When we arrived in Misato City last night, Elgin's Tita Babe and Uncle Ando came to pick us up. Tita invited us in the house and assigned us our slippers. Elgin's slippers has blue dots and mine has pink dots. Tita led us to the living room area to sit and relax, and right before we sat, she said oh no..you sit here and you sit there because there were designated seats in the house. She told us where to put our shoes and where we will be sleeping. Elgin made the mistake of walking in the tatami mat room with his slippers, that's a huge no-no here. We must leave our slippers outside of any tatami mat room, any bedroom, the toilet room, and the shower room, mainly so they know who is in what room and the room floor stays clean.
During dinner, Tita told us that she had especially bought us chopsticks to use during our stay. Elgin's chopsticks has blue flowers, and mine has red flowers. She said that Japanese tradition is that everyone has their own individual chopsticks because it is yours to take care of and only for you to use. She told us where to sit at the dinner table and what bowl to use. Tita made us a tempura plate of pork, octopus, and shrimp with a side of salad. Then only I was offered miso soup and rice. Elgin was eating and drinking at Uncle Ando's pace. By that I mean, that Elgin didn't get miso soup and rice until maybe an hour or so later. Uncle Ando likes to drink warm sake and eat pickled vegetables first, then his tempura, and then rice. We learned that if you drink cheap sake, it's best to drink it warm so you don't get a headache or a bad hangover. Since Uncle Ando is retired, he makes most of the pickled vegetables. He made spicy mini fish, pickled wakame, burdock and carrots, and pickled napa cabbage. So Elgin drank warm sake with Uncle Ando, ate pickled veg, and then after an hour or so, was offered miso soup and white rice. While eating the white rice, they were offered mentaiko (raw salted cod roe), crushed salmon, and umeboshi (pickled plum). I think they finished eating around 12:30am... I just sat and observed after finishing my dinner at 10:30pm. Elgin and I would just look at each other, making sure we didn't impose or say anything wrong, and make sure to wait before answering.
Today, Tita and Uncle walked us around their neighborhood to show us their cherry blossom trees. It's almost the end of the cherry blossoms now...so sad. The Japanese will wait all year long for the cherry blossoms to bloom and they can only enjoy them for about 7-12 days. The best part I think is the sakura fubuki (cherry blossom petals snow storm). If you watch japanese movies and you've see that one romantic scene of where the couple is walking down a street of cherry blossom trees and there's a sudden gust of wind -- all the cherry blossom petals will blow off the cherry and fall on you..yes it's really that sweet and romantic. It's breathtaking how beautiful it is. Since the trees are near its end, all the petals are blown and there are piles and piles of petals on the floor. Uncle and Tita would grab the petals off the floor and throw them up in the air and all the petals would just blow everywhere like snow.
For lunch, Tita made ma-po tofu over rice. And then they took us to the cemetary to visit Uncle Ando's parents and experience their tradition. We went to the store of the caretaker's of their grave, they offered us tea and rice crackers. Uncle Ando looked for the wooden water pail labeled with his family name in this huge shed of water pails. Then we drove to the cemetary, weeded around the family stones, and cleaned the stones. Uncle and Tita placed flowers and incense on the stone, then they poured water on the stone and bowed. I never understood what the pouring of water meant on the stone since we saw others do it at temples to idols as well. Uncle said that it was to ward off the evil, a type of cleansing for them. He pointed out all the family crests on the stones. It just clicked to me what my friend Christine was working on when she made her family crest onto jewelry for her grandmother. Uncle's family name partially means "wisteria" which is a flower, and his family crest was designed with wisteria floral pattern. All the family crests are very special and unique to each family.
For dinner, we had yakinuki - grilled meats and vegetables. It's very interactive. Tita and Uncle set up the dinner table very nice with a large flat grill pan and different meats surrounding it. There was slices of pork shoulder, pork loin, and canadian beef. The veg platter had slices of onion, cabbage, and bell pepper. In front of each of us was a bowl of edadame (soybeans), bowl of sweet onions topped with bonito flakes that you mix with a little soy sauce, and a small bowl of dipping sauce. Tita and Uncle are so hospitable and accomodating. They knew that we had already tried shoju, sake, and plum wines, so he deliberately bought a japanese red wine to try. Tita likes to drink her red wine with cider. I added cider to my red wine too, it tastes like sangria almost. Uncle and Elgin drank more sake, plum wine, and other liquors that Uncle's mother made a long time ago. Elgin is loving it..he gets to really taste it all and understand it. We had a lovely dinner and great conversation tonight with Tita and Uncle. We cooked and ate slowly for hours..now that's slow food :) Good food, good drinks, and good company :)
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