Today we were joined by a busy family all the way from Costa Rica.

They just came back from visiting Mt. Fuji & exploring the Asakusa area (Sensouji temple, etc), tomorrow they are visiting Kamakura, and then they are flying home the day after.

We are really grateful they managed to make us a part of their incredibly busy itinerary.

They decided to do the Japanese culture course, and nailed every part of it. (And even insisted on tackling our Sensei’s first name in roma-ji Kaneko at the end. As you can see in the picture above.)

They practiced religiously before they created their final products in the calligraphy part of the course.

Just look at all those practice papers… good thing we give all our students unlimited supply to get a sense before tackling the plaque they will take back.

For their plaques, they chose the following signs:

• 「忍」”nin” which means spy, conceal, and is the first half of the word 「忍者」”ninja”.
• 「道」”michi” or “dou” which means road or path, the latter half of the words 「書道」”shodou” the path of calligraphy/writing and 「茶道」”sadou” the path of tea/tea ceremony.
• 「風」”kaze” or “fuu” which means wind, style, air.

They were also easy to guide through the Tea Ceremony, and didn’t seem to obsessed with instruction, or “performing”.

They quickly got to the essence of the true spirit of sado, which is about a mastery of your mind.

Quieting your impulses & tics, and not really about attaining some unreachable level of perfection or beauty.

And they managed to create some beautiful moss balls, or “kokedama” on the very first try.

If you are interested in taking a class, or the the full culture course, you can read more about all our classes here.