A Day of Culture

This week A-sensei' mother is in Japan, so they spent a day at Zenrinkan trying out some Japanese culture.

First they tried their hand at Japanese calligraphy and after learning the basic strokes had a go at writing their name in Japanese characters.  After an hours practice Mrs F wrote a beautiful piece on some patterned, fan shaped paper which was put into a frame. 

Then we were off downstairs to be fitted up in kimonos ready for tea ceremony.  Of the 15 guests, about half were dressed in kimono.  We ate a lunch box of rice, fish and vegetables before taking tea made by three different people, two from the Edo house style of tea making and one from the Omote house.  All the guests tried the "hoshi no mukashi" macha tea and enjoyed three different types of Japanese sweets, including a cherry blossom flavoured steamed bun with bean paste inside.

Mini exhibit

This semester seven students have been regularly coming to my corn dolly class.  It has been so fun teaching them about this traditional English craft.  I have been so impressed with how much they have all improved.  Over ten weeks the students learnt all the basic techniques and this week we made the final project.  All the students tried to make something different and used the skills they had learnt to try to make it all by themselves.  The result was some amazing, detailed and beautiful projects.

The final projects on display in Zenrinkan

We shall be continuing the class once a month from April, so please come and have a try!

Hairmake Graduation

Today we went to the Hairmake College graduation ceremony and party.  It was amazing to see all our students dressed up in beautiful kimonos.  We also had a chance to wear a kimono.  It was our first time to wear one, so it was very exciting.  I never knew it was so complicated to put on!  We also went to Defi hair salon to have our hair put up.  It was a very exciting day.

What do you think?  Do we look beautiful?

In the morning we went to the ceremony (but we were almost late because we forgot where it was!  hahaha).  Then in the afternoon there was a party at a hotel.  There was lots of good food and drink, but our obi were very tight, so it was hard to eat or drink much :(  There were also many exciting stage shows by the students and teachers.  Of course everyone was crying.

We are looking forward to meet all the new students next year!