Myself and a few other people I know went to an event hosted by the Tohoku Inbound Association. The event was called "Japan in Japan" and it was a chance to experience Japanese culture. We met at the Saito House in Misato.
The Saito House is a traditional Japanese home. It has been standing for 100 years. The owner of the house gave a lot of information about the house, but it was in Japanese, and I did not understand him. But he was so excited to see so many people in his home!
The Saito House has a beautiful garden, but I did not have much of a chance to explore it.
When we first got to the house, we were ushered inside and were put into kimonos. This is me in my kimono.
I had the chance to photograph the kimono process on Sari. It was an interesting feeling being dressed my two older Japanese women.
Here are the three of us dressed up. I'm on the left, Sari is in the middle, and Shannon is on the right.
After we were all dressed up, we got to see a Tsugaru-jamisen mini concert. The group preformed three songs.
I had never seen/heard a shamisen in person, and it is cool. It reminded me a little of a banjo but the sound the instrument made was very different. When they played, they changed the tune of the instrument by the tenjin (they are like tuning pegs on a guitar) during the song.
The group calls themselves Toshu -kai Satosuzu-kai.
We had the opportunity to be photographed with the players.
We had the opportunity to pound mochi. Mochitsuki is the traditional mochi pounding ceremony in Japan.
Mochi is a 'rice cake' in Japan. It is a type of rice that is pounded into a paste that you then eat. Everyone had the chance to help pound the mochi, and the kids had the most fun! The two boys used the kine (the wooden mallet) and a third was counting off for them. Well, it was more like he was yelling at them, but it worked.
Team Kumiko helped us with the mochi.
After working very hard on the mochi, we had lunch.
After lunch, we got to see nitibu - traditional Japanese dance.
This is Karyo Mizuki. She was graceful and it was awesome to watch her dance. She performed two routines. She teaches classes and she is a professional dancer as well.
Sari and I again got called up to take a photo with her.
After the dance, we got to see two Tae kwon Do routines. Mr. Kagawa talked about the routines he was going to show us, but I do not remember what they were called.
Nankin tamasudare is a type of traditional Japanese street performer. Apparently, Nankin tamasudare is a play on words. It can mean a type of flower or a wondrous woven screen.
Mr. Nishino is the nankin tamasudare performer. I had no clue what the chant was, but it was fun!
The last event of the day was a performance by a band. They call themselves Fujiyu -Kai. The band specializes in playing the okarina.
The okarina is a wind instrument that has 4-12 finger holes and a mouth piece.
Soon after the band was finished, we had to say good bye to our kimonos and the house.