Our Woodstock Residential Care Home residents and team members took part in Nellsar’s virtual mini cruise to Japan last week.
We started off with some fancy dress and our team members looking very impressive in their kimonos. We also decorated our Home with Japanese flags, facts about Japan, pink cherry blossom and some beautiful pottery with oriental patterns on.
On Monday we looked at the different lucky charms from Japan and things that are also considered lucky such as the number four. We gave out some lucky charm gifts for our ladies and gents to attach to their handbags, zimmer frames and belt loops – to bring good health, wealth and happiness.
To tickle our tastebuds, our Chef made a delicious choice of chicken Katsu curry or egg and vegetable rice bowl for lunch, finished off with a baked cheesecake. We all enjoyed trying something new and expanding our knowledge on the Japanese culture.
On Tuesday we warmed ourselves up with a karate-inspired exercise class! This involved lots of karate chops, punches and kicks, all accompanied with the classic ‘Eee-yah’ noise to the music of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas.
Wednesday saw us hosting a Japanese tea ceremony under our pink cherry blossom tree. Our residents were able to experience different tea flavours such as green tea, lemon tea and chamomile whilst learning about ‘Hanami‘, which is a Japanese custom where you admire the beauty of the flowers, especially cherry blossoms.
Our week finished with a chopstick game where we learnt the art of using chopsticks and attempted to master them. Some of our residents were very skilled in this and were able to pick up the pieces of sponge with ease, whereas the rest of us ended up flipping the sponge all over the place (…we were just thankful it wasn’t sushi!). We also immersed ourselves in some Japanese sports such as sumo wrestling and Judo by watching some tournaments on the television.
Everyone at Woodstock has thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Japanese culture and having some new experiences.
