Thanksgiving in Japan

This may go down as one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I managed to make Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people, on my own, in Japan. Now, I'm sure that sounds at least a little interesting but let me further explain why this was such a challenge.

First, making Thanksgiving dinner by yourself would never be an easy thing but I'm sure people do it all the time. In fact, I wasn't entirely alone here. One of my 8th grade students showed up about an hour and a half before the party time to help out and he was definitely a huge help. I had to send him on a short shopping run which worked out nicely. Plus, he could read the Japanese directions on one of the packages and that was a big help too. Still, I did most of it alone.

Secondly, this was the first time I had made Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I had helped on a few of them but never had I been completely in charge. So, that made it a little more challenging.

Third, I live in Japan. Oh yeah, that makes a HUGE difference. In the past when I've said I was going to make mashed potatoes, stuffing, or gravy I was talking about instant mashed potatoes, instant stuffing, and instant gravy. I have never made the real thing, much less do I know how to do so. But, here in Japan it's not like I can pop into the grocery store and pick up a box of Stove Top Stuffing, some Potato Buds, and a bag of gravy mix. No sir, that is impossible. So, I had to fall back on the savior of the unprepared: the Internet. Fortunately it contained recipes to save my butt. Of course...

Fourth, I live in Japan. I know I just mentioned this, but I was saying that all of the instant food I would normally make is unavailable. The thing is, the ingredients I would normally use are also sometimes unavailable. Chicken Broth? Forget it. Vegetable broth? No way. Flour? Not as easy as one might think but available (this is where the 8th grader came in handy since he managed to find it). Egg Substitute? What's that?

So, in addition to having to prepare several dishes for the first time in my life I also had to improvise on the ingredients. Instead of chicken broth from a can I used bullion cubes. Eggs instead of egg substitute. And don't get me started on the metric conversions. So much of what I did was purely flying by the seat of my pants that I'm amaze anything came out okay. To be honest, I'm not sure I had ever actually mashed a potato before Saturday.

But to be honest, I pulled it off. The mashed potatoes were good. The sweet potato casserole was great. And the stuffing? Well, I guess it was good because it got devoured before it even got to me. It was all in all a pretty amazing experience because for my 20 guests (yes, 20) it was the first time they had tasted many of these foods. No one had eaten turkey before (I had to bake it at someone else's house the night before because almost no one has an oven here!). No one had eaten real mashed potatoes. No one had eaten sweet potato casserole. No one had eaten gravy (of course the recipe I used involved soy sauce and miso soup but whatever). No one had ever eaten red beans and rice (What, mix something with rice? We must be crazy!). And almost no one had eaten cream corn before. I was a night of firsts.

Now, I couldn't have actually done this by myself. My supervisor was kind enough to take me shopping a couple of days before as well as bringing two tables for the actual dinner. Then there were the people who made me dinner while the turkey baked in their oven. And of course, Shouta, the 8th grader who showed up right after volleyball practice to help me cook food he had never seen in his life.

But then, I think that's what Thanksgiving is all about. People of different cultures pulling together in order to have a grand feast. And that's exactly what we did. 21 people from two different countries (I was representing the whole rest of the world here) sitting down together to enjoy dinner. Sure, it wasn't the traditional family dinner I'm used to and I would have loved to have been with my family that day. But to be honest, what I really would have liked would have been for my family to be here, as my guests, alongside my Japanese friends (my Japanese family if you will) to sit down and eat the food I had prepared. I suppose that would have been the best of both worlds. But as it was, I think I had the best of this world. And it was a great meal.

And man did I get stuffed.