Junihitoe

On February 21st, Josh, two of my Shogai students, and I visited Himeji's Historical Museum. My favorite experience while visiting the museum was being able to try on a >junihitoe, also known as a 12 layer kimono. I was told by the ladies who dressed me that this type of kimono was worn by the ladies of the Imperial Court in the Heian period (794- 1185). However, at the Historical Museum people are given the opportunity to try on this kimono or samuri armor three times a day in an area of the museum that is free to visitors. We arrived at the museum early that morning in hope that I would be the only person wanting to try it on. If there are other people waiting in line, we would have to draw straws to see who gets to dress up. Luckily, I was the only one who who showed up at this time so I there was no drawing of the straws. The whole process of putting on the kimono took about 15 minutes. They do not put on each layer individually, instead they would add multiple layers at a time. It was very easy for me to hold my arms extended out for the first couple of layers but the third layer was more like 7 or 8 all at once! It was extremely difficult for me to keep my arms held out for the entire time because the weight of the kimono was so heavy. I later found out that some Junihitoes can weigh up to 40 pounds. YIKES!! When the ladies finished, there was a little photo shoot and then the ladies helped me to take the kimono off. This process was really easy! They just untied the obie (belt) and slipped the kimono off me like a jacket! Trying on the kimono was such a neat experience and I totally felt like a Japanese princess! Here are a few pictures... please enjoy!

The first layer!

The third layer composed of 7 or 8 kimonos!

Almost finished!

TA DAA!

Me with my handsome husband!

Ikebana Exhibition

On Valentines Day, Josh and I went to an Ikebana Exhibition at the Egret center in downtown Himeji. One of my friends, Eiko, participated in this exhibition by entering a modern rose arrangement. We enjoyed strolling through the exhibition and admiring the beautiful flowers and designs. Here are a few of the unique arrangements that we saw!

Valentines Day... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

As Valentines Day is upon us I wanted to write a post celebrating my wonderful Valentine.  She is truly the love of my life and the answer to my prayers.  She is the sanity to my craziness and the up to my down.  She is beautiful beyond measure, whether she is wearing a dress or sweat pants, makeup or none.  She is kind and caring, humble and fair.  She is my best friend and she loves me unconditionally.  She is smart and witty, clever and funny.  Her smile melts my heart and can light up a room.  Her strengths are my weakness and she is good at all of the things that I am not.  She has an infectious personality and the only time I don't miss her is when I am with her.  She always lifts me up when I am down and believes in me even when I don't.  She's a fabulous cook and she keeps our house perfectly in order.  I feel so blessed to call her my wife and I cant imagine my life without her!  

A not so scary witch...

Enjoying some Chocolate...

Audrey on a rainy day... she is so cute!!

Japanese Audrey... utsukushii (beautiful)

Mochi Making

Sunday morning we were back up and running at 8:00 because they were having a mochi making event down the street from our apartment. We thought this would be a great way to spend sometime with people in our community, and also a couple more hours with Andre before he left. Now if you have never made mochi before, you are totally missing out! It started with tons of rice boiling in pots on top of some coal burners. Once the rice was cooked they would then move it to a giant hollowed out tree trunk where they would then smash it with a huge wooden mallet. I know some of you are reading this and thinking that I have to be making this up, but its true, and we even posted a video to prove it. So here's how it went. Once the rice was in the tree trunk bowl they gently started mashing it down with the mallet. Some of the towns people would start slamming it right away, but that made rice splatter everywhere. (I still have rice juice on my jacket) So as they gently mash the rice it slowly became more of a dough than a bunch of pieces of rice. Now when it gets to right consistency, the fun begins. All of the sudden they start wielding the mallet like its an ax. I'm pretty sure that some of these guys had some pent up aggression to let out or something because it seemed like they were trying to drive this ball of rice dough through the tree trunk and into the ground. It was fierce... but it doesn't stop there. As these men are wielding this huge mallet there is a little old woman that reaches into the bowl and moves the rice ball around. So they are bent down on the side and right after the mallet hits and starts going back up they start rolling the ball around and adding water to make sure it doesn't stick to the bowl. As they are doing this the aggressive guy is already recoiling and bringing the mallet right back down. At some points the little old lady would hold on to the dough and stretch it to the side of the bowl and the mallet would come down while she was still holding on... she would the fold it over and the mallet would come down again. I still to this day have no idea how someone didn't lose a finger or get cracked in the head. Check out the video... their timing is pretty incredible. Once the dough was thoroughly mixed they would grab it out of the bowl and a bunch of ladies would make it into little balls. We watched this process for about an hour before I was handed a mallet. Now I had a problem. I didn't want to be the crazy American that got over zealous with the mallet and sent a little old lady to an untimely death, but I also didn't want to be a sissy and hit the mochi like a little girl. My solution... wait until she moved safely away and then give it a good whack. Well the little old lady didn't like this very much because there was supposed to be a rhythm to this mochi pounding business. She would yell and scream at me to hit the mochi and I would politely pretend that I had no idea what she was saying and wait until her head and hands were nowhere near the ball of rice. There were a couple of times that she stretched the dough and held on with her hand on the edge of the bowl and as I realized it I would stop my down swing and just stare at her, but she wouldn't budge. So I carefully gave it a well guided tap and she would always look at me as if to say "your a big sissy" and I would politely look at her as if to say "Lady, its not going to be my fault if you don't make it to your 91st birthday". After a few of these exchanges she yelled something and another guy came and took the mallet from me. I had fulfilled my purpose without any bloodshed. After all of the rice balls were made we were ate a few and headed home. All in all it was a great morning. We had a wonderful time participating in this traditional Japanese experience.

Cooking rice the old fashioned way.

A giant ball of mochi, ready to be separated into smaller balls

Me trying not to hurt the little old lady... and keep my man card

Finished mochi... 20 minutes later those were being devoured!

The video I promised earlier... notice how they have no regard for human life!