Sadako and the One Hundred Kimekomi Balls

Tadodai House was the location and the Japanese ladies the hostesses for the first of this year's four At Large events.  The At Large group includes the usual cast of characters plus another 15 Americans and a half dozen Japanese who don't attend the semi-monthly gatherings.

The first order of business whenever the Japanese ladies host is the Group Picture.  We take group pictures at American At Large parties too but we are not nearly as well organized as our friends.  For one thing, a professional Japanese Self-Defense Force photographer is on hand at their parties.  Here he is lining us up on the risers.  While I can't swear to this, I think he is saying, "Can someone please tell that Mimi person to stop chatting with her neighbor so I can complete my assignment?"  For another thing, we each receive a 5x7 copy of the photograph in a nice paper wrapper when we exit the Japanese parties.  This is roughly five weeks faster than we Americans manage to produce and distribute pictures.

Back in August when we met with the Japanese JAW board members to put together our schedule, they asked us if there was anything in particular the American ladies might enjoy doing this year. Weather Explorer, bless her heart, promptly suggested a Kimekomi workshop. Weather Explorer had such a great time making that kimekomi ball when I dragged her to the Ikebana session last February that she's been taking kimekomi classes at a local community center ever since. We did not know this at the time but her teacher is a former JAW member as she is married to a retired Japanese naval officer.

There was a blue butterfly sticker in my name badge so I headed to the blue butterfly table. These stickers are essential for assuring that the American and Japanese ladies mix and mingle.

"Good Lord, look how organized they are!" remarked a new American member when she saw the supplies arranged on our table.

"You don't know the half of it," an older American informed her. "Notice, please, that the stickers were not randomly affixed. They seem to have taken extra care to divide up the obnoxious middle-aged American ladies so that no one here will have to endure sitting with more than one of them. I'm blue, Mimi is pink, Denise is green, and Lydia is red."

"Oh, I don't think you are the least bit obnoxious."

"That's because you've only known me for five minutes."

The Lady Formerly Known as KSheera Starts Working

The young lady seated herself across from me. She can't say I didn't warn her, right?

"Someone inserted an apostrophy on my name badge. This happened at Ikebana also. Do you know how can I get this fixed?"

"Your name is spelled KSheera and not K'Sheera?" She nodded while applying glue along a seam of her ball, leading me to suspect she can also walk and chew gum at the same time. I waited until she set the knife tool aside and started smoothing her fabric. "That would be my fault on both counts. A crumb of mushroom-shaped cookie must have dropped between the K and S on your membership forms when I was transcribing them. I hope you will not mind going by K'Sheera from now until June because I know the Japanese ladies who created your name badges for both Ikebana and JAW spent hours devising a way to communicate that apostrophe in a language that does not contain that punctuation mark."

"Oh, I understand. That's okay." She is very sweet. The K is silent. (There's another potential epitaph, kids. In your dreams.)


The Author Affixes a Loop.  Note Sharp Tool.

Blue Butterly Balls Minus One.  I'm Still Affixing That Loop.

A Typical Tadodai House Buffet with Four Varieties of Rice

Yuuko and I are flanking Sadako, the kimekomi sensei. Sadako made her blouse and matching purse from a kimono that belonged to her mother.

Upon being introduced to Sadako, I was struck by her name. "Isn't your name the same as little girl from Hiroshima in the story of the one thousand cranes?" "Maybe. I think so."

Over the course of the next three days, I asked four or five of my Japanese friends whether the girl in that story is named Sadako. They all shrugged their shoulders. I do believe I might have accidentally stumbled upon some sort of previously undiscovered cultural gulf. You see, the girl in the story is named Sadako. I checked. Her name is as familiar to me as Cherry Ames, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Freddie and Flossie Bobbsey, and Nancy Drew. While I'd be hard-pressed to name the author who created most of those characters in the final round of Jeopardy!, the characters themselves have stuck with me for nearly fifty years. But I think the opposite might be true on this side of the world.