Know When to Fold 'Em

When I was 8, I went through a major origami phase. I folded cranes, boats, balloons, basically anything I could figure out by looking at the pictures, since the instructions were in Japanese. My origami fad stemmed from reading the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (not to be confused with Sudoku, the numbers game my husband's addicted to). Sadako & the Thousand Paper Cranes is a heartbreaking true story about a girl diagnosed with Leukemia. To pass the time in the hospital she starts folding cranes with the goal to reach 1,000. Sadly, she dies with only 644 folded. Her classmates end up folding the rest and the cranes are eventually buried with her. *Sob* There is a monument in Hiroshima, Japan where students from around the world send 1,000 cranes.


In Japanese American culture, when someone gets married or celebrates an anniversary, friends and family are asked to help fold 1,000 cranes, plus one for extra luck. The cranes are seen as good luck and placed together to create a picture or symbol, which is later hung in the home.



When my younger sister got married last year, she asked us to help her fold cranes. Given my previous obsession with origami I thought my enthusiasm would come flooding back---soooo not the case. Maybe the 80’s burned me out on origami or perhaps it had something to do with my mother who is an origami Nazi. She would look at my crane and then shake her head and place it in what became known as the “throw away pile” or what I referred to as “I just wasted 5 minutes of my life pile.” Long story short, my origami career ended there.

Interestingly enough, origami folding has become popular these days with cardboard. Foldschool has taken folding to an entire new level. This site lets you download free patterns which then allows you to fold cool kids furniture! All you need is that cardboard box your new TV came in.



Granted you have to be pretty savvy, but where else can you get FREE handmade furniture that is hip and modern.

-Kacey

Hot! Hot! Hot!

“Mom, am I on fire?” These are the famous words our nephew asked his mother after relocating from the Bay Area to Las Vegas. This past weekend I felt like I was on fire as I drove to the Central Valley, one of the hottest parts of our state, for a family gathering. By the time we arrived at my Uncle’s house it was a cool 107 degrees. Blech.

I’ve lived through humid summers in Japan and New York, but after six years in the coldest part of San Francisco I start to wither if the temperature rises past 85 degrees. Yes, it’s true, the Bay Area weather has made me soft. I’m a heat wuss.

My mother, fully aware of my heat aversion, made one of my favorite summer dishes, Somen, while visiting this past weekend. A thin wheat noodle, Somen is eaten cold and is the perfect dish when it’s sweltering outside, or for me 86 degrees. The noodles can be purchased at most grocery stores, as well as the dashi, or broth.



After cooking the noodles, they are best if cooled in the refrigerator for a couple of hours prior to eating. When served, the somen is placed in a bowl of ice water with a small amount of the dashi in a separate bowl. The dashi is highly concentrated, so you only need a little. You dip the cold noodles into the dashi and the key is to slurp your noodles. Slurping loudly is a polite way of eating your noodles in Japan!


There are many different ways to eat Somen noodles. Some put wasabi into the dashi to make it spicier, while in my family we add lemon and red onions. Somen salad is also a very popular dish in Hawaii.


I highly recommend you try it out for dinner this summer. It’s cheap, refreshing, and the noodles cook in under 3 minutes! If you can’t find the noodles at your local grocery, you can purchase at our favorite, Amazon. Enjoy!

-Kacey

Children's Day

Today is Children’s Day, also known as Kodomo No Hi. This national holiday is celebrated in Japan and by many Japanese Americans stateside. Children’s Day celebrates the happiness of all children and gratitude towards mothers. In my family we've always referred to May 5th as Boy’s Day.

On Boy’s Day, families traditionally hang carp flags, or koinobori, outside of their homes. The bigger fish represents the father and the second fish represents the older son. The younger sons and/or other children also get a carp flag to hang below their siblings.

In addition, families display a Kintaro doll usually riding a large carp and a Kabuto, which is a traditional Japanese military helmet. Both of these items represent a strong healthy boy.


Mochi, or rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves, as well as Chimaki, a kind of sweet rice paste wrapped in an iris or bamboo leaf, are traditionally served today.

The origami Kabuto hats in the photo above are very popular and easy to make. Here is a short tutorial if you are up to it. It's very basic. You'll be able to make them in 2 minutes and you don't need origami. Really!

Even though Children's Day is targeted more towards boys, the girls are not forgotten and have a day all for themselves. Hinamatsuri, also known as the doll festival, is celebrated on March 3rd and is exclusively for little girls. However, it is not a national holiday that has caused some controversy over the years.

If your are feeling crafty, grab your little boys (or girls) and have them make their own carp kite.

Or you can always help them celebrate by making a festive bento lunch!

-Kacey

PS: Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Ask a Dad

Culture Clash
A first-time mother asked me to comment on the risks associated with raising an interracially mixed child. Fortunately for you, this is something I have personal experience with. Emi is the byproduct of an interracial union that wasn’t even legal in California during the fifties. Sometimes we still wonder how confused Emi will be in trying to adapt the ideologies of two very distinct cultures. Kacey is a 4th generation Japanese American, so you know that she will instill esoteric values and uncompromising Japanese traditions that will contradict my stanch 6th generation British American heritage. This cultural mêlée has not created a benevolent melting pot, but rather a smoldering pot of immiscible ideologies.

The Holidays
For New Years, it is customary for the Japanese to eat a tasty lucky bean referred to as, “lucky bean”. That’s not what my forefathers did. They watched Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve and then went to bed at or around 11:15PM. For Christmas, Japanese people will send thank you cards to everyone for gifts received. My British American culture tells me this is only necessary for wedding presents.

Language Barriers
Kacey has about a 45 word Japanese vocabulary that she uses on a semi-frequent basis. For instance, when we’re about to give Emi a bath, Kacey will say, “time for your bocha”. Is this going to confuse Emi down the road as an adult? You tell me.

Relating to Friends
Unfortunately, in San Francisco, only one out of four children are a Caucasian/Asian mix. This means only one in four friends of Emi will look exactly like her.

Cuisine
Emi’s aunt (Kacey’s sister) eats the most disgusting Japanese food called Natto, which is fermented soy beans. It looks and tastes like snot. We eat Japanese food about every other day and everything else is delicious. But what’s up with Natto? What if Emi makes the mistake of serving it at a party? She will offend the pallets of many of her British American friends, as well as her Japanese American friends and pretty much anyone else.

My advice to you, interracially married reader, is to make it easy on yourselves. Compromise by selecting a culture outside the innate heritage of both you and your spouse. That will give both of you equal footing for cultural influence. Kacey and I are looking to immerse Emi in the traditions of Peru.

-Tyler

Tyler H is a guest blogger and father to Emi. The Three Bay B Chicks have asked him to shed light on a Dad’s point of view under the stern supervision of his loving wife. If you have a question for Ask A Dad, feel free to submit it in the comments section. The Three Bay B Chicks are not responsible for Tyler's "advice."

Lost in Translation

After the inauguration of President Obama, I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity and acceptance. I would like to think that, as a world, we’re coming together more and more each year and appreciating not only our similarities, but also our differences. In light of this cultural evolution, how can we better embrace diversity than through the adoption and admiration of different languages?

Without further ado, I give you a celebration of what can go awry when we dabble, with the best of intentions, in the languages of other cultures.

First, Hanzi Smatter, a blog dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in western culture. Asian character tattoos on westerners are an incredible way to announce your willingness to embrace other cultures. Truly, high school jocks and weightlifters are our cultural ambassadors.

Unfortunately for this “ambassador”, who was attempting to get “Knowledge, Loyalty, Courage, Warrior, & Father” tattooed on his back, ended up with:

識 knowledge, consciousness
寿 congratulations, celebration, long life, sushi
危 danger, dangerous
狂 crazy, insane, mad
父 father

“Dangerous, crazy, father.” Close, right?

Onto Engrish.com. Like the West, the East has truly embraced capitalism and shown its cultural inclusiveness by often having helpful signs posted in the local language and in English. Unfortunately, cross-cultural enthusiasm does not guarantee accuracy. Lucky for us, the mistakes are often hilarious. One of my favorites appears on their most popular list: http://www.engrish.com/2007/06/youll-block-traffic/.


-Thuy

Happy Setsubun!

Last week Thuy did a beautiful job sharing the festivities to prepare for Tet or the Lunar New Year. Although Japanese do not follow the same lunar calendar, we too have our own way of getting the evil spirits out and allowing luck to flow into our homes. It’s a festival known as Setsubun.

Setsubun, meaning “seasonal division”, is usually celebrated on February 3rd or 4th. It is not a national holiday in Japan but rather a festival celebrated at schools, temples, and in the home. This festival involves throwing mame maki, which are soybeans, at your friends or the head of your household. Yes, you read this correctly, we Japanese throw beans at you to get the evil spirits out and to bring luck and happiness in!

Here’s how it works:

First, you purchase mame maki at the stores. The beans are usually accompanied with a mask.


If you are celebrating at school, one of your classmates wears the mask and pretends to be the oni, which is a ogre. The other classmates throw beans at the ogre while saying, “Oni wa Soto, Fuku wa Uchi!” This is to ward off any evil spirits for the coming year. It sounds much worse than it is. It’s pronounced foo-koo and translated means, “Get out, Ogre! Come in good luck/happiness!”

If you are celebrating at home, the father usually plays the roll of the ogre while the children throw beans at him. What I find most amusing about this festival is the fact that Japanese are very fixated on cleaning their homes before the New Year, yet throw beans everywhere just a month later!

After the bean throwing, you are supposed to eat the same number of beans as your age, plus one for the coming year.



In the evening, families usually eat a special thick sushi called futomaki. Rather than slicing the sushi, each person eats the roll while facing the yearly lucky compass direction, which is determined by the annual zodiac symbol.

I had completely forgotton about the Setsuban festival and was reminded while grocery shopping at my favorite Japanese market in San Francisco. If you would like to bring some luck and happiness into your home and share in the Japanese culture, all you need are beans! (I've heard that peanuts are also acceptable.)

What would be even more fun is to have the kids start throwing beans at Dad as soon as he walks in the door. How can he get upset when the children are warding off the evil spirits and bringing happiness into the home? Let me know how it works out.

-Kacey