Trip to Japan
A quick vist toTokyo and Oita
Hi Friends.
Belated Eid Mubarak! It was a hard eid for our family as it was our first Eid without my father, and even though I have not been able to celebrate physically with him for years, just knowing that after the Eid prayer, we will FaceTime and talk about the sweets I made and the sweets he will get to eat was always something I cherished. And then the day became even harder after watching the news of children in GAZA being slaughtered on Eid, and the fear and shock we are all feeling overall in this current climate.
However, I was so grateful for the new tiny mosque and its community I have found, after our beloved mosque burnt down in the L.A. fires, which took us in and gave us a feeling of community on Eid day and the whole of Ramadan.
Right after Eid, we went to Japan for a week. My husband’s best friend lives there and has been inviting us for years. Our kids had spring break, so my husband surprised us with this quick trip. My husband and his friend planned everything, of course, with the help of his wife, who was so gracious to help these guys. All this planning made our trip so amazing and fun.
Obviously, for the trip, the first thing I packed were art supplies and drew the first page before we even left, and while I had packing to do…
And I kept a journal of course!! I took lots of cut-up paper from my collage obsession and incorporated all those cuttings in my daily journal. This made the journaling more loose and fun! I highly recommend collage for journaling.
Ok, here are some of my favorite moments.
Studio Ghibli Tour. Our friends in Japan were able to get us tickets, which are sold a month in advance. If you are going to Tokyo, I would recommend looking into it. We are all Studio Ghibli fans here! I remember watching his movies in college and loving them, and my kids love Hayao Miyazaki even more than I. He is truly a genius storyteller and artist of our times, and to see his work from this close was truly the highlight of my trip. I think I started crying, looking at all the original work. It was beyond amazing.
Visiting the countryside. We were lucky to go this time of the year, as cherry blossoms are everywhere. I thought Tokyo looked beautiful. But the countryside of Japan is something else. Our two days in Oita (where our friends live) were amazing, and the cherry blossoms there were from another world. Plus, I am not a city person anymore, and I loved how quiet and calm the countryside of Japan was. Tokyo has all the big city feels as it should!!
Attending a tea ceremony and soba making class: The Tea ceremony is an elaborate process of making and offering tea. There are Tea houses to go to if you want to attend them. So we were lucky to attend one. There are many rules to attend the ceremony, including wearing formal clothes, wearing white socks, sitting on your knees, drinking the tea slowly, holding the bowl with both hands, finishing the last sip loudly, and looking and admiring the tea bowl you were served in. I was so nervous that I or my kids would break or offend the tea host, so I forgot to take any pictures. Rest assured, we did not offend anyone and did not break the tea bowl that we were served in. Whew!
Later, my friend explained that the tea ceremony is not just about serving the tea, but it is the act of slowing down, appreciating small things like stirring a tea, watching the smoke from your bowl, and appreciating the person who is making tea for you. It was really so beautiful
We also took a soba-making class, which was more relaxing, and my kids loved making the noodles and eating them!
Japan was amazing! I am so grateful. I can see why so many of my friends go there year after year, from beautiful, functional every day designs, to amazing food, and such polite culture, Japan has it all. There are so many more beautiful things about Japan besides these highlights that I wanna talk about, but this conversation is for another day!! I am back in my real world, where kids need to be picked up, dinner needs to be cooked, and people are being abducted in daylight and sent to other countries, so more about Japan next time.
Lastly, some good news to share. Like I said in my last post, one of my pieces got selected for Brea Art Gallery’s upcoming ‘40th Annual Made in California’ show, for this year. The opening ceremony is on April 26th (from 5-7 pm) if you are local to L.A. Please come by, I would love to meet you.
That’s all for now
Hugs, my friends,
Sumayya