Laura's Pensieve: A Japanese Canadian Thanksgiving

HANDA DASHI MATSURI

I hope everyone had a good Canadian Thanksgiving! I had been dreaming about turkey and pumpkin pie for a few night...To get my mind off of turkey dinner, Elspeth and I headed to the Handa dashi matsuri. Handa is pretty close to Obu and I ended up seeing two of my favourite students, Kyouka (returnee kid student) and Keiko (one of the kindest women I have ever known).

Elspeth and I were a little confused about this festival. First, we thought it was something to do with fish (Handa is near the water). Then we were confused by the name...mountain cars?? Luckily, Elspeth figured it out and I now know that dashi can mean 'float'...and I guess also Japanese soup stock. Way to confuse me again, Japan. Sneaky.

We travelled there with some other foreigners but we eventually lost them in the crowds. There turned out to be 31 floats. Most had either puppet/marionette shows or a dancing puppet/singing show. We were closer than when we were in Takayama so we got to see the puppets walk up stairs, grab cherry tree branches and swing down the side of the floats.

After checking out the shows we headed back to the station but stopped first to share some okonomiyaki. I sat on the curb, waiting for Elspeth and people watched. I love festivals because you see families, teens, young people, old people...everyone comes out.

The JR station was packed with people so we walked down the street to find the Meitetsu Line. Lucky for us they were having a taiko performance right outside the station. This guy (below) was brilliant! He did a really long solo. He has mad taiko skills.

The finale was a huge group performance. It was great. The only bad part was the appearance of an unfortunate foreigner. He ruined the show with his unfortunateness...watch the video below and see if you can see his thrusting-towards-the-drum action and his foolish faces. Elspeth and I were both cringing...

MOONLIGHT STAGE CONCERT

At 4pm Elspeth and I met Miho (my most wonderful Japanese kids teacher), Becky and Yu at Kanayama station. We had a leisurely meal at a decent Italian restaurant and then headed to Tsurumai park. Miho is a jazz singer (and an amazing chef) and her teacher was accompanying the band at this concert. The venue was cool. An outdoor gazebo-thing and the weather was perfect. When we got there a guy was playing the guitar. Then the host and a lady talked about the history and many uses of herbs. It was like an out of place infomercial.

Miho introduced us to her teacher and the band backstage. It turned out that a Canadian guy was playing the sax with them that night. We chatted. He was weird. I kept wondering why he was talking like a gameshow host. Later I found out he used to host a radio show. He ended up taking over the show. He was that obnoxious foreigner who impresses the crowd with his Japanese but is so loud and foolish that even though I didn't understand what he was saying, I still thought I was going to vomit. I was tempted to yell, 'shut up, eh?!'

The next day Miho emailed the band conductor. She hinted that they shouldn't invite him back. The conductor agreed.

TAKOYAKI GOODNESS

Isn't the little octopus cute!?! awwww... even takoyaki cooking pans are cuter in Japan. Takoyaki is really popular in Japan (especially in Osaka). They are little balls of dough, cabbage and onion with a piece of octopus (tako) in the middle. You eat them with mayonaise and special takoyaki sauce. Delicious!

Elspeth and I were checking out Loft, when I saw this little orange baby, just begging to be taken home. And at only $17 I couldn't resist. We finished shopping, stopped at the grocery store, boiled some octopus (an adventure in itself) and spread everything out on the floor. Check out how perfect our takoyaki turned out!! We are pros!