Japanese Cultural Experience:
Introduction of Japanese New Year's Day and making Zoni

Introduction of Japanese New Year's Day and making Zoni was held at the Prefectural Citizens Exchange Center (5F), Cooking Room, on 3rd Dec. 2006.

Date/Time

3rd Dec. 2006 (Sun) 14:00-16:30

Place

Kagoshima Prefectural Citizens Exchange Center
5th floor, Cooking Room

Schedule

14:05 to 14:30 Explanation of Japanese New Year
14:30 to 16:00 Cooking
16:00 to 16:15 Tasting session
16:15 to 16:40 Filling out questionnaires

Participants

Male 6 / Female 12 / Total 18

Review

Everyone attempted to make the traditional New Year's dish called "Zoni" after having listened to the informative explanation of the Japanese New Year (Shougatsu), and special New Year's decoration called "Kadomatsu". They cooked big taros, bean sprouts, and prawn stock - all of which are very typical ingredients found in Kagoshima cuisine. There were also several children that joined in and helped to cook Zoni.
This was the first time for most of the participants to cook a traditional Japanese dish.
We hope that they will try to cook it again in their own homes with the same recipe.
We plan to hold many such cultural-exchange events in order to promote mutual understanding.
Hope to see you at the next event!.

Listening to the introduction	Washing the mud off the taro
Boiling vegetables	Big taros are boiled up.
A beautifully arranged dish	Zoni made to perfection!