Obon 2025

This year's Obon was much like last year's in that Ran helped with set-up and clean-up, and Deb was in charge of the Curry Chicken cooking crew. Last year she wasn't sure how many pots to make, but this year she calculated she would need at least 10 pots of curry to satisfy two days' worth of hungry Obon visitors. Work started on cutting the vegetables the Thursday before Obon. It was followed on Friday by actually making the pots of curry, first by boiling pots of the previously cut vegetables on camping stoves outside YBA Hall and then cooking everything in the kitchen after adding the chicken and curry. As soon as the pots were done, they were cooled in ice to a pre-determined temperature and then refrigerated over night to be reheated Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday morning Ran helped wash 200 lbs. of rice in the Sangha Hall Kitchen. He, Ken N., and Craig divided the bags into 20 cup portions, washed them, bagged them, and refrigerated them until they needed to be cooked later in the day. Sharon, remembering that last year the breakers in the Sangha Hall Kitchen would trip if too many appliances were plugged in, created signs to cover outlets so no one would overload the circuits and accidentally stop the rice cookers from cooking. As a result, rice was available with no interruptions. By the end of Sunday, Deb figured they probably didn't need that much rice as nearly 50 pounds of uncooked rice was still left over. As one can imagine there was a lot of rice that went home with many of the volunteers that evening.

Also at the end of Sunday when everyone else was outside dancing (odori), the Curry Chicken crew, exhausted but satisfied, was resting in the Pancake Room. They learned from last year during the "test run", and they integrated that knowledge into this year's attempt. They definitely streamlined the process and got the amounts closer this year. However, they believe, with what they learned this year, they have found the absolute correct quantities to order and prepare for next year's Obon. We'll see.