Sat.,Dec. 3rd 9:00-21:00
16 participants and 15 host families.
The Center and Kyoto Prefectural International Center held the “One Day Trip in Kameoka” for residential foreigners. 16 participants from 13 countries who live in Kyoto joined this event. (Countries Bulgaria, China, Czech, England, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Taiwan, Thailand and U.S.A.)
In the morning, participants came to JR Kameoka Station and moved to our center. Before the program started, participants broke the ice by playing a game.
This time we introduced about the Japanese new year like “omochi (rice cake)”, “osechi ryōri (foods prepared for New Year’s)” and custom of year-end and new year holidays.
“Omochi” which we planned to eat with lunch was ready earlier than we expected. So, participants ate “omochi” before the lecture. They tried fresh and hot “omochi” with several topings like “miso,” sugar and soy sauce, nori, ground soybean powder, and sweet bean paste. They liked “omochi” very much. Some of them ate several pieces of “omochi” by themselves. We thought sweet bean paste would not be so popular with foreigners, but all of the sweet bean paste was gone.
After that, finally we started a lecture and introduced the way Japanese spend year-end and new year days we explained, “shime nawa (sacred straw ropes),” “kado matsu (a pair of pine decorations which are placed in front of the gates of a residence),” “kagami mochi (rice cake offerings to the gods),” and “osechi ryōri.”
In a multitiered box of “osechi ryōri,” there is variety of small dishes. And each dish has a special meaning.
For example, in Japanese, the word “mame” means” to work hard. Therefore, as a symbol of one’s desire to be in good health so as to be able to work hard, black beans (kuro mame), or a fish dish called “go mame,” both of which are rich in protein, are often found in “osechi ryōri.” Shrimp is also a common ingredient in “osechi ryōri.” Shrimp have a curved shape and are therefore a symbol of one’s desire for a long life, or to live until one becomes old and crooked. At lunch time, participants tried the “osechi ryōri.” of Kameoka local style. They took a little of each small dish from the multitiered boxes by themselves and ate them. After the lecture they knew about Japanese new year’s days than most Japanese people.
After the lunch, participants met their host families. Both of them were a little bit nervous at first but they left our Center together looking excited. At each house, participants introduced food from their countries. They cooked a variety of dishes like pasta, salad, “chimaki (a rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves,)” fish and chips, etc with their host families. Of course, the host families liked their dishes.
The Participants who spent the afternoon with host families went home from JR Kameoka Station before 9 p.m. They cooked, talked about each other, their family culture and life in Japan with their host families. We hope they had a good time in Kameoka in a half day experience.