All sorts of crazy traditional events have now situated themselves firmly in my memory bank, so that now only old age or strong drink could possibly dislodge them. I don't know how to speed the former, but I'll try to work on the latter once classes are over.
So this whole event was, as you may have gathered from my previous post about it, basically one giant burning stuff party, a concept that has all the right words used in all the right ways. How it works is this: you hack down a bunch of bamboo, which thanks to the fact that bamboo grows faster than Joe Don Baker's waistline, doesn't even begin to make a dent in the big beautiful bamboo forests that surround that whole area. Then you tie them all together and lug them upright, as shown here. After waiting for an appropriate time to admire what you've done, it only seems logical to set it on fire, and the villagers do so with a glee usually reserved for torching mad scientists' castles; surely one is practice for the other. I hadn't thought about it, but since bamboo is segmented, when it burns these segments boom and crack like a rifle going off, so the entire scene sounded like a shooting range the whole while it was burning. Surprisingly, because of the high oil content of bamboo and because it grows in a hollow tube just perfect for the flow of air to a fire, it burns about as quickly as a sheet of paper; the entire process from the middle photograph to the bottom one took not even five minutes, and that thing was absolutely massive. Afterwards we all grilled mochi (glutinous rice pounded until it forms a really stretchy cake, then allowed to harden) using big bamboo sticks as holders, drank sake that had been warmed on the fire in bamboo trunks, and generally had a fire-and-bamboo-themed experience.
As it turns out, the professor under whose aegis we did all this owns an extremely small and fancy restaurant that is located right in front of her house, in the middle of nowhere. As a result, I had some extremely delicious meals at that restaurant, meals that had courses for goodness' sake, and not like "stuff I eat first" and "stuff I cram in while eating the other stuff" or anything, but honest-to-goodness courses with names all in French and everything. Owen had made bread to bring as a hostess gift, and it went over so very well that the professor insisted that he teach it to her chef, which meant that I got to eat a whole lot of freshly made bread with cheese and wine. What with that set of meals and the previously mentioned feast with the crazy professor on Friday night, I don't think I'll be able to go back to the swill that I prepare for myself every night. Maybe I'll mock up some culture for myself by starting to serve my meals in courses by breaking the dish into its component ingredients and eating them seperately.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
Naka-ku, Hiroshima
730-0803
JAPAN