Today was mostly a travel day. The highlight was the morning that we spent with a local host family who shared a variety of traditions and crafts with us. It was a wonderful visit.
It turns out that in Japan, it is illegal to serve food if you are not certified as a restaurant. So we couldn’t have a meal with a host family as we normally do with other OAT tours. We didn’t know what to expect on our visit.
We arrived at the home of Fumiyo and Masahiro. Masahiro was a retired lawyer and currently an award-winning photographer and musician. Fumiyo had a working life as a secretary in a big company, and after she retired she perfected her craft skills,which were impressive. She is a talented calligrapher, artist and embroiderer. We spent the morning learning about their family and traditional culture.
We started with a calligraphy lesson. Each of the four of us picked a word, and, after some practice with Fumiyo, we made the word on rice paper. Fumiyo also made the word Harmony for each of us mounted on hard cardboard to take home.
Fumiyo explained that children learn the first alphabet, hiragana, which is symbols for sounds, similar to the western alphabet when they are in first and second grade. They learn the second one, katakana, which is foreign words in third grade and the last one, kanji, symbols for Chinese words a little later. Masahiro showed us how all three alphabets (plus western alphabet) are used together on a newspaper.
Next we had an informal tea ceremony and we also learned about how the formal ceremony is conducted in a tea house. He first step is a sweet mochi - yum.
She also had a tiny garden (that she got on Amazon) for us to contemplate while we drank our tea.
She told us the history of the ceremony. It was created by Sen O Rikyu, a friend of a fierce and powerful shogun. The ceremony was designed to induce quiet, calm and harmony. It became very popular among the shoguns, who spent their days in warrior pursuits and welcomed a calming respite.Then she made tea for one of us using a more informal version of the ceremony, and then we each prepared the tea for the next person. It was really fun! When we asked them which kind of tea they drink every day, they both said they always drink coffee.
Masahiro shared some of his favorite photos, all taken in and around Kanazawa - several in the snow. They were lovely.
Next we all tried on traditional Japanese Kimonos, with lots of photos and posing. Japanese women have many kimonos, which they wear on specific occasions. Fumiyo said that she had 20 others besides the two we wore, but she rarely wears them anymore.
Finally we sang a Japanese song, accompanied by Masahiro on a cool little synthesizer, followed by a rough rendition of “You are my sunshine.”
Along with all of these activities were explanations of the cultural traditions associated with them. It was a really fun and memorable home hosted experience.
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