Hi,
These are some shots of a party we had not long ago. I made the cake, and was pleased with the result, since I don't do all that much cooking.
Note the pocky on the cake. The 11/11 is known in some circles here as pocky day - due to the fact that the one's look kind of like pocky (chocolate (or any variety of sweet flavours) covered sticks of biscuit - see the photos). Anyway, the Chinese exchange students were right into that, so for a few days, we had ample pocky floating around.
The Chinese girls had a lot of fun plating up the cake with pocky...
Thanks to Sorin sensei and You san for the photos.
Hi all,
Cloth Dyeing is another cultural experience that the small band of exchange students were recently introduced to. It's more famous in Kyoto, but Nagoya has a bit of a reputation, so I was told, for the style of cloth dyeing that uses stencils. I for one am glad for that, because it was hard enough with stencils!
I was lucky though, in that the pattern that I chose was rather undemanding. I was expecting to get a reasonably mediocre result, so I'm pleased with how I left my effort. Hopefully the end result, with the background coloured, will be alright!
My effort...
This is the teachers - far more detailed than mine, and at the top and the bottom he had to reposition stencils etc...
Thanks to the staff for the photos.
Hi all,
Tea Ceremony is something that I've long had a vague idea about, but not any real information about what is involved beyond drinking tea. Apparently they have various styles, kind of like karate, so I can only comment on the tea ceremony that I observed.
I'm really glad I got the experience to observe (and take part in minus the bowing etc) a tea ceremony, because it was actually pretty surprising. Tatami mats are set out, and the participants (the people who are going to drink the tea) walk on one at a time, in a set pattern, in part to avoid stepping on the joins in the tatami. Sometimes there were a set number of steps, or the participant had to step off a certain foot first, and the method of walking was kind of like that which can be seen in various Japanese theatre styles.
Anyway, all of this walking was to get to certain places. First the participant had to go and bow and look at the flower arrangement and scroll, and then go and look at the implements for making tea. Finally they went to one side of the mat and sat in seiza (on knees) to wait for their snacks and tea.
As I say, I was intrigued by all of the rules and patterns, but not particularly inspired to actually follow them myself, but luckily I could still have tea - but I did have to sit in seiza...
Bowing to the flowers...
It was also interesting to watch the process of making the tea.
Stirring the macha (tea) with the special brush.
Thanks to Okubo san for the photos.
Hi,
Here are a few other things I've been up to lately!
University Festival
It's definitely been something of a festival season recently. On top of the Nagoya Festival, Sugiyama's University Festival was on not long ago. Now, I know that I'm in Japan - but since most of the Exchange Students at Sugiyama are Chinese, our Exchange student stall ended up with a Chinese theme. And it just happened that one of the Chinese girls had a China dress with them that fitted me. So I thought I'd wear it...And that's why I'm wearing a China dress in the photo's below.
Kabuki
We went to see Kabuki for class recently too. Of course, you can't take photos of the performance, but here are a few of us at the venue.
Because it's such a shame we couldn't get photos, here are some off the internet (of the same stories). Aren't the costumes impressive? The venue was pretty impressive too - it had a stage that rotated!
This was my favourite costume!
This was my favourite story - The scary wife was great! It's called 「身替座禅」migawarizazen.It's kind of a comedy. The story is something like: the husband wants to go out, but his scary wife won't let him - so he sneaks out, but is found out!
This is the pamphlet for the one we went to!
Hi,
Not too long ago, the Nagoya Festival was held. I got the chance to go and see the parade, which has a lot of people in costumes, themed largely around local historical figures including Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga. I also went to the night parade of dashi...floats with lanterns on them.
Here are some photos I took ~ enjoy...
Thanks!
