A Visit from our Friends from Japan

The Matthaei Botanical Garden Bonsai Collection is closing for the season this week,
but we managed to enjoy the beautifully trained little trees despite the rain.

Ann Arbor was damp and cold this week, but we found quite a few activities for our guests from Japan: Mariko, who was our exchange student and lived with us for a year when she was in high school, and her daughter who is now a graduate student at Tokyo University. We had a lot of fun showing them around town and nearby attractions. I've picked out a few photos to show some of the highlights of our tour. We also did quite a few other things, amazing for such a short time.

We took lots of photos.

Halloween

Halloween was especially intriguing to our guests. Here they are with our neighbors' giant pumpkins.

We all especially enjoyed the Halloween parade at the elementary school
near our house.

For the trick-or-treaters, Mariko and Moeha brought Japanese sweets in small packages, which we gave away with our American treats. Unfortunately around half-way through the evening, the rain became really bad and very few kids showed up for the second hour of fun. We did give away all the Japanese sweets, but not all the M&Ms, Peanut Butter Cups, etc.

The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.

The Henry Ford museum has huge collections of old and antique cars, and everything to do
with the American culture of the road. Here are the 4 of us in front of the mid-century
McDonald's sign and an old chevy.

We enjoyed a recently installed exhibit entitled
"Mathematica," which is all about math.

We also enjoyed the Museum's exhibit of full-sized kitchens from various eras, and doll houses with miniature kitchens.

This little glass delicatessen is in a fascinating
exhibit about the modern art of glass blowing.

The modern studio glass exhibit displays works that combine "art, science, and technological innovation... the notion of glass as a medium for creative expression, in contrast to its use in industrial production." I especially enjoyed seeing this historical arrangement of studio glass from the 1960s through the present.

We had lunch in the authentic diner in the 20th century exhibit.

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, lemonade!

American Food

We tried to offer as many different current American foods as we could. Mariko especially remembered eating roast beef
when she stayed with us many years ago. So we made a roast beef dinner for their arrival day.

Len's pizza was another dinner choice. We also went out for hamburgers
at Shake Shack, for a Mexican lunch, and for American-Japanese noodle bowls.

Mariko made us traditional tea-ceremony tea and brought very special
tea-ceremony sweets for us to try. Another highlight of the visit.

Goodbye!

We dropped Mariko and Moeha at the airport this morning to continue
their trip. They are visiting Evelyn and her family in Virginia now.

UPDATE: Here is a photo of Moeha and Mariko visiting
Evelyn, Tom, Miriam, and Alice in Washington, D.C.
where the baseball players and fans were enjoying the parade.

Photos and text copyright © 2019 by mae sander for maefood dot blogspot dot com