Zenzai

One of my favorite winter treats is zenzai.

It is a really simple sweet soup dessert. It pretty much consists mostly of a liquidy red bean soup. I know I know...red bean yeah yeah gross. Normally I am not the biggest fan either, they are actually just a bit too sweet for me. But for some reason this soup is less sweet than the bread. So as I was saying, it pretty much only consists of this liquid red bean stuff and some mochi. Really simple right? Of course you have to warm up and cook the mochi first before you add it to the soup, but over all, not a big deal.
And the BEST part about it? It is really REALLY easy to make. You can simply buy dried mochi and a can of the red bean stuff. You have to give the mochi its texture back, so you cook it a little in some water giving it its moisture and possibly then microwave or pan fry it for quickness if you prefer. And then you heat up the red bean canned deliciousness, add the mochi and BAM. done. fantasticness....I want some...

There are actually two different forms of zenzai that I have encountered and one is more watery and one is a thicker soup where the beans are more frequent and crushed and the watery one, the beans are left more whole. Both are really delicious.

You can actually eat this in the summer as well. I am pretty sure China first trademarked that (as well as the whole zenzai food tradition). You simply put the red bean paste over ice and add some sweetened condensed milk for some nice summer flavor, and any other suitable flavoring. They eat this pretty much all over Asia from what I can tell. China, Korea, Japan, and I honestly would swear I had something all too similar to the summer variation when I was traveling SE Asia as well.

Spring Cleaning

Does not actually happen in the springtime for Japanese people.

It is something that everybody actually does before the new year, right around Christmastime, or soon afrer. The big osoji (cleaning). Everything must be cleaned. It is pretty much a ritual habit or culture aspect of Japan. Houses, work places, gardens. Everything. And not just your weekly cleaning. I am talking about spring cleaning clean, but almost over and beyond. At least over and beyond any spring cleaning I have ever done. Take everything out and individually clean it and clean the room. Ceilings too. Before you put anything back inside.
I even cleaned under my built-in bathtub with fungal cleaner.
They do this to welcome the new year with a nice and fresh house. The more and more I study about Japan and its culture it is so interesting how repetitive they are with all of their customs and reasons, it seems they are oddly superstitious. They always try to start everything, houses, relations, semesters  workplaces, anew as a way to purify it and to bring in good luck, longevity, and prosperity. To push out the demons of yesteryear and invite in the good spirits and freshness for the new year.
After everything has been cleaned, the decorations are put up, which often consist of mochi and oranges, as well as whatever the year's zodiac happens to be. Likely you will find those large bamboo pine decorations called kadomatsu in front of especially prestigious shops, hotels and other locations soon after as well. In homes, a bit more modest decorations are in place, in addition to their mochi and oranges, they also will typically have  twists of straw rope they are a bit famous for, as well as their paper decorations. All of these things will again reinforce the themes of purity and prosperity in their homes and workplaces.

蕨餅: Wannabe Mochi

I have no idea what it is exactly, but it is not mochi and yet I know that is in the naming of this Japanese summer dish. 蕨餅 is technically called warabi mochi and yet, every time I hear it I could swear they call it Wanna-be Mochi (or that is could easily be interpreted that way). 

This is not mochi as you might think of it. Mochi is rice that is pounded again and again so thoroughly that is is effectively mush re-solidified again. Ok that was a very un-eloquent way to put it...Mochi is rice that is indeed pounded very thoroughly, though they might also have machines that are able to perfect this technique in lieu of human hammering, and as pounded the rice becomes very sticky and naturally will mush and stick together forming a spherical like mound of dough-looking substance. It is then pulled apart and made into these sticky bite-sized dough-like balls and served to be dipped in a number of fixings, such as sesame powered, soy sauce, ginger soy sauce, sometimes innard fixings of red bean or sesame, and many others, but really I can just stop with the sesame powder, it is by far the most popular that I have seen and for this post, the only one that matters.
But again as stated, wanna-be mochi is not mochi. It is more so as my name states it. It is not made of rice but a transparent gelatinous substance. It is often clear, green or pink. The clear should be normal flavored and the green is green tea, and the pink might be sakura, but if you ask me those have no natural flavorings. I suspect that wanna-be mochi is made of some sort of agar or gelatin, but then again I cannot read the Japanese in the ingredients and cannot accurately tell you this is the way it is. They are the same shape, the bite-sized little balls, as mochi and are just as stick as it. They have a sticky jello-like feeling to them but more solid than jello, as you stick a toothpick like object in them to pull them apart to eat them. If you do the same to jello and try to eat it with toothpick prodding, then you have far more patience than I for all the jello you will be able to obtain in a single bite...If you eat them plain, there is again the jello texture and hints of flavoring but really there is not much to it. For their flavoring you are supposed to roll them around in sesame powder, much like you would with plain mochi, and then stick them with the little pick and pop them into your mouth.
This mochi can be served cool or room temperature and is a special summer delight for Japanese people. The texture and ingredients of the mochi give it a naturally cooler sensation and therefore it is seen as refreshing in the face of the splendid summer heat.

Girls and Dolls

Sister to the amazing musical number of Guys and Dolls, Girls and Dolls has a more simple title in Japanese: Hinamatsuri.

The third of march has two meanings for most Japanese people: Girls' Day and Doll Festival.
Both of these celebrations are held simultaneously.

Dolls are thought to be a sort of container for bad spirits. And as such would be collected on this day and sent down the river into the sea in a ceremony called 'doll floating', or hina-nagashi. This tradition comes from the creation of straw hina dolls upon which Japanese people would transfer their illness, bad luck, or curses and would send down a river out to sea. Essentially sending all their troubles away. As the onset of spring and a season for new beginnings, it has developed into customary practice partaken by many. This custom may seem a little reminiscent of a few Vondun rituals no? Actually there is a separate custom entirely where if one wishes ill-will upon an individual, the creation of a hina doll bearing the name of the individual is undergone and then nailed to a tree.
On the other hand, these same hina dolls are often presented to young girls and used as ornamentation during this festival. It is a way of bringing good luck and future happiness to their daughters. Highly decorative and fashioned in a traditional ancient style of clothing, these dolls typically extremely expensive and are often passed down from generation to generation. These dolls will often set a buyer back one million or more yen; therefore it is not uncommon to only purchase the emperor and empress to start the collection and slowly, with one doll a year, expand the collection until completion. The emperor and empress tend to be the most expensive of the set donning the most elaborate dress made of the finest materials.
A full set of these dolls would consist of at least 15 dolls arranged on a 5 or 7 tiered (remember, lucky numners), red-carpeted platform which is usually placed in the best room of the house when they are on display. Interestingly the placement of the dolls differs slightly from the Kansai to Kanto regions ( as many things tend to), however the tiered arrangement is still that same.

• Top tier: Emperor and Empress Odairi-sama and Ohime-sama respectively ((御内裏様, 御雛様)
• Second tier: 3 court ladies, san-nin kanjo (三人官女)
• Third Tier: 5 musicians, gonin bayashi (五人囃子)
• Fourth Tier: 2 ministers: Minister of the Right, udaijin (右大臣) and Minister of the Left, sadaijin (左大臣)
• Fifth Tier: 3 servants
• Sixth and Seventh Tiers: miniature furnishings

In addition to the ornamentation, young girls will often throw a type of tea party, inviting people over and presenting the dolls, and of course themselves with sweets and tea and other assortments. 

It is a cute superstition, and a good way to make your offspring clean up, that if the dolls are not put away quickly after Hinamatsuri, then she is not to be wed for a long time.

Traditional meals on this day would often include shirosake (a sweet white sake), as well as hina-arare ( a type of popped rice snack that is often offered to the dolls), konpeitou ( a sweet snack), hishi-mochi ( pink, white, and green mochi which is also a frequent offering to the dolls), chirashi-sushi ( a type ofsushi), and perhaps most importantly, a clam soup called, hamaguri ushio-jiru. Clams are really important on this day and are given to girls, as clams symbolize chastity. The coloring of the mochi, where quite common, also has its own meanings: pink for the peach flowers ( which are not yet in bloom), white for the snow, and green for new growth.

Here is a really well done video showing some of he customs mentioned here as well as the traditional song that is sung on this day.

Little miniatures singing the Hina Matsuri song at the Shimogamo Shrine:



The Hina Matsuri River float of ohime and odairi sama at the Shimogamo Shrine:

Mochi

Mochi is rice.

Mochi pounding is a special thing and normally a festival type of event during the month of January. Mochi is considered to be representative of healthy and prosperity for the new year...as many things seem to be.
How you make rice into mochi is by pounding cooked rice vigorously until  a sort of dough is made. Occasionally sugar is added to sweeten the mochi and water is used to help make it doughy and less sticky. You can't pound it so well when it sticks to the hammer. Once it is very doughy you take it and put it on a flour bed and pull pieces off to roll into balls.

These balls are then dipped and garnished with various assortments of toppings. You can either make it so that it is sweet or a bit salty. The toppings here are soy and radish for the saltier flavorings, and a type of sweet rice powder, sweet potato and ??? sauce for the sweet flavors. (i never caught the name - ok I just couldn't recognize and remember it - of the mysterious sauce).

Here is a video that illustrates the mochi making process!

Burn Baby Burn!

This weekend will be very bright and warm for those who are attending any shrines.

Dondo yaki (どんど焼き) is held around the 15th of January ( which might I add used to be the day that the Coming of Age ceremony was held on until the year 2000)and is typically on a Sunday . On this day people bring their New Years decorations such as their  shimekazari to shrines to have them burned. At this time they will also burn any of the bad fortunes that are tied around the temple. Symbolically this is seen as breaking with the past and progressing with the new year. It is also seen to bring luck in the new year, as well as to send off toshigami. Toshigami are thought to be deities related to bringing in the new year or also spirits of ancestors passed. Some people have alters in their home where the toshigami reside until the New Year. For the remainder of the year they will adorn the alter with fresh fruits and such as presents for the toshigami.

Often when the burning is in process mochi is given out like marshmellows for roasting. This idea behind this is to sweeten your mouth so that you only say sweet and nice things in the new year.