Makin’ Soba

Every August a bunch of foreigners (from all different countries–USA, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Brazil, Korea and Mongolia last year) who are all studying near Tokyo come to Nanae and other towns and cities in Hokkaido to have a 2 week homestay. During the day they visit schools and experience the culture of Japan. Lucky for me, I got to participate in all of these fun activities. One of the highlights was making soba. Soba noodles are grey-ish in color because they are made with buckwheat flour rather than wheat flour. They can be eaten hot or cold but are a very popular summer dish served cold on a bamboo strainer above a plate, dipped into a cup of cold soy sauce based broth and slurped up.

 

Kiyou wa…Kodomo no Hi (Kids’ Day)

We’re just about finished with Golden Week over here: Saturday was Constitution Memorial Day, Sunday was Green Day and Monday waclass=”alignnone size-medium wp-image-43″s Children’s Day. Because Green Day fell on a Sunday this year (which every already has off), Tuesday is a Substitute Holiday. Children’s Day used to be called Boy’s Festival and is often still referred to this way as a counterpart to Hina Matsuri (which isn’t a national holiday, btw), often called “Girls’ Festival” even though this isn’t the correct translation. These two holidays (along with Tanabata in July) are very old and traditional and always fall on the same dates 3/3, 5/5 and 7/7. This day is supposed to celebrate children’s happiness.

 

The Japanese toothfairy

Absolutely out of the blue the other day I asked Emi what happens in Japan when kids lose their teeth.  Apparently it depends on whether said tooth is an upper or bottom tooth.  In Emi’s family the upper ones are thrown onto the ground in her families barn (her dad is a rice farmer) so the new teeth will be as strong as the mice’s teeth that live on the floor.  The bottom ones are thrown onto the second floor of the barn (not sure why).  While lots of rice is grown in Japan (since they obviously eat a lot of it and have laws against importing it) certainly not every family has a barn at their disposal.  I was a little surprised that Emi didn’t immediately know what other families did but maybe its because all of the kids who lived around her were also the children of farmers.  Maybe it isn’t something that is talked about as much in Japanese culture?  We asked around the office and the guys told us their families threw the bottom teeth either onto the second floor, or from outside the house they threw them onto the roof depending on the house/family and the upper teeth were thrown under the house.   Just to be completely thorough I did some checking online and found that there is a saying in Japanese regarding what to do with baby teeth:“ue no ha wa en no shita e, shita no ha wa yabe no ue e nageru” which literally means “throw your upper teeth under the floor and your lower teeth over the roof”.  There was some concern in this article about what people who live in apartment buildings do.   I also found another site that includes some customs from other countries that gave a slightly different reason for the whole below-the-house/over-the-house thing.  It said this practice is done to encourage the upper teeth to grow towards the ground and the lower teeth towards the roof.  I say drink your milk, brush your teeth and get braces.