For no real reason, here's a picture of some Banana Pastries - Here in Japan, they like to eliminate doubt by labeling their foods in an obvious fashion.
Jill's Japanese classes are fairly small, so her teachers said that it was okay if I sat in on a few classes. Tanaka-Sensei's class, probably comparable to First-Year Japanese at Evergreen, was mostly grammar review for me, but there was a lot of new vocabulary, too. It's also a completely different experience from first-year Japanese in Olympia because the entire class is taught in Japanese! Tanaka-Sensei not only allowed me to participate in the class, but also assigned some written homework as well.
Mitsuishi-Sensei, who is a bit younger than Tanaka-Sensei, (both are probably in their mid to late twenties, though) teachers the slightly harder Japanese class, although it is still considered elementary Japanese. I would compare it to Second-Year Japanese at Evergreen, (which I was taking last quarter) so the grammar and things were still pretty new. Tanaka-Sensei also expected my participation if I was to "sit in" on the class, and although I was able to answer some questions correctly, it was still pretty tough!
On my first visit to Miyazaki, before the airport debacle, I had a chance to practice calligraphy in Mitsuishi-Sensei's class with some visiting art teachers. We were told that our art was going to be shown in an art show in downtown Miyazaki, but since the date was after I was returning to Osaka, I didn't expect to ever see it. Luckily, though, I'm still here, and yesterday Jill and I went to Carino Miyazaki, a tall building with a Tsutaya Book Store, salon, and some DELL offices, as well as an international center where our art was featured.
Our Calligraphy display in Carino みやざき。
Our assignment was to draw "something you love," but to incorporate it into the kanji used to represent it. Can you guess which one is Jillian's and which one is mine?
The Artists' names: Jill and I are pretty easy to find on the list
So, before I reveal which ones are ours, (if you haven't already figured it out) I should note that both Jillian and I have actually done calligraphy before. Jill had practiced with some exchange students as a semi-extracurricular study two years ago, and is much, much better at calligraphy than I am. I learned calligraphy for the first time last quarter with Tsutsumi-Sensei and her assistant Hisako, an international student at Evergreen, but my writing style tends to "lack confidence" and looks "a little unsure." Calligraphy is part talent, part technique, and part soul, I think. The trained eye can tell a lot about a person from their, er... brush-person-ship, if that makes any sense.
Artists revealed! The picture was laminated, so it was difficult to photograph.
Artists revealed! The picture was laminated, so it was difficult to photograph.As you can see, mine is a little sloppy, but it was still a lot of fun! Jillian had trouble settling on just one thing that she loved, so she did a bunch of kanji and pictures on her piece.
Jill's work of art: As you can see, she loves a lot of things.
Jill's work of art: As you can see, she loves a lot of things.The kanji that Jill chose for her piece are: 木、（き、Ki - trees）花、（はな、HaNa - flowers）海、（うみ、UMi - the ocean）鳥、（とり、ToRi - birds） 日、（ひ、Hi - the sun） and 空、（そら、SoRa - the sky.） Clearly, her studious interests have shown through here, since she's an ornithologist who is also studying environmental science! (Jill also has strong interests in Odissi Dance, Opera, Japanese language and culture, and now computer programming and game development!)
Here's mine... it's kind of silly, but I chose 亀。
Here's mine... it's kind of silly, but I chose 亀。
亀、（かめ、KaMe - turtle) is one of the few kanji I know how to write, but unfortunately, not very well. I had a pet turtle as a child, and sleep with a stuffed turtle at night. Er, I mean, I use her as a pillow. Um, I mean, it. I use IT as a pillow. Oh, who am I kidding? So, I sleep with a turtle instead of a teddy bear. So what!? When Jill is around, though, she tends to steal Lily (That's the turtle's name) who is the perfect size for us to wrap our arms around. I had a really hard time picking a kanji to write, even though we had lots of newspaper to practice on before the fact. I'd played around with 日本語、（にほんご, NiHoNGo - Japanese） 日, （にち, NiChi - Sunday, also Sun) 月, （げつ, GeTsu - Monday, also Moon） 火, （か, Ka - Tuesday, also Fire） 水, （すい, SuI - Wednesday, also Water） 木, （もく, MoKu - Thursdsay, also Wood or Tree） 金, （きん, KiN - Friday, or Gold）and 土（ど, Do - I don't know what else "Do" means） 花（はな、HaNa - Flower） but had lots of reasons to not use those, and was told that the turtle idea was the cutest and most unique. (Nihongo was too hokey, the days of the week was a little weird, and each also needs 曜日（ようび、YoUBi - Day) at the end to actually make them a day, and Jill has already done Flower.
This is kind of random, but I figured this out two summers ago when taking Japanese Immersion as a summer class at Evergreen. I'd taken Spanish in middle school, and remembered that the days of the week were (starting from Monday) Lunes, Martes, Miércoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sábado and Domingo. These days of the week can be related to things in the solar system, like this: (in order) Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and... I'm not sure what to do with Saturday, but Domingo or Sunday goes with the Sun.
So, this is where the geek in me comes out. In the Anime Sailor Moon, each Sailor Scout has a planet name and special power. Sailor Mars, for example, uses fire attacks. Mars ~ Martes ~ Tuesday ~ 火曜日 ～ fire! The same works for Sailor Mercury: Mercury ~ Miercoles ~ Wednesday ~ 水曜日 ~ water! I was really excited to piece this together, since it was the only like I could think of between Japanese, English and Spanish, but when I told my friend Allison about it, who is also studying Japanese, she'd pretty much already known about it. (Allison will be coming to Japan to study in Kobe for a year starting the beginning of April) I still thought it was pretty cool, though!
Anyway, that was sort of a weird aside. I think my favorite piece of art, (although there were tons of other cool ones, including piece done by people living in Miyazaki from New Zealand, the U.S., Korea, Bolivia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, England, and probably more!) was this map of the world:
An awesome Map of the World
This is kind of random, but I figured this out two summers ago when taking Japanese Immersion as a summer class at Evergreen. I'd taken Spanish in middle school, and remembered that the days of the week were (starting from Monday) Lunes, Martes, Miércoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sábado and Domingo. These days of the week can be related to things in the solar system, like this: (in order) Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and... I'm not sure what to do with Saturday, but Domingo or Sunday goes with the Sun.
So, this is where the geek in me comes out. In the Anime Sailor Moon, each Sailor Scout has a planet name and special power. Sailor Mars, for example, uses fire attacks. Mars ~ Martes ~ Tuesday ~ 火曜日 ～ fire! The same works for Sailor Mercury: Mercury ~ Miercoles ~ Wednesday ~ 水曜日 ~ water! I was really excited to piece this together, since it was the only like I could think of between Japanese, English and Spanish, but when I told my friend Allison about it, who is also studying Japanese, she'd pretty much already known about it. (Allison will be coming to Japan to study in Kobe for a year starting the beginning of April) I still thought it was pretty cool, though!
Anyway, that was sort of a weird aside. I think my favorite piece of art, (although there were tons of other cool ones, including piece done by people living in Miyazaki from New Zealand, the U.S., Korea, Bolivia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, England, and probably more!) was this map of the world:
An awesome Map of the World
This piece, made by a Korean student, was done with stamps from all around the world. I thought it was really cool that they used stamps from the states to make the landmass of the states, for example. (Although they kind of put stamps from individuals states like, wherever - like North Carolina was on the West Coast) Some of the stamps were improvised, like a Japanese stamp depicting Russia being used as part of the Russia landmass, but it was still really cool. There was also a nice message about how stamps help us communicate around the world, and how letters will never be outdone by e-mail. :)
One last random note about yesterday, (since that's when we went downtown and actually kind of stumbled across our art exhibit) I did something I never imagined I'd find myself doing. I had to convince my girlfriend not to buy a video game.
Jill has been toying with the idea of buying a Nintendo Wii in Japan for a few weeks now. They're slightly cheaper here than they are in the states, (because of the exchange rate) and there's a few games you can get here that you can't get yet in the states. Most notably is the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, (or Super Smash Brothers X, in Japan) which is released here, but won't be out in the states until March.
I should take a moment to mention that Smash Bros isn't just any game. This game is EPIC! Like, seriously! Nintendo is putting a ton of stuff into this game, including mini-versions of the original games from the 80's that the characters in the game came from, pictures, stickers, stage-creation, and online play. Smash Bros is essentially the game lots of kids thought up when they were little: What would happen if your favorite Nintendo star was put up against your other favorite Nintendo star? Characters include Yoshi, Kirby, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Link (from the Legend of Zelda series) Princess Zelda herself, the Ice Climbers, Pit (from Kid Icarus, a game older than I am) Pikachu (as well as a multitude of other Pokemon) and of course, Mario. There's more characters too, some hidden and unlockable, but most notably are guest appearances by Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake from the special ops recon (or something) game Metal Gear: Solid. The game can be played competitively or cooperatively, and is just... well, amazing. (Even the sountrack is awesome!)
One negative thing about getting the Wii here is that Nintendo Wiis are region-coded, which means that if you buy games here, you can't play them on an American Wii. The same goes for buying a Japanese Wii and trying to play games purchased in the states with it. This was definitely not my biggest point, though. I was mostly worried that the Wii, like so many other things we already have around us, would be a huge, huge distraction.
Although Jill and I do make time to study, travel, and get the most of Japan that we can, there's plenty around to distract us. At the very least, we have each other, Shiva, other American students, and day-to-day chores that keep us from studying as much as we should. Throw in the unessentials we have like American television via Jill's family's slingbox, Pokemon Cards, non-academic books, the various lures of the internet and Nintendo DS games, (not the Kanji practice one) well... a new game system is really the last thing we need.
There's also the matter of space, having to rearrange the room, get a TV in here, the number of other games Jill would want to buy, the extra controllers and other accessories she'd need to play the games she bought... Jill really likes to rearrange her room, though, and shipping it back wouldn't be too hard, because Wiis are relatively small, but...
In any case, I convinced her not to buy it, and was relieved. I'm normally not one to stifle run, especially of the video game variety, but this is a special opportunity for us both, and I'd hate for us to spend out time inside playing video games when that's definitely something we could just do at home. While I do admit that we might be able to learn something by trying to play these games in Japanese, it would really be more of a novelty than actually educational, I think. Jill may decide to pick one up later, but for the meantime, we are Wii free. (We'll definitely have this conversation again when we're both back home in the states, though!)
Um... I think that's all for now. I will get to the Kaeda Gorge pseudo-visit and friendship among guys reflection eventually. Next week I'll maybe be visiting northern Kyushu, but we'll just have to wait and see, I think. The prospect of traveling alone is scary! Bye bye for now.
Edit: I think I may have forgotten to write how pleased and grateful I was for the opportunity to participate in these classes. They were not only super-educational, but also really fun! It warmed my heart to see my name up with the names of the other foreign students at Miyadai, despite only being a visitor!
One last random note about yesterday, (since that's when we went downtown and actually kind of stumbled across our art exhibit) I did something I never imagined I'd find myself doing. I had to convince my girlfriend not to buy a video game.
Jill has been toying with the idea of buying a Nintendo Wii in Japan for a few weeks now. They're slightly cheaper here than they are in the states, (because of the exchange rate) and there's a few games you can get here that you can't get yet in the states. Most notably is the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, (or Super Smash Brothers X, in Japan) which is released here, but won't be out in the states until March.
I should take a moment to mention that Smash Bros isn't just any game. This game is EPIC! Like, seriously! Nintendo is putting a ton of stuff into this game, including mini-versions of the original games from the 80's that the characters in the game came from, pictures, stickers, stage-creation, and online play. Smash Bros is essentially the game lots of kids thought up when they were little: What would happen if your favorite Nintendo star was put up against your other favorite Nintendo star? Characters include Yoshi, Kirby, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Link (from the Legend of Zelda series) Princess Zelda herself, the Ice Climbers, Pit (from Kid Icarus, a game older than I am) Pikachu (as well as a multitude of other Pokemon) and of course, Mario. There's more characters too, some hidden and unlockable, but most notably are guest appearances by Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake from the special ops recon (or something) game Metal Gear: Solid. The game can be played competitively or cooperatively, and is just... well, amazing. (Even the sountrack is awesome!)
One negative thing about getting the Wii here is that Nintendo Wiis are region-coded, which means that if you buy games here, you can't play them on an American Wii. The same goes for buying a Japanese Wii and trying to play games purchased in the states with it. This was definitely not my biggest point, though. I was mostly worried that the Wii, like so many other things we already have around us, would be a huge, huge distraction.
Although Jill and I do make time to study, travel, and get the most of Japan that we can, there's plenty around to distract us. At the very least, we have each other, Shiva, other American students, and day-to-day chores that keep us from studying as much as we should. Throw in the unessentials we have like American television via Jill's family's slingbox, Pokemon Cards, non-academic books, the various lures of the internet and Nintendo DS games, (not the Kanji practice one) well... a new game system is really the last thing we need.
There's also the matter of space, having to rearrange the room, get a TV in here, the number of other games Jill would want to buy, the extra controllers and other accessories she'd need to play the games she bought... Jill really likes to rearrange her room, though, and shipping it back wouldn't be too hard, because Wiis are relatively small, but...
In any case, I convinced her not to buy it, and was relieved. I'm normally not one to stifle run, especially of the video game variety, but this is a special opportunity for us both, and I'd hate for us to spend out time inside playing video games when that's definitely something we could just do at home. While I do admit that we might be able to learn something by trying to play these games in Japanese, it would really be more of a novelty than actually educational, I think. Jill may decide to pick one up later, but for the meantime, we are Wii free. (We'll definitely have this conversation again when we're both back home in the states, though!)
Um... I think that's all for now. I will get to the Kaeda Gorge pseudo-visit and friendship among guys reflection eventually. Next week I'll maybe be visiting northern Kyushu, but we'll just have to wait and see, I think. The prospect of traveling alone is scary! Bye bye for now.
Edit: I think I may have forgotten to write how pleased and grateful I was for the opportunity to participate in these classes. They were not only super-educational, but also really fun! It warmed my heart to see my name up with the names of the other foreign students at Miyadai, despite only being a visitor!
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