Day 19: Cooking Up a Storm

Today was a booming success, especially on the culinary front. It was Marine Day in Japan, a national holiday, so my host family did not have to go to school or work, and we spent the day together at home.

Japanese culture's emphasis on food affects all facets of life. Junior high school students are taught how to make common traditional dishes in home economics, and in my host family, making food is a process that involves the whole family.

In the morning, Ruki gave me a cooking lesson, teaching me how to make tamagoyaki (sweet scrambled eggs), miso soup, and onigiri (rice balls wrapped in seaweed with a pickled plumb in the middle). All three were quite good and easy to make.

Ruki and I work on rolling the rice balls

Ruki chops seaweed for the miso soup

Ruki shows off the tamagoyaki

Father-son cooking time

Breakfast (the rice was later wrapped in seaweed)

After breakfast, we went to an indoor rock climbing gym where my host dad has a membership. He is an avid fan of "bouldering," which is rock climbing without any ropes or harnesses. The gym was tucked away in a residential neighborhood in a small building, but grips and holds meant to emulate real rocks covered every crevice of the walls. Evidently rock climbing has a major following in Japan, as there are three climbing gyms in Mitaka alone.

The gym

The space had a cool, gritty feel to it

Pretty crowded, too

Ruki and my host dad are both skilled climbers, and they made easy work of the pre-mapped routes posted on the walls, only to move on to more difficult positions as they scaled up the artificial rocks.

I rented some climbing shoes and had a good time just trying my best to make it a few feet up without falling. I have some experience climbing with harnesses, but bouldering was a totally different experience. It was challenging, but I got a nice arm workout and had a lot of fun.

Ruki scampers up a wall

My host dad shows how it's done

Yours truly just trying not to fall off the wall

We met up with my host mother and sister and went to lunch at a restaurant specializing in shabu-shabu, a Japanese hot pot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water.

Waiters brought raw beef, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, and noodles to our table, and we cooked each piece individually by dipping them in boiling water we had heated atop of an induction oven that is built into every table.

The entrance to the restaurant 

I cook the raw beef by dipping it in boiling water

The whole family gathered around the table to cook lunch

After lunch, we went to a nearby park on the Sen River, which runs through Mitaka.

The park (the river is on the right)

Kanon plays in the water

Ruki enjoys the views of the park

After exploring the park, we headed to Zenriji Temple, which we visited on the first day of the trip, to attend a farewell party with the rest of my trip mates and their host families to say goodbye to Mr. Kimura, the trip's sponsor. Each of the students in our group gave a short speech on their experiences in Japan and their host families.

I thanked Mr. Kimura, our chaperone, and our guides. I also thanked my host family for their kindness and hospitality. I recalled my first night with them, when we went grocery shopping and they read the ingredient labels on every item we bought to make sure there were no nuts that might trigger my allergies, even though it took a long time to do and wasn't easy.

Small gestures like that showed how much they cared about making sure I had a good time and stayed healthy. I am grateful for all they have done for me, from teaching me Japanese recipes to staying up late to play UNO.

Sophie gives a speech about her host family

Mr. Kimura, who helps fund the trip, offers some parting words

After the speeches, we played air hockey

I was lucky to have such a welcoming host family

We returned home to make dinner, which was yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles) with takoyaki (dough balls filled with diced octopus, pickled ginger, and green onion).

Both were excellent, but the takoyaki was especially fun to make. The dish comes from Osaka, my host father's hometown, so he is an expert at making them. First, we poured the batter into a pan with ball molds and added the filling. After cooking for about two minutes, we turned the balls over using chopsticks. After one more rotation, we removed them from the pan, let them cool, and added Japanese mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce as a garnish.

The master practices his craft

It was hard to turn the balls! Chop sticks and round things don't mix well

That's a whole bunch of takoyaki

The dinner was a great finish to another great day. My host family is really making sure I get my fill of Japanese cuisine before I leave, and I have really enjoyed trying out all of the different foods.