Tokyo. I met up with another ALT who works in Akita city. We hung around for a bit waiting for restaurants and toilets to open. Strangely many of the toilets in Tokyo station close for the night!

We were on our way to Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, standing at 3,776m (12,388 ft).

We got a bus to the 5th station, which is at an altitude of 2,305m (higher than Mt. Chōkai). After a few preparations and a light stretch we were more that ready to head off, unprepared up Mt. Fuji. It about 14:30 when we set off and the weather was a little cloudy.


There were way more people on the mountain that I expected, even though every website we had read beforehand warned of human traffic. After about a half an hour or so we could see the lines of people climbing the mountain in stop-start motion. About the same time we noticed a different path that only had people descending on it. So we decided to try that trail!

As it turned out there are 2 main routes on the side we took (Yoshida trail; 吉田ルート), one for going up and one for coming down. So we were going up the down route. And luckily for us it had no traffic what-so-ever. There were plenty of people coming down but they did not interfere with our assent nor did we interfere with their descent. It was a more difficult route however, as the trail was all loose stones.

We hiked for up and up, gradually taking breaks more regularly. We were lucky enough to only encounter one rain shower on the way up, and even that only lasted about 10 minutes.


We were making really good time. Too good in fact, as we reached the 8th station at about 6pm. Our plan was to get to the top in time to watch the sun rise. But we really hadn't researched it very well at all. We were able to buy pot noodles at the 8th station which was a welcome change to the many onigiris we were eating!

I asked in the cabins if there was space, so that we could sleep for a few hours before continuing to the top. But all the cabins were completely booked up. So we resorted to buying some hot sake, putting on all our warm clothes and trying to sleep outside one of the cabins!

We were not the only one to have not reserved a cabin. We also met a French couple who were in the same boat as ourselves. We all huddles together, kinda like emperor penguins, to try conserve body heat. But with no blankets, and lying on the cold clay, we were fighting a loosing battle. We resorted to taking regular trips to the toilets, which were surprisingly heated! We would have slept there if there wasn't a horrible stench.


At about 12:30am we gave up on trying to get sleep and decided to head for the top; as we knew climbing would warm us up. So with our headlamps on, we slowly hiked the remaining 900m to the top. Along the way people were randomly sleeping along the path, and although they were smart enough to bring sleeping pads and blankets, they still did not look warm!

By 2:30am we had reached the top of the mountain, and traversed the ridge to the summit at the opposite side of the mountain! This is us standing on the highest point of Japan!


We now had to wait another 2 and a half hours before sunrise! So we found a sheltered area and tried to sleep again. I didn't get any sleep! But looking up at the night sky from the top of Mt. Fuji is quite the sight. There was no clouds above us so we could see the stars which were amazingly bright. I also got to see many shooting stars!

Eventually the sky lost it's grip on complete darkness, and one by one the stars faded. We could then see that there was a sea of clouds (雲海) beneath us. As one part of the horizon was becoming lighter we knew where the sun was going to rise. And the crowds began to arrive. We all awaited the sunrise.


One cloud on the horizon was slightly obscuring the sunrise, but it was very impressive none the less!


The one rather strange thing that happened over this weekend was that I never actually got to see Mt. Fuji! I mean I never got to see it from a distance which was kinda strange! I will have to go again sometime.

Soba

During school summer holidays, on 18th August, one of the teachers from Iwaya elementary school, Kishi sensei, decided to have a Soba workshop. He often makes soba at home and really enjoys it. So he wanted to teach his co workers how to make them!

We started out by mixing 400g of buckwheat flour (そば粉) with 100g of all-purpose flour (つなぎ or 中力粉), and measuring 4 cups of water with precise amounts of 168ml, 21ml, 15ml and 6ml. We also used uchiko flour (打ち粉) for dusting, though buckwheat flour can also be used. This makes enough for 5 people.


First we gradually added the water to the flour. The flour first became clumpy, then it formed ball. These were rolled over the smaller pieces to blend them together. And for the bits that wouldn't stick the remaining water was added. When one large ball was formed it was kneaded 100 times; turning slightly and pushing into the centre of the ball. Then to close the hole we rolled it into a snout, and then rolled that snout back into the ball, to form an almost perfect ball!


This ball was then flattened onto a floured board to a thickness of 8 CDs. Using a rolling pin we rolled it, then rotated it 45 deg, then rolled it again, until we got it to a thickness of 4 CDs. We then put flour on top of the dough with extra flour on the vertical axis of the circle. Then the dough was wrapped around the rolling pin (or pipe in this case!), and rolled 4 times. Next it was unwrapped, flour was put on the other axis and the procedure was repeated again. This process happened twice. After which we just used the rolling pin to roll the dough into a squarish shape, with a thickness of about 1 CD.

When the thickness of just 1 CD was reached, half the dough was covered in flour, and the dough was folder over itself. Then half of that was floured and again folded over itself. Then one last time!


It was now ready to be cut! So with a menkiri bocho (麺切り包丁）or soba knife we cut the noodles into strips about 1～2mm thick. Some people found this to be very difficult. Personally I though it was quite easy, it just took a bit of time.


This was my end product. It was really tasty!


Kishi sensei had made sauce beforehand which he gave to all of us. After you cook the soba in boiling water, you save the water. And after eating the noodles you take the remaining sauce and add it to the soba water and drink it. It's so good!

Kishi sensei get all his ingredients online from Takayama Seihun.

Sumo Grand Tour

Every summer the top sumo division tour around northern Japan and perform exhibitions. Last year I went for the first time and was lucky enough to meet yokozuna Asashōryū (one of the greatest yokozunas ever; from Mongolia) and Baruto (from Estonia).

This years exhibition was on August 13th and although I didn't meet either yokozuna this time we did meet Baruto again! He was in the konbini getting some snacks!


This was the picture I took with him last year!


And this is when we got to meet Asashōryū


I love sumo!

4 days, 4 festivals and a Mountain

The Shōbu Carnival (菖蒲カーニバル) is the first summer festival in Honjo every year. It's a small street festival where people of all ages dance to a single song, the Shōbu song I believe, played over and over again. And it draws huge local crowds every year. And there are lots of stalls selling festival food!

We went to the park to indulge in some yakisoba and beer and found that there was a band playing there. The band, Bronze, were an interesting bunch. They had bass, sax, drums and guitar/koto. Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument and usually played with the fingers and small small picks attached to your fingers. This band was using sticks to play it! I took this video.


The next day, 1st August, I met Akagawa-san to climb Mt. Gassan. He's a 56 year old guy I went hiking with last year, I think he's the head of a hiking group in Yokote city. Mt. Gassan (月山) is the highest of the three holy mountains in Dewa Sanzan, a 2 and a half hour drive south from where I live.

It was a little bit cloudy during our hike but pretty good conditions otherwise. The hike itself was not that difficult for me. But I was really surprised with the age of some people who were climbing it. There was definitely men and women over 70 years of age climbing it! And on the way up with found an old woman lying down, barely able to talk. She had decided to climb on her own, and obviously wasn't able for it. Some guys called the rescue crew to get her!

This is a statue that you can pray to for long life.


When we arrived at the summit we paid 500 yen to have a priest to say a prayer over us, and Akagawa-san was there to pray for his daughter to pass her entrance exam into high school.

We made good time coming down, and went for an onsen before we headed back home.

That sunburned evening I went to the second summer festival in Honjo, the Honjo Fireworks River Festival (本荘川まつり花火大会). Fireworks are really popular in Japan, and a lot more impressive than the shows we get at home.

The next day I headed to Amori prefecture to see the Nebuta Festival. It was a 4 hour drive north to Hirosaki where our hostel was, and then another train journey to Aomori city. Nebuta is a large scale lantern festival. Unfortunately when we were there it was lightly raining so all the floats had plastic sheets protecting them. It was very impressive none the less! In the picture you can see all the people under the float pushing it around.



The next day, Monday, we went to see rice field artistry! I had only discovered this place actually existed the week before. I had seen pictures on the Internet a long time ago but assumed that it was created using computers. The tambo art is in a place called Inakadate, close to Hirosaki city. You can climb up a castle and look down on the fields. It was really amazing!





They had a free outdoor foot onsen right beside the fields too, which was a nice little addition.

We then left Aomori and headed back to Akita city for my fourth festival in as many days, Kanto festival (竿燈まつり). This is a really cool festival where glowing lanternsin the shape of rice ears, are balanced on peoples hands, hips and heads (like the guy in this photo!).


This is a cool video I took at the end of the festival, when the guys really didn't care about damaging their lanterns!