Soba Party

December 14, 2007

On Saturday, December 8, I was invited to make soba at school by one of the teachers at Nogyou. The teacher’s name was Shinkawa-sensei, which means New River.

I said I would come. I was actually very excited about receiving the invitation. I told Rachelle, and she became excited as well—and asked if she could come. I was a little hesitant to agree, but eventually I shrugged my shoulders and said it would probably be fine. After all, it was a casual social gathering—the more the merrier, right?

We came a little before 10:00 AM. I had thought that we would make soba right away, eat it for lunch, and have the afternoon free to go Christmas shopping. Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way.

Shinkawa-sensei had casually dropped that we would be making soba, but he hadn’t pointed out that this was goodbye party for Aket, a Malaysian exchange student who had arrived earlier that week. Rachelle and I came right in time for the opening ceremonies, which included a song, a couple speeches, and a self-introduction from everyone in the room, including me and Rachelle. (Fortunately, we were both well versed at introducing ourselves in Japanese.) Openning ceremonies ended at about 11:30. It was easy to see this was a longer event than originally thought.

We socialized with the students and some of the adult sponsors while we waited for lunch. Lunch was late. After lunch there was bingo. Rachelle and I, while we were having fun, were beginning to get impatient, because we really needed to do our shopping. We decided we would leave at 3:00. And just as the clock hit 2:45, Shinkawa-sensei announced we’d make soba now.

Soba, in case you don’t know, are buckwheat noodles. In Japan they’re common and cheap, but in America, they’re a little harder to find. Everyone was led into what looked like a lab, complete with a stainless steel steaming, sputtering pot in the corner. We put on lab coats and washed our hands.

The recipe was simple and fun: buckwheat flour, regular flour, and hot water, sifted, mixed, and kneeded together. After rolling the dough flat and flipping the dough ontop of itself, so it remembled a flat burrito, we began cutting noodles with a sharp knife. We were supposed to cut thinly, but I was worried about it coming apart, so I cut my soba thick. Afterwards we joked I had made soba udon. (Udon is a thick white Japanese noodle.)

Shinkawa-sensei stuck the noodles in the stainless steel vat of hissing water and boiled them until we were cooked. We got to taste our noodles, but unfortunately, Rachelle and I had no time to eat them. It was 4:30 and we really had to get going. We said our goodbyes and left—feeling happy for our experience.