...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.

お餅 (o-mochi)

What does Joyce rank almost as high on the Icky List as mouthfuls of mayonnaise? Mochi!!!! Mochi is a favorite traditional Japanese food. It's made from rice... just like everything else in this country. Mochi is described as a rice cake, but this description makes it sounds
1. hard in texture
2. rather pleasant (which fails to express mochi's true nature).
OK lets be fair, many, perhaps even most(?), foreigners DO find mochi to be a swell thing, but for a texture-sensitive palate such as my own (and I know my sister Sandi will heartily agree with me on the texture business) mochi is grossy. How can I help convey the texture of mochi to those of you who have yet to feel its charms? Some mochi is harder than other mochi, but generally speaking it is very soft. Perhaps the closest sensation I can compare the chewing of mochi to is chewing a big mouthful of the silky smooth wrinkly old sags of skin hanging from your grandmothers underarm.

Mochi can be presented beautifully (these pics are lifted from the internet, btw):
...and mochi can have its true nature disguised through the artful use of shape and flavor, such as in this gift box below:

Top row, from left: Nantu mochi (filled with an, dipped in soy-bean flour), sweet-potato mochi, traditional white mochi, yaki manju (baked) and tsumami mochi (green, filled with an). Row 2: Momo (peach) mochi, furusato manju (baked with sweet-potato filling), chi chi mochi (soft, milk-flavored), plum flower (red for good luck, with red azuki-bean filling) and sweet-potato mochi.

But Japanese people like to eat mochi no matter how it comes, kind of like the Whos down in Whoville. Mochi doesn't need presents! Or ribbons! Or wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings! Right. Mochi is happily devoured in the simple form of sticky rice mash rolled in soy bean powder. Absolutely no taste at all. Just grandma's jiggle, squishing between your molars. Oozing back and forth across your tongue. Clinging with sickly joy to the roof of your mouth as you desperately try to swallow the cloying mass.

Well, a few weeks ago we had a teacher`s New Years party. Mochitsuki is the name of the traditional mochi-pounding ceremony in Japan, whereby mochi is made. Except nowadays it's made by machines in large factories. But traditionally it was done in the way detailed below. This is a common activity at the New Year. For our Mochitsuki party, we rented a ginormous mochi-making mush kit! The photos below are all mine from mochi-making, but the 3 steps are not mine, I lifted them from the internet:

step 1. Polished glutinous rice is soaked overnight and cooked.

step 2. The wet rice is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. They must keep a steady rhythm or they may accidentally injure one another with the heavy kine. Below: me pounding mochi! That's the principle behind me!

step 3. The sticky mass is then formed into various shapes (usually a sphere or cube).
Well that was simple enough! Above are the hands of my teachers, grabbing globs of mochi, rolling it in simple soy bean powder, and then plopping it on plates. As you can see, homemade mochi is not as beautiful as mochi bought in the store. The dark red mash to the far left is sweetened adzuki bean paste, which is probably the top component to be found in a variety of Japanese sweets. We weren't nimble-fingered enough to encase the beans inside the mochi balls, but had no trouble getting them both in our mouths at the same time.

Lets have some more interesting mochi trivia from Wiki:

In Japanese folk tradition, rabbits living on the Moon produce mochi in the traditional method with mallets and mortars. (This legend identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit pounding mochi).

After each new year, it is reported in the Japanese media how many people die from choking on mochi. The victims are usually elderly. Because it is so sticky it is difficult to dislodge via the Heimlich maneuver...some lifesaving experts say that a vacuum cleaner is actually efficient for [removing] stuck mochi.


Above, my supervisor Junko-sensei and her twin daughters pound away. Mochi making equals fun for the whole family!!!!