G8 Notebook - Leaders meet inside; outside, tea is served

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - While leaders of the world's rich nations negotiated in a luxury resort on Monday over how to resolve the world's woes, outside life went on, if not as usual then at least pretty much as planned.

AN AMUSING AFTERNOON

First ladies had fun with tea, sweets and kimono as their husbands attended the summit even if their events were a little more low-key than they would have been had the eye-catching Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, attended.

Japan's first lady, Kiyoko Fukuda, dressed in a blue kimono, performed a traditional tea ceremony, whipping bitter green tea with a short bamboo whisk and serving sweets made of arrowroot starch.

The wives, including U.S. first lady Laura Bush and Britain's Sarah Brown, giggled as they made tea of their own and served each other, awkwardly bowing and rotating the cups.

They also watched a Japanese model being dressed in a layered and extremely heavy "junihitoe" kimono, usually reserved for royalty.

Japan had been disappointed to hear that Bruni, a singer and former model, wouldn't be coming to Hokkaido.

But she wasn't the only no-show -- the spouses of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi also elected not to attend.

LOCAL TASTES