Cooking -- October 5, 2009

Five ladies joined us for today's cooking. We made Western-style oden,
myoga(buds of ginger)onigiri, and sesame spinach salad. It was really
a lively cooking lesson with four little girls playing around.

Hikari School -- September 17, 2009

Three ladies met for Hikari School lesson today. We first made Asian knot straps.
It was a bit complicated to make chrysanthemum shape with a string.
Sencha tea ceremony was green iced tea. The tea utensils the teacher brought
such as tea pots, cups,and a pitcher had chrysanthemum pattern.

cooking -- September 7, 2009

A new member joined us for today's cooking. The menu was pork with
fresh vegetables, ume-jako fried rice, burdock side dish, corn soup with tofu.
We made mizuyokan for dessert. Very simple to cook, but very delicious!!

Two ladies completed the beginner's course of Ikebana
Flower arrangement today. They first took a test and was
presented the certificate of completion.
The certificate was made by Ikebana School head master.

Ikebana-- July 30, 2009

Having had several Ikebana lessons, the ladies arranged flowers without
any trouble. Today's flowers of nanten(sacred bamboo), teppoyuri(Easter lily), and kikyo(balloon flower)looked cool.

Hikari School -- July 27, 2009

Two ladies enjoyed Hikari School lesson, while many are out of town.
First they teared off washi paper into flower shapes and glued them
on mini uchiwa. Have a look at the photos of the lovely uchiwa fans.
Today's tea making was iced green tea. Fresh and delicious!

Shodo -- July 17, 2009

Four ladies attended today's shodo class
and wrote kanjis of summer objects on uchiwa.
The words were hanabi(fireworks), huku(fortune)
and hotaru(a firefly). Hotaru is a good example
that kanji is ideogram.

Ikebana -- July 16, 2009

Ladies arranged flowers of autumn in a deep
vase and in a masu, a wooden square box.
In spite of a heat of summer outside, blue
of gentian and balloon flower gave a cool
impression in a room. Arranging in a small
space of a masu was rather difficult.

Art Shodo -- July 13, 2009

We made stamps and printed using them on
a lovely fan shaped sheet of paper.
As school was over, a lady came with her
daughter who enjoyed this art craft very much.
It was pity because that was the last lesson for
the other lady. We will miss her very much.

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.