Good morning
everyone!
Before my Sunday
speech, I have to announce one thing.
Today, I will teach for 7th graders right after this service
at their class room... This is my
first time to teach at the
Anyway… last week, I was the guest speaker at
the Stockton Buddhist church for their Nirvana day service. So, I missed hearing Rev. Usuki’s Dharma message. I heard that both of her message and also
her lecture were excellent.
And last night, Michi
and I joined our Jr. YBA spaghetti feed fundraiser. I saw many Jr. YBA students working very
hard to prepare the foods. Their
food was delicious. So, I ate 2
servings of Spaghetti, although my New Year’s resolution is to “fit size L”.
And there were many people who enjoyed
eating… I am sure that last night’s
Jr. YBA fundraiser was very successful.
But I hope more people will try to eat their spaghetti next time...
Some of you may remember that on January
21, at our Dharma school service, I announced that I was going to make a
puppet. At that time, I requested
suggestions from our
2 weeks later, I received 2 ideas for
puppet designs. One was from
And now… I would
like to show you their puppet designs.
(Hang paper up) This puppet was
designed by
Is this an unusual name? Some of you may know that Japanese
people call cherry blossoms “Sakura”.
Every Saturday morning, we have a Japanese language school called “Sakura
Gakuen”. The
pronunciation of
I told Rev. Bob about the puppet’s name “Sakura”
at our Cub scout 35th anniversary just
passed this Friday night. He said “That’s
good. So, is the last name going to
be Mento?”
Hahaha, that’s funny. Right?” He laughed… but I could not get it…
Anyway, I decided the puppet’s name will
be Sakura and last name will be Mento. In comparison to making Michi’s handmade wedding dress which took 2 months… it was
easy to sew the puppets… I took
just 2 nights to complete making Sakura.
So, now, I want to introduce you to Sakura…
Here is Sakura! My sewing skill is so-so… This Sakura could be either a girl or a boy. But I just have a male voice… so, maybe Sakura will have to be a boy… thank you
I prepared a prize for her. So,
The other puppet was designed by Karisa Yamamoto.
Her character is a Kasane set of Mochi! She also
designed several optional hats and wigs…
I think she is a very artistic girl…
Anyway, I really wondered how to make a
round shaped puppet. So, I went to
Jo-an to find the material. And I found something called “boning”. Do you know what “boning” is? It is like a bendable plastic tape. Most often boning is used in dress
making to help keep the shape. I
bought 8 yards of boning and sewed the form together. It took 4 hours to do it. When I finished sewing the boning, it
looked like a cycling helmet.
This took 3 nights to make. You know, it was really easy to sew these
puppets in comparison to Michi’s wedding dress…
Well…here is the puppet. Does this look like a New Years Kasane Mochi set? On the top, I put a tangerine. But actually, this is a KINGS soft
ball. Hahaha…
Karisa
named her puppet design “Kanamochi”. So, we will call this puppet, Kanamochi. Is Karisa in the Hondo now? Ok, I have a prize for you too!
From time to time, I will try to use
either Sakura or Kanamochi for my Sunday speech.
It is difficult to catch attention and
interest of younger students. So,
when I saw Rev. Marvin Harada’s puppet, I decided to try to make a puppet, too.
Every week, we have
Our Jodo Shinshu teachings especially focus
into our daily life.
I will try to
encourage everyone to understand more about Jodo Shinshu teachings,
especially I will try to explain “how meaningful our teachings are in living, our
daily lives.”
So, please
continue to attend our Sunday services!
In Gassho