December 7 it was a beautiful day. Shoko who is my friend and came from Japan to visit Newtown, and I wore kimono. We were so exited to children and adults of the town.
Shoko brought clothes and brochure of Kurashiki where is our hometown, We displayed calligraphy 愛（Love), 夢（Dream), 絆（Bond), Ninja towel, special origami crane made by Sayaka. I put red felt on the floor, which made the space a little different and special.
I have little guests and adults for my tea ceremony. I skipped historical explanation and taught numbers 1-3 in Japanese before tea ceremony. I was surprised and happy to see one girls know 1-10 in Japanese. Wow! I showed tools and green powdered tea. It was so different reaction from adults. Some were so curious and tried to taste and make tea by themselves. I was so proud of them! I laughed to hear their honest answer to my question,” How do you like it?” ” It taste like water.” ” I don’t know.” I used less green tea for them but they wanted to taste real .Sorry I made it light for young child. I like how they saw and smell and tasted. Very first time to see very very green and served in different way. I had guest who drank green tea, who had been interested in Japanese culture dreaming to visit with a family, thanked us to coming here.I was so glad to see them all. I had a memorable meeting. I would love to meet more next time.
Making origami crane is a little difficult and Shoko taught samurai helmet instead. I showed how to write their names in Japanese. It was a lot of fun for them too. The eyes were shining and they tried to see us write first and wrote without our help. It was amazing! Good job girls and boys！We were so proud of little students. We enjoyed this activity. When we know a name, we feel close. Next time we would like spend more time for this. Two hours seemed short and I promised Rose Ann to do this kind of activities again.
Thank you, Rose Ann and Elizabeth for inviting us to this event!