Slurp a Little Louder

Ichimura-sensei (the principal whose title is kocho-sensei) showed me around the Usuda schools and area today. He explained many things about the schools, including giving me a mini tour of the one because it was built on the site of an old castle called Tatuoka Castle constructed at the end of the Edo period. To add to the historical value of this place, the head of the castle, Matsudaira Norikata, was the founder of the Red Cross in Japan. It is cool to think that every month I will be visiting this place, crossing the moat of a star-shaped castle grounds (only one other star/pentagon shaped castle existed in Japan), and giving English lessons to small Japanese children who are literally at history’s front doorstep.

Ichimura-sensei then took me for cold Soba at a fantastic lookout point in Saku. From here you can see all the peaks in the area. I really wish I had my camera on my at that moment for it really was a sight to see. The Soba was delicious. Soba is buckwheat noodles that can be served in soups but in this instance, we ate them in a more traditional sense, ice cold and with tsuyu sauce. Basically you dip the noodles into this soy sauce like sauce and slurp away making as much noise as possible. If you thought that was a joke about the Japanese slurping to show enjoyment, you should try going to a noodle joint, holy bajezus! Then afterwards, when all your noodles have been lapped up, they give you the water (errr…broth, if you can call it that) of the noodles when they were boiled, and you sip on that. It was a very enjoyable experience eating with the principal of my school and hearing all the things that he had to say. He really went out of his way for me, I must say.

That evening, I went to Erika’s for a cooking session, which consisted of Erika and myself doing the cooking for a quite a many people, mostly JETs from the surrounding area. I made Miso and Udon soups, my udon being the stronger of the two. I explained how to prepare things and cook them properly, what to look for in the super market, how to select the right things, and then served it up to everyone’s content. I was even complimented by a Japanese woman who asked where I learned all of my cooking skills and was thoroughly impressed at the way I pay attention to detail and remember ways to keep things fresh. She said that I know more about Japanese cooking than Japanese people my age and many other Japanese as well. I don’t want to toot my own horn here but I am pretty sure that anyone who has had my udon (you know who you are) can attest to the fact that it is not bad.

Showing others how to make Miso and Udon soups.