IIES Mushroom Party

Saturday the annual mushroom party was held at Tone Betsu Forest. Last year the weather was beautiful and it was held outdoors.  Saturday, the weather was rainy, so the party was held indoors at the visitors center.

 

The international exchange society’s president said a few words of welcome and one of the members acted as translator to tell us what he said in English.  The mushroom professor collected mushrooms from the forest and  IIES members prepared grilled meats and vegetables, mushroom miso soup, and tempura mushrooms.

 

 

 

Party guests brought potluck dishes to share and there was a lot of food!  We made a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers from our garden.

 

It was great fun to visit with friends and meet new people.

 

I really enjoyed visiting with a woman I met who lives in Sapporo. We discovered Spanish was our lingua franca and spent quite a long time talking with each other.  She studies Spanish after spending a year in Spain. Although I have met a few foreigners who speak Spanish, she is the first Japanese person I’ve met who speaks Spanish. It was so nice to be able to talk with someone here!

 

Before the party ended, Ted took this group picture.  What a nice party!