When the Arkansas Cherry Blossom Festival returns on April 3 at the Hot Springs Convention Center for its fifth annual event, it will feature workshops and a lecture on different parts of Japanese culture.
Michelle Roberts, committee chair for the Arkansas Cherry Blossom Festival, said that due to COVID-19, they weren't able to have workshops or lectures at the event in 2021.
"Last year we kind of had our hands tied with COVID and everything had to be hands-off and socially distanced. We will still be distanced and encouraging mask use, sanitizing hands, but we can be a little closer together," Roberts said.
"So we will have a workshop on how to make your own Zen garden," Roberts said, adding, "I think that's good for these days with, you know, anxiety is kind of high, so just the relaxing nature of making your own Zen garden."
Those who participate in this workshop, which is hosted by Jonathan Westmoreland, will receive materials to make a personal-sized Zen garden.
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" ... When I think of a garden, I think of a lot of greenery, design with the trees and the shrubs and the flowers, and a Zen garden is basically a little more austere, a little more sparse. It's the sand, some rocks, maybe a tree or two and then with a rake ... making designs in the sand," Roberts said.
"It's very calming to one, draw the design, but then to sit with it, and they're just lovely," Roberts said. She said that real Zen gardens are large, but the workshop will provide the materials to make a personal-sized Zen garden.
The other workshop will show how to make "cute and delicious bento, which like a Japanese lunchbox, and there will be a cooking demonstration with that as well," Roberts said.
This workshop will be hosted by Kiyoko Johnson. "In the Japanese culture, making your lunch and taking it with you is still quite popular, still happens all the time, and the bento box is, you can put many different things in there and there is a system to it," Roberts said.
"For the children, there's a whole culture around making really cute bento boxes, so let's say you have a hot dog, well you can make it look like an octopus and some style of rice that looks like a bunny or Hello Kitty," Roberts added.
Roberts said that "it sounds like some participation" will be allowed in this workshop, "so you can try your hand at the actual cooking."
The lecture will be a seminar on Japanese gardens in Arkansas hosted by Jim Elmore.
Roberts said that he "has cultivated his own garden here in Hot Springs and he'll be presenting photos and talking about how to do" create a garden.
Elmore "will explain how you can do that here and then also show photographs of his property, and what a Japanese garden looks like, the different elements, because it's quite different than what we would think of as a garden here in Arkansas," Roberts said.
Roberts said that each of these three events will be held in a classroom that will be limited to around 20 participants. The Zen garden and bento workshops will each cost $20. Roberts said this is to cover the costs of the supplies that participants will receive to make their own Zen garden and bento box. The lecture is free to attend.
Another thing that Roberts said she is "super excited about" is that visitors "will have the opportunity to try on a kimono and have your photograph taken in it." She said that these kimonos are made with "exquisite fabrics that I think everyone will be excited about."