My day began bright and early with a delicious and substantial breakfast, excellently prepared and meticulously presented.  It was a lot more food than I usually eat in the morning, but my inner clock is 13 hours off, so I was actually somewhat hungry.  Soon, Kazumi and Margaret picked us up for the day’s activities.

We headed to the community center, where the non-hosts in the group had been hard at work preparing stations for us to learn traditional Japanese crafts.  The Friendship Force group is so talented — they had at least a couple of people who were expert in each activity, and many more who were capable — so they didn’t need to bring in any outside instructors.

Carolyn and Judy try necklace-making

Annie and Joan

My first stop was calligraphy.  An older woman in the club had made us all lovely depictions of our names, with the translation written on them.  We were told to choose a word to learn from the samples provided.  A man there suggested that I choose “love”, but once I did he laughed and said, “very hard!  very hard!” so this was probably a mistake.  The instructor would grab our hand firmly and walk us through how to make the characters, but once through wasn’t enough to cement the sequence in my brain.  Luckily a lovely and patient woman who I’d met the previous night was willing to sit by my side and walk through it step by step with me, so I could copy each of her movements.  This still wasn’t enough — the expert at one point looked at my attempts, laughed loudly, then grabbed my hand for another practice round — but eventually, I think due to time constraints, they declared me ready to move on to making the final piece.  This also involved copying my name, which necessitated another long round of painstaking

Carolyn and Judy making necklaces with help from Non

practice with my new friend.  In the end everyone was complimenting my work, but they are very polite here.

I was finally ready to move on to the next round, which was making a necklace out of some beads and a fabric tube sewn out of an old necktie.  (They are very skilled at reusing things here.  You can buy many products made from repurposed kimono, and the tie-necklaces were similar.  The women had used old ties previously worn by their now-retired husbands.)  This one was more appropriate to my skill level, as it just involved stringing beads inside and outside the fabric strip to make an alternating pattern.  It was very clever and the necklaces came out much nicer than you’d expect.

Here I am wearing my newly-constructed necklace

Finally, I moved to the origami table.  Luckily my friend joined me again, and walked me through the process of making a crane.  Next up we tried out a peacock, although even she needed a little help with that one.  Some others made deer in honor of Nara’s famous deer park (which we’ll visit later in the week).  We’ve noticed that origami is incorporated into a lot of things here, like a wrapper that comes around chopsticks.

A light lunch

All this time, the non-crafters in the group had been getting ready for lunch.  It was a potluck and each member had brought some kind of Japanese delicacy.  The buffet table was loaded down with all manner of foods.  We wanted to try a little of everything, so it was another large meal.  I liked almost everything, except for a couple of jello-like substances that seemed to be fish- or vegetable-related.

After lunch our hosts formally welcomed us.  After some speeches most of the group got up to sing for us.  They were conducted by one of their oldest members, and accompanied by a woman who played the piano beautifully.  (We later found out that she’s performed in Carnegie Hall!)  They sang some Japanese songs, as well as some sing-a-longs like Edelweiss and It’s a Small World.  They brought down the house with a sing-and-dance-along tune called “Oh, Champs-Elysee”, which I remember learning in high school French class.

Next up they had a game planned that definitely destroyed the stereotype that Japanese people are always very formal.  Four men got up — two sat in chairs and the other two got under large kimono coats with their hands sticking out.  They had to sit behind the other and be their “arms” — trying to feed them a piece of cake while not being able to see.  Then it was our turn.  First the couples went up (with the women immediately volunteering to be under the kimono rather than eating the cake), but then we’d run out of men.  Margaret and I, and Joan and Annie from Florida, were brought up next.  Margaret kindly agreed to eat the cake, even though both of us were very full by this point.  It was difficult work under the kimono but we managed to get the job done with minimal mess.  The activity was such a good ice-breaker and had everyone laughing together immediately (though none of the Japanese women volunteered!)

Later, my host Non and I walked to her friend Toko’s house for dinner.  Toko and her husband were wonderful hosts.  The main portion of the meal was okonomiyaki, a specialty of the area that is cooked on a griddle right on the table.  There is a batter containing eggs, flour, cabbage, and probably other things that is put on the griddle like a pancake.  Then Toko’s husband topped the pancakes with pork, shrimp, and scallops.  When ready they were flipped and cooked on the other side.  To eat, we topped them with mayonnaise, a special okonomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes, and nori flakes.  Then there was a second round of pancakes with leeks and potato.  (They made one with fermented soybeans also.  They gave me a bit to try but told me I probably wouldn’t like it and that I didn’t have to eat it.  I guess it is an acquired taste.)  Everything was delicious, but I felt like I’d have to roll home (especially after we then had dessert).