My 15 seconds of Yamaguchi fame...

Since I am not shy and was more than willing to join the tiny, graceful Japanese women in their dancing at the Hina Doll Festival a couple of weeks ago, I was honored with my picture in the local Yamaguchi newspaper on March 3. Our Cultural Adaptation office here on base is a wonderful one, and I am sure you have seen my posts about Akie and her youth cultural specialist counterpart, Nami, as they have led our family through tours around the area. Well, Nami was kind enough to call me a few days ago and tell me she had set aside a couple copies of the local Yamaguchi prefecture (like a county) newspaper... since my "beautiful" face was in it. Yes, that is what she said when she called. With compliments like that, I may never want to leave Japan!

Anyway, here is the photo and article, which was on page 14 of the paper. Yes, that's me, the blonde amazon in the back right. Below is the translation of the article, and Nami's sweet note.

After enjoying my fame for 15 seconds, I began perusing the paper, simply out of curiosity. The first thing I noticed? It opens the exactly opposite direction from American newspapers. This is the front page of the section.

Since teaching global communication for UWF this academic year, I have become more aware of foreign media in comparison with American media. There were two pictures of President Obama in this edition of the Yamaguchi newspaper. Granted, the solidification of the American relationship with Japan was in the news, but when was the last time you saw two pictures of the Japanese prime minister in your local paper?

While there was a whole sports page devoted to baseball (which, if you hadn't heard, is huge over here!), the front of the sports section had a lot of different sports reporting.

I am assuming this is a Japanese crossword puzzle, but I really have no idea.

So, that was my 15-seconds of fame... kind of fun to have made a ever-so-small impression in a foreign country.

Goldfish and Soy Sauce...

The latest cultural trip I took was to Yanai, a city about an hour from base. I had been there before, to go to Mr. Max, the Japanese Wal-mart type place, but I had never been to the historic White Wall Street section of the city. Yanai is known for its Kanro soy sauce factory, a special striped cloth woven there called Yanaijima, and its traditional goldfish festival in August. Paper goldfish lanterns called kingyochochin are displayed in the city during the festival, and other celebratory times in the community. Akie, our cultural adaptation specialist and tour guide, said that the lanterns are on display right now to celebrate the grand opening for the new Iwakuni commercial airport.

Below is a view down the Street of White Walls. This is a historic district that was once the hub of the food and resource supply for the lords in the Iwakuni area.

They have some great man hole covers...

We went to a crafting warehouse to make our own goldfish lanterns, out of thin washi paper. 

One of the other projects the crafting warehouse offered was to make place mats and coasters out of the yanaijima fabric on a loom. I hope to take Rodney and the boys to Yanai... maybe I can make a coaster then.

After making our goldfish lanterns, the group had free time to roam the historic area. I went to the Sagawa Soy Sauce Storehouse.

I have a new appreciation for soy sauce now. The traditional process takes about two years for regular soy sauce, but the Kanro soy sauce Yanai is famous for takes an additional year to ferment. Basically, you start with steamed soybeans and roasted wheat and add in kojikinn mold spores. Once the mixture is left for a few days, the mold breeds ans the results is called koji. A salt water solution is then added to the koji, making a new mixture called moromi, which will ferment in to soy sauce in large vats, like the ones below.

It is left in the vats for one to two years, stirred occasionally during the winter and daily during the hot summers, so that oxygen penetrates evenly to promote fermentation. Once the process is complete, the moromi is strained through cloth and the liquid is soy sauce. That is where most soy sauces are bottled and sold, However, Kanro soy sauce goes through the fermentation process a second time, more koji is added to the soy sauce and fermented for an additional year. I did buy a bottle of the Kanro soy sauce for about $3.

At the storehouse, there were some wooden barrels of koi and goldfish.

Some other interesting tidbits:

This was the Western-style toilet at the Yanai visitor's center. The tank fills up with this faucet on the back of the toilet. Add a soap dispenser and you're really saving Earth's resources!

'

You can't see it on the window, but this was a photography studio at one time. You can see I'm about 4 inches taller than the front door. And below, one of the very rare phone booths still functioning in Japan.

I also found out that I was quoted in the local Iwakuni newspaper about the lotus root cultural trip debacle I was able to enjoy last month. I have been told that it says something along the lines of: "Event participant Mrs. Jessica Guthrie said that when she first moved to Iwakuni and saw the lotus plants growing, she thought that they were harvested for their flowers, and was surprised to find it was the roots that were harvested. She plans to learn the recipes taught today and send copies to her family in the United States." It sounds like I was quoted correctly. ;)

My men and I head to the Hina Doll Festival...

... which doesn't sound like much of a problem until you realize that the Hina Doll Festival is an annual celebration of girls and their future happiness.

 Boys' day is May 5th, just another reason for me to like Cinco de Mayo (tortilla chips, salsa and Petron margaritas are top reasons.) But today, we went on a youth cultural trip organized by the base and led by the youth cultural expert Nami. Base residents were invited to Shunan City, about an hour from base, by the Shunan International Children's Club, who sponsored and organized the event. The eight or so families from base were just a few of the families in attendance, most of them being local Japanese families. Our group was treated as special guests and the entire event was translated in to English for us. Many of the volunteers and parents spoke English, so I must say that this has been my favorite event so far when it comes to meeting Japanese nationals and interacting with them. I hope to be able to connect with a few of them on Facebook soon!

Like with other events we have attended, we were assigned to a Japanese student. Kana is a Yamaguchi university student, a social economics major. One of her roommates is an English major, so, between the two of them, we were able to communicate with them quite well. Here is a picture of us with Kana during the opening ceremony:

The little Japanese girl was one of the ones who was also in our group, but I did not get her name. During the opening ceremonies, girls, mostly about 8 years old, spoke to us and performed a few traditional Japanese dances. Here is a 1-minute video of some of it.

 The little girls in their kimonos were so cute (or kawaii in Japanese) and a number of them were confident enough to come up to us and ask us our names, the boys' ages and where we were from.

Of course, after the ceremony, it was our group's turn to try traditional Japanese dance. Rodney and Xan bowed out, but Will and I were game and gave it a shot. I have to admit, my poor son got his mothers grace, which is lacking.

Close ups of the kimono cuties in our group:

This is not my child of course, but I just had to capture her reaction as she walked in to the room and saw the Japanese girls in their kimonos. And I love the looks on the Japanese girls' faces, too!

After we tried dancing, it was on to a traditional tea ceremony. Thanks to my introduction to tea ceremony last week, I knew what to expect and was able to show my men how to partake of the sweets and tea in proper fashion. One of the ladies showed us the ceremonial steps that go in to tea making. Rodney ended up with that cup of tea. The boys didn't seem to mind the slightly bitter green tea, either.

After the tea ceremony, we headed upstairs to try on kimonos. They did have one kimono for men, which was the perfect size for Will. Rodney was the only one who did not have a chance to try on a kimono... he was too tall. The ladies who helped us put on the kimonos thought the boys were "handsome" and "nice guys." They hovered around them, making sure they looked as handsome as possible as Rodney took our photos.

In our group was a 5-year-old little girl named Cherry. Her mom, Seiko, seen in the photo below Cherry's, spoke English very well... she had taught Japanese in Australia for awhile about a decade ago. She was excited to be able to practice her English and we spoke at length. Cherry was very shy with us,hiding behind her Mom, until she tried on a kimono... and then she was all excited and outgoing.

Will with Seiko and Cherry on his right, and a fellow USMC child on his left.

Will had a handful of girls who came up to him and asked him basic questions, which was part of their assignment as attendees of the event. They talked with him for quite awhile, and unnerved him a bit with their giggling. They were very sweet, though... I just don't think Will was comfortable with the attention! :)

After trying on kimonos, we listened to a traditional picture story called "The Peach Boy," a Japanese fairy tale. Kumie, on the left, turned out to be a scrapbooker. And the incredible friendly Scottish man in the kilt had a great sense of humor, but I did not have time to talk with him to find out how he managed to be a part of this event, although he appeared to speak fluent Japanese. After the story was read, they threw rice cakes (in baggies) to us, another tradition for the festival, kind of like throwing candy from a parade float.

And what Japanese event would be complete without origami? Kumie showed Rodney and I how to make paper cranes, which, despite their popularity, are not simple to make. During this time, our tour guide from base, Nami, came in, knew Kumie it seemed, and told her I was a scrapbooker. Kumie, her friend Kazue, and a couple of other ladies there also scrapbook, so we talked for quite some time. I hope to keep in touch with them, as well as Seiko, and gave them my email and website address.

 Will showed two of the college girls how to make an origami cup.

Somewhere in there we had lunch... Spanish paella, Italian macaroni and Japanese gyoza... but we were so hungry by that time I forgot to get a photo of it all... whoops. The funny part: While the Japanese ladies in our group encouraged Rodney to go and get seconds since he's so big, when he went up there, the lunch ladies wouldn't let him have any... LOL! In their defense, they did not know how many more people they were going to have for lunch when we went through the line.

Sadly, it was time to go before we were really ready to leave. Here is a photo us with Seiko and Cherry, and Kana and her friends. It really was a very fun day.

Added bonus.... as we were getting ready to leave to board our bus for the ride home, one of the USMC kids (obviously not mine) and a Japanese girl managed to find common ground, and a crowd of kids from both countries, despite the language barrier. Maybe Nintendo DS is the answer to world peace.