Melania Trump enjoys nature-themed Japan cultural experience

U.S. first lady Melania Trump, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife Akie Abe look at koi carps in a pond at the Japanese style annex inside the State Guest House in Tokyo Monday, May 27, 2019. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Pool Photo via AP)

First lady Melania Trump, left, and Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, watch the performance of classical Japanese dancing by Yukari Onoe at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Monday, May 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO – First lady Melania Trump has had a nature-oriented Japanese cultural experience at Akasaka Palace, where she learned that bamboo trunks can create music and also serve as flower vases.

Mrs. Trump and Japanese first lady Akie Abe were entertained Monday by tunes from a "shakuhachi" bamboo flute, played by flutist Yosuke Irie, with a set of bamboo trunks standing upright like a screen behind him.

The bamboo installation then turned into a set of vases as flower artist Kumiko Kato build a sculpture out of it while the flutist played background music that included "Amazing Grace."

Mrs. Trump also learned how to summon carp at a pond: She clapped her hands, and the fish raced to her.

She and President Donald Trump arrived in Japan on Saturday.