Two Firsts: Origami and Nabe

Origami:  With the help of some of my Elementary School students and a detailed diagram, I (nearly all by myself) made my first origami (aside from a few cranes I had girls help me make from event flyers in the bar) the other day in English Club.  It's supposed to be a mokuba, or wooden toy horse, or a rocking horse, but it has other meanings as well.

     木馬  =  もくば  = mokuba

1: wooden horse; rocking horse; 2: vaulting horse; horse used in gymnastics; 3: the horse (ancient torture device that one was forced to straddle with rocks hanging from the feet)

It's tail and ears didn't turn out quite as nice as the one in the diagram.

Nabe:  Nabe ( 鍋 ) is the word for 'saucepan,' or 'pot,' but there is a certain style of stew, or Japanese steamboat dish, that is also referred to simply as 'nabe.'  Recently, I made nabe in my apartment for the first time.  (When I say "I" I mean a few Japanese friends I had over for dinner.)

This picture was taken the morning after the dinner party.  It's common to simply reheat the vegetables in the morning for breakfast.  This dish is especially popular in winter.  Eating from a shared pot in this way is an important part of Japanese culture, believed to make for closer relationships.

Nabe o kakomu (鍋を囲む, "sitting around the pot")