ORANGE : Sampling a Japanese Tradition

For 18 elementary students from St. Catherine’s Military School in Anaheim, Thanksgiving came eight months early this year.

But the young cadets and their teachers passed on the sweet yams and mashed potatoes, instead indulging in o-hagi and kusa dango, two traditional Japanese rice dishes coated with special spices.

With the help of Dohyo Restaurant in Orange, the students celebrated the Japanese version of Thanksgiving called Higan. The holiday marks the first day of spring with a traditional feast.

“Similar to Thanksgiving here in the United States, Higan is a day where the Japanese give thanks for the bountiful crops received during the previous year and pray that next year’s harvest is as plentiful,” said Russell Tyson, the general manager of the restaurant that treated the students to a traditional Higan meal. “We hope to share our heritage with the students and demonstrate how similar, indeed, our cultures really are.”

With the supervision of the restaurant staff, the students were allowed to prepare and shape their own rice dishes.

“You mush it together to give it a sticky consistency,” explained Tyson. “So you can smush it into a ball.”

If that wasn’t clear enough, head waitress Miki Mizushima, offered this hint for making the specialty dish: “You’ve played with Play-Doh before? It’s like that exactly.”

Though a little hesitant at first to try the new food, the students enjoyed the Higan treat.

“It’s sticky and it’s different,” said Matthew Geiger, 8, of Yorba Linda. “But it’s good.”

The hands-on approach to feasting obviously appealed to students, some of whom said they prefer Higan to its American counterpart.

“I think it’s a little better,” said Brian Rayner, a 9-year-old from Costa Mesa. “They get to make things. In America, things get cooked and it’s just there for you.”

Instructors at St. Catherine’s Military School appreciated the opportunity to expose their students to the customs of another culture.

“What we want to do is to educate them completely,” said Sister Elvera, a teacher at St. Catherine’s. “We couldn’t do this on our own.”