Ikebana -- July 9, 2009

Two guests from Finland joined today's
lesson. It was an interesting experience
for them to arrange flowers taking time
whether or not to cut off leaves to keep
stem lines good.

Cooking -- July 3, 2009

We cooked several dishes today; fresh spring rolls, negijako tororoyaki,
togan cooked with prawns and grapefruit jelly for dessert.
The first two dishes were requested by one lady who had them at
an izakaya restaurant. They are not traditional. It is interesting
to try new dishes. Every dish was good!!

Hikari School -- June 22, 2009

Though some members are already on vacation, three ladies
enjoyed June lesson. We first made mini-bamboo bonsai.
Removing the plant from the container, we reduced the soil
around the roots. Then shaped the bottom part round with
hands and covered with the moist soil and finally with
green moss. Have a look at a photo of lovely pieces we made!

Shodo -- June 15, 2009

A word ladies practiced today is 紫陽花(hydrangea).
It just fits for this season. They finished on a
beautiful paper and backed it with fresh green hard
paper. It will be a good wall decoration.

Ikebana -- June 11, 2009

Ladies enjoyed ikebana today with green
branches of doodantsutsuji and two
different types of chrysanthemum.
During the lesson, topics flowed to names
of flowers they saw in town.

Cooking -- June 8, 2009

We had a fun cooking class as always. We cooked four dishes and one dessert ---Tsukune, Goya jumbled, Eggplant with minced pork and Zarusoba. Very healthy dishes for summer!

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.