"Gingerbread" and Mikan: A Weekend of Excess

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This weekend, I visited my friend Heather in Innoshima, an island that's a 2-hour bus ride from Hiroshima City, as we both taught at an International School Day in the neighbouring town of Setoda on Saturday.

The purpose of the day was to introduce elementary and junior-high school students to "international" culture with lessons conducted in English, that could be about anything but the subject of English. Some of the day's lessons included swing dancing, country line dancing, how to make collages, making rice krispie squares, and Spanish. Heather and I taught a Christmas-themed lesson which included making "gingerbread" houses from graham crackers, and the game of pin-the-nose on Santa.

The students seemed to enjoy themselves despite the goeyness (?!) of putting the graham crackers together with Nutella spread (an innovative solution to icing, which is not to be found here in Japan, and would've been too difficult to whip up), and the frustration they often faced due to the fragility of their constructions. However, with 65 students x 6 graham crackers each, x 4 jars of nutella, x loads of candy and marshmallows, I'd say the day was a success (however, if I don't see a graham cracker for a while, it won't be such a bad thing...)!

On Sunday, Heather, Dana, and I went mikan picking. Mikan are like clementines, and are a really popular citrus fruit in Japan. The area that Heather lives in is a major producer of mikan, and we were invited to pick them by a fellow JET, Daniel, who lives in Setoda, near Heather and Dana, and whose fiancee's family owns mikan trees.

The day started out bright and early, with picking beginning at around 8:30 a.m. I thought we would simply be just pulling the mikan off the trees, but it required a bit more skill using cutters, and carefully clipping off the stems. I feared losing my job as a volunteer mikan-picker, as I accidentally broke the skin of the fruit more than a few times...whoops! However, we were pretty productive, and picked our share of baskets. We stopped around 12, ate lunch, and resigned our posts as mikan-pickers for the day. We got off easy as Daniel, his fiancee Azusa, and her parents still had half the orchard to pick. We also got to fill our own bags with as many mikan and lemons as we wanted! It was a lot of fun, and a really unique experience. However, I will never look at a mikan in the same way again, and if I don't see one for a while, it won't be such a bad thing...

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Photos

One of the unique creations...
Notice the innovative engineering technology of leaning sticks of Pocky against the house for additional structural support!

The Early Stages...
This is just the beginning...

A Success!
Who knew that a few graham crackers and some candies could support so many snowmen?!

Innovation at its Finest
I was really impressed with how creative some of the students were. This boy asked if he could make 2 houses, and later he added a fire using Pocky sticks. Perhaps an architect in the making?

Picking Mikan in Style
Dana and Heather in their stylin' mikan "boushi" (hats). To add to the atmosphere I began to hum the theme song from "Little House on the Prairie."

A Basketful of Mikan
Despite piercing a few, and bringing down the overall productivity of the orchard (yikes!) I did manage to pick a few good ones, and got to wear the cool pink hat too.

Our Harvest
Heather, Dana, and I with our baskets full. We couldn't stop giggling over the hats!

A View of the Seto Inland Sea
...and also where we ate our lunch

Comments

[anonymous]

Wow!
Stacey... i thought i saw a little Laura Ingles in you... with that very cool hat.... let me tell ya... it's a spitting image.. (hehehe)

[hatsumomo]

ummm...whats with the hats?? there's gotta be some logical explanation behind them right? =)