Learning about Japan
We started our Nellsar cruise to Japan by looking at a photo book of Japan and learning some facts and words from the country here at Bromley Park Care Home. Our residents really enjoyed this and the cherry blossom tree seemed to be everyone’s favourite photo.
Star festival
On Thursday – which happened to be National Poetry Day – we celebrated a Japanese tradition called ‘Tanabata’, also known as ‘Star festival’. It is where Japanese poems called ‘haikus‘ are written on different coloured paper and cut into strips. People then write wishes on the back of the strips, and then they are used for decorating.
All our team members and residents got involved with this, in a whole-Home approach, writing wishes and speaking to residents to find out theirs. We think our windows look lovely decorated with them.
Keiro No Ho
On Friday we celebrated Keiro No Ho, which means ‘Respect The Aged Day‘. For this we gifted each of our resident with a personalised photo puzzle. Photos were photocopied, glued to cardboard, laminated, cut out and then presented in little organza bags.
Our amazing care team members sat and helped our residents do their puzzles, as did family members. It was amazing watching our residents’ joy when they saw the puzzle was of their wedding, or their family or themselves. It was a pleasure to watch and listen to everyone reminiscing about the photographs.
Japanese tea ceremony
On Friday afternoon we held a Japanese tea ceremony served by our very own geisha; as you can see from our resident Ellen’s face, she was very happily surprised! Our lovely namaste lady Linda kindly brought in a Japanese teapot, some snacks and some chrysanthemum flower tea. Our residents really appreciated this and loved the treats.
We also listened to Japanese music and danced. It was a lovely afternoon!
Japanese foods
During our themed week, our fantastic Chefs, Trevor and Rijo prepared some amazing Japanese food for our residents to try. This included Nikujaga Japanese beef stew, Teriyaki salmon and Tonkatsu pork noodles.
The dishes were delicious and thoroughly enjoyed by our residents.
What a wonderful trip to Japan, full of colour and culture!
