Japanese Culture Night

I figure, you don't go to a fascinating foreign and exotic country, stay for 4 weeks, and then come home and not share with the people you love the wonderful things you learned and experienced, so I presented a Culture Night for our Relief Society. For a touch of decoration and color I used these three paper lanterns and matching table cloths.

The display on this table features a few items with Japanese writing, Kokeshe Dolls, Shisha Dogs, a couple of fans, some pictures, and tools used in making Bento box lunches with a cookbook for ideas.

For me, a trip to an island surrounded by water and beaches truly is paradise! I only went to the beach 4 times but each time I came away with sand. We also gathered shells, coral, bamboo and two bottles filled with water from the East China Sea. After I got home, I found a large jar at Target and layered and labeled the sand, coral and shells inside it so that I could remember which beaches they came from. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the water yet but I'll think of something. I just don't want it to evaporate away!

While the rice was soaking in the kitchen, the sisters visited and did origami. There were paper doll kits and easy instructions for flowers and animals. Between the dolls, origami and food there was plenty to do and lots of yummy things to sample. I bought some purple yams in San Francisco and made them into potato salad. (These yams are grown on Okinawa). I also made brown sugar shortbread cookies. Okinawan brown sugar is unique in it's processing and has more a flavor like grade B maple syrup which is strong and rich. I bought some pure maple sugar to try to imitate the cookies we got on the island. And a local store just down the street from us is owned and run by a Japanese family and they feature an isle of authentic Asian foods so I was able to get some snack cookies and little "jello jigglers" like Isabel had for dessert at Coco's.