Dec 26 2004
The thermo-nuclear Christmas Chili
Hello All. Just an update on how our first Christmas dinner went here in Japan. Let me start out by saying that Kana says it was the “Best Christmas Ever!” as her family never gets together on Christmas let alone exchanging gifts. So there ya go.
We had a little 10cm tall Christmas tree which we stacked all the gifts around. We also rented “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Japanese subtitles of course.
Now to what this article is all about…the dinner. I guess I should have tested the chili powder out ’cause it is a bit hotter (the variety we got anyways) over here than at home. I put in about half as much as I usually do and man if that chili wasn’t the hottest chili I ever made. YIKES!
Kana’s Sister Chie, has a boyfriend named Shingo and he is not a big fan of hot stuff anyways. He is over there on the other side of the table trying to be polite and choking back some throat scarring chili. I told Kana to tell him to just leave it and I would not be offended. But I have to give him credit, he ate it all. Of course he had to drink a few beers to wash it down…but good job anyways.
Let that be a lesson to you kiddies…when cooking in foreign lands. Make sure to test out the spices FIRST before making your chili THERMO NUCLEAR!

Dec 31 2004
Making of the Mochi in Kishiwada
Kana’s Dad (Hirotoshi) has a really good friend named Yaichi (Yai-chan for short). He invited us over to his house on Dec.30th 2004 to help make mochi.
The video above is the fruition of the mochi making extravaganza!
Mochi is a type of rice, made in a traditional way during the New Year’s Holidays.
The rice is cooked, dropped into a large stone or wooden bowl and then smashed repeatedly with a big wooden hammer which results in a very chewy, gummy rice. Some batches have small shrimp added which results in a red very salty mochi, while others have brown sugar and ginger to it. Some mochi are wrapped around red bean paste (almost like chocolate) making for a very sweet mochi! Read more…
By Craig "hachiroku" Mercer • Adventures in Kansai (Videos) • • Tags: Mochi, Osaka (大阪), Video