Ikebana -- May 28, 2009

Four ladies joined us for Ikebana lesson today. It was a bit different style of arranging, extending one branch sideways.They had hard time fixing branches on kenzan as they were quite heavy. Adding lily and chrysanthemum they made up beautiful arrangement.

Hikari School -- May 25, 2009

Today's lesson started with haiku Japanese poem. The teacher explained how to make haiku in English and showed some examples. The ladies soon made up wonderful haiku poems.

Then we made sencha tea with first-flush green tea leaves.

Shodo -- May 11, 2009

Three ladies joined Shodo class today.　For one lady, sevral months passed　since she had attended last time. To learn something and meet other people is quite nice.

Ikebana -- May 7, 2009

This is the second lesson of Ikebana. Flowers for arrangment are yellow jasmin, Chinese peony and Japanese carnation. Ladies now know to show the shapes of branches is important, but they hesitate to cut leaves as they are so fresh and beautiful.

Ikebana -- April 30, 2009

We had the first lesson of Ikebana today. After the brief explanation of Ikebana, four ladies worked on arranging three different kinds of flowers. First they had to cope with azalea branches which were hard to cut. Then they arranged shobu iris and chrysanthemum. Everyone smiled at the beautiful work she made.

Art Shodo -- April 27, 2009

This is another class of the same program as on April 21. One lady looked enjoyable thinking designs for children's summer wear. I'm sure they love what thier mother makes for them.

Art Shodo -- April 21, 2009

Three of us had a quite fun experience using bleeching liquid in a kichen. We stamped and wrote characters with this liquid on T-shirts or aprons. Aren't they attractive?

Hikari School -- April 20, 2009

We welcomed a visitor from Finland who arrived in Tokyo the day before. The lesson started with origami. We made two kinds of 'kabuto' helmets,the symbol of Boys' festival of May 5th. The first helmet was easy, but the second one is quite complicated.

Shodo -- April 13, 2009

Two young ladies joined us today for the first time. Lovely works will be their nice memories and souvenior of Japan.

Cooking -- April 6, 2009

It was a perfect day for hanami, as cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the weather was warm and beautiful. However, we met for cooking instead of hanami. Today's menu is popular among Japanese young people; sea bream and spring vegetables pasta, sakuraebi shrimp 'kakiage' tempura, avocado and grapefruit salad, and 'hanpen'(fish product) plus asparagus mixed with tarako(cod roe) mayonnaise sauce. They liked kakiage best.

Hikari School -- March 23, 2009

On a very windy day six ladies met and enjoyed Hikari School. The theme of the lesson is 'sakura' cherry blossoms viewing.

We cut the origami paper into sakura shape and pasted on the washi paper.

Today's tea was sakura-cha, green tea with salted cherry blossoms.

Art Shodo -- March 19, 2009

Today's lesson is to make a coaster and a tablemat. Each step of carving lovely objects, seclecting papers, arranging and laminating is quite fun.

Shodo -- March 9, 2009

We had a visitor who enjoyed shodo for the first time. Practice for some ladies was hinamatsuri 雛祭　which has many strokes.

Cooking -- March 2, 2009

As the next day was Hinamatsuri day, we made temari-zushi. Chirashi-zushi is the traditional dish for Hinamatsuri, but we did it last year. Another dish is harumaki, a bit different from ordinary harumaki. The filling is fake crab and sliced lettuce. We enjoyed making and eating both dishes.

Hikari School -- February 16, 2009

It was a beautiful day, warm like spring. Three ladies joined the class, but two ladies had to cancel the lesson because of the children's illness.

The theme of the lesson was Hinamatsuri (Hina dolls festival).

We made cards with origami hina dolls. Then we practiced making tea.

Shodo -- February 9, 2009

Today we had a new participant. She came to Tokyo half a year ago after her graduation from high school. She will stay 6 months more and go back to her country for studying in a university. She can speak good Japanese.

Cooking -- January 29, 2009

It was really a lively cooking class with six ladies and three children. The menu was gyoza dumplings, steamed vegetables with tofu-based dressing, fried rice, tomato and egg soup. The dessert was dorayaki. They especially enjoyed making gyoza dumplings. We made forty dumplings.

Hikari School -- January 26, 2009

Four ladies attended the first class of Hikari School 2009. The teacher talked about the traditional New Year's games like sugoroku(backgammon), karuta, hanafuda, flying-kite, battledore and shuttlecock. We had fun playing "bekuhai" game with special sake cups using tea instead of sake wine.

Shodo -- January 5, 2009

It was the first shodo lesson in 2009. Five enthusiastic ladies attended. It seemed a little tight for doing shodo as they practiced with bigger sized paper today, but they shared copies to make more room.

Hikari School -- December 19, 2008

Two newcomers from Finland joined us today. We started with origami. We made origami cranes, rabbits, and balloons. The sencha tea ceremony was the roasted tea. One lady wearing yukata summer kimono served tea to everyone. The next lesson will be next year on January 26th, Monday.

Shodo -- December 8, 2008

Today we had the last shodo class in 2008. Four ladies attended and made lovely pieces of work for the new year. After concentrating on shodo, hot coffee and chatting are quite relaxing.

Cooking -- December 1, 2008

New Year's Holiday is special to Japanese as Christmas is to Westerners. Many people start preparing New Year's dishes from several days before the New Year's day. Today we cooked some tipical dishes for the New Year's. Mochi(rice cake) was the new food for the participants.

Hikari School -- November 21, 2008

Though one lady could not make it because of the flu, three ladies enjoyed the workshop of making coasters and the matcha tea ceremony. Everyone used a portable tea set and made matcha tea for the first time.

Shodo -- November 7, 2008

Three members attended shodo class in a late autumn day. They practiced 紅葉in the graphic style and 大器晩成 in the square style. As one member visited several museums of Japanese arts, topics flew meaning of 大器晩成or otherwords and drawings of Ogata Korin etc.