We enjoyed this year too!!!! Our regular yearly activity “Miso paste cooking & Mochitsuk Party ( International Potluck)” at Nishijima Farm!!!
This time, we were very very happy to enjoy with new friends from Pakistan and India and Vietnam!! and a guest from Kyoto who is a famous sommelier!! Wow!!
That was very enjoyable moments to taste world various dishes with very yummy freshly pounded mochi!! White one and Brown one!! Brown mochi is very precious as it should be only made from pesticide free organic rice!
Of course we are really looking forward to the miso paste we will be able to taste in this Autumn!
Thank you so much Nishijimasan and everyone for the great amazing time!!
We enjoyed Japanese New Year Meal “Osechi” おせち cooking, having our lecturer Kyoko Asano san who is a great cooker!!
Here are Kyokosan’s website.(^^) https://kazekao.net/ https://www.facebook.com/kazekao/
This is THE ACTIVITY which I had longed to organize for our GMM!!!!! I could finally schedule and organize this!!! So exciting, and so happy!!!!
Have you ever heard about Hatsume Sato called the Japanese Mother Teresa?
(http://diamond.jp/articles/-/68613) Kyokosan’s mother Ms. Shigeko Makita had learnt from Hatsumesan directly her spirit, philosophy and methods.
Kyokosan has inherited them from her mother Shigekosan.
I have felt that Kyokosan’s dishes have profound affection and deliciousness, whenever I have tasted her dishes and have learnt from her.
That is why I asked her to give her osechi cooking workshop for us.
Today, we learnt each meaning of dish, how to cut and cook and decorate. Finally we enjoyed dishing up them on each special plate!!
(As for me, I was deeply impressed not only with those cooking but also with Kyokosan’s nested lacquered boxes 重箱 which is over 100 years old inherited from her mom and grandma!! Amazing!! Tradition is priceless indeed!! )
[日本語下に続きます]
Could you believe we have a bar with kids playing space in Toyama?
This bar “AREA1” has it!!!
The manager of this bar Sho san had worked for nursery schools before, he is a qualified nursery teacher!! Amazing!
He cooks tasty dishes and manages this bar. That is why AREA1 has a space for kids and has welcomed families!!
This nice couple Eric&Miya also love children.
Eric is a professional singer, who has succeeded overseas for decades. (https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/ECAkaOlSkool).
His wife Miyasan is a dance instructor.
Luckily, they offered for us enjoyable happy dancing time in the bar!!!
Eric san and Miyasan selected these tunes for our family dancing time!
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Uptown Funk / Bruno Mars
Isn’t she lovely / Stevie Wonder
ABC / Jackson5
Rock with you / Michael Jackson
Happy / Pharrell Williams
That’s the way / KC & Sunshine Band
Ribbon in the sky / Stevie Wonder
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We enjoyed the dancing time with Ericsan’s great performance, Miyasan’s dance instruction, and Shosan’s delicious meals there!!
Thank you so much for the special event Shosan, Ericsan, Miyasan!!
宮さん、エリックさんが、ファミリーのために選んで下さった楽曲です！
選曲もお二人の、ファミリーに対する想い、センスを感じます♫
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Uptown Funk / Bruno Mars
Isn’t she lovely / Stevie Wonder
ABC / Jackson5
Rock with you / Michael Jackson
Happy / Pharrell Williams
That’s the way / KC & Sunshine Band
Ribbon in the sky / Stevie Wonder
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ショウさん、宮さん、エリックさん！
素晴らしい時間をありがとうございました！
Ms.Zhang Yanping is the dean of Japanese Language faculty, in School of Foreign Languages&Literature, Yunnan Normal University. She has been in Toyama for 1 year this time as one of guest researchers in Toyama University, Faculty of Humanities. This stay is the third one for her.
About 20 years ago, at that time she worked for the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as she had majored Botany in her University time. She came here for the first time to work for the Toyama Botanical Garden as an exchanged researcher during her Botanical specialist career.
Today, Yanping showed us around the Toyama Botanical Garden. It has not only centeral facility, greenhouses but also huge&rich botanical gardens spreading behind them, which we didn’t know about at all!!! She explained it takes 2.5 hours if we choose to walk around all of the gardens. On the day, we enjoyed an electric car tour with explanations the driver offered for us.
They display so many plants from Yunnan. They have installed a special greenhouse only for Yunnan plants. Yunnan is very famous with its perpetual spring-like weather which provides ideal climate for plants and flowers, and also called “City of Eternal Spring”. The city is covered with blossoms and lush vegetation all-year round. Due to its unique climate Yunnan has the most kinds of plants in the world. Surprisingly, we can appreciate a part of Shilin (Stone Forest) here in Toyama!!, which is the World Natural Heritage in Yunnan. It was shipped!!! Unbelievable and amazing!!
Thanks to Yanping, we could learn a lot and have a great time there today!!
Thank you so much!!
Do you know Black tea in Japan is 99% imported. Domestic produced black tea is under 1%. But fortunately here in Toyama, black tea leaf is produced, although the amount is a little 😊.
Toyama has 2 tea leaf farms, one is in Asahi-machi, the other is on Kureha hill.
I was very impressed when I drank it for the first time. Luckily, I could get to know the head of “Toyama Tea Society”, Ms. Kadoshima, and I asked her whether we could experience tea leaf picking as our group activity.
She offered us this workshop held in Asahimachi, which is held every summer once a year there.
In this workshop, we learnt and watched the process from the 1st step (picking raw tea leaf from the farm), to the final step ( we enjoyed tasting the completed black tea)!! It was really amazing time!!
1: Picking tea leaf
2. Remove moisture from the leaves
3. Oxidation, Fermentation
4. Drying
5. Tasting
We spent a lovely day with “Before I Die wall” on May 21 as a part of event “Earth Day Toyama 2017”. Many men and women of all ages came to our booth, though it was really hot like summer.
Have you ever heard “Before I Die wall”?
This is a worldwide public art project created by an artist, Ms. Candy Chang to give us opportunities to think of fulfilling our lives, dreams and hopes, what’s more, to share them with others using this chalkboard. Everyone walking by the board can add a line following “Before I die, I want to…”
“Two of the most valuable things we have are time, and our relationships with other people. In our age of increasing distractions, it’s more important than ever to find ways to maintain perspective, and remember that life is brief and tender. Death is something that we’re often discouraged to talk about, or even think about, but I’ve realized that preparing for death is one of the most empowering things you can do. Thinking about death clarifies your life.”
We believe it has made such a big impression on people all over the world including us.
Our board got a lot of people’s responses as well and some shared their stories with us. They were full of hopes and dreams, sometimes sounded hard to make them come true, but sharing these things with others could give us hints or chances to accomplish their dreams. As Ms. Chang says, it tells we’re not alone, and we also felt our public spaces can be so powerful if we’re given the opportunity to have a voice, and share more with one another.
Our wall appeared on the official site. Please see the details.
As our “Global Mommies Mingling” activity-records during these four years are approved by “Toyama International Center” which is the organization of Toyama prefecture, we are registered as a member of [Toyama International Exchange Group Network Conference] which the TIC has offered and managed!!!!!!!!! Really exciting and so happy!! http://www.tic-toyama.or.jp/extra_inform…/network-list.html…
You can see our GMM name on the webpage!!
On September 1, 2013, I organized our first activity “Tea ceremony at Momono sensei’s house”. During these almost 4 years, 38 activities, 786 participants in total.
Here I would love to express my big appreciation for every friend who participated in the activities, for people who have supported, cooperated to organize, for lecturers who offered their workshops, for friends who have introduced our group to moms and pre-moms who would be interested in, I appreciate all of you from the bottom of my heart.
I am sure that I will keep putting my heart into this management and organizing and connecting more and more moms with improving my intuition and visions untiringly. I would love to kindly ask you for your ongoing supports and helps and hearts.
