...there's more about mochi and brows

Christina reminded me that I forgot to say something about mochi: last week teachers kept telling me its going to get colder this weekend. I assumed they'd been watching the weather report. But no. Instead, it turned out that the traditional day of making something that sounded like Muchi (a special kind of purple colored mochi wrapped in large, fragrant leaves and tied with string) was last weekend. And its supposed to get cold when you make Muchi. No one could explain why to me, just... that's how it goes. Above is a photo of the muchi Matsuda-sensei brought me from her family`s muchi-making revelries. Yvonne devoured it all while in a state of extremely high-anxiety. I don't think she even noticed she was eating.

I just asked the entire teacher`s room why they make muchi and no one knew. After a long discussion, about 5 of them together turned to me and translated this story:

Once, there was sister and younger brother. The brother like to eat people then, the sister was not happy the brother ate people. So, she made muchi. In brother`s muchi, she put metal and in her muchi there was none. The brother could not chew his muchi, but he sees that his big sister she can chew hers. My sister is stronger than me, AGH!!!!! he thinks. He so surprise, sister pushes him down the mountain. And he die.

I waited for a minute, but that seemed to be the end. Soooo, I ask delicately, why do you eat muchi? A second conference. So we will become strong. No one can come up with an answer for why it is wrapped in big leaves. Or why it should become cold when muchi is made. Lastly, no one can explain why muchi should make people strong if it didnt actually make the sister strong, she just fooled her bro into thinking it made her strong by putting bits of metal in his. Hm.

One forgotten word on eyebrows, that will spiral away into an entirely larger commentary on Japanese society: Japanese beauty standards are not the same as Western ones. Grope around in your mind for stereotypical things that one may instantly find attractive on a potential mate`s head... eyes, smile, hair. Well, the Japanese over-lap in hair. Except their idea of attractive hair-styles is far different than our own. Noooooo comment. But there are a few things that you just wouldn't ever think of looking for, that the Japanese notice right off the bat. Ready?

Chin and eyebrows. Here is how this came up in (two separate) conversations.

Shouko: XXX-sensei will be driving the car.
Joyce: Who is XXX-sensei, I cant remember.
Shouko: he`s the sensei with the really hot eyebrows!
Joyce: Im sorry, I cant identify anyone that way.


Joyce: do you think XXX actor is cute?
Kanako: hmmmm. Chotto... hes cute, but...
Joyce: but what?
Kanako: his chin.
Joyce: huh?
Kanako: he has... in Japanese, we call it a butt-chin. Very ugly, ne.

The hot-brows. The butt-chin. It took several minutes of confusion on both sides after the finish of the dialogue to sort out: 1. why I couldn't figure out who XXX-sensei was from Shouko`s description, 2. why I didn't find butt-chins to be extremely unpleasant. We might notice male eyebrows if they're weird in some way: a unibrow, tatoeba. But generally speaking there is no definition for what constitutes attractive male brows. Guys just have eyebrows. No one notices what they look like. Its only girls eyebrows that matter... and do those even matter so much for us? I don't know, Im not a guy. I want to say that they are not on the list of top 5 facial features though (unless there`s the unibrow factor, once again).

Second. After a minutes thought, I determined that Americans don't particularly notice whether someone has a cleft chin or not. But that if it had to signify anything, it would be a sign of masculinity and be considered attractive. Look at our cartoon superheros, I pointed out. They ALL have cleft chins. Once I checked out a book on drawing cartoons in middle school, and I specifically remember learning that every superhero should be drawn with a cleft-chin (among other things) to give them a sense of power and manliness.

Another thing is that everyone has busted up crooked teeth in Japan... at least in Okinawa. Barely no one has braces, and people are just missing teeth, have extra teeth sticking out of weird parts of their gums, have gaps between teeth the size of the grand canyon, have teeth crossing every which way... and thats cool! Though I havent brought it up with anyone, Im assuming that teeth do not constitute the same attractive-factor for Japanese as they do for Americans. Will get back to you if I figure out anything more.