AOSA Spring Luncheon

One of the best things about living overseas is the opportunity to learn about another culture.  The different organizations on our base do a great job of organizing events so we can meet the Japanese women that live in our community and spend time communicating and sharing our cultures.  The first of these events that I attended was the AOSA Spring Luncheon.  They hosted the event for AOSA members and members of the Japanese American Friendship Committee.  The Japanese don't celebrate Easter, so it was our way of sharing our Easter traditions with them. 

Our table

After a few opening remarks, we headed to the back of the room to do some spring crafts.  First, we made flower pens.  I've seen these so many times over the past couple of years, but never knew how easy they were to make.  You need a fake flower, a ball point pen and some green floral tape.  You put the flower against the pen and wrap the two together with the floral tape.  It was so easy.  And the organizers had provided us with little pots full of dried beans to keep the flowers in.  They also provided ribbon to tie around the flower pot if you wanted.

My finished product!

 We also dyed Easter eggs.  Most of the Japanese women that attended the luncheon had never dyed eggs before.  It had been a while since I dyed eggs myself, so it was a lot of fun.  We dipped the eggs in different colors and put little stickers on the eggs to make patterns (you can kind of see it in the teal egg with white polka dots in the background of the bottom picture).

Our finished eggs!

I didn't take anymore pictures because I didn't want to be rude, but we had a lovely lunch.  They arranged the seating so that every table had half AOSA members and half Japanese women.  It was great to meet new people!  I am looking forward to the next event.

Group photo