Ikebana

Yesterday, I arrived at school and went to class. I tried to teach the students the difference between being excited themselves and how something that you do, attend or see may be exciting. I do not know if I got the point across, but I reckon I gave it a solid effort. After class, I was escorted to the gym where we all did some ikebana, which is the Japanese way of making floral arrangements. It was really funny because after all the children were done doing their arrangements (and several of them were quite good), the almighty, all knowing Ikebana master went from student to student telling each one how they could have done better and rearranging what they had been doing the entire morning. Some students just lost it laughing because she would go around with a microphone and announce to the whole gym what ahe thought of your arrangement and then asked if she could move something just a little. A few flowers rearranged and a couple of stems short later, the floral arrangement that the students had worked so hard on looked completely different and not always better than before. I was a bit puzzled because none of us were told what the "rules" of ikebana were, only that this would be a "freestyle" arrangement. So I think it would only be expected that we did not know what we were doing. I found the whole process to be a bit backwards. She told me that I have a very Western mentality as she can tell from my arrangement, when it really was not my arrangement at all but rather one of the student's mothers. I did not have a specific one I just went around and helped the students.

In the afternoon, all the Uchinoura schools gathered in Ginga Arena along with all the men and women in suits to listen to the Kagoshima City Orchestra played. It sounded amazing and it was ll pretty familiar. They played Beethoven's 5th symphony, something by Strauss, a Sound of Music medley and a Disney medley. We ended the event with the Japanese national anthem that I am proud to say I can read almost entirely including most kanji characters.

In the evening, I watched several episodes Season 1 of the TV series 24 (which I highly recommend) before heading to Kaz's house for a pot luck party with her eikawa or adult English conversation class. I liked it very much. It was good fun.

Today I sit here in my office with absolutely nothing to do. Perhaps I will take out my Harry Potter book and read some more. Tonight I am looking forward to seeing Shrek that is playing on TV.