Saturday, 18 December 2010

Day 147 in Japan - A Very Merry Jutaku Christmas!

Today was a lovely, social day! I had the morning to myself, as my Japanese lesson got pushed back this morning, so I spent my morning trying my hardest to put together a passable trifle for tonight’s Christmas Pot Luck Party. I chose a trifle because it’s normally a relatively simple but delicious affair – you soak some sponge cake in sherry, make some jelly and pour it on, open a tin of peaches, coat the whole thing in custard and then chuck some whipped cream on top. Now lets look at which of those ingredients are actually available in Japan (which is exactly what I should have done before I decided to make one) – no sherry, no jelly packets, no custard, custard powder or even cornstarch to make egg custard, cream is available but I have no beaters. So I came up with a brilliant scheme to make jelly with gelatine and grape-flavoured soft drink, custard from scratch (thickened with rice flour), and beat up about a litre of cream with a tiny hand whisk. I did just about pull it off, although my cake was soaked in Jameson’s, my custard didn’t set, my arm just about fell off, and I ended up having to put the whole trifle in a big plastic container that everyone here knows is a container for taking to the onsen (public bath) – the only container I could find that was big enough to contain the whole thing comfortably enough for public transport delivery.

My Japanese lesson went really well, and I rushed home afterwards for final trifle construction, hasty gift-wrapping and absolutely no cleaning of the house. Then I grabbed my huge bathing bowl full of dessert, and took the 10 minute walk to the station, 10 minute train to Akashi, switched to the Hankyu train line, watched my train pull away 10 seconds too early, met a new friend who helped me get onto a rapid train and then switch to a local, finished my 25 min train ride, walked 5 mins from the station, to get to…
T'was but a trifle.
JUTAKU! I have a few friends that live in teachers accommodation at Nishi Futami, and apparently the area that they live in is called Jutaku. We had a brilliant party with a few ALTs, a few English teachers, a few beers and a LOT of food. We played a fun game to exchange gifts, and I ended up with a giant box of chocolates. I am very happy about that. I talked a LOT, with bits of Japanese thrown in with the English, and met a bunch of new Japanese teachers. It was very nice to have a night of real “hanging around” with Japanese people – just joking around and not being polite or formal at all.
The delicious dinner spread.
Dinner time!
The whole Christmas crew with our secret Santa presents (photo by Deyi).
Food Highlight of the Day: It is so hard to choose! I enjoyed Deyi’s spicy Pad Thai, Arjun’s Thai Red pumpkin curry, Jodie’s Shepherds Pie, Hiro-chan’s rice dumplings, and honestly, everything. Ummm, I’m going to be magnanimous, and say “Dinner”.

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