Catching up

As promised here are some of the other activities from this fall: (warning another image heavy post.

In October I went to the Northwest Tea Festival in Seattle.  There were a lot of tea enthusiasts and presentations and tea tastings.  While in Seattle we visited a few of the tea shops as well.

I was also lucky enough to be invited to a few private tea tastings as well

 

The annual Aki Masturi was also held at a local Buddhist temple where ikebana was on display, tea was served and sale of local ceramics

Christy sensei came for koshukai (more detail on that in another post).  

I attended another kimono dressing workshop with a teacher that uses only himo, no clips, no elastic.  I felt more secure and everything stayed in place for all day. So now I am getting rid of all of my clips and elastic.

The kumihimo (braided ties for obijime, for example) will be rescheduled to November 30th, but I tried it on my own with my kit for the workshop.  I am getting hooked on it. Can't wait for the workshop.

And last weekend was Robiraki, the opening of the winter hearth. There were 3 seatings in my little 4.5 mat room.  Sweet zenzai for the sweets, koicha and usucha. Now is the time for the warmth of the ro in the tea room.  Thank you to Karla who assisted with the preparations and helped the younger students get dressed in kimono.

 

 

Whew! that's a lot of photos. And we are not done yet.  Please look at the left sidebar to see other activities for the rest of the year.

Activities at Issoan

For my blog readers, I apologize for not posting.  It seems like I do this periodically  - get out of the habit of blogging and then let it go for a while.  I will do better in the future.

Let's see, we have been busy this summer.  To begin with we have had a workshop or special event since August.  (Image heavy post follows)  Here are some photos from the chashaku carving and bamboo hanaire making workshop

 

Then we had a chabana class

And then in September we had a kaiseki cooking class

Also in September we had Nomura-san from Soujuan kimono who came to exhibit his art kimono and sell kimono and accessories. Kageyama-san came too and she gave kimono dressing lessons as well,

Whew, that's a lot, but we still have more to come....I'll post them tomorrow.

Soujuan Kimono Visits Portland

Naoki Nomura san from Soujuan Kimono Visited Portland at the End of September.  Every year he designs art kimono based on various themes.  This year the kimono were based on Basho's Journey.  Here are a few of the beautiful kimono he showed in Portland.

Nomura san also had kimono, obi, zori and other accessories for dressing in kimono for sale.

And I got a personal kimono dressing lesson from the always beautiful and very accomplished Kageyama san.

A special thank you to Keiko Wright who traveled with them and provided translation.

Thank you Nomura san and Kageyama san