You Can Learn A Lot Of Things From The Flowers...

"...especially in month of June..."

It's a lovely Tuesday afternoon. The temperature is relatively mild (around 75), but the best part is that the humidity is no longer a layer of thick film over every surface (at least for the afternoon). The sun is high, but there is enough cloud cover to diffuse its strength; while still allowing for the much desired swatches of azure sky. Yes. Today is quite lovely~

Every Tuesday (starting today) the students of JCMU have only three 50 minute classes (instead of the usual four) so they can get out of school early and participate in select "Cultural Activities". This week's was Ikebana.

(close-up of Ashley's)

Ikebana is the Japanese art of Flower Arrangement. And we all know how much Ashley likes flowers~

They walk into the quiet lobby of the academic building, and are ushered forward to low standing tables with a dish, a pair of clippers, and a bouquet of flowers rolled in of white paper. Only six students (all girls, go figure) signed up, and so they kneeled quietly in front of their tables and looked toward the two obaasan (grandmotherly women) with slight apprehension. After a brief introduction (with copious amounts of bowing) they gathered around their new sensei's table to watch her work in silence. The other obaasan would explain something every now and then, and our Japanese Language sensei (the only male sensei, and he was the one helping out~) would condense it into more simple Japanese to explain to the eager students.

(close-up of Katie's)

After her efficient and decisive planning and placement, the Ikebana sensei displayed her work to the students and then let them return to their tables to try their own hand at it. some of the principles they were instructed on:
A-symmetry is better than symmetry
Multiple levels
Multiple heights
Cover/Hide the base

Challenge Accepted.

And so with a determined look on her face, Our First-Time Florist grabbed her shears and began comparing her different pieces she had to work with. It didn't take long for the rest of the Japanese Language sensei to come by to see how they were getting on. so with a larger audience than there were students, they clipped and positioned and compared and re-clipped until they were satisfied with their results. During that time, however, the Ikebana and Japanese sensei would walk around and say things like "kirei desu ne" ("That's pretty"), "jouzu dayo" ("very skilled"), and "sugoi ne" ("amazing"); to which you have to reply "iie, iie..." ("no, no...") because accepting praise for your work would make you seem conceited. And yet she still messed up and said "Arigatou gozaimasu" ("Thank you very much") on numerous occasions~

After nit-picking at the way the leaves were turning (and sighing at the lengths of the stalks she accidently cut too short) she stood on her sleeping legs and carefully cared her dish to the benches where they're going to be displayed for the next week.

(The third from the left: Ashley's;
The third from the right: Katie's;
The second from the right: Jenny's)

And here are some more pictures~

(Ashley's)

(Katie's)

(Jenny's)

And yes. She is fully aware that the little ball shaped flowers look like they were taken straight out of "Horton Hears a Who". (We're just full of childhood wish fulfillment here...)