Saturday, November 26th Fee: Y 500

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?hl=ja&ie=UTF-8&tab=wl&q=Iwakuni%20Kawanishi%202-9-35 

(Close to Campagne restaurant & Marukyu grocery store, Hwy 15)

Last Fall I was invited to attend a beautiful tea ceremony in the fall when the leaves were turning. It was at the museum/home of a famous Japanese woman named Uno Chiyo.  

I once read somewhere...”Uno Chiyo has spent most of her life in notoriety.  As a young woman she shocked the world with her bobbed hair, her Western fashions and her insatiable appetite for romance…she was a waitress, a magazine editor, a businesswoman and a kimono designer.  But it is as a writer that she will be remembered….”

Yes, I was captivated by her real life story.  Born November 28, 1897, she was one of the first Japanese women to openly live a more “free-spirited” lifestyle, which was a very big thing back in the early 1900′s.   She was a successful author and became very famous (or maybe I should say “notorious”) for her risque lifestyle.  I often wondered what she thought about the women of today?   What advice would she share with the modern woman?  Uno Chiyo died June 10th, 1996.

Her home in Iwakuni has been preserved as a museum and is open on special occasions to view her beautiful garden and home.   It was a wonderful time with dear friends and I look forward to attending again – hopefully you will too.