A good Yosh! and a cauldron of stovies to chase away the winter blues
Way back on the 18th of February (this year...), Caroline and I organised a Ceilidh on Sado. As the winter is cold and dark we thought that the Sado islanders needed a bit of warming up on a Saturday night to the tune of bag pipes and the shout of a big tuchter in a kilt.
That weekend I was playing in the Ryotsu futesal competition on both the Saturday and the Sunday which meant a very busy weekend. The futesal was good fun. I was playing with some of the lads from Ryotsu High School though we were playing against men and the old saying 'men against boys' rang true. I was the biggest punter at the tournament but that didn't stop the little Japanese dudes from getting stuck into me. The footballing level was higher than I thought that it was going to be and the Japanese guys proved to be well suited with their quick feet and never say die attitude. Our team lost all of our games apart from one which we drew 3-3. This team were probably the best team we played against though I helped matters by accidentally landing on their best players foot halfway through the game. It was good fun but I ended up getting a bit of a black eye from a strae elbow, so by the time I got to the ceilidh I looked bona fide Scottish.
Caroline and I had been planning the ceilidh for a month or so before. Our Japanese tutor, Yuki, helped us enormously by organsing the hall (which included a kitchen, dining facilities and a sound system) and translating our flyer. Yuki also managed to get in a local 'Harigoma' performance group who would perform for part of the evening. The aim was to make it a Scottish night with ceilidh dancing and some traditional Scottish food and drink. The number of people that we planned for was about 40ish but we estimated that between 20 and 30 of our friends and colleague would make it to the night. I had decided to make cock-a-leekie soup and stovies (easyish to make and serve to the masses) to eat and buy in a load of ale and whiskey to drink. On the week prior to the dance we were really busy trying to source all of the ingrediants and booze that we hoped to prepare for the evening. I scoured the Island for a decent sausage, only a worthy man can take on such a task, and eventually hit the jackpot in a little shop that specialises in German sausages. Whiskey wasn't too much of a problem but the closest we could get to ale was Guinness. I didn't mind chorin' the tattie howkers' heritage as I'm sure they've half inched ours more than once. Once we had all of the stuff, I spent most of the Friday working out proportions for the recipes and making chicken stock and beef stock for the stovies and then finished the soup. I also attempted to make tablet as a sweet for after the meal. This turned out to be too sticky however and we ended up reheating it and making millionaires shortbread with it post ceilidh. The next day (the day of the ceilidh) Caroline, Lora and Thea spent the day peeling potatoes and getting the hall ready for the big night. This was no mean feet and it took them most of the day. Once I had finished at the footy I had to bomb it back to the apartment, get washed and changed, grab the rest of the stuff and raz down to the hall to get the stovies on the go. Fortunately, we got a lot of help from the other ALTs: Thea and Lora were still going strong and Polly, Daniel, Matt and Naoko (honorary ALT) all rolled up their sleeves and pitched in. Johnny and Chibo, who are a couple who have lived on Sado for a while now also turned up, in kilts (Johnny has some Scottish blood in his veins), and mucked in with the rest of the crew. Caroline and I were thankful of the help as there was plenty to do.
The night went exceptionally well and surprisingly over 50 people showed up. Caroline gave a welcome speech which was kindly translated by Johnny and from there we demonstrated a couple of dances. The Japanese were smart when it came to the dancing and soon learned the steps which they appeared to enjoy. It was great to see a busy hall of Japanese and non Scots happiluy bopping around to a bit of diddly dee. After the first session we had a performance from the local 'Harigoma' group. This is a traditional Japanese performance that is from Sado and involves costumes, crazy looking masks, singing and some drummming. I have to admit I didn't see much as I was trying to sale the good ship stovies through some stormy water. I had a moment of panic when I came back from the dancing to find that the stovies were heading in the overdone mushy stage. I salvaged them though and it worked out well. Not an easy job, I was basically making a cauldron of the stuff. After the Japanese performance we sat everyone, tried to make sure they had a drink, then we served the soup and then the stovies. Luckily we had estimated the food for a maximum of 40 but we had just enough to go round. Both cauldron's were emptied. Also, some of the local fisherman had dropped off tonnes of oysters and shell fish which were knocked into shape by Lora, Chibo and co. and then served up. This bolstered the dwindling Scottish tucker handsomely. After the grub was served and the guests were allowed to have a bit of a yarn and an ale or so, we had the second session of the Scottish dancing. I couldn't be humped personally as I was cream crackered after the soccer and then all of the running around and cooking. Still we had a job to do. During both sessions of the dancing, Caroline and I, the ALTs and Johnny and Chibo demonstrated and explained the dancing to the Japanese. Then we all tried and then had a second go for good luck. The nature of ceilidh dancing is great and it's good for mixing up a crowd and meeting people. My favourite job during this was shouting 'Yosh!' as loudly as possibly to tell them when to start. Everyone laughed everytime.
And so the night ended and we were thanked fully by the ever grateful and polite Japanese guests. By all accounts it was a success and many asked when the next one would be (at the time I thought no chance matey). Everyone helped to tidy up which displayed the 'many hands make light work' theory. Next, I invited all of the inner sanctum to our joint for an impromptu party and some free beers (a few anyway...) to say thank you for all their kind efforts. The biggest laugh was going into the local convenience store. Johnny, Chibo and I got more than a couple double takes when we took the beer up to the counter all dressed in kilts. I think we could have stopped traffic, though I'm sure the same would happen if a clan of Japanese in kimonos made a stop late at night into the spar on Sauchiehall street.
