A day of rest, head colds, and flower arrangements

Today I woke up with a head cold and all I could think about was trying not to get Joni sick. That being said today was a day of rest so it’s a short blog. Emily had a class in flower arranging called ikebana. She actually wrote the following: 

Now an interlude by Emily! Nick knew I would love an Ikebana class (Japanese flower arranging) so he agreed to babysit so I could go!

I was picked up by a friendly woman from Osaka and we chatted to pass the time on the 20 min taxi ride. We showed up in a sleepy neighborhood of Kyoto. A cute older Japanese lady came to greet us. She didn’t speak any English, so my guide acted as a translator. She led us up a staired walk to her traditional Japanese house. After slipping off my shoes at the front door, I was led down a hall complete with sliding shoji screens tatami mat floors to the floor arranging room. She taught me the fundamentals — start with the branches in an odd number, then the flowers, and then the leaves. There was importance of having some upright and others leaning front and back. She showed me how to do it the first time, then removed all the flowers and had me do it on my own. At the end, she would adjust a few to positions that were more “active.” She was very pleased with my arrangements, and said I should continue to practice when I came home! The guide said she was very happy, so she offered us some green tea in her traditional parlor. We chatted about her life and her house/ garden. She has been doing flower arranging for 50 years! After this, the taxi came to pick us up. The old woman came all the way down to the car and bowed until we drove away. Time to go back to my husband and baby!

Sounds like Emily had a blast. I on the other rested with Joni all day. We did visit a spectacular tea house in that afternoon and sampled Warabimochi (see picture). It is a traditional Japanese dessert made from bracken starch, giving it a soft, jelly-like texture. Ours had edible flowers beautifully encased within each. It is typically coated in kinako, a roasted soybean flour, and served with a drizzle of kuromitsu, a dark sugar syrup.

After that the day was chill. Sorry for the short blog but still feeling under the weather.