Our Moms Visit Japan!

On April 26, our moms Brenda and Gloria arrived in Japan to start their 12 day visit! It was really great to see each other after 8 months. We did so many great and memorable things, here are a few of the highlights from their trip!

Tea Ceremony and Dressing in Kimonos: Melissa arranged to have a tea ceremony months in advance before our moms arrived. It took a lot of planning, but it was worth it in the end! It began at 7 am on Sat. April 28 when 2 of our Japanese friends, Nobuko and Izumi, came to our apartment to dress the girls in kimonos. It takes about 45 minutes to put one person in a kimono, so we had to start several hours before the ceremony actually began to get all 5 girls dressed (Brenda, Gloria, Melissa, Chelsea, and Nikki).

Here are some pictures of us getting dressed.

When we were all dressed at 10:00, we drove to the restaurant where we were holding the tea ceremony. We reserved a room on the second floor of the restaurant. A photographer was there to take pictures of us and send some to the local newspaper...it was quite the event!

Our moms were considered the guests of honor, so they were the first to be served the green tea. Melissa's flower arranging teacher, Misayo, made the tea and our Japanese teacher, Mami, served it.

After the tea ceremony, we all ate lunch at the restaurant and then spent the rest of the day at a Japanese village called Nihon Showa Mura, which is about an hour drive from Gifu. At the village we walked around and did some archery.

Eating a Traditional Japanese Lunch:

We ate at many different kinds of restaurants during our moms visit, including Italian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese. On their first day in Japan, we were invited to lunch with Frank's 2 adult private students, Kyoko and Machiko, to a traditional Japanese meal. We had 3 different kinds of soba noodles, some fish, rice, and a few other small dishes. During this meal, we discovered that Melissa's mom really dislikes the taste, smell, and texture of Japanese food and that Frank's mom is unable to sit on the floor due to her knee problems. The combination of the two made for an interesting lunch!

Making Japanese Paper in Mino City:

After lunch, Kyoko and Machiko invited our moms to Mino City while we went to work. Mino City is about a 1 hour drive from Gifu City and is known for Japanese paper. Spending the day with Kyoko and Machiko was very enjoyable for our moms, especially since they are all close in age. After walking around the city's shops, Brenda and Gloria had the opportunity to make paper!

Ikebana Lesson:

Melissa's mom came to watch one of Melissa's ikebana (flower arranging) lessons. The ikebana teacher requested that Melissa wear a kimono and had a photographer come and take pictures of her and Brenda during the lesson. It's so cute how they get so excited when foreigners are around!


Frank and Melissa's English Lessons:
We had to work a couple of days while our moms were here and one day they joined us for our lessons with the kids! Brenda went to Melissa's 4 classes and Gloria went to 3 of Frank's. The kids loved meeting them and asked a ton of questions, such as their favorite color, animal, food, and sport. One kid even asked their blood type!

3 Days in Kyoto:

We spent 3 packed days of sightseeing in Kyoto...see our next blog to read about our experience!

Our Last Day:

Our last day together turned out to be perfect. We went to a small cafe and had cake and coffee. There was a pianist there playing American songs on the piano. Afterwards we went shopping and ate dinner at a great Italian restaurant. We also went on a short bike ride around our neighborhood. The goodbye was tough, but we know that each day spent in Japan is a time we will all never forget!