Block meeting and soba making

Last Friday we had our block meeting in Toyooka. To say the kids at our block leaders school were excited to see so many foreigners - a) in one place, b) in their school - would be an understatement. We did some introduction activities, the kids got to know us a little, and we did some little presentations to the rest of the class. Nice and easy.

We then headed south for a quick dip in the onsen at Shimojo, then off to a soba-making place to try our hand at the Japanese method of, well, making soba. We started with a doughball each of preprepared soba dough...


A fine day for soba making


The dough is pounded gently and then rolled into a big square


A wooden guide and knife is used to thinly cut the dough


The finished product


No, this wasn't mine. If only...