Friday we had off for the "Labor Thanksgiving" holiday. More akin to labor day in the US than Thanksgiving, for the most part I spent it hanging around my apartment, studying, and cleaning a bit. It's actually been a while since I've had a free day like that, it was nice (^-^)
Yesterday (Saturday), I headed up to T-town to drop in on the wedding of one of my taiko group members. I wasn't technically a guest of the wedding, I was just there to see the drumming performance put on by some of the group for the reception. They gave me very specific instructions NOT to dress fancy, seeing as they would all be in their takio clothes. I felt a little funny not getting dressed up for a wedding, but since they told me to be casual, I did. I opted for a nice sweater and some jeans; and immediately regretted it when I got to the wedding >.<
Everyone looked so great! Of course they were all very gracious and actually quite thrilled that a foreigner was there, but I couldn't help but wish I had worn different pants. I tried my best to blend in with the wallpaper when I was in the banquet room (or heck, in the hallway outside), but being the only person in there with blond hair I managed to attract quite a lot of attention without doing anything at all. Ah well, c'est la vie.
The bride looked great. In fact, something I didn't know about Japanese weddings, they change clothes at least three times. 3 times! Can you imagine? And the kimono alone costs a small fortune to rent. I got to see all three outfits my friend wore, a beatiful green kimono, a stunning white western wedding gown, and a pretty black party dress. Her new husband had to change three times as well, from traditional Japanese wedding clothes to a white tux and then a black tux. It was amazing.
Since we weren't regular guests we actually got a little bit of the behind-the-scenes and got to spend some time with them where they were changing and whatnot. I probably got to chat with her more than most of the guests, ha ha
The taiko was pretty good too ^_^
After the taiko performance was finished we said our goodbyes and I headed off to meet some of the teachers from MJH for bowling as part of this Takayama teacher's-union type thing. It was technically for teacher's who were under 30 I think, and I had fun pointing out to 3 of the 4 guys who came from Miya that they were all over 30, ha ha
Japanese bowling shoes. Don't they remind you of the velcro shoes from the 80's? And they're purple too! ^-^
After bowling I ran around Takayama trying to find ingredients and utensils for making pie. You may be asking yourself, "self? why would she want to make a pie? I mean apart from the obvious reason that pie is delicious and everyone loves pie." It's a reasonable question.
The answer is that today, the ALT's of Takayama (and some local friends) had Thanksgiving dinner. At my apartment!
It was pot-luck, and we ended up with tons of yummy dishes. Including stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, tofu, two scrumptious noodle dishes, bread, cheese, and fruit
We even dressed up my humble, yet beloved, kotatsu for the occasion in a turkey-day table cloth
We then proceeded to stuff ourselves silly, just like at home. In fact, I don't think I've been this full since I came to Japan...
Kyle made a new friend...
And then, after the third round (for some), we broke out the dessert...
Including my pie! (^-^)/ And I am really quite proud of it. I made it from scratch. There is no such thing as pre-made crust here. I made the crust, rolled it out, peeled and sliced the apples, made the filling, even made a pretty lattice top
And on top of all that, I baked it without an oven. That's right people, I cooked that pie in my microwave. Then I stuck it in the toaster oven to brown and actually toasted the top a little more than I would have liked but it still tasted good. I was worried the bottom wouldn't have cooked fully but it turned out great.
Angela also made a scrumptious apple dessert from scratch and another ALT sent along some chocolate desserts so we ended up with a fantastic sweet finish to dinner.
After we finished eating, it was such a beautiful day today that we just HAD to go outside.
We decided to head down by the river to play a little touch football, since we didn't have the luxury to watch the college games on tv. We new folk from CO are apparently a bit more sporty than the old group of ALTs as we were, along with a couple of others, the ones most pushing to get outside to toss the ball around. I guess the spontaneous football game just didn't happen here very often over the last couple of years. To me, it just felt like what always ends up happening at this kind of gathering...
Anyway, I went down to the river with the 4 guys to toss the ball around before the rest of the girls showed up. Isaac, Kraig, you would have been proud to see how well I threw that ball. Perfect spirals, good power. Heck, I threw it better than half of the guys there, and definetly better than all of the other girls. Not to brag or anything... but I was awesome. ha ha
Once everyone showed up we played some touch football and of course, the team I was on won. It was actually akin to the CU/ Nebraska game, we beat the pants off the other team.
I'm actually in the second picture there. Can you find me? Ha ha ha. Where's Jen? I'll give you a hint in the next one I'm chasing the ball before it bounces into the river, but my head got cut off O_o
After football we headed back inside, ready for round two of dinner....
Tacos! mmmmm.
And then we watched episodes of The Simpsons. It was such a fantastically American day - Thanksgiving dinner, football, and The Simpsons. I can't imagine a better way to spend a holiday away from home ^_^
1 comment:
hey! I enjoyed talking to you all on your Thanksgiving Day- but I think you missed something- turkey? or chicken? or tofu?
Post a Comment