If someone had told me......

......................that I would be spending my 60th birthday ('kanreki' in Japanese) in Tokyo, riding my bicycle (in high heels, no less) to an Ikebana class, having lunch at the top of a building overlooking Mt. Fuji and drinking Bellinis in a champagne bar, I would have found it difficult to believe you.

Sorry for the gap in my postings, but having heard from many of you this week, it seemed a great idea to go back online and do a brief update. I will go back and add in the missing details later on, as we have had some interesting travels in Japan and would love to share them, albeit not in the correct chronological order.

Tony had to travel this week, so we started my birthday celebration at the weekend at a wonderful restaurant, Brasserie Manoir, which is within walking distance of our house. The meal was beautifully prepared and presented, which is fairly typical of restaurant food here in Tokyo. Although a French restaurant, there is a very Japanese way of cooking and serving the food, as you can see from the photographs.

On my actual birthday, Wednesday, I cycled (in the aforementioned high heels!) to my Ikebana Class that is held in the nearby girls' school. For those of you who may not know, I have made it my singular obsession to gain my teaching certificate in Ikebana flower arranging before I leave.

I finished the official coursework a few weeks ago and have earned my ‘flower name’, which is the combination of one syllable from my teacher’s flower name and one syllable from a flower of my choosing. My flower name is ‘Ju Sen’, which apparently sounds very pretty to the Japanese ear. It also seems a bit like an abbreviation of Julie+ Solf (my unmarried name)+ Ennis  Also, I may be called ‘Sensei’ if I ever decide to teach, so all very neat and tidy, lexically speaking.  I have been following my 82 year old teacher around Tokyo, taking classes wherever she teaches in order to complete the final part that will allow me to teach once I return to the US.

This is my teacher with me on my birthday, she gave me a red vase (more about the color red and 60th birthdays later) and I created an arrangement in it with the materials I had for my day's lesson.

  

 This is the arrangement that I made that day.

After a dash to the US Embassy to get forms signed for our departure and the start of Tony's retirement (!!) at the end of the year,  I was taken to lunch by the group from Tony's office, again a lovely meal at the top of the building looking out over the rooftops with Fuji in the distance (it was a beautiful, cool day with bright blue skies). A beautiful 'kaiseki' meal, which is many small courses. Below, you can see the carved radish (one of the large Japanese Daikon radishes) and the plants are rice.

 Sashimi (raw fish with carved vegetable leaves)

Dessert was unusual, too.
Later in the day, my lady friends from mahjong took me to a champagne bar and we had a relaxing evening drinking Bellinis and telling funny stories. It was a very lovely day, although I missed my family and friends and look forward to celebrating with you all when we get home.

Oh, I nearly forgot to explain about the significance of wearing red on your 60th. When you reach 60, you will have been around the Chinese Zodiac, with its 12 animals (this is the year of the Dragon) five times. This reflects the passage of the five elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, water.  At 60, the Japanese believe that you start again with your childhood. The word for baby is 'aka-chan' and 'aka' means red. As you may see, I am wearing a red top in the photo of me and my sensei and the vase she gave me is red. In my second childhood, I plan to behave badly and expect to suffer no consequences!

My final celebration in Tokyo is next week, when a group of ladies will all wear red and we will go to dinner together. So, I have been very fortunate to celebrate in so many ways.

Still here and enjoying the city life

For those friends and family who are wondering where we are, we are still in Tokyo and plan to be here until the end of the year, which will mean we have lived here for three years. It has gone so quickly and I am afraid that I have let this journal languish since last year. After the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation leaks, it became very hard to contemplate writing a light-hearted diary of the events in our lives, when we were witnessing so much suffering around us. The challenges to people's lives in the Tohoku region that was so badly affected by the events of March 11th, 2011 still continue, but Tony and I decided that we wanted to be in touch with all our circle of family and friends and that this was the most effective vehicle to use. When I was last in the USA, several people mentioned that they had felt out of touch with us, since I had ceased writing this blog, so that made me sit up and take notice, so here we are, online once again. My reporting of events from last year might be a little fogged up by the passage of time, but we have some fun photographs to share and hopefully, several interesting insights into the Japanese way of life and psyche.

I am going to start with my latest great joy; I have been studying Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) since the fall of 2010, but missed many classes after leaving for several months after the earthquake. Since I came back in the summer of 2011, I have been taking my studies more seriously and latterly have decided to pursue my teaching certification from the Sogetsu School. This means working very hard and producing at least 6 arrangements a week. My teacher is wonderful and patient and always comes wearing a gorgeous kimono. At 82 years of age she is well known in Ikebana circles and is absolutely remarkable. I hope I do not wear her out with my enthusiasm and determination to plow through the coursework before I leave Japan. The following photographs are a selection of the arrangements I have done so far. Unfortunately, one of the locations where I take my classes is a school dining room, so there are lines of blue plastic chairs that somewhat mar the aesthetics!
 "Ikebana" is from the Japanese ikeru;"keep alive, living" and hana;"flower". The  origin of Ikebana is unidentified, but is it believed to have been started about 500 years ago. When Buddhism reached Japan in the 7th century, Ikebana is thought to have come to Japan as part of Buddhist practice. The offering of flowers on the altar in honor of Buddha was part of worship. Ikebana evolved from the Buddhist ritual of offering flowers to the spirits of the dead. The first classical styles of Ikebana started in the middle of the fifteenth century; the first students and teachers of Ikebana were Buddhist priests and members. As time passed, other schools emerged, styles changed, and Ikebana became a custom among the Japanese society.

 I am studying one of the more recent schools or styles of Ikebana; the Sogetsu School. According to the Iemetsu (headmistress) of the School :

Two containers with intertwined arrangements

"Sogetsu Ikebana is a borderless art which can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, by anybody, and with any materials. Your own arrangement that represents your thoughts springs from your attunement to plants. Ikebana offers the world a revelation of plant beauty and brings both peace of mind and happiness to everyone. Express your own feelings with Sogetsu Ikebana that is always new, always beautiful".

 "In 1927, when everybody believed practicing Ikebana meant following established forms, Sofu Teshigahara recognized Ikebana as a creative art and founded the Sogetsu School. Anyone can enjoy Sogetsu Ikebana anytime, anywhere, using any material. You can place Sogetsu Ikebana at your door, in you living room or on your kitchen table. Sogetsu Ikebana enhances any hotel lobby or banquet room, shop windows and huge public spaces. It will suit any kind of space, Japanese or Western and enrich its atmosphere".

The arrangements begin by following strict rules, then once you know and appreciate these rules, you are allowed to develop your own style and use your imagination. I have learned to appreciate the materials I am given each lesson and to work with what I have. I have learned to be patient when a careful arrangement suddenly and capriciously collapses. I have learned to look at individual flowers and decide which is the best angle for it to be looked at and enjoyed. I have learned to appreciate my teacher (sensei), who, with one flick of her wrist, can turn my not so interesting display into something extraordinary.  My family are all able sketch artists, painters, designers and perhaps this is my small speck of an artistic streak finally encountering and enjoying its outlet.

Warabi Naked Festival

In February, I went with a group of ladies from the Tokyo American Club, by coach, to a town on the outskirts of Tokyo. Our destination was the Warabi Naked Festival. With a title like that, it was just too intriguing to resist! The purpose of the festival was to baptize the new babies, born in the previous 12 months, in a muddy pond and then take them to a tiny temple to be blessed by the priest. A large group of men from the village, dressed only in white loin clothes went in procession between the pond and the temple with the babies. It took quite a long while to take each one between the pond and the temple and there was much cheering along the pathway, mixed in with the crying of the babies. Then, the men fortified themselves with saké as they stood around a fire. This was followed by groups of them, stacked on each others shoulders, fighting each other in the muddy waters of the pond, until one team collapsed into the water. Then more saké, more warming over the fire (it was very chilly that day) and more wrestling in the mud. All in all a fascinating day, with the local townspeople somewhat perplexed by the influx of 50 or so women from the USA/UK/Australia! The men shared their saké with us and tried to put mud on our faces (apparently, bringing good luck to the one muddied).

I think that the photographs speak for themselves.......

Wilhelm Solf

While the family were visiting in December, we went to the German Embassy, where we were shown the photograph of my grandfather, Wilhelm Solf, who was Ambassador to Japan in the 1920s. This a photograph of Henry, Hugo and Julie with (great) grandpa's photograph (top left).

Christmas and New Year 2010

Hugo and Julie in Roppongi Hills with the Christmas Lights

We had a wonderful time with Henry, Cat, Hugo and his good friend, Ryan,  joining us here in Tokyo for the holiday season. The weather was fine, clear and cool with blue skies. We enjoyed a traditional Christmas interspersed with visits to temple and shrines and Mt. Fuji. The young took side trips to Kyoto and Osaka. Probably the highlight of their time here was New Year's Eve, where we followed dinner at a restaurant called Gonpachi (where a famous scene from the movie, Kill Bill, was supposed to have been filmed) with seeing in the New Year at a shrine nearby, where the Tokyo Tower was the backdrop for thousands of clear helium balloons rising up as the new year was chimed in by Buddhist bells.

Henry making a wish at a temple in Kamakura