December 18th 2013: Learning Ikebana Flower Arranging in Boston

Tonight after work, I had a meetup event to learn Ikebana, a Japanese flower arrangement technique. I left work a little early and somehow managed to find free parking close to the place where we were to attend the class, at one of the member's home. I was a little late in the end, but the instructor was even later due to traffic. After helping him with bringing the supplies into the conference room, where the lesson was to be held, he started the lesson by telling us what Ikebana (living flower) is all about, with the particular subclass of Moribana being what we were going to practice today. The piece consists of 3 main components, namely the shin (man), which is 1-2 x the diameter of the bowl it is placed in, the soe (heaven), which is ~half to threee quarters of the length of the shin portion, and finally the tai (earth), which is one third the length of shin. The three components have to give a sense of 3-dimensionality, forming a triangle of sorts.

We were provided with a bowl,

and then a kenzan, a bed of needles used for placing the flower pieces, placed in the center of the bowl,

with the bowl being filled with water for the purpose of keeping the flowers hydrated.

The instructor first did a demonstration for us, picking out from different branches and flowers to make his piece.

He first placed the shin piece after cutting it to the appropriate length,

then proceeded to cut the holly, removing the fruit,

 to serve as his soe.

He then used a pine branch to serve as his tai,

going through a few variations to show us the concepts involved.

It was then time to make our own work of art. We had a lot of material to choose from,

and I finally came up with this piece of work,

Although I had to have several changes done

until my instructor was finally happy with my work.

Another point the instructor wanted to show us, was regardless of whether we started with the same materials, different people will come up with different creations, as shown below.

With that, our lesson ended. I was very disappointed when we were told that we could only bring our flowers home and not the bowl or the kenzan, especially because of the cost of the class. It defeated the whole point of me making the art piece, as I had wanted to give it to someone else. Overall, I somehow cannot get a feel for appreciating this type of art, as it looks bare most of the time in my opinion, and it is also hard to transport. Overall, I don't think I will do Ikebana artwork again.

After leaving the place, I decided to go grab a late dinner at Snappy Sushi nearby. This place looks decent on the first floor, though a little rundown in the basement, where I ended up sitting. I was half expecting the same mediocre menu I saw online, but apparently they now serve ramen and steamed buns as well. With that, I decided to try the 4 different steamed buns, namely the Gobo Veggie (shredded burdock root, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, sweet soy sauce, sesame seeds, shichimi togarashi), the BLT (bacon, roasted tomato, mozzarella, fried onion, lettuce, wasabi mayo, dijon mustard vinegar), the Salmon Cake (baked salmon cake, lettuce, sliced cucumber, sweet basil, sesame gochujang oil, balsamic glaze, wasabi tartar sauce), and the Pork Char Siu (lettuce, cucumber slices, shredded leek, mustard vinegar, wasabi mayo, sweet soy) buns.

For my ramen, I got the Spicy Lobster Paitan Ramen (butter steamed lobster tail, anchovy soy sauce, red hot miso, shichimi togarashi, leek, kimchee, wood ear mushrooms, baby arugula).

I decided to get one sushi roll as well, getting the Samba de Shino Roll (avocado, cucumber, eel, and flying fish roe with torched salmon on top, dressed with Snappy Sushi’s original pineapple salsa (tomato, red onion, cilantro) and microgreens),

as well as a teapot of Green Tea.

The roll was actually not too bad, though the onion spoilt it a little for me. The ramen was delicious, and thankfully not too spicy, and the lobster meat was fresh as well. Of the buns, only the salmon cake one seemed bland, while the rest were full of textures and flavors. Overall, an excellent meal. I definitely recommend trying this place out if you are in the area.

With that, I headed home for the night, thankful that my car had not been towed as I had left it while it was still illegal to park there with 10 minutes left to go before it became legal.