What a day!

Today is...Saturday. Woke up and did the chicken work like normal and after I done I went to Muto-san to see what I should do next but he told me to get ready to leave. I knew that we were going to his friend's Open Garden gathering of some sort, but it was only 10 and I'm supposed to work a half day! But I obeyed and got ready. At first I just put on some jeans and looked pretty baggy... but then I saw Muto-san! He had nice shoes, slacks, button up shirt and jacket- what? Dress up? So I but on my black jeans and the more decorative sweater I have...it helped a little.
I said we better be back by 4 so that I could do the chickens this evening since we were checking out so early....

We drove a little bit towards Kikuchi, but turned right before we got to it. The house was surrounded by a wall, but we went through a bamboo gate and into a gorgeous, traditional Japanese garden. Stone walkways, little fountains, Japanese maples, perfectly trimmed azalea bushes, red umbrella and little seats scattered around. The ground was mostly dirt with moss and little ferns in the areas where people don't step on so often...Muto-san said that it was a pain to keep such a beautiful garden, so much weeding! I've always entertained the idea of having a Japanese garden when I grow up...but that might have just turned me off of it...weeding. Many women were dressed in kimonos, it seemed in some ways a step back in time. The house was incredible and the doors were opened to the outside air so the wide rooms of tatami mats were visible from the garden that wrapped around the house. We sat down and were immediately served manju (a sweet bread with sweet bean paste inside) and tea made like in a tea ceremony. We toured the garden a little after that then actually got to participate in a mini, informal tea ceremony. The house has its own tea room, so there is a little "hole" in the middle of the tatami mat where there are coals and the pot of hot water sits there...I believe. Everyone was huddled inside the little room, thigh to thigh (and I begged that this was not going to take long because I can't sit like that for very long before my knees start to freak out). We were once more served little sweets, this time thin crunchy cookies and something that I couldn't really figure out except for that it was very sweet. The sweets before the tea is supposed to balance out the bitterness of the tea used in tea ceremony. People around me were doing the proper actions (excepting the bowl, turning it to the right, drinking in three gulps, turning it to the left, admiring the bowl etc....I don't really remember...mom knows!).There was an alcove in the room with a scroll with calligraphy by someone famous, everyone was admiring it. There was also a very elaborate pot that apparently has tea inside with flowers to keep it fresh...
The door from outside into the tea room was tiny, so I was pretty nervous about being the clumsy America to either fall out or bust the door trying to crawl out and step into my shoes at the same time, since for some reason I always have difficulty with that as well...some people went out before me and I was able to study how they did it...thank goodness!
Then we were asked to go into the main room and sit around a giant table covered in food. At this gathering you were supposed to just go from station to station, so once we were done eating, new people could take our spots around the table. Since I'm an America, they offered me a tiny stool to sit on but Muto-san said I didn't need it. Be strong knees! Be strong! The food was great, two rice balls, potato, tamago-yaki (fried egg dish with sugar) and I have to admit I ate a lot of the sweets. One was a traditional Japanese cake using peanuts and soy beans...and I ate a couple mochi with anko inside...my favorite.

There was another "gaikokujin" there (foreigner). He was older and Italian and is a father at a church here in Kikuchi. He said he has lived here 25 years and still doesn't always understand what people say...bummer...
There was a room where there were six women playing koto, all in kimonos. It was very wonderful, you could hear it from anywhere in the garden. Afterwards they cleared the tatami mats to make room for a red mat that they laid out for a game. There was an elaborate wooden block with a little red fan thing on top. Two people sat across from each other and gently tossed the fans at the little red fan on the block trying to make it fall a certain way. In the different ways each item fell you could get different points...however it didn't matter because when I tried, I got zero! It was hard.

After that we thanked the hostess and went off to the ruins of Kikuchi castle. It was on a mountain top and there were paths and stairs winding around the mountain top so we could see the surrounding mountains and valley- so beautiful! We could even see Yamaai Mura farm across the valley. There is a huge cow farm nearby with white roofs that we could see clearly, what a treat! The castle ruins were interesting, the one main tower you could see inside, but there were just many columns, I guess no one really lived in there, but it was very impressive to see the columns. It was nice to be in the mountains with a view!

Today Muto-san's daughter's (Ayumi-san) daughter (Aina-chan) was going to the temple to pray since she is three years old. Girls go pray when they turn 3, 5 and 7. We got to see them before they went. Ayumi-san was gorgeous with a kimono and her hair done. Aina-chan, though, was especially impressive. Her kimono was very elaborate with bright colors and her was done up in a traditional Japanese hairdo with decorate dangles and hair pins. She was adorable!

When we returned to the farm I did the chickens and as I was in the storage house Hitomi-san was there as well, preparing mochi rice for the mochi machine. Soon Ayumi-san and Aina-chan as well as her brother Fuma-kun came. When the mochi was ready, they started making it into small round patties. However there was one large patty, probably 10 inches in diameter. Hitomi-san told me that Katsu's daughter, Hana-chan, is turning 1 tomorrow and that she will have that big patty tied to her back and she will walk like that...or something. That must be heavy! I don't know if I'll be able to see it, but I'm hoping I do. Hitomi-san invited me to help make the patties too. Aina-chan and Fuma-kun were having fun with mochi. After we had finished, Fuma-kun was kicking a soccer ball around with Hiro, but he still had a sticky mess of mochi in one of his hands that he would occasionally eat off of. After a while he must of gotten tired of it because Hiro went to help him wash it off. Aina-chan and I kicked the other ball around a little but then she thought of a game! We collected rocks from the driveway and made a little ring on the ground, and we tossed the ball into the ring, trying to get the ball to stay. I couldn't do it! By the end Aina-chan had three points, Fuma-kun had two and I had zero...again! It had gotten dark so we were in the storage house and Fuma-kun was showing me some of his English skills, he could write a few letters! They both wrote "America" in katakana, アメリカ。 And throughout the time they asked me to say stuff in English...and I asked them to teach me some Japanese! Soon they had to go, though, because it was getting close to dinner time so everyone departed. I was really happy I got to spend some time with the kids, maybe next time I see them they wont be so shy. They called me oneichan, meaning older sister. That's how you refer to people though, as if they were family. A young woman is oneichan, a young man is oneechan (older brother ) an older man can be ojisan (uncle) and so on and so forth.

It was a very wonderful day:)