Christmas back in Haslett

Christmas was really great this year! I hadn't been home for Christmas in 2 years so it was really nice to be there for all the old family traditions of baking, stockings, listening to the Charlie Brown Christmas album... It was also one the snowiest Christmas' that Michigan's had in years so it was really beautiful and we got some good cross-country skiing in in the trails behind our neighborhood.
My brother Jack opening presents on Christmas morning. My dad took the xmas morning photos and for some reason they all turned out blurry like this, but you get the idea.
My parents' anniversary is the 26th so we have a tradition of going to The Old English Inn restaurant. It's classic British architecture with a beautiful English garden in the summer. It was built in the 20s by somebody who worked for Ford I think. The food is awesome, a lot of traditional French food.

Views while skiing in the trails behind my house.




Tons of snow. It all melted after Christmas but I hear it's snowing again there. This is how much snow we had all winter last year in Montreal.
My house



My mom and I baked up a storm! We've made all kinds of Christmas cookies together since I was little and it's one of my favorite things to do.
This cake is from Martha Stewart, I love her cutesy recipes :) Perfect for the snow we had.

Kimono shoot with Junko :)

Early in December Junko and I decided that for our last lesson before Christmas vacation we would do a brief kimono wearing and ikebana lesson, instead of our usual weekly shodo lesson. Junko wanted to get my hair professionally done kimono style (which we did) and then wanted me to wear the kimono out to a restaurant with her and her family (which we didn't do :)). The kimono were quite difficult to sit in and couldn't imagine actually having food and a beer and still being able to breath so we knixed that idea.

I enjoyed trying them on because I love the textiles and colors, but it was quite a time consuming process. I'm amazed that women were able to do it alone every morning. It was a good experience though.


Here the "obi"(fabric around the waste) is tied yukata style in a bow.

This is the calculation sketch for ikebana, much more complicated than I thought and this is just the basic style! The tallest plant must be 80cm, the second is 2/3 of that and the third is 1/2 the height of the first. The plants are always organized in a triangle and represent whatever is seasonally growing at that time.

These pictures are posed, I didn't really do this knealing as you're supposed to. Chairs are just more comfortable...

Junko tying the obi on me.

Yamakita

Tetsuo, the pottery artist (I don't know his name and I only have it written in kanji) and Chiharu in his studio.

Last weekend I went to Yamakita (about an hour from Kochi City) with Chiharu (who works at Hello School) and Tetsuo (a Hello School student). We had such an amazing beautiful time!! Yamakita is famous for it's mikans (Japanese mini-orange) and we were lucky to have a gorgeous day to pick them. Tetsuo's best friend is a pottery artist and has a small studio just walking distance from the mikan field. After we picked mikans, he showed us his work and we made mugs on the potter's wheel and ate a bento that Chiharu prepared! It was such a relaxing great day.








































Tetsuo, the mikan farmer and Chiharu. The farmer was so cute.





























view from the mountain

Kiwi Picking with Junko and Family

On November 23 I went to Inochyou with Junko-sensei (my shodo teacher/kinda host mom) and her family. She has a second house there that her husband Yoshichi grew up in. It's extremely beautiful there, on a mountain with an amazing view. She harvests vegetables and fruits on the land there and this time we picked kiwis and yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit).
Inochyou is about an hour from Kochi and very rural. I was very lucky to be invited to go!

Eshyu, Junko's grandson and his cousin w/ kiwis
me picking kiwis and Junko
Junko's family, Yoshichi on the right

kiwis grow on small trees and are picked in late fall, i learned this that day
the home where Yoshichi grew up, very traditional


outside of home
live crabs for sale at a store on the way
We also went to Yoshichi's sister's house that day. She has a lot of land and is a farmer. She has a pet wild boar (or sow cuz it's female) named Hanako. We couldn't pet her but we fed her pumpkins and potatoes. Apparently, years ago Yoshichi's sister's dog found baby Hanako alone in the forest and carried her back in his mouth like a puppy. Since then she's been part of the family.




picking yuzu