Namakokabe - Community Spirit

I want to share an experience I never thought I would ever do while living in Japan. I love namakokabe on any building I see and I also love how it is preserved and maintained on many houses and community buildings.

One Sunday afternoon after we had eaten lunch at the local community centre and were walking back to our car, we saw all these men standing up on scaffolding.  

Initially I was consumed with excitement and then just mezmorised as I watched how this traditional design was being applied. All this time I thought the white crisscross lines were applied to large black slabs, but in actual fact they are just black tiles.
  

Here is the  tiler applying the tile and then....

....here is me applying the white grout!

I still can't believe it!  I could have grouted the whole wall if they had of given me some prior notice, but we were heading back to Yokohama. However, I'm here to say it was fun!

Then my treasure gave it a go and he was hooked too!

So there you go a cultural experience I never thought I would be involved in and because it was to maintain the community information centre in town, it made it all the more meaningful for us.

Sadly it was time to leave Izu and head back to Yokohama but.....

......here is the building all finished a couple of weeks later! And we were part of maintaining its history in Obachan's little town!