Breakfast with Amber

July 2020: Have You Ever Rage Quit Over an Origami Bird?

So you've heard a lot about the stuff I did in my free time, but what about the stuff I did with the class? First, disclaimer: I do not remember the faces of my classmates. The only reason I remember their names is because of this massive thread I found in my Gmail with a bunch of documents in it, one of which has everyone's names. The only one I remember something about was Elsa because her family had a restaurant that was in danger of closing because of COVID. That's the only thing I remember about her.

I feel like I have to restate that this was an intensive Japanese course. It was supposed to be a year of Japanese condensed into six weeks, and I was going to get a year's worth of credit to show for it. There were 12 units in our textbook, and we were plowing through two a week. We were having tests twice a week. Our first test was on day 4. The test was in the first hour, we'd have a ten-minute break, and then we'd move right on to the next unit in the second hour. Maybe that's why I found this course so much easier than Japanese 2. Everything was going by so fast that I had the gift of everything staying fresh in my memory instead of Japanese 2, which I took regularly, and I was being tested on stuff we learned weeks ago.

More specifically, I want to look at the culture events that were held each week. They were held by Takasu-sensei, and everyone was required to come. On the syllabus they're only referred to as Culture Events 1-7, so I'll have to use my memory to fill in what each one was specifically. The one I do remember specifically is Culture Event 3, which was on July 8, the "break" day between "semesters." That was the day that we were going to make sushi "together." They sent us sushi rice and nori sheets in preparation as well as a selection of other items we'd need for culture days, such as paper for origami and calligraphy. (I'd pretty much never touch the calligraphy paper. More on the origami later.) We would have to supply our own fillings. We Tetts chose green onion and sour cream as well as chopped-up bacon for half of the rolls and shrimp for the other half.

As I was putting together the sushi, I continued wondering how they make this nori and rice into those little discs that you always see. As it turns out, the rolls aren't the little discs. The rolls are when you roll up the nori, the rice, and the filling into a Japanese burrito. Takasu-sensei said that it's more polite to cut it up into discs and eat them with chopsticks, but if you're at home and no one's watching, you can just pick the whole thing up and eat it like a burrito. For this event, keeping with the Japanese spirit, we cut the sushi into discs which I ate with my fingers because I didn't know how to use chopsticks. Mom also prepared tiny little bowls of soy sauce for me and Dad to dip our sushi feast into.

The sushi tasted amazing, especially with the added soy sauce, and we made sure to write down the recipe so that Mom could make it in case she was in the mood for making us a treat. It's quite filling, and we started making it with salmon, which ain't cheap, so we only make it once in a blue moon, and yes, we ate it like a burrito.

Our fourth event would be an origami lesson. Like I mentioned before, they sent us origami paper before the program. Takasu-sensei would be teaching us the basics, including the classic origami crane. Remember, if you fold 1,000 of these, you get one wish, and right now, I was wishing this paper would do what I want it to.

Step 1: Fold it diagonally and unfold it.

Step 2: Fold it diagonally the other way and unfold it.

Step 3: Flip it over.

Step 4: Fold it horizontally and unfold it.

Step 5: Fold it vertically and unfold it.

Step 6: Bring the top point to the bottom while also folding the left and right corners to the center. You should now have a square base.

Step 7: Fold the lower edges to the center crease.

Step 8: Realize the folds you made aren't even and aren't as straight as Takasu-sensei's