Cultural Exchanges...

Recently, I've had the chance to attend several unique events around the Yokosuka area. The first was a luncheon with a group of other Japanese and American military wives. The event was called the Tadodai Matsuri; Tadodai was the name of the home where the lunch was held (the former residence of the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy) and "Matsuri" means "festival" in Japanese. Matsuri are often held at a shrine or temple in conjunction with a national holiday.
Our "festival" was held on the first day of the lunar new year, although since 1873 Japan's main new year's celebration has followed the western tradition of celebrating on January 1st.

Our Japanese hosts decorated the house like a festival marketplace with street stalls of games and activities. We could play with old fashioned toys, go fishing for treats, make balloon figures and paper dolls, and shoot at prizes with a rubber band gun made from chopsticks as well as a bow and arrow. What fun! After the street stall games were over we watched a cooking demonstrations for yakisoba (a popular noodle dish) and then enjoyed a delicious lunch! The lunch included noodle dishes, miso soup, sushi, baked tofu and many other tasty treats. It was also followed by a wonderful spread of desserts. Oishii! We were so impressed with how much time and effort were put into the whole event, it was a lovely day and a great way to learn more about festival traditions. We will have a chance to return the favor by hosting a luau for the Japanese ladies this spring.

Next, I was invited to a Vietnamese New Year's party with my English student, Midori. There are currently 14 students from the Vietnamese military who are studying at Japan's National Defense Academy as part of a student exchange program. Midori is one of the host families, so she helped to organize the party. I must say, it was a bit overwhelming to be in a small house with 40 strangers who didn't have English as their first language...but Elise was my trusty side kick and we ended up really enjoying the evening. The students had prepared plate after plate of traditional Vietnamese foods. They had also put together a slide show to explain the foods and other new year's customs and traditions (It was presented in Japanese, so I didn't catch much!) A group of students performed a traditional Vietnamese song (more of a comedy act, really) and we ended the night with a game of BINGO (which I'm beginning to think is a very popular Japanese party game!)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend another luncheon with a group of Japanese and American wives from the hospital. We had hosted the Japanese ladies this past fall and they offered to reciprocate the kindness with a luncheon and Japanese calligraphy lesson. Apparently, the art of calligraphy is taught to children in grade school and junior high, but very few people continue with it after that. I was amazed at the skill and technique that it took to make such beautiful writings.(My attempts looked like a kindergarten child's writing, or worse!) The Japanese teacher and other ladies were very gracious and patient with us, repeating the hand positioning and order of the brush strokes on many occasions. As you can see from the pictures, some of the calligraphy is done is orange/red. This color is traditionally reserved only for the sensei (teacher) and it is an honor to get to use this color of ink. I think I will be working in black and white for many many years to come!