transferring over

I've been super busy lately, and I'll write a proper post later to at least somewhat get this thing up to date. In the meantime, I'll just copy-paste (ko-pi-pe in Japanese) a small blog entry I had to write for my Japanese class about my CIP (community involvement project), aka the calligraphy club. It's in Japanese, so anyone who follows this thing that reads Japanese (which would be...no one, I'm guessing?) can read it, but it's probably impossible for anyone else.

私は日本の伝統的なことに興味があるので、日本に来たら、色々なことをしてみたかったが、上手になるように、一つを選んだほうがいいと思った。だから、書道部に決めた。茶道とか剣道も面白そうだが、必要な道具が高くて大きいから、かんたんには出来ないと思った。でも、書道なら、筆しか必要じゃない。そして、どこでもできる。アメリカに帰ってもし続けられる。

日本に来る前から、書道に興味があったが、経験は全然なかった。でも、日本人の学生と交流したかったので、先生から習うのではなく学生の書道部に入った。知らなかったが、実は書道部に先生も来るから、両方が出来ている。まだ下手で、書き方もきたないが、部員と先生のおかげで、だんだん上手になっている。みな親切で、私の質問にはっきり説明をしてくれる。

書展に出品するために、何かを書くつもりだ。漢字を七十ぐらい書かなければならないから、ちょっと忙しくなった。大変かもしれないが、書きながら楽しんでいるから、かまわない。書道部の部屋は静かで、たたみがあって、たたみのいいかおりもして、そこにいれば、落ち着ける。漢字に集中すると、頭がすっきりする。今からもっと練習して、うまくなったらいいと思う。いい趣味をみつけた。

I have to write yet another entry in English later, so I'll post that here as well. It'll probably be much better written too, given how minimal my grasp of the Japanese language is. My fall break starts on Saturday! Yay! I'll have time to actually catch up on things that I've been wanting to do for a while. Such as writing. And tweaking photos. And programming. And doing some self-study. And sight-seeing. And moving around in general.

water spiders that dance in your hands

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Okayama prefecture over the weekend. Everyone in my study abroad program--all forty-one of us--stayed there for two nights and three days. The program split us up into four groups, and my group went to a city called Kasaoka. Probably their most famous landmark is the kabutogani museum. The kabutogani is a fairly rare crab-like thing, and if there are any avid Pokemon fans out there, it's the model for Kabuto. As I learned at the museum, although they're called "kabuto crabs," or horseshoe crabs in English, they're actually much closer to spiders than crabs. They're basically spiders with water armor. They're ADORABLE. Especially the young ones. I think the kabutogani get so much hype because they haven't changed much in a long, long time. As in, they haven't really evolved for the past two-hundred million years. As my handy dandy kabutogani handout explains:

If the history of the world were equated to the span of one year, one day would equal 12,600,000 years, and one second would equal 146 years. By that analogy, the horseshoe crab would have appeared in November. Humans would have arrived on December 31 at 6:17 pm (Kasaoka Horsehoe Crab Museum).

I don't know if that makes their age easier to grasp, but I thought it was a pretty nifty analogy. Anyway, after that group activity, we went to audit a Japanese middle school's club activities, where we were paraded around like...a parade and stared at quite scrupulously. Well, the very American-looking students were, at least. Since I look Asian, and clearly not exotic, the Japanese students didn't even bother asking my name or where I came from. On the one hand, the complete lack of care was a little surprising, but on the other hand, it wasn't surprising at all. I know that made no sense to anyone but me, but that's all that matters. On the bright side, I feel like I can rest assured that I don't stand out as a blaring foreigner when I'm just strolling down the streets of Japan.

After the parade at the middle school, every was split up and scattered throughout the city into various homestays. We spent all of Saturday, as well as Sunday morning, with our Okayama host families. I had a BLAST. My host parents were in their late sixties/early seventies, and they were both of the kind-of-artsy, slightly-kooky breed. They both painted, except in completely polar styles, and they were extremely warm-hearted people. As soon as I met them, they told me to call them Mama and Papa, which in Japanese turned into mama-san and papa-san.

As a very Japanese activity, they took me to make soba. From scratch. I got to mix the water and flour, knead it, roll it out, and then cut it up using a special soba knife and plank thing. It was a great experience. And after working hard to make the noodles, eating them felt just that much better. Although all the KCJS(Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies--I can't remember if I used or defined the acronym already) students were supposed to be scattered around doing independent activities, I actually ended up in the same place as Cecilia, and we made soba together. Yay! Cecilia cut her noodles like a pro, and if all else fails, I think she can move to Japan and open a soba restaurant. On the other hand, mine came out a little chubby, but were tasty nonetheless.

My host mom's hobby was origami, so she taught me all kinds of fun, interactive origami things. Although I've made the standard, follow-the-book origami, I never really made things that were interactive. I learned how to make a cute little caterpillar that inches along if you blow at it through a straw, as well as a really unique paper airplane thing. I also learned how to make sunflowers, which made me very happy because, if I haven't already mentioned it, sunflowers are hands-down my favorite flowers.

My host family's daughter and grandchildren came over, and I folded flowers with the grandkids. They were adorable! The oldest one is fourteen, and she's just starting to study English in school, so we became pen pals, and I'm going to write her a letter soon. I think kids that are eager to learn are just so cute!

On Sunday morning, I went to do shodo. It's amazing how much I luck out with homestays. It turns out that my host mother's younger brother is a shodo teacher. I almost couldn't believe what a coincidence it was. Everyone in Okayama was so generous, to the point where I almost started feeling bad about accepting their gifts, and when they heard that I had a strong interest in shodo, and even joined the shodo club at school, my host family was ecstatic. And then proceeded to grab brushes and give them to me. I lucked out to the max. The younger brother (who's actually probably a dude in his sixties, which doesn't fit the image of "younger brother," but oh well) even carved me a hanko, which is a name stamp, usually, if not always, carved out of stone. If you ever see scrolls from Japan or China, there's usually a red squarish stamp in some bottom corner or side. That's produced with a hanko.

My host family was amazing, and I was sad to leave on Sunday. But since my Kyoto host family is fantastic as well, I at least looked forward to seeing them again. In any case, I have my Okayama host family's address, as well as their daughter's/grandchildrens' address, and I very much intend to write to them. They also invited me to come back and visit any time, which is an offer I just might have to take.