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.

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!

Sign Language Christmas Event

Today the sign language group took a trip to a day care center in Aoyama. Our audience was a very attentive bunch of about 30 pensioners.

We began with all the members of the group singing and signing some Christmas songs along side some old favourites such as "Zou san" and "Inu no Omawari san". Mrs A performed three more complicated enka songs by herself and we read a story called "The Rainbow Zebra". A big hit was singing "Furusato" and everyone joined in with the signing and singing.

Christmas Party

Today we had the annual Zenrinkan Christmas party.  About 40 guests gathered in the large hall and were treated to an evening of good food and entertainment.

The evening kicked off with an introduction to the British custom of Christmas crackers and everyone got a chance to pull one and put on their hat and enjoy an English joke (although some explanation was needed sometimes!).

Next the guests enjoyed a snack while being serenaded by the niko group.  As always, Hiroko provided a wonderful meal, this time of an assortment of cakes.  Her famous stollen was of course delicious.  The sign language group taught everyone how to sign "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Silent Night" in sign language.  We were happy to see everyone pick it up straight away!

As the meal came to an end, the "let's sing" group treated us to some Christmas carols and the Tuesday Reading Class had everyone take part in a few games.  First we had to close our eyes and sit down when we thought 30 seconds had passed.  Then we had to try to create a one meter length by tearing paper into a long strip.  The most accurate person got a prize!!  It was amazing to see some people were able to get one meter exactly.

The English staff did a reading with mime performance of "The Night Before Christmas".  Alicia's amazing PowerPoint presentation skills and Santa performance were by far and away the hit of the evening!

Finally Alicia led everyone in a sing along of three traditional Christmas carols. On the tables were various castanettes and noise makers and a pianist joined in too to finish the evening off in musical style.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!!

Cherry Blossom Party

Sadly this year the day of the Cherry Blossom party turned out to be wet and windy, but undeterred we collected together all of the delicious food people had brought and had an indoor hanami.

We might not have got to see any flowers, but we did get some delicious treats such as sushi, fried chicken, cherry blossom tea, and more besides.

Murder Mystery Party

On Wednesday March 19th Zenrinkan hosted the third annual Murder Mystery Party night, A Taste of Poison. 20 people attended the event which lasted for two hours. The setting took place in the land of England in the 13th century. The court of King Richard Colchester was hosting a event at his castle when someone made an attempt on the life of his wife Queen Mary Colchester by poisoning the royal wine. Luckily for the King and Queen, they were spared by the royal taste tester who drank the wine first. The loyal tester died but started our mystery for the night as the guests talked and asked questions to find out who among them was the murderer.


During the night, a delicious dinner was served that included an appetizer, vegetable soup, pork ribs, and pastry and cake dessert. In the end, many guesses were made but unfortunetly no one correctly identified the real murderer. However, everyone had fun and we are all looking forward to the next Murder Mystery Party.

Christmas Party

This year's Christmas party was on a slightly smaller scale than previous years, with about 40 people in attendance. We started with a beautiful performance from the Nikko group who played a selection of pleasant Christmas tunes.

Other musical delights of the evening included the Let's Sing group's Christmas carol recital, including Walking in a Winter Wonderland and Jingle Bell Rock. The Tuesday reading group also sang Jingle Bells, with the twist of a high-energy game thrown in. Competitors had to make as many steps as the could register on a pedometer by dancing throughout the song!

The other game of the evening was pass-the-parcel, except instead of music, the competitors listened to a story and passed the parcel right when the narrator said "right" and left when they said "left".

Along side the music and games we also had two theatrical performances. The Tuesday evening reading group did a recital of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, and the sign language group treated us to a performance of The Tongue Cut Sparrow.

The evening was of course complimented with Hiroko's wonderful Christmas dinner including a whole turkey and delicious stuffing and bread sauce.

We ended off the night with a traditional New Year song, Auld Lang Syne.

Halloween Party

Today was the children's Halloween party. We had almost 200 kids come to join us in an evening of tricks, treats and scary stories.


The event began with a play put on by the English-speaking staff that told the story of how the Jack-O-Lantern got its name and was narrated by our guest story teller in Japanese. The storyteller also did her own story and told many spooky tales all through the night.


Afterwards the children were free to enjoy all the stalls and activities. The Haunted House was as popular as always and created a few screams. The new events included a science corner where they could make a tree grow icicles, play with slime, make a head foam at the mouth and experiment with air. The treasure hunt was also popular, but a bit much for some with some tricky clues.


The regular events were the pumpkin carving, craft and cooking. This year the children made their own candy-floss. Thanks to all our helpers it was a very successful night.

Summer Party

Tonight was the summer party at Zenrinkan. It was a lovely party, but it was also a little sad because it was Ryan's farewell party too.


We had a pot luck style dinner. Hiroko made some yummy quiche, cottage pie, guacamole, hot dogs and salsa and people brought many other dishes, such as corn, jelly, biscuits, rice and so on.

The evening started with an ice-breaker where everyone had to find someone who fitted the description on their paper. Then we had an evening of entertainment with many songs and recitals.

There was also a quiz all about Ryan, and we learnt lots of new information about him!

Finally, everyone joined us for a dance with Ryan. He taught us a short dance and then we all danced together. It was a lovely end to a lovely evening.

An evening of gore!

Tonight we had our second Murder Mystery Night at Zenrinkan.

The waitress

This time the setting was 1920's India. Everyone was sitting down to enjoy Elizabeth's 21st birthday party, when the body of a young Leuitenant was found on the croquet lawn.

The weapon

As the evening went on it was found that more and more people had a link to the dead man. Some would get money, some sent a secret to the grave, some had been spurned in love, but all of them had a reason for revenge.

I won't tell you what the answer was, but I will tell you that our investigators did a fine job and sentanced the true murderer.

Hanami picnic

We had our annual Zenrinkan cherry blossom viewing picnic in Iwate park today. After a cold and rainy morning, we were very lucky and the sun shined for us.

Many of our regular students joined us and we had quite a feast, including mochi, dango, sushi and....

...locusts!!!

Murder!!

Recently, there was a murder at the Zenrinkan!! No, not really, but we did have a lot of people acting like there was. We had the 1st ever Zenrinkan Murder Mystery Night!

A murder mystery party is kind of like a play, but the characters and the audience are all mixed together. At our party, the story was that Lord Stratsbury was murdered, and his family (his wife, his daughter, and his grandchildren) and some employees at his residence (the cook and the gardener) were all suspects! They all gathered together with some investigators to try and find out who the murderer was.

Everyone had reasons to kill the Lord - the wife wasn't in love with the Lord anymore, one grandchild needed money for his failing business, the other grandchild needed money for her modeling career, the cook had just been fired by the Lord, and the gardener was in love with the Lord's wife - and it was the investigators' job to find out who had committed the crime.

The gardener

The evening was led by two detectives, who gave us new information throughout the evening - such as a letter firing the cook that was discovered and also the murder weapon itself - a high-heeled shoe!

Our two detectives who led the evening

We also had a wonderful 5-course dinner prepared by our marvelous Zenrinkan staff. Between the courses, people had free time to stand up and ask the suspects questions.

The waitresses

No one knew who the murderer was until the very end - not even the murderer himself! In the end, it was an incredibly fun evening for everyone.

The businessman grandson with one of the waitresses



The local vicar and one of the investigators

The murderer!

Dearly departed Lord Stratbury

Preparing for dinner

The next Zenrinkan Murder Mystery is planned for July. We will be investigating the murder of First Lieutenant Charles Chance. The setting is India, the year 1930. Everyone is a suspect, but only one person is the murderer!

Christmas party

Today was the Christmas party at Zenrinkan.

Once all the guests had arrived we had a Christmas service. Afterwards, the guests ate Christmas food from England and America and tried mulled wine. It was the first time for many people to try traditional English Christmas cake, which is made from a fruit cake base, very different to the Japanese Christmas cake. While they ate and drank, they heard performances from the children's classes and the niko-harp class.

The tables each competed in a Christmas multiple-choice quiz. Questions included "In which country was Christmas made illegal?", "Which was the first US state to make Christmas a public holiday?" and "What is the Christmas club?".
After the quiz, we had more singing and some dancing from the Hawaiian dance group.The staff all performed in a Christmas skit and we finished with the Christmas carol singing class.

Halloween Party

Every year the Halloween party at Zenrinkan is a huge event. This year was no exception with over 150 children coming to enjoy our spooky evening.
Maybe the highlight of the night was the Haunted House. Decked out with dead bodies, decapitated heads, a full size coffin and mannequins that came to life before their very eyes. There were a lot of tears, but everyone said it was the best thing about the evening.
In other parts of the building were a treat or treat game, face painting, pumpkin carving, making black cat hats, dancing, and a relay game involving balancing eyeballs on spoons. And after a hard night of fun, it was off to the witches' kitchen for a sit down and some snake pizza.

Zenrinkan Festival

Every year Zenrikan holds a festival with an an international lunch and bazaar. This year we served food from America, Bangladesh, Colombia, China and England.

The American store sold chili and rice and rice-krispy squares. The Chinese table had meat filled dumplings and the English table sold bread and butter pudding and rice pudding.

The bazaar had many tables selling food and crafts. The hand kitting was very popular as were the home made cakes.