Category: Cultural Experiences

On March 19, I had a plan to have a たこ焼きパーティー (takoyaki party) with the Fuji Rock crowd, and Tomo was going to come as well and a good time was to be had! That was the plan.

After the earthquake and the issues at Fukushima, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or not to have the party. I was writing an email to one of the main protagonists and was typing, “Well, unless something bad happens I plan to go ahead …” and then an M6.4 earthquake hit Yamanashi and Shizuoka and I felt it in Nagoya. I got quite the adrenaline rush and I think my body tremors actually caused more motion in the building than the initial quake.

Things settled down, and nobody cancelled or suggested that I do cancel, so the show went on. And what a show it was. It was quite fun. Takoyaki is basically breaded bits of octopus cooked into a little ball. Sounds great, huh? It’s actually really good, and you can put other foods in there too. And we did.

For this house party, I decided I wasn’t going to supply everything and let things evolve like a more traditional houseparty – in other words people pitch in for the materials that were purchased for the party. I still spent a gob of money on the beer, but other folks brought the takoyaki ingredients.

What was hard for me was to completely turn over my kitchen (and subsequently dining room) to others as they prepared the food. All I could do was step out of the way, find the occasional tool they needed, and take pictures.

 

Tomo’s mom made beautiful chirashi sushi.

 

I was surprised at how takoyaki was made. I always thought the perfectly round balls of mouthing burning goodness came out of a mold. I was wrong. You fill a half mold with ingredients, and the pan is sized such that there is additional batter around the half molds. Then, at the precise time, you somehow use a little stick to gather up the overflow batter and form the other half of the ball and rotate the whole thing in the mold and let it continue to bake. I have NO idea how to make it. As I said, I just gave up my kitchen to the experts. There were three takoyaki “machines” though, so an extension cord was stretched to the dining room table, allow more people to demonstrate their proficiency.

 

Not only was it a takoyaki party, but three people’s birthdays were within one week of the party, so we had a birthday cake and celebrated.

 

Of course, the party went so late that most people missed the last train and found various ways and places to sleep. Although I had several futons pulled out for people to use and still had the couch, not everyone could get a comfortable resting place. That didn’t bother some people.

 

At around 7 or 8 am, I shooed most people out of the house. As the host, I felt like I couldn’t sleep (although I did somewhat). One friend who drove stayed a little bit longer to make sure the alcohol wore off before driving home (athough he said he was good to drive and I know he wasn’t). He crashed in the guest room, which is like a cave, and instead of waking up at 9ish, he rolled out of the guest room around 12:45 pm. We wrapped things up by road-tripping to really good ramen in the countryside. A fun time again. Although Tomo suggests I start the next house party at Noon!

The New Year’s Eve party has come and gone and it seems to have been a success. I never really set a time for it to begin, so at the beginning of the evening Tomo and I were all dressed up with no place to go!

 

Note I tried a little experiment with these pictures – perhaps a failed experiment. I changed the mode to a program mode because I didn’t want the camera to compensate for a lack of light and over-expose. So, although the party was appropriate mood-lit for a party, every picture is now really dark. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, Tomo had time to watch a little TV before the guests started to arrive. Some were late because they were busy cleaning their room, another was late because their 1.5 hour nap turned into 3 hours, and some were just late. But almost everyone made it.

The plan was to eat, watch a comedy special, and maybe consume a little alcohol. Between the 10 of us, 14 beers, 4 bottles of champagne, 2 bottles of white, and 1 bottle of red were consumed. I think I had at least half a bottle of champagne just myself. Or more. Nobody got sloppy drunk, so the party was able to sustain for a bit.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food. I heated up about 4 liters of chili (yes, really, 4 liters) wondering if anyone would like it. As it turns out, people did. Some were surprised that it wasn’t a little spicier, so I broke out the cayenne especially for them. I should have gotten Tabasco as well.

 

As the night progressed, people got more and more interested in the comedy television special.

 

We had a countdown and popped some “crackers.” When I was running errands, Tomo told me to get some crackers. I told him I didn’t think we needed to add anymore food. I thought he meant crackers, you know, like crackers. But turns out クラッカー. or crackers, are like firecrackers. He described them as pulling the string and then they pop. Oh, right. Then I added that I didn’t want the streamers flying out and making a mess. After all, I had just spent three days cleaning. He told me I could find some that didn’t have any streamers. I sort of forgot about them and had no idea where to buy them anyway. But then I went to a 100 yen shop and thought, well, maybe they have “crackers” and maybe I’ll buy some. I never go to 100 yen shops, I absolutely HATE 100 yen shops, but I wanted a small plate for a candle and I wanted to spend no more than 100 yen. So there I was, and I found the mother load of crackers. And, if you can believe it, I even found “No Dirty Cracker.” I think that meant that the streamers streamed but were then captured. I snooped around a little more and then determined that was probably the case. Those crackers were definitely worth it. The text reads, “散らからないクラッカー”, (chirakaranai kurakka-), which roughly translates to “non-scattering cracker.”

I just noticed the warning label on the back. Make sure you play with the adult and do not put it in the pocket.

 

After the New Year, the TV special ended, so Tomo broke out his collection of Studio Ghibli movies and folks watched, “紅の豚” (Porco Rosso). Why Tomo brought that collection from Tokyo baffles me, but it was a success. People started wearing out by then.

 

We watched the Shiina Ringo Expo 2008 live concert DVD that Tomo and I went to. That was a pretty incredible concert. By then I think I had a lot to drink because I don’t remember tons of that time. Odd. Maybe I was talking to others at the time.

After that DVD finished, Tomo suggested we rented “The Hangover” with Japanese subtitles. Hmmm, so that meant I needed someone with an Apple Store account in Japan to rent it. With so many music fans, that took about three seconds. By this time everyone was getting pretty tired. As I thought, the party turned in to a big slumber party, but the expectation of where and how people would sleep was far less than I thought it would be.

 

I think the heated floors kept everyone pretty cozy, although the wood isn’t particularly soft.

The sun came up, the trains started run, and slowly people started to wake up. Slowly.

 

By 8:30 am or so, everyone had left and I had the chance to go to sleep. As the host I didn’t really feel like I could go to sleep. So I kept myself going. I woke up at 10:00 am or so, feeling really, really, really bad and tasting nothing but champagne. I’ve never been so drunk that I’ve gotten sick. Really. But on 1/1/11 I was soooo close. But all I could think of is that if I puked I’d never want my chili again. So somehow I successfully held back, fell back asleep, and was able wake up around noon and start cleaning. I didn’t feel very good most the day, but was better in the evening and full speed today.

Thanks to my Japanese friends who broke from their usual traditions to enjoy a house party at my place. This is most likely my last New Year’s in Nagoya, so it was really nice to be able to share it with Japanese.