srah blah blah

Last night...

Last night we (several members of ISU and the Wenzels) went to the Japan America Society of Western Michigan's New Year's rentai (networking) and film. What a great experience.

First we filled up on Japanese food like rice, noodles, fried vegetables, shrimp and vegetables, and sushi. There was a lot of food and it was all excellent. We all at least tried to eat with chopsticks.

Then we went into the auditorium and saw a Japanese juggling group. Normally, if I hear the word juggling I start to squirm and look longingly towards the exit. Not such a big fan of Western-style juggling, me. But this was completely new and different. First they juggled using umbrellas. They would spin the umbrella and make a ball or a ring or a porcelain cup spin around on top. It made a cool noise.

Before the juggling, they had played some traditional music and done the Lion Dance for good luck. The big lion head came around and sort of kissed audience members.

Then after the juggling, they did several incredible balancing acts. I was afraid to clap loudly because I thought everything was going to fall. They would assemble pyramids of stuff on top of a stick in their mouths, all the while keeping it balanced. Then they'd disassemble it. It was amazing. They balanced water, or put water into a bowl on top of a stick, then balanced the stick on a string. Then they spun the string around the stick and made the water come out like a sprinkler. Anyway, I don't know if you can imagine this, but it was great.

Then we had the film. For those of you who liked Amélie, you would probably like Tampopo. It has the same sense of nonsense and whimsy. The main story is about a noodle cook named Tampopo (Dandelion) who, with the help of her friends, builds up her restaurant into the best in town. A lot of it is sort of like Rocky being trained by John Wayne and aided by Mr Miyagi. Ha ha! But the theme of the movie is the joy of food and there are all kinds of side-stories relating to that subject. There's the Japanese woman trying to teach her students how to eat spaghetti properly in the Western way, while a Western man across the room is slurping away at his noodles. There's the woman who sneaks into the supermarket to squeeze all of the produce. There's the pipsqueak underling who embarrasses all of his bosses by being the only one in the room who really understands the menu in the French restaurant. There's the epicurean vagabonds in the park, the kid who's not supposed to have sweets, and the couple whose sexual exploits always seem to be food-related. We had just stuffed ourselves and we still left the movie hungry and searching for a Japanese noodle restaurant in Battle Creek. It's an excellent, fun movie and you should all check it out.

Something I learned: Ramen is the Japanese word for noodles - so if you say "ramen noodles" you're being redundant.

srah - Sunday, 27 January 2002 - 12:22 PM
Tags: food, japan, movies, ramen, tampopo

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