Umi-bozu, macha pound cake and shodo

September 27, 2011 by cristyburne Leave a comment

What do umi-bozu, macha pound cake and shodo have in common?

They were all part of my busy last week, which was so packed with visits and adventure that today I have a head cold and am staying home to do chores instead of anything remotely exotic :-)

But here is my week in three parts:

1) A thankyou letter and umi-bozu art!

This week at Dongara District High School, I also recieved a thankyou letter and some art…COOL!

I was also lucky enough to get several thankyou speeches from students, and that’s always a thrill.

An umi-bozu threatens a passing ship.

(BTW, I think you’re very brave to speak in front of all your friends and classmates) (I find it’s much harder to speak in front of people I know than total strangers).

So thank you for your thank yous! I loved them!!

2) A chance to try shodo!

Over the weekend I did a ‘meet the author’ session for a fundraiser for the International Board on Books for Young People at the Hyogo Centre as part of an afternoon of fabulous presentations, one of which was made by the ‘Kobe Girls’, Miki and Maiko.

It was great! I was able to try:

'tomo' or friend, painted by yours truly 🙂

– shodo calligraphy (harder than it looks!),

– sumi-e ink painting (impossible!), AND

– the girls had cooked up a storm of modan-yaki (like okonomiyaki but with more ingredients), gopan (rice bread) and macha pound cake (green tea flavoured cake) for everyone to enjoy. YUM!

3) A recipe for macha pound cake!

Here is Miki and Maiko’s recipe for macha pound cake:
おいしい！

Macha pound cake