Sankeien 三溪園

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On Friday we took a field trip to Sankeien, a lovely historic garden in Yokohama (click here for the English guide). Our visit was sponsored by the Rotary club, so we began with some speeches from the members, and then broke into groups to do different activities. My first activity was　華道 (kadō) or flower arranging.　
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The instructor explained the principles of different arrangements, and then walked us through an arrangement while other volunteers came around to help us. I elected to "live in my own world" as the instructor said, and did a more open style arrangement than he was doing. I guess I'm not too good at conforming.... but he did say that it looked nice. I honestly felt that the wide container that I was using and the crescent shaped nature of my particular twigs lent itself to this arrangement better. This is my imitation of the shape of my arrangement...
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Some of my classmates express their feelings about their arrangements.
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Our next activity was 茶道 (sadō) or tea ceremony. This is a highly rituatlized way of serving and drinking matcha. In this photo, our hostess is preparing the tea.
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The 和菓子 (wagashi), or Japanese-style sweet served before the matcha is given. These sweets are meant to balance the slightly bitter flavor of the matcha, and are carefully crafted to represent the seasons.
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Our final activity was a stroll around the garden with one of the volunteer guides. The following photos show the (mostly) Edo period buildings that were moved to the garden when it was built by a wealthy silk merchant in the late 19th and early 20th century.
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