Moveable Type: Day 34 in Japan - Fruity-kebana and Real Cheese

Ready for summer kadou

Today I have a very productive day! I got a lot of my work done and figured out the crazy Japanese photocopiers (more like newspaper printers than the printers I am used to) before 10:30, and then I was free to go along to the Flower Arranging club with some of the students, and one of the lovelier teachers. A little old Japanese lady comes along twice a week to teach tea ceremony (sadou) and flower arranging (kadou or ikebana), some of the traditional Japanese arts. She spoke no English, but was really enthusiastic and chatty, and was very complimentary about the arrangement that I ended up making. Today, rather than doing flower arrangement, they did a "summer fruit arranging" activity - arranging fresh fruit and summer vegetables with vines to create beautiful lines and a feel of summer. My final product is shown here, but the biggest challenge of the whole thing was trying not to put the grapes or cherry tomatoes too close to the eggplant or bananas. I just kept making penises without realising. I'm sure that means something.

BEHOLD MY GLORIOUS FRUIT!
Note the lack of phalli.

The awesome older lady who comes to teach
traditional Japanese arts at school.

See, I blend right in here!

I went to lunch with another lovely teacher at a cute little place called Loire - it was such a chick place! Lovely and calm, and they served nice little foods and salads and cakes. I will have to bring Mum there - I think it's exactly the kind of place she and Lovey would enjoy. In the afternoon, I finished of a listening test, finalised another lesson plan and finished off the Wall o' English.

Live crabs that they sell at the CO-OP.
Friday afternoon discount - only 100 yen!
But how do live crabs go off? ...oh.

Another thing that has been happening a lot at school is Brass Ban practise. Over lunch, my teacher told me that our school has got into the state championships for brass band, and basically that they kick ass and are probably going to make it to nationals. They have been practising their marching and flag twirling all week, and today I finally managed to get a bit of video of a small group (probably only 1/8th of the band) practising their marching. They do it first without their instruments, and I love listening to them all singing their parts - it's quite a cool effect. So the video below is about 20 seconds of them practising a turn in marching. They did this for 4 full hours, in the scorching sun. I am truly amazed at their dedication.

I also had a quick chat to Adam (Wok) online before I left work, and he inspired me to find myself some Friday afternoon nibblies. I scoured the supermarket to find some real cheese, and even found some salami! I was so proud of myself on my triumphant return home bearing real cheddar, camambert and crackers and a 6-pack of the best beer I have found here so far - Suntory Malt. Also had some odd little cheese balls with pepper and salami or garlic and chicken flavouring. They were supposed to be beer snacks, and did go perfectly well with our beers. Spent most of the evening Skyping home (and feeling sick from eating too many snacks, to be honest), and getting ready for our first visitor tomorrow! Andrew called and we are going to meet him bright and early for a surprise excursion tomorrow, so we're off for an earlyish night.