ikebana

it's been an interesting week so far.

last sunday was the ikebana (flower arrangement) trip in moriyama! we got up around 8 and biked to the train station, where we met up with our guide and bought our tickets. the ride wasn't long, probably somewhere around a half hour or so. from the train station, we took a large charter bus to a very nice hotel with a beautiful garden and waterfall in the courtyard. once we arrived, everything happened so quickly. a group of japanese women herded all the girls into a large room where several kimonos were folded up on a table along the wall. we were told to each grab one and the women would help us get dressed.

this is the kimono i chose! people told me the yellow flowers matched my hair perfectly. the process of putting on a kimono is extensive and intricate, as are many things in the japanese culture ("japanese culture" is "nihon no bunka"). the kimono is always wrapped around the body from left to right (the only exception being when dressing the dead for burial) and tied with a wide sash called an obi. the original meaning of kimono was "thing to wear." "kiru" means "to wear" and "mono" means "thing." the guys got to wear kimonos, too, but theirs were a lot less flowery and colorful than ours.

this was my obi! too gorgeous. the kimonos were very comfortable and offered a lot of support, thought it was a little hard to breathe at first.

my roommate pam! she's from georgia and she's in the 3rd level class. she studies soo much, i really don't know how she does it. i was glad she decided to come out with us that day, though.

this semester's collection of spartans at JCMU. :) emily, me, kevin, jake, and juan.

most of the girls in their kimonos. :) the women even did our hair for us! i had a cute upsweap in the back. they stuck sprigs of baby's breath in our hair, too. usually people wear kimonos with specific shoes, called zori, which are basically just wooden sandles, and are worn with split-toed socks. we just wore slippers provided by the hotel, though. when wearing a kimono, it's important not to lift your feet when you walk (for women, anyway); you slide your feet along the ground/floor instead.

before we started the ikebana, we were served tea. this is a lot like what the final product of the tea ceremony on friday looked like. the small flower-esque blob is actually one of the many sweets usually served with the tea. it's so delicious, i'm going to miss eating them when i go back to the states. the small wooden stick inside the paper sleeve is the fork used for cutting and eating the dessert. the green tea was awesome, too; i'm really starting to enjoy drinking it.

the ikebana! there are 4 different kinds of flowers used; we were given tulips, willow branches, and two other flowers i can't place the names of (sorry, mom!). each flower is to be cut in specific places and placed in specific ways and arrangements. we each had a tutor who basically did the arrangements for us since we were so in the dark, but it was neat to try. the flowers were so fresh, too; we even got to keep our projects!

my unflattering attempt. it's sitting in my apartment right now. :) that card on the lower righthand side is my name in katakana! "sara rindosei." i usually pronounce it "sara rinjii," but it works both ways.

once we had finished our ikebana, we got to watch someone who actually knew what they were doing. the ikebana ceremony is performed for a number of reasons, such as to welcome a guest into the house. this girl was a student of one of the many ikebana schools in japan; the woman sitting behind her in the purple kimono was her sensei (teacher), and she corrected the girl's mistakes after she had finished. the arrangement turned out beautifully. it's such a delicate art and so relaxing (once you get the hang of it, of course).

these little girls helped with the demonstration of the ikebana. they were so cute! i loved the one girl's blue kimono especially; she had glitter in her hair! :)

after the ceremony, our hosts served us lunch. i wish i'd taken pictures, but i was too busy eating ham and cheese finger sandwiches and fruit. we were served both cold and hot tea, and i happily drank both. we got to watch a fan dance as well as listen to a woman singing and playing the shamisen (which is a japanese-style guitar, almost). several of the girls who performed the ikebana for us got wooden plaques to commemorate their graduation from their school. it was all very interesting to watch, and all of the JCMU students got to stand up and say a few lines to the crowd, who were all very receptive and welcoming. it was a good time.

there was a really friendly man named atarashi (which is almost "new" in japanese), and he was a principal at one of the local elementary schools. he was very animated and translated a lot of the speeches we heard at the luncheon. he'd been to birmingham, michigan, too! i took a lot of pictures with my tongue out that day, haha.

and now onto the strange part of the week. yesterday my history teacher (who is also the director of the program) surprised us at the start of class by telling us we were going on a field trip to nagahamajo, which is a castle in a city called nagahama (and is also the building in the picture above). we took the train out to the city and walked to the castle, but while our class was standing in the lobby listening to our teacher explain a little bit about what we were about to see on our tour through the museum inside the castle, three american women came up to us and asked us if any of us spoke japanese. since our teacher is pretty fluent, he offered to help them; we thought they needed help with directions, but in fact they had discovered what they thought to be a dead body in the lake outside (lake biwa, which is the lake my dorm building is on). my teacher, whose name is dr. reagan, went with the women to make sure (the rest of the class tagged along out of sheer curiosity), and lo and behold, it was a 35-40 year old man, face down in the shoreline. it was incredibly eeire and also the first time i've ever seen a dead body. we called the police and dr. reagan made sure we weren't involved, but we heard enough to know it had been a murder; the dead man had been driving his motorcycle when someone hit him with their car, and to avoid any legal trouble, whoever it was had dumped him in the lake. while our teacher was talking to the police, we were able to tour the museum a little, though our guide spoke very little english and we really didn't know what we were looking at most of the time, nor were we allowed to take pictures. the view from the top of the castle was beautiful, though, especially since it's right on the shore of lake biwa. we met up with dr. reagan in the lobby after our tour and decided it was time to head home. our class split up into two groups: one would take the train home and the other would go with dr. reagan in his car. i decided on the train, but when we headed back to the station where we were expecting to catch the 4oclock, it never came. we ended up waiting an extra half hour for the next train, which doesn't happen often here because the japanese are so incredibly time conscious. when we finally got back to the dorms, our student services coordinator told us trains in japan are only ever late if someone jumps in front of one to commit suicide. overall, it was a pretty overwhelming day and it felt good to come home and do mundane things like take a shower, eat dinner and do some homework.

obama's inauguration is in less than two hours, now! it's about 12:30am here, and i'm exhausted, but i can't pass up the chance to witness something so historical. tomorrow a bunch of us are going to kyoto to celebrate; we wanted to go to obama city because it'd be so literal, but the train ride is over 2 1/2 hours and $60 round trip, whereas kyoto is 40 minutes and $20 round trip. hopefully we'll find another cool restaurant and i'll have pictures to post.

tomorrow is one of my teacher's birthdays, so i bought her some flowers and a little card which i had everyone sign. it should be fun to see her reaction.

hope you're all well in the states. and hey, where's my mail, guys?! ;)

sarah