Shonai volunteer guide-Thanksgiving

Ian`s Mikawa Thanksgiving.

This was a great event that brought together about 40 people, both English teachers and local Japanese.  It involved the cooking and serving of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.  It was great fun and all of the Japanese (and some of the British) got their first taste of authentic American holiday cuisine. 

The dinner was held at the Mikawa Machi community center (Kominkan).  To hold the dinner you will have to reserve the kitchen and the large tatami room on the second floor.  The contact person for this event should always be the Mikawa ALT.  Reservation of the rooms should be no problem as long as you do it enough in advance.  You will need to set up the tatami room before the dinner, but there are plenty of tables for everyone.

The food is probably the most important aspect of this event (and any thanksgiving really).  I was able to order five turkeys from Toyu foods in Mikawa.  Each bird was around 7-8 pounds and there are five ovens to cook them in.  Once again make sure to order well in advance and they will be delivered to the kitchen on the day of the event.  The rest of the food can be found locally with the exception of Stuffing mix and pie makings.  You can make the pies from scratch, but it can be rather time consuming.  You can order both of these, and anything else that is lacking, from the foreign buyers club (www.fbcusa.com)  Some notes: you can get cranberries frozen at the Mikawa Jusco, the turkeys run about 1700 yen each, the entire food bill should not be much more than 15,000 yen, and you should charge between 1000-1500 yen per person. 

Some last tips on pulling it off.  In the kitchen there are five workstations.  The best way to get everything done in time is to have everyone arrive before the dinner and split them into teams cooking different dishes.  For example, have one team at a station making the mashed potatoes, another working on the stuffing, and so on.  Try to get several Japanese and a couple of English teachers in each group.  They will be able to talk about Thanksgiving and learn how to cook a new meal at the same time.  You can also have some of the participants set up the dinner arrangements ahead of time in the tatami room.  Also, make sure to get there plenty early to get the turkeys started.  This event will probably max out at about 50 people, any more and it gets difficult to make all the food you could maybe do 60, but that would be pushing it.  Finally, have a good time, Thanksgiving is about getting together with friends and family and enjoying a traditional meal.  Don't get stressed, there will be enough food, everyone will like the food, you will be a hero.  Have fun and happy Thanksgiving.