Tea ceremony and taiko were a lot of fun as usual. Tea ceremony is great coz some of the girls are quite young and so it is nice to talk to young Japanese people about things I would discuss with friends back home. I also took some chocolate sweets (of sorts-coz I don’t have an oven and so its pretty hard to make anything too similar to cakes and cookies back home) which went down a storm with the women at the tea ceremony class. They appeared so grateful and said that they enjoyed them. I was really pleased I did that!
My first attempt at Shodo was a lot of fun. I arrived at Mayoumi’s a little stressed out and tired, but this soon evaporated. She had such a huge and lovely house, I was quite surprised. There were many nice pictures and the décor was modern and warm. We sat in a tatami room which had a low table to sit at and a family alter. Behind a door I also found out that they had their own little personal shrine which was gold and had figures and statues with very intricate designs. Mayoumi had made a pound cake and prepared some tea, and we were shortly joined by Nirepon who plays tennis too. Both mayoumi and nirepon had shodo sets which they had had at JHS. They very kindly shared the paper, ink and brushes with me. I watched as they prepared the ink by thinning it and made sure the brushes had no stray hairs. They asked me what I wanted to write and then we translated this into kanji. Mayoumi then showed me how to execute the kanji and I tried to copy. It was so much more difficult than I imagined. It is very precise and each brush movement has to be just so. I wasn’t that great, especially at making ‘stops’ but it was such a fun thing to do. It felt so relaxing and I enjoyed concentrating so hard. When I was watching Mayoumi draw her kanji, it was really artistic and the movement of her arm, hand and brush was mesmerizing.
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On Saturday I was up early for me! I was meeting the taiko group for a quick practice before we had a performance at the FIA. I was pretty excited at my first performance and wearing the cool outfit. We were performing on a stage in front of 100 or so people who were involved with international relations in Fukui- or something like that. We got ready and joined the audience for ‘kampi’ then we set up the stage with our drums, ready to start. There were lots of children in the audience so the atmosphere was very informal and so I didn’t feel that nervous. I think I did ok. I only made mistakes on B pattern which was the one I had only learnt 4 days before hand. So I was pretty proud! I also really enjoyed being with the other performers, it was good to get to know them and share this experience with them. After we performed our 3 rhythms, we returned to the audience to eat some food and watch 5 Japanese Santas on stage perform their renditions of Christmas songs…interesting desu ne.
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After the event, 6 of us headed to a kisseten for a coffee and a chat. Again I had a really cool time laughing, trying to speak Japanese and trying to help others speak a little English. It was fun. That afternoon I met Meagan to chat about our approaching trip. We were both excited yet we felt rushed and unprepared! We had a coffee did a bit of shopping and then I went home to do a few chores, run and then I headed over to John and Kim’s to play games with them and Beata. It was nice to chill out with them and exert some aggression playing Mario Kart!
On Sunday I got up late and ran, after which Mayoumi picked me up and we headed into Fukui to Kanae-san’s house for a tennis bon-enkai. We had to pay money but there was lots of food and drink and about 10 other players from the team. Kanae’s children were also there. They were adorable and I loved playing with them. The language barrier was no trouble at all. I really did have a lovely time and a lot of fun playing twister too, although some of the tipsy males got a little too excited at playing twister with women! But it was funny!
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