Nagashi Somen Party--流しそうめんパーティー

Literally, something like "somen river" (somen being really thin flour noodles, like super skinny udon).

My friend from the local volunteer Japanese class, Kazuko Miyazaki, had this grand party at her house. She has a huge house and and nice yard too, and since she's the president of the World Citizen's Club here in Higashimurayama, lots of people attended. She and her husband are two of the kindest, most generous human beings I have ever met. Here's what we did:

First things first, I got dressed up in a yukata, or summer kimono. Mrs. Miyazaki has dozens of yukata, some of which she even made herself, and she was kind enough to let us wear them.

Getting dressed by Ms. Tokunaga. She tied the obi just right!

徳永さんに着せていただきました。帯をきれいに結んでくれた！

Mrs. Morita, a tea ceremony teacher, made cold matcha for us all. We also ate some lovely, summer-themed Japanese sweets to go with it. In the lower left corner, you can barely see the glass tureen (pot?) with ice water in it that she used in place of the usual iron mini-cauldron that they normally use.

茶道の先生の森田さんはみんなに冷たい抹茶を作ってくれました。左側の下の方に冷水が入っているガラスの茶釜を見えます。（「茶釜」でしょうかね？間違いでしたら、ごめんなさい！）お茶の前にとても美味しくて涼しげなお菓子も頂けました。

I was her assistant. It was so hard to deliver the sweets and the matcha to guests elegantly in the heat, especially without tripping and killing myself--or worse, spilling the tea! When it was finally my turn to drink a cup of cold tea, I was so relieved to be finished with my duty. That cup of tea was truly delicious!

私はお手伝いをしました！とても難しかったです。暑い中で立ったり座ったりして、お茶やお菓子を運んだりするのは、思ったより大変でした。やっと私の頂く番になって、ほっとしました。その冷たいお茶はホントに美味しかったです！

Finally, my tea duties being finished, I went outside for some cold somen. Now you can see the true meaning of river of somen. Traditionally, people cut a long, straight pole of bamboo in half to use as a ramp for the somen, but I think they made their own out of plastic rain gutters! (They wanted an especially long ramp.) A person at the top of the ramp flushes the noodles downstream with a bowlful of water to keep the noodles moving. They're pretty hard to catch! They also throw in some maraschino cherries and canned tangerines to make things fun. Then you dunk your prizes in a bowl of mentsuyu (a sweet and salty fish-based broth) and enjoy!　Trust me, it's delicious, although the sweet fruit with the sweet-salty tsuyu was certainly a first for me.

お茶の手伝いが終わって、いよいよ流しそうめんに向かいました。この写真で「流しそうめん」の意味分かるでしょう。昔は１本の竹を半分に割ってつかいましたけど、これは竹ではない。手作りなので、雨どいで作ったらしい。そうめんだけじゃなく、チェリーもみかんも一緒に流すんです。さらに、麺つゆにかけて、お召し上がり！

This boy got lots of canned tangerines! He was sweet enough to let me take his picture (though he did not share his bounty!).

この子はミカンをいっぱい取れた。写真をとらせてくれたけど、ミカンを一つもくれなかった！

Here's another shot of the action. By holding your chopsticks in the stream for a bit, you can gather a lot of noodles. Before I tried it, I thought you had to time it right and strike for the noodles as they floated by!

Here are all the foreigners (except Mrs. Morita, of course) in yukata. Somewhat to my chagrin, only the foreigners actually wore yukata--all borrowed from Mrs. Miyazaki. (Including Mrs. Morita, since she wore a kimono--not a yukata.)

森田さん以外はみんな外国人です。ちょっと恥ずかしかったけど、ゆかたを着た人は外人だけでした！森田さんでも着物を着ていたので、ゆかたを着なかったのです。

Here we are in the changing room. About half of the ladies, complaining of the heat, changed out of the yukata as soon as we took the photo before this one. It was pretty hot, but I was having fun wearing the yukata, so I wore it for a little while longer.

着替え室で休んでいました。左にいる二人の女性はゆかたが暑いと言って、部屋に戻ってからすぐに着替えた。私もちょっと暑いと思ったけど、着るのは楽しかったので、しばらくしてから着替えました。

In addition to the tea ceremony and somen nagashi, there was also origami, a huge feast of a buffet--all home-made delights to boot!, and Mr. Miyazaki was giving out handmade kirigami (intricately cut paper scenes), homemade pressed flower bookmarks, and kanji scrolls! They are truly kind people.

お茶と流しそうめんの上にごちそうを食べられて、おりがみコーナーもあって、さらに宮崎さんの旦那さんは、手作り切り紙や押し花のしおりや書道の巻物を皆にくれました。本当にやさしいご夫婦です。

It was quite a hot day, but I had such a good time. Since deciding that we would leave at the end of this year, it's inspired me to go out and participate in these get-togethers when I wouldn't have before. I'm finding that the more things I go to, the more fun I have. I wish I had done all of this sooner! Well, better late than never. The Japanese sure know how to have a good time in any season or weather.

とても暑かったけど、すごい楽しい一日でした。今までこんなパーティーにあまり行かなかったのに、今年は日本にいるの最後の一年だから、思いっきり楽しめなきゃ。初めて流しそうめんをやりましたが、もっと早くやればよかったねと思いました。日本人の凄い所を一つ学びました。どんなお天気でも、どんな季節でも、生活を楽しめます。

(postdated 9/15/2008)