Today, we did “Somen Nagashi” in front of the entrance of the school building. Somen Nagashi is a Japanese summer food tradition in which fine white noodles, somen, are served flowing in a small flume, usually a split bamboo, and people catch the flowing noodles by using chopsticks to eat them. Today was coincidentally the first day of the summer break for the Japanese Dept. students and the last day of the regular exams for the Architecture Dept. students, so we were able to hold this Somen Nagashi event for the first time in 10 years. The delight was the preparation of a bamboo on which somen is sent flowing. First, we went to cut down a bamboo on the previous day. Then, in the morning of the day of the event, we split the bamboo with a chopper and cut out the joint walls with a chisel and a hammer. The most difficult part was the preparation of legs that support the bamboo. Through many discussions and many trials, we made them finally! The Somen Nagashi that used the bamboo we prepared was tastier than usual.Some students experienced Somen Nagashi for the first time and they were excited, being unable to grab flowing somen with chopsticks as they wish. We cheered when cut oranges, tomatoes, or sliced cucumbers came flowing down every once in a while between somen! It was really an enjoyable day. We would like to thank the vocational training students for donating the somen for the young students. We were able to donate all the participation fee, 13,700 yen, to the Kumamoto YMCA charity fund for the reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster.
