Sunday, January 10, 2010

Culture Day

One of the highlights of the trip was a culture day that was held at the Japanese Language Center, so that the language students could gain a better understanding of Japanese culture.

We had a hands on lesson in ikebana, Japanese flower arranging.
Dressing in a Kimono is a long and complicated process, as demonstrated here. A very skilled Japanese woman can do it by herself in about a half hour. Kimonos are worn when a woman wants to dress up. We observed a number of women dressed in Kimonos when going to the shrine on New Years Day. A group of older women going out to lunch were all in Kimonos. We had some dinner guests over to the house and the mother wore her Kimono. The look is quite lovely.
Last, we were entertained by a group performing on traditional instruments. Two people sang and a dancer interpreted the songs. They were good!




Celia had a chance to practice the shamisen after the concert. I was interested in the musical notation for the koto (the long stringed instrument), which was very different from our staff. It took a while to figure it out.

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