Hana Musubi

Yesterday was a gray, rainy, almost-fall day and could have been rather quiet and depressing but instead was one of the most socially entertaining days I’ve had! At ten in the morning I went to Takeda san’s house for the monthly meeting of the English café. It was a special day in that a former member of the group and his Japanese wife and child were visiting from Switzerland, where they now live. Mario, who despite his name is a German speaking Swiss, met his wife when he was a student here at Yamasa. When they come back to Japan to visit her family each year, they also get together with their old friends from the English café. It was also the day that Takeda sensei had a obi show in the afternoon so she was dressed in a beautiful kimono, but, like an idiot, I didn’t think to bring my camera. A luncheon (ランチ、pronounced “runchi”) was planned for after the English practice time and I was thrilled to be invited to join them.


After the “café”, we all walked up the street to a traditional looking Japanese restaurant where a tatami matted room with low table and cushions awaited us. After the usual flurry of photo taking, by the others :-(, we had a delicious meal that started off with green tea and hand towels. The main course took a while to come and during that time the children ran around playing and the adults talked about all sorts of things. The conversation flowing back and forth in Japanese and English and I was thrilled to be able to understand a lot of the main ideas in Japanese! Both Mario, who held “my position” in the club several years ago, and the English club regular, Atsushi san, the Toyota engineer, speak English quite well and could translate whenever that was needed. We talked about the election and they were all happy and hopeful about Obama, and everyone commented on how well spoken he is. This tells you a lot about the perception of the current President, apparently not much different from my own.

The main course arrived and was served on lacquer-ware trays, each one with an array of dishes. I think there were 9 on my tray: two tiny dishes with mini servings of pickles and cold spinach salad, then a covered bowel of miso soup, a dish with three slices of tuna sashimi, a plate with pieces of cooked fish, eggplant and leek, with a miso based sauce, a container of cooked rice, a ceramic covered cup with a warm savory custard and finally a tiny saucer of soy sauce for dipping the sashimi. Each dish was arranged beautiful and was very tasty. The final course was a choice of coffee or green tea ice cream.

In all, the meal took two hours and the four children, ages one and a half to nine, entertained each other and ate their specially ordered, more child-friendly meals, without any complaints. Several of the guests spent time entertaining them while the others chatted on. It’s interesting to see how different cultures handle these kinds of long inter-generational gatherings.

Today was equally filled with fascinating events: a traditional Japanese arts show, the one my tea ceremony teacher had an entry in, and afterward, lunch in a modern bakery/eatery. At 10 this morning, I met Takeda san and Noriko san at a near-by landmark and we went together to these events. Noriko san is a young woman whom I met at the tea ceremony classes. Her English is better than my Japanese so she helped me understand things when the conversation veered from the basic to the sublime, or somewhere in between. (See these friends in the picture above.) The Japanese traditional arts show was held in a large new facility in a part of town I had not been to before. There was obi tying display, one of obis tied like flowers, and one of obis tied for wearing on special occasions. (The obi is the sash that goes with a kimono and can be tied in an infinite number of ways). One of these flower obis is Takeda sensei’s, but I actually didn’t understand which one, as she was very understated about the whole thing and didn’t really indicate which one it was. At about 11:00 we were invited into a mass tea ceremony, with the traditional sweet and tea offered by a host of kimono clad ladies to a room full of people, while a tea master performed the tea making ritual at the front of the room. After that we checked out the handmade figurines/dolls made of silk or other materials and the homemade elixirs made from all manner of fruits and vegetables, including coffee and chili-peppers. These apparently are traditional home remedies for any number of ailments. I got recipes in case you are interested. On the next floor were more obis, these tied for wearing, where the flower-tied obis are for display only. No two were alike and there were 40 of them all in different brocaded fabrics, with various accessories. We then descended to the first floor and took in the calligraphy and scroll painting and finally the ikebana and flower arranging displays (not the same thing here, by the way)! For a Japanese culture freak like myself, it was a fabulous show!

After we had seen all there was to see, my two escorts started thinking about lunch and soon we were off to a near-by shopping center to eat at a popular, modern restaurant. The bread was particularly “famous” and the place was packed, as was the parking lot, where uniformed parking attendants helped direct cars into the available spots as they became free; no fending for yourself here.

At lunch we ordered a light main course. I had a fresh salmon and ginger salad, the others a chicken something, and we all got the drink and bread “set”, as they call it here. This meant that we could have all the small rolls of different flavors that we wished. Japanese bread is very soft and fluffy, so not really the thing for the “hard, crusty bread eaters”, but fresh and tasty. These buns were straight from the oven and several refills were offered from a basket of assorted flavors. We ate with knives and forks. There was not a chopstick in sight. I asked my friends which was the more popular way, American or British, for using these utensils and they each said something different, so “anything goes” is my take, when it comes to Western eating tools.

Here's a challenge for those of you who took the time to read to the end of this long entry: Can you name the flowers that the top two obis are imitating? I'll write a real, postage and all, postcard to anyone who gets them right. Gambate! (roughly: do our best!)