Hawaii in Japan

A fantastic first full week in Tokyo! I'm trying to pick up as much of the language as I can while I'm here, so I've been practicing reading Hiragana and Katakana (two of the Japanese alphabets) on menus, street signs, subways, etc and ever so slowly I've noticed some improvement. My main hang-up has been making my brain turn off the other languages I've studied (Serbian and French) and to exclusively turn on Japanese. When my host mother noticed me studying this morning, she brought out a deck of small cards and called for Rinta to come and play a game called hyakunin isshu. Basically there were 100 poets who each wrote one tanka -- a poetic form similar to haiku but with two more lines so it's 5 syllables - 7 syllables - 5 - 7 - 5 -- and now, about 1,000 years later, Japanese children learn these poems in school and play a two-player memory game with them. The last two lines are written on a card, and a speaker will begin to read the tanka and as soon as you know which tanka the speaker is reading, you flick the card away. This video of a professional match should give you a good idea of what I'm trying to describe: youtube.com/watch?v=pwjRb-9dsD0

For me, this game served as a great exercise in listening and reading hiragana. My host brother knows all of the poems by heart so after two or three syllables, he would dramatically swipe the cards off the table. Earlier this week, we played another Japanese card game called hanafuda which translates to flower cards. I had played this game when I was younger, so it was quite fun to be reminded of it. My host family continues to be impressed by the parts of Japanese culture I'm familiar with from growing up in Hawaii.

Last night, we went to a udon restaurant near their home, and I thought I knew what to expect since udon is quite popular in Hawaii, but I was surprised to find that the udon was served cold. My host family explained that whenever possible, Japanese people like to eat cold foods in the summer to chill the body and ward off the heat. Earlier in the week, my host mother made mochi (a chewy rice cake) and cooked it in shoyu (soy sauce), and again I was delightfully surprised by this savory snack because I'm used to eating sweet mochi as a dessert. Both the mochi and the udon were absolutely delicious, and I was shocked that I had never had them before. My point in this is that sometimes there are variations on what I am accustomed to from Hawaii, which is just as if not more exciting than the familiar foods, games, and such.

Udon nom nom nom - in the bowl on the bottom right was a sesame broth which was unbelievable

Readers from Hawaii will appreciate these delicacies not often found outside of the state. The malasada was quite good and of course you cannot go wrong with Hawaiian Sun.

There are displays in department stores that feature Hawaii-related products. There seems to be a piece of home everywhere I go!

Being from Hawaii has also served me well in introductions, especially this week with my English lessons. Most of my students seemed nervous about speaking English, but when I told them where I'm from, it eased all tensions in the room. This is kind of a universal reaction, but it rings especially true in Japan since Hawaii is extremely popular. Everyone I've spoken to has either been or really wants to go to Hawaii, and they all know much more than the average non-Hawaiian about the islands, which has facilitated fun conversations in my lessons. It seems that Japan has really taken to the "aloha spirit" and I'm more than happy to share it as much as I can while I'm here!