Tarako

There’s going to be a lot of information and pictures for me to share over the next few days. As sort of a preface, though, I need to explain “Tarako”.

“Tara” is Japanese for cod. “Ko” means child, or baby. Put them together and what do you have? Raw cod eggs. I’ll pause here for a minute so you can savor that image. In fact, if you want to rush out to the store and find yourself some, go ahead. I’ll wait.

“What do raw cod eggs have to do with anything?” you may be asking yourself. Well, there’s a brand of food products in Japan called Kewpie (as in the doll). One of their products is a sauce made with tarako. Yesterday, while practicing the phrase, “do you like --?” I asked some fourth graders if they liked tarako. When one student replied negatively, the boy sitting next to him was shocked. He then went on to list the apparent virtues of tarako, and he smiled hungrily at the thought of tarako spaghetti. Yuck.

Anyway, in a now famous (in Japan) commercial, the Kewpie company proudly presents the Tarako girls. These two pre-pubescent girls are dressed in red dresses and sport some unusual hats. Turns out that the hats are supposed to be actual cod eggs. During the commercial, the girls perform a cute little dance. These dances – simple choreographed moves that most people could easily copy- are immensely popular in Japan. The reason is: people love to copy them for just about any occasion.

Therein lies my point. Today, I will be dancing the raw cod egg dance, otherwise known as the Tarako dance. I won’t even try to describe what will we wear, but instead, I’ll post a picture later.

Now, if you normally don’t bother to check out any of the links I post on my blog, really must check this one out. The Tarako girls really defy description, and must be seen to be believed. This is a link to a YouTube video. It’s four minutes long, but you don’t have to watch all of it. If you allow the video to load completely, it will replay much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kooS8iTqo1w

Let me know if the link didn’t work for you.

I’ll write more later. I have to go dance now!