Weekly Wrap UP 9/15/17-- Japanese Festival at the Gardens

This past weekend was the Japanese Festival that is held yearly at our local botanical gardens.  I am told it is the second largest in the United states.  We try to go every year and we always learn something new in addition to seeing some of our favorite exhibits. 

I love the bonsai exhibit and enjoy seeing the many types and styles of the bonsai.  This one was label as over 65 years as a bonsai tree.

I just love the juxtaposition of the bleach branch with the green!  

I also drag my family to see the Ikebana exhibit

so many wonderful arrangements 

My husband wanted to see the Kendo martial arts demonstration.

Since Firedrake is learning Japanese she stopped by writing table and surprised the folks with her ability to write her name is Japanese!  My daughter as also surprised us at  the booths when she asked for prices in Japanese and understood their responses!  Tutoring is paying off:)

This year they had a place where kids could try on Kimonos's and Firedrake tried one on:)

pretty bow in the back!

Firedrake wanted to see the art form of Rakugo.  It is a 400 year old form of storytelling in Japan that she has read about.  It is a minimalistic performance art that features a single storyteller dressed in a kimono, kneeling on a cushion, using only a fan and a hand towel for props, to tell a comedic story.  

 For the first time this year they were having a tea demonstration in the auditorium.  My very dear husband stood in line for over an hour while I was at the storytelling location with the kids, so that we would be able to get in and get good seats to see it.   He was first in line so we got first row seating!!

They did a slide presentation that explained each step of the tea ceremony and what it means 

Next they brought out a professionals who went though the whole process.  

Since they were recreating a formal tea ceremony, very little communication is done by the host and her guests.  It is suppose to be an experience of peace and harmony for all.

It was very interesting to see how much time and effort goes into this ceremony.  Tea ceremonies can last 30 minutes or over four hours depending on the host, guests and the reason for the ceremony!

There last thing we saw on this day was the traditional Japanese dancers.  My daughters Japanese tutor is a member of this group so we stopped by to say Hi and watch the performance.

We spent nearly 6 hours at the festival and we still did not see everything that was there.  We find that is the case every year, hence the reason we keep going back and looking for new things to see and do:)