Ikebana

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Tonight was my first night of Ikebana classes (Japanese flower arrangement). There are 10 ladies in the class, but some were absent tonight. I am not only the youngest in this class, but I think I am also the only one under 50! It was hilarious! The ladies were pretty excited to have a foreigner join them and were very keen to learn some English words. Everytime I taught them a new word they would all repeat it and then laugh at how funny they sounded. I think their favorite was "scissors"! I was a little worried going into the class because I didn't know how serious it would be, but it turns out that it is more of a social gathering to gossip!

For the first hour we all did ikebana (I needed A LOT of help from the teacher), and then for the next two hours we ate cakes and drank green tea. Oh... eating the cakes and sweets was another adventure all in itself! Everything looked really good, but as I started trying things I realised that their concept of desserts is quite different than ours. For instance, I started off with the safest looking treat, a clear jello with mandarins and pear chunks in it. Well, everything was fine until I got to the pear... turns out, it wasn't pear... it was chunks of potatoe! Yep.. in the jello! At first I was a little surprised, but after a few more bites I began to enjoy my potatoe and mandarin chunk jello! The next little cake thing that I tried was a green pastey looking lump. This time, before biting into it I asked what it was. They found it quite amusing that I had never eaten a green pea and red bean paste square.... I found it quite amusing that there are actually squares made out of green pea paste!

By the end of the night I had not only learned/practised ikebana, but I also managed to make some new connections within my community!

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Photos

Spring Feelings
2007 Ikebana

November 28th 2006 Ikebana
I like this one... it is cheerful!

September 12th 2006 Ikebana
I know that I haven't posted any new ikebana pictures for a while, but this was the first ikebana class I have been to since July 11th.

July 11th 2006 Ikebana
This arrangement is F-gatta. It is an arrangement of circles on either side and then has flowers filling the "air" in the middle.

May 23rd 2006 Ikebana
This one is kind of like the one I did back in February when they made me massage the leaves of these flowers for hours in order to get them to form certain shapes. Every leaf is measured down to .5 or .7 of a specific measurement... it is crazy specific. I am not a fan of such ikebana, but those who are more skilled probably have a much higher level of admiration for such arrangements.

February 14th Ikebana
This is my least favorite so far! Can you believe that I had to spend over 2 hours shaping the daffodil leaves so that they would lay flat/curve against each other like this?
P.S. Sorry the pic is blurry, but it is the only one I have.

Comments

[Mom]

Veggie desserts
Good thing you like veggies - but not too sure about them being in the desserts ? LOL

[mary]

sounds like to much fun
Hey lisa you did a great job on your arrangement or should I say ikebana. Maybe next class you should bring in some real sweets to have with your green tea.

[Mom]

I like your Sept 27 one the best - they are all awsome though !!

[Mom]

I like the October 10th one!