[Although I hardly think that my blog has the power to change the weather, I am a bit afraid to announce that spring has arrived for fear that the mere mention of it might make it change back to winter. At least now it's officially "spring" on the calendar, no matter what the weather says. I guess I can proceed]Last Sunday, the ladies of the Wednesday night shodo lesson spent the day in Yame, doing a variety of activities in honor of spring. Our first stop was a "craft center" for the lack of a better description where we got to try our hands at making our own washi, or Japanese paper. The first step was to pick the size paper you wanted to make (postcard, business card, tall and skinny etc) and dip the appropriate frame into the bath of pulp. Once your screens are adequately covered, you can use tweezers and a small stryofoam tray to pick dried flowers/leaves to add to your paper.
Kendra, Allison and Jamie getting ready to decorate.
Carefully so as not to spill your tray of very light petals (as I did...whoops. Thankfully it wasn't a major crisis and I was able to pick everything up using the handy tweezers), you arrange the petals artfully on your wet paper. Then you pour some thinner pulp on top to seal them in. So far, everything was done quite traditionally, apart from the collecting and mashing of the pulp which was kindly done for us. The next step, which was to run your screen over a vacuum to suck out the extra moisture, did not exactly follow the "traditional" trend. But with several other activities on the agenda, who has time for "traditional" anyway?
My postcards, pre vacuum.
After the vaccum, we handed our pulpy squares over to the paper master, who put them on a hot metal wall to set. He carefully rolled out any lumpy patches and peeled our paper off the metal when it was done.
After we finished trying our hand at paper making, we browsed the other goods for sale, and while rest of the party had some tea upstairs, Jamie and I were lured outside by the sun and food tent. We ate some sweets besides the world's largest stone lantern. Sitting below it, it was quite big, but it grew by at least a 1/3 when I went to stand by it for a picture. Holy cow.
ランチ タイム Logically, after all the snacks, it was time for lunch. Naoko-sensei took us to a buffet where everything was made from local, organic ingredients. I can't say it tasted any different from the other buffet lunches I have had in Japan, although there were slighly more vegetables perhaps. It was quite a deal for 1260 yen though. And it had great plates with 9 little spaces for you food, allowing you to try almost everything without it touching!
After lunch we spent nearly two hours getting a very thurough tour of a sake brewery. Unfortunately for me and the other non-native Japanese speakers, the whole thing was in Japanese, but our tour guide was a very happy chap who made it quite entertaining. We started by watching a video about the sake making process. This too had Japanese subtitles, but all of the numbers were numerals, so at least I could understand the quantities, grades of rice, temperatures and times. From what I can remember almost a week later, the rice is delivered and then washed and boiled in the tanks below. There are different grades of rice, but even after looking at the grains through the magnifying glass, I couldn't tell the difference.
Next the rice is "massaged" in a very hot room. This is when they add the malt, which makes the rice start to ferment and turn into alcohol. Then the rice and the malt is stewed in more large tanks.
The end of the process. After starting out really really hot, the sake has to cool down. By this point, its nice and clear, and smells like, well alcohol.
The pine ball below is the traditional sign of a sake brewery. The one we visited had several different ones hanging around.
The collection of fashionable rubber slippers we wore inside. They came in both M and L sizes, and several faux textures, the moccasin, quilted and woven.
After the sake, we did our own soaking in an onsen before grabbing the last snack of the day, macha soft cream and getting back in the car for the journey back to Kurume. We got stuck in some traffic and saw some of my students on their bikes, and it took me about 3 minutes to actually recognize them without their uniforms on. :-/
Since Sunday, the weather has been mostly good, with a few cold, rainy days. And some insane wind. I had to peddle my bike downhill to actually get anywhere. What?!?! The next day, Allison's glass bathroom door shattered in the gale force winds. I hope mine isn't next.
Strange weather aside, it is now officially spring break!!! No more school until April 8th!!
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