Japan Lights: Field trip in Japan- river rifting, rice cake making and that's just the beginning!

Field trip in Japan- river rifting, rice cake making and that's just the beginning!

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Just after arrival university organised a field trip for all exchange students to Chichibu- we were rifting, making rice cakes and had a traditional Japanese barbeque. Oh, and we were strawberry picking!

Rifting in traditional boats

First part of the trip (well, first after bus ride) was rifting on Nagato River. I must admit that I was a little anxious about this part since it was raining, but the boats (they can be seen on first photo) had roofs so we didn’t have to worry about that at all. There was also a foil laying near to the walls (which were really, really short) which we used to cover ourselves on some tricky twists on the “road”.

Nagato River

Sorry for not taking photos during actual rafting- I’m not really a water-sport kind of person, I was too busy holding to my life jacket to risk getting my camera all wet. We were all sitting in tiny traditional Japanese boats and going through the river so shallow, that a few times I could feel the bottom scrapping over our boat. There were two people piloting it and they both used long wooden sticks to push the boat along the way and away from stones.

Next to the shore there were large rocks and some pretty flowers

Rice Cakes

Next thing on agenda was making mochi (rice cakes). Since then they are my favourite Japanese sweets. They were also very easy to make- a huge ball of rice was hit repeatedly with a big wooden hammer and after each hit a little of water was added- until the mass looked like a dough.

Preparing the rice cake

Then, the dough was ripped into small pieces. Each of us could take one and make our own cake. We were also given delicious strawberries covered in anko (sweet red bean paste) which we put wrapped in this small piece of dough, making a strawberry rice cake (I think the right name would be ichigo mochi?). They were so tasty!

Strawberries in anko

Rice cakes with strawberry filling

Japanese barbecue

Next part of our trip was lunch. Which didn’t sound all that great- I was expecting some grill food similar to the ones I’m used to. To my surprise it was a true Japanese barbecue. We had to took our shoes off before entering a big wooden platform, where we sat in Japanese way by really short but long wooden tables.

"Dining room" didn't have a roof- only the net and branches of grape trees

There were “grills” on the tables and plates of food- very thin pieces of pork, cabbage, sausages, pumpkin, onion rings and some sprouts and mushrooms.

We simply put the food on the grill and waited for it to fry. It didn’t took long. Each of us got a bowl of rice and soy sauce to dip the grilled food in.

Japanese barbecue

Strawberry picking

The last part of the trip was strawberry picking- we entered a greenhouse and were allowed to eat as much as we could. They were very sweet and not so juicy, tasted delicious! The really smart thing in the greenhouse was the placement of the plants- they were growing on the tables, where the fruits were really easy to reach and pick- no bending to the ground.

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