Takoyaki Party

I hosted my first dinner party last night! How did it go? Excellently, considering I haven't had more than a couple people over at a time since.. my 14th birthday? In any case, it wasn't by my effort that things went so well. The company, 6 girls from Kitako, all drove over to my apartment sround 6:30 after school on Friday. There is another typhoon moving along near us, so it was raining buckets, and already dark outside. We jumped in our cars and headed to the supermarket to all pick up supplies together. The customers at The Big probably shook their heads at our troupe of girls wandering through the aisles, giggling as we discussed the oddities of Japanese food (fermented soybean, "devil's tongue", a zillion types of seaweed).


45 minutes later, we got back to the dry saftey of my apartment. Everyone commented on the spaciousness of it, remarking over how well furnished and decorated it was. There I got to explain that everything here is an accumulation of things that the 8 other JETs before me have contributed. A nice array, I'd say! It came in really handy for the evening, as it provided a neverending supply dishes, bowls, and utensils.

We soon got to cooking, each finding a job to contribute - cutting cabbage, making the dough mix, setting the table, and mixing ice cream for later. The main dish was to be Takoyaki, fried breadballs with octopus in the middle, and seasoned with mayo, okonomi sauce, dried seaweed, and fish flakes. We'd also gotten a lot of snacks to tide us over until dinner really started at 8.

From there we ate and chatted, ate and chatted, all on repeat for several cycles through the night. The food was delicious, the conversation self propellant, and the atmosphere a nice combination of warm lamplight and the sound of heavy rain falling just outside the screendoor. Just about everything was said in Japanese, but the topics were mostly simply enough for me to follow. We talked about the food, cultural differences, boyfriends (or lack of them), and about people at work. I got to try sake and beer for the first time, but couldn't get over the taste. However, I persevered throughout the night and finally got down a small mug worth of alcohol, with no noticeable affects on the body. A few others drank, too, but we mostly hit up the other beverages - Mommy peach milk, apple juice, green tea, and Aquarius, a powerade-like drink.

After several rounds of takoyaki, a couple girls bustled into the kitchen, turned out the main light, and came back with a cake on the table! It was an adorable white thing covered in fruit and candles. It was to celebrate Fukuyama-sensei's birthday and to welcome me to Japan. We blew out the imaginary fire, and then all dug in with our separate forks and spoons until the cylinder of cake became a simple circle cardboard plate. At the very last, we dug into the ice cream. It had not had enough time to really freeze, so became more of a vanilla shake, no less delicious.

We all cleaned up together, trying to think of good cleaning songs as we washed, dried, and put away dishes. They all left around midnight, with plans for another party when the weather got cooler. Nabe, anyone?