Death by Mochi
...written on 2001-01-02, @ 09:54:19
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Tue January 2, 2001
From my futon I lunged over for the ringing phone sitting on the kotatsu table.
"Hello?", I mumbled.
"Happy New Year, Kimbo! I didn't wake you, did I?", said my Dad, calling from Atlanta at 6pm his time.
"Nah", I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes and trying to focus on the clock, "I had to get up in an hour anyway."
So I had a nice chat with my Pa and Elaine. I heard about how their Christmas went and their plans for the evening and I told them about my plans. Now I get to fill them AND you in on what REALLY happened:
"Hey, Ivan-ho!", I belted into the telephone receiver, "ya wake yet?" Of course he was and I alerted him to the fact that I had to go out shopping for some gifts for our hosts for the day and to wait for me should I not be home when they got there to pick me up.
I went downstairs to find a note in Japanese kanji on the seat of my bicycle. Out of the full page of note, I made out one part of a phrase which had the words "nai" and "kudasai" in them. Oops, I was being asked not to do something, and with all of my Sherlock Holmesian powers I deduced that I wasn't supposed to park "Red" in the stairway by the mailboxes. I didn't have time to tend to this little detail however, and took off to find a store that might be open on New Year's.
I went to the main drag corner and turned left. Nothing there, so I came back towards the train station. The last shop on the right was open and they had a bunch of yummy goodies. I always try to pick out something that I like, because inevitably it will be served to me. I picked out a creme filled cake, some tea sweets, and would add to that the strawberry filled mochi treats in my refrigerator at home. I was ready by the time Ivan called me and said that they would be there in "one minute".
I climbed into the front of the car and greeted everyone (Ivan, Chad & Yasuyo) with "Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu" (Happy New Year). Chad had a little cold, but said he felt fine otherwise. Ivan was wearing a coat and tie and stood out among all of us more casually dressed party goers.
We pulled up into Yasuyo's driveway and saw her puppy, "Ten-chan". Ten-chan was abandoned in front of their house, obviously abused, and without the ability to bark. Ten-chan was precious, had long hair and as I was about to learn, shed like a cat.
We entered Yasuyo's house and were greeted by her mother and sister and invited to come into the room selected for dining. Her father and her other sister were already seated on the floor at two large tables that were packed with an astonishingly beautiful and colorful array of food. Crab legs, sushi, sashimi, meat rolls, egg dishes, pickled lotus roots, strawberries, tangerines, whole fried fish, three kinds of shrimp, wine, beer, tea, etc. Yasuyo's ninety year old grandparents also joined us.
The first entree was soup. It was a salty broth with seaweed and a big glop of mochi in it. Mochi is rice that has been pounded into a (I'm searching for an apt description and it's difficult), well, like a smooth dough. Mochi gets used in a lot of things, usually it is used to cover sweets, like the strawberries I brought were covered in mochi. Sometimes there are sweet beans inside mochi. This was the first time however, that I encountered mochi at the bottom of a soup bowl. I watched the Japanese as they ate their soup n' mochi.
Hmm, ok, looked easy enough, so I dug in. I sipped the broth from the bowl. Yumm. Then I poked the mochi with my chopsticks and began to eat it. The thing with mochi however is that, to me anyway, it is p.d.t. (pretty darn tasteless), and has a consistency that I think facilitates strangulation. I am surprised that there aren't thousands of death certificates listing "Death by Mochi" as a means of leaving this earthly existence. I believe mochi could prove to be the perfect murder weapon and perhaps it is in an Agatha Christie crime novel somewhere. It is like an endless marshmallow. While you may bite down, it doesn't separate, but rather it enlongates as it slithers down your throat to be followed by the extra foot of it on your chopsticks outside your mouth. I could only take so much and left a big hunk of mochi at the bottom of my drained soup bowl. Yasuyo's father looked at my bowl and said something to me in Japanese. I knew what he said, but was trying to act a little dumb and tried to change the subject lest they offer me a hot and moist hunk of mochi because the other was cold and dry, but Chad helpfully translated the "Don't you like mochi?" inquiry for me. I smiled and said it was fine.
The boys chowed down on everything in sight, while I picked what I thought I could eat, which was meat, egg and fruit. Believe me people, I have tried fish, shrimp, eel, crab, shark, octopus, squid, etc. and I continually try these things, but I don't like them and if given a choice, I will refrain from eating them. The repast was varied enough that we all ate to our fill.
Finally the plates were cleared and we were off for our next adventure: Shrine Hopping or Drive-thru Praying.
See you in about 45 minutes.