4.1.22
Behold, the newest employee at the local croquette restaurant! Well, it’s more of a help-your-local-granny’s-kitchen, though she’s known far and wide for having one of the best croquettes (a popular Japanese street food that’s essentially fried mashed potatoes) in the prefecture. I’ve come to know her as Ma-chan (full name Masae, but everyone calls her Ma-chan), and she’s become my Yakage grandma…I’ve been sent home with many a late night onigiris, oranges, handmade side dishes, and of course, croquettes because she’s worried I don’t eat enough. So, in exchange for all her care, I offered to be a helping hand…thus, I can now add “croquette seller” to my resume.
And my oh my, did she put me to work this Sunday at Yakage’s annual Nagare-Bina Matsuri!
The Nagare-Bina Matsuri is Yakage’s official spring festival (if you haven’t noticed, Japan really reallllly likes spring) by highlighting Yakage’s Ikebana (traditional flower arrangement) clubs’ works outside of the shoutengai, Yakage Main Road, storefronts. Other festivities include countless foodstands run by the locals, elementary and middle school dance performances, a kagura performance (traditional Shinto dance that literally means god 神 entertainment 楽...for in depth info this is a good site) and another ceremonial dance, called hina-odori, made up of uniformed, lined performers moving slowly from one end of the shoutengai to the other. To conclude the dance, people gather to flow their well wishes via paper dolls along the Oda River, commemorating hopes for a promising future.
Unfortunately I only know of the above due to interweb browsing, as my participation in the festival was limited to repeatedly announcing “Fresh, hot croquettes! Lotus root and tempeh! Best in Okayama!” then selling such fresh, hot croquettes to MANY curious strollers. The feeling of getting the fresh street food in my hand, then immediately crunching into the treasure at hand–grand satisfaction. The feeling of handing over the fresh street food while saying “Apologies for the wait! Please be careful as it is very fresh and so, very hot. Enjoy and come again!” then witnessing this satisfaction–widening eyes, a prolonged “ooOOoishi!,” and an occasional “atsui!! Hot hot!” while fanning around the mouth–may have been even an even grander satisfaction. Grander because I didn’t just keep the simple joy for myself, but rather, I got to spread and see the shared joy, tout de suite, with such a rainbow of people. Despite the very slim chance of coming across any of these customers, I was able to form a small, but true, relationship with each of them through our mutual understanding around food-induced bliss.
With a homemade meal put together by Ma-chan’s friend, I ended the day savoring their chuckles and whispers of town gossip around a restaurant table.
Though I started and ended the festival only as a croquette-r…admittedly with tired legs at the end (how does Ma-chan who is 80 yo do it? I will never know), I was still a content and happy bean. Yet another special way to greet April and bid farewell to March.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Ma-chan!
shoutengai sporting ikebana arrangements
kagura dance!
bina-odori lead!
very rhythmic and articulate hand gestures, but also graceful,
Ma-chan's friend who helped prepare the bentos with me! This is the restaurant.
Our little croquette stand~
our croquette goods while there were slightly less customers
did treat myself to a walnut miso roasted mochi stick, and WOW.
cat on a leash!
