Memory Monday - In A Pinch

Living in Japan I was constantly asked, "What is your hobby?" Every Japanese friend I met had a quick and easy answer... AND a neat and tidy hobby to go with it. My host mother's hobby was cake baking. She told me that when she first became interested in baking cakes, she baked a cake EVERY DAY for a year in order to perfect her skills. She showed me a photo album filled with photos of beautifully decorated cakes and baked a number of delicious cakes during my summer with her family. But one night, a friend stopped by unexpectedly and she invited him to stay for dinner. In the kitchen, as she stirred a pot of eggs and flour over the stove, she taught me her secret for a great last minute dessert -- cream puffs! Elegant, easy and delicious. Although I've only baked a couple of cakes, I've made cream puffs many, many times and thought of her every single time.

Memory Monday - Bright Lights, Big City

I enjoyed the movie "Lost in Translation" a few years ago and was impressed with Sofia Coppola's ability to enable the audience to experience jet lag and culture shock along with the main characters, Charlotte and Bob. Watching the movie, I felt like I was seeing the mesmerizing neon lights of Tokyo for the first time. My first night on Japanese soil was at my Youth for Understanding exchange student cultural orientation in Tokyo in 1990. I remember staring at the long, narrow streets with the complex layering of lights, colors, letters and characters and I felt like I could not close my mouth or even blink without great effort. So different from anything I had seen before and yet so facinating and wonderful. I still love the electric feel of Tokyo and I look forward to staring sleepily at those shiny streets many more times in the future.

Memory Monday - Nor Any Drop to Drink

The first time I saw the ocean I was seventeen years old and in Yokohama, Japan. Even though my flight to Japan flew out of San Francisco, there was cloud cover the whole trip and I didn't catch even one glimpse of blue water. My host family could barely comprehend a land-locked life so once they learned of my ocean ignorance, they immediately made plans to take me to the beach.

We settled into a spot on Yokohama bay and as soon as we changed into our swimsuits my host sister and I ran giggling into the waves. The water didn't even come up to my waist before ocean spray hit my face and I remember the shocking taste. Without thinking I shouted, "It's SALTY!" which sent my host family into fits of laughter. I can still see and feel the whole scene in my mind: the crowded beach; my host sister's long, dark hair swinging across the back of her black one piece suit; the dirty, grey, gritty feel of sand; the hazy sky; the urban presence of the city pressing in on the beach. But the strongest memory of that day is the surprising, salty, bright taste of the seawater on my lips.

Memory Monday - Something is Fishy Around Here

My first visit to Japan was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. My travel experience up to that point consisted of a few family road trips to Texas and New Mexico and I was unprepared for the cultural differences between rural USA and a Tokyo suburb. My exchange program started with a week long orientation in Washington, DC which was then followed with a few days of culture training in Tokyo, so I was completely discombobulated by the time I arrived at my host family's home. They greeted me with warm smiles, frequent bows, impressive English skills and a box of Kellog's Corn Flakes.

Between cold cereal in the mornings, crunchy green salads, reliable rice, the bounty of the department store fruit section and my host mother's cake baking hobby, my gastronomical transition was almost manageable. Even with all that was easily palatable, after nearly 17 years of a mid-western American diet, I was overwhelmed by all the new tastes I encountered. The gritty, sour, warm taste of miso. The salty, crunchy, bitter taste of dried seaweed/nori. The explosive, bright, biting taste of ginger. The mind-blowing fire and tang of wasabi. The curious varieties of pickles/tsukemono. And fish EVERYWHERE. Grilled fish fillets for breakfast. Slices of pressed fish/kamaboko floating in the lunchroom ramen. Tiny dried whole fish in snack cracker packets at the baseball game. Rolls and rolls of raw fish sushi at a beautiful dinner reception. I LONGED for a fish-free day or at least a fish-free meal.

One night as my host mother set dinner on the table, I perked up when I saw the dish of cooked carrots. I couldn't wait for the sweet carrot-y taste to overcome the long-lasting taste of fish in my mouth. I distinctly remember my disappointment when even the carrots tasted like fish. I gave up and decided that somehow I would just have to learn to love fish. After we finished dinner, I helped my host mom clean up. While clearing kitchen dishes she took a moment to teach me a little about Japanese cooking. She proudly showed me how she made her own FISH STOCK and used it for cooking vegetables... like that night's carrots!

Introducing Memory Monday

I am still participating in the Gratitude Challenge, and I WILL finish it (eventually), I promise. On Saturday I completed the activity for Day Eleven and I'll write about it tomorrow. In the meantime...

I have been itching to start a new blog tradition and write about one of my memories each week.  So I am pleased to introduce "Memory Monday!" To make things even more interesting, I'm choosing a theme for my memory musings. Just to keep (all three of) my readers guessing, I'll write on the theme for an undetermined period of time before, WHAM!, randomly changing it. Yippee, I'm having fun already.

Recently I took Jeep to see the animated movie Ponyo (we LOVED it) and then I read Motherlogue's interview with Sara Backer about her novel American Fuji. As a result, I have had Nihon on the brain and so (drumroll, please) I have selected Japan as my first Memory Monday theme. Stay tuned for exciting stories of karaoke, snow, curry, toilets, salt water, disco, cream puffs and more. But for now, it is time to say oyasumi nasai.