Canadian Gardening: Trip to Japan, 1 by ViolaAnn

ViolaAnn wrote:
In the evening, we all went to the Sapporo Beer Garden for Genghis Khan, which is lamb and vegetables grilled on a hot plate (all with chop sticks) in the shape of Hokkaido and unlimited draft beer! Their special sauce is made from more than twenty different spices and fruits. This is a very popular meal in Hokkaido and was a part of the program at the conference 18 years ago as well. But then we were in a tent outdoors. Now the beer garden has been enlarged to be an indoor activity. It does get rather smoky and there is a certain amount of spatter from the cooking so we were all given T-shirts to wear for this event. Unfortunately, we neglected to take the camera. If we are given any pictures, I’ll post them later.

The next day was culture day. Only seven of the accompanying people went along. Ryan decided not to get dressed up in a Kimono, LOL. We went to the culture centre http://www.conventionsapporo.jp/culture/culture.html where we were shown the tea ceremony, given a chance to try our hand at Japanese flower arranging and dressed up in Kimonos. We all had a good laugh when told that the kimonos they were using were typical for young, unmarried girls.

Here is the tea ceremony.