food as activity

A wise friend once told me (and stated so on her roommate preference application for college) that her interests included "eating events." Well, she would love it in Japan...and you know who you are, MB. For, the Japanese have perfected the skill of making eating into an activity which entails much more than hand, mouth, chew, swallow. There are the somen noodles that are poured down a bamboo shoot, too be scooped up quickly with hashi (chopticks), there is boat sushi (sushi floats around a circular river, waiting to be picked up...pay per plate, price depends on plate's color) and there is the still-to-be incorporated, breaking open watermelon with a stick, blind-folded. We were at Shirahama hama (Shirahama beach) last weekend and a group of people lounging next to us all stood up with their watermelon. Aware that something was about to happen, we focused our attention and from what developed next, I can say I will never hesitate to bring a watermelon to the beach. I recommend this activity to all: A watermelon is placed at one end of an aisle created by speactators/hecklers/navigators. At the other end is the contestant blind-folded and carrying a wooden stick. This person is then spun around until the count of jyu (10), for more of a challenge I suppose the person can place their forehead on the stickand spin around in that fashion. When the spinning has stopped the person is left untouched, to pace forward towards the watermelon. In our case, there were directions given, much like in Mother May I (ie: take three giant steps forward). At this point it becomes clear how disoriented the person is, and many times it may be necessary for the spectators/hecklers/navigators, to change their positions so as not to be struck with the stick. After positioning and repositioning, and when the blindfoldee feels the urge, a mighty swing is executed, the landing of which is intended to split the watermelon in twane. A partially skinned, clipped or dented melon does not end the game. We watched about three different people attempt to break open the juicy fruit, and finally the fourth person hacked it open with a powerful hack after yelling "sumo" at the top of his lungs. I am convinced that that is what did the trick.

Sensing our pleasure at their game, the players let us in on the fun and a couple of folks that I was with tried their hand at it, the only one successful one to be a woman in our group. Not surprising, but worth noting nonetheless. Watermelon slices were enjoyed by all, and it was a nice way to end a day at the beach.

Why should games be exclusively for drinking?