Friendship Day

Last week we were invited to join a group of gals for Friendship Day.  It was a luncheon put on by a group of Japanese ladies. We arrived and were greeted by Kimono clad women who handed each of us an origami crane.  The color of your crane determined which table you were seated at.

The get together started with a welcome speech and a lady playing a crazy instrument, called a Koto. Then they had an Ikabana demonstration, where they arranged different branches and flowers in order to symbolize the New Year. The three main plants they feature for the New Year are pine trees, bamboo, and plum blossoms.  The pine branches represent long life, are though to be sacred, and stand for eternal prosperity (hmm, glad I picked the pine and lemon scented deodorant this month!) Bamboo is also thought to be sacred, it grows fast, and has vitality. Plum blossoms just make them feel happy and represent spring coming soon.  I was surprised by how attentive they were to the placement of each flower or branch.  It turned out beautiful though! I was eyeing some of the branches thinking I could really use some for decoration in my house!

Then we got to eat! It was potluck style, so each of the Japanese ladies brought a dish. I tried to get a little bit of everything, but my plate wasn't big enough and the cub didn't make it very easy for me either.  I tried leaving him at the table with my neighbor, but he wasn't having it.  So I tried taking him through the line with me, nope.  He ended up being held by a Japanese lady who was beaming carrying him about. The cub liked the noodles and some of the rice, he spit out and gagged on a sweet rice ball with some sort of edible wrapper (which made the Japanese ladies at the table howl with laughter).  They did praise him on trying most of the foods.  He also liked a Jell-O type dessert. My favorites were the lotus root salad (lotus root with a sesame dressing, yum!), whatever the deep fried ball in the center of my plate was (chicken I think), and the different sushi rolls.

The cutest little bunny dessert.  They ran out so I took a picture of someone else's. I'm not sure what the outside is made of, but the inside is a sweet red bean paste. The texture of the outside reminded me of playdough when she tore it in half. 

Once we'd all finished lunch it was time to play a game.  It was "Rock, paper, scissors" but you made a train. I didn't follow initially, but then they gave us a demo. Two people pair up and whoever loses the round has to go behind the winner and becomes the caboose.  Then music would play and we'd chug along until the music stopped.  Whoever you were closest to, you played with their "Engine." Loser's whole "train" goes to the back of the winner's and so on.  Eventually it was down to three trains (all led by Japanese ladies), so they had to duke it out.  The train I was in won, so each person got a present.  I let the cub pick ours (they were wrapped); we ended up with a tray and a pretty red piece of cotton material with a little design on it.  The cub used it to wrap clementine's up at the table.

Once the game was over, the ladies sang us a cherry blossom song and then we headed home.  It was an amazing afternoon spent with some local ladies and I can't wait until we can do it again!