Holy moly! Has it been a crazy couple of weeks! I haven't had a chance to post for a while...but, at least I have a lot to talk about now!
Alright...starting with the trip to Kyoto I was talking about last time I posted...
It took us about an hour and a half by train to get there, which would have been great, with lovely sight seeing out the window, except we had to stand the whole way, which was no fun. Once we got there, we walked over a really lovely bridge with cranes in the river below and weeping willows and cherry trees on the banks. Then we took the subway one stop to an art museum to see an exhibit about lacquer work. After oohing and aahing, we had some lunch at this cute little restaurant by the station that, oddly enough, was playing American '50s music. Everyone was very nice and gave us their "osususme" (recommendations). The food was absolutely delicious, too. Afterwards, we went to see an ikebana (traditional Japanese flower arranging) presentation from an ikebana master and his students. It was really beautiful. All the different arrangements were so pretty and varied - they even had an exhibition of sushi made from flowers!
The next day I went to the first judo match of my friend, Calvin, from UIUC. He actually won his first fight! It was really cool! I had no idea that the matches were structured like that. I promise to upload pictures from this and all the other things I've done right after I get through finals!
That week, we had a lesson in ikebana in one of my classes from another ikebana master who happened to be friends with my professor. He gave us all a bunch of different kinds of flowers and a lecture on the basics of ikebana and how to arrange the flowers. He was incredibly knowledgeable and very nice. I've got a picture of the finished product to show you when I have time to upload!
The next weekend, we had another class field trip, this time to the area right off the Sea of Japan, Kanazawa. I'm pretty positive that it's my favorite place in Japan (of the one's I've visited), except where I live of course :). We took a six hour bus ride to get there, but it was punctuated by some really gorgeous stops. We first stopped at a famous Zen Buddhist temple called Eiheiji, which means Eternal Peace, and got to see all the wonderfully beautiful fall scenery. With the trees and the beautiful weather, it was absolutely lovely. I can't wait until you can see the pictures! Our next stop was Tojinbo, which is a special area on the coast of the Sea of Japan where these amazing cliffs have been carved out by the waves. It's one of three places in the whole world where you can see this geologic phenomenon. We were a little late getting there, but we could not have had better timing. We ended up getting to go on a boat ride on the beautiful, clear Sea of Japan to see these cliffs, just as the sun was setting on a perfect fall day. It was....awesome (in the original sense of the word). Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera died just when we got on the boat :( Aside from that, it was perfect.
We stayed at a nice little hotel that night and headed to "One of Japan's Top Three Most Famous Gardens" the next day. Kenroku-en (the Garden) was gorgeous too! It was raining, but it was really pretty to see all the fall leaves and waterfalls and trees through the drops. There were even some winter cherry trees in bloom. It was very calming.
We were also supposed to go to this Ninja Temple, but, sadly, we didn't have time. So we went to lunch at a nice bakery and then headed home on the bus.
I actually have lots more to tell you - about my trip to Tokyo and my finals that are about to start, but, because of the latter, I think I will have to cut this short! I will soon update more!
I love you all and miss you very much.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Christy
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Finally I'm Better! Hooray!
If you couldn't tell from the title, I've finally recovered! Well, mostly! So yay!
Most of the reason for my miraculous recovery is my being a KY. KY is an abbreviation for Kuuki Yomenai which means "Can't read the atmosphere (of the party, room, world, etc.)". It's basically Japanese for Party Pooper. :) Instead of going out with everyone on Halloween to scare all the Japanese people with our silly costumes, I decided to go home, even though my friends were sad I couldn't come (Yay friends!). I got home around 5:30 or 6:00 and changed into comfy clothes. I wanted to lie down a bit before dinner, but somehow I ended up falling asleep for 14 hours until 9:00 AM the next morning. I felt a lot better after that. :) Hooray for KY me! :D
Let's see....hmmm...updates!
I expect this week I'll finally be able to go back to kendou and ballet, so that's good news, especially since I'll probably be taking lots of classes next semester and may not have time for kendou. :(.
It looks like I did pretty well on my midterms! My speech test was easier than I thought and my teacher gave me a high grade for fluency, which made me really happy.
Morikawa-sensei, one of our E class teachers, talked to us last Friday about what we'd most likely be doing next semester and it sounds really fun (if slightly challenging). First, we're going to read "Moonlight Shadow" by Yoshimoto Banana together as a class. During class time, we'll go over hard kanji or grammatical structures in the book. We'll also be studying kanji from a kanji textbook and grammar from a grammar book designed for people studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Placement Test - this big standardized test that is really important for all jobs involving Japanese). Also, we're going to watch some more Japanese movies or dramas in class to work on our listening skills. There also might be an extra "Academic Japanese" class to work on advanced grammar, so I'll probably participate in that as well. After we finish "Moonlight Shadow", we each get to pick a Japanese book we want to read and do it on our own (with help from the sensei if we get stuck, of course). After we finish, we'll have an oral exam during which we summarize the book in Japanese for our sensei. It sounds interesting!
I've been reading, or, I should say, attempting to read, lots of manga in Japanese (right now I'm on DeathNote, it's quite good!) lately, so that should help hone my reading skills for next semester. :)
Oh! Miyazaki update!
I'm sure I mentioned how great "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" was when I saw it in theatres. It was adorably cute and just over all completely darling. However, my friend Zoe and I watched the Studio Ghibli movie released just before Ponyo for the first time last night. It was called "Geddo Senki" and, while amazing, it was anything but darling or cute. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro. The name "Geddo Senki" roughly means "The War Chronicles of Ged", but really it's based on the Ursula K. LeGuin novels about "Earthsea". It hasn't been released in the US yet because there's a rights battle going on over the title. Some people want to name it Earthsea, but the SciFi channel just finished a TV series version of the books under that same title and it's all complicated and silly.
Anyway, the movie was EXCELLENT. The Japanese voices were really great, though the translation of the English subtitles was a little sketchy at parts. The animation and the backgrounds were beyond gorgeous, as to be expected from Studio Ghibli. However, it was quite dark for a Studio Ghibli film, and also not a little creepy, especially towards the end. The characters were really compelling and the music, though not composed by Miyazaki's usual Joe Hisaishi, was beautiful in a haunting way. I don't want to talk too much about the plot because it could ruin it for any of you who might see it, but, suffice to say, parts of it reminded me of Full Metal Alchemist.
I highly recommend it to any Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli fan (or anime fan in general...or, really, anyone :) ), especially one who wants something a little more adult than Ponyo :).
Alrighty, enough with the silly movie talk! Some exciting things are coming up soon...
This weekend, my Art History class is taking a field trip to Kyoto!
Next weekend, the ryuugakusei are taking an overnight field trip to Kanazawa!
The weekend after that (a four day weekend! yay!), I may be going to Tokyo for the first time!
I think that's about all for now, but I'll write again soon!
I love and miss you all!
Love,
Christy
Most of the reason for my miraculous recovery is my being a KY. KY is an abbreviation for Kuuki Yomenai which means "Can't read the atmosphere (of the party, room, world, etc.)". It's basically Japanese for Party Pooper. :) Instead of going out with everyone on Halloween to scare all the Japanese people with our silly costumes, I decided to go home, even though my friends were sad I couldn't come (Yay friends!). I got home around 5:30 or 6:00 and changed into comfy clothes. I wanted to lie down a bit before dinner, but somehow I ended up falling asleep for 14 hours until 9:00 AM the next morning. I felt a lot better after that. :) Hooray for KY me! :D
Let's see....hmmm...updates!
I expect this week I'll finally be able to go back to kendou and ballet, so that's good news, especially since I'll probably be taking lots of classes next semester and may not have time for kendou. :(.
It looks like I did pretty well on my midterms! My speech test was easier than I thought and my teacher gave me a high grade for fluency, which made me really happy.
Morikawa-sensei, one of our E class teachers, talked to us last Friday about what we'd most likely be doing next semester and it sounds really fun (if slightly challenging). First, we're going to read "Moonlight Shadow" by Yoshimoto Banana together as a class. During class time, we'll go over hard kanji or grammatical structures in the book. We'll also be studying kanji from a kanji textbook and grammar from a grammar book designed for people studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Placement Test - this big standardized test that is really important for all jobs involving Japanese). Also, we're going to watch some more Japanese movies or dramas in class to work on our listening skills. There also might be an extra "Academic Japanese" class to work on advanced grammar, so I'll probably participate in that as well. After we finish "Moonlight Shadow", we each get to pick a Japanese book we want to read and do it on our own (with help from the sensei if we get stuck, of course). After we finish, we'll have an oral exam during which we summarize the book in Japanese for our sensei. It sounds interesting!
I've been reading, or, I should say, attempting to read, lots of manga in Japanese (right now I'm on DeathNote, it's quite good!) lately, so that should help hone my reading skills for next semester. :)
Oh! Miyazaki update!
I'm sure I mentioned how great "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" was when I saw it in theatres. It was adorably cute and just over all completely darling. However, my friend Zoe and I watched the Studio Ghibli movie released just before Ponyo for the first time last night. It was called "Geddo Senki" and, while amazing, it was anything but darling or cute. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro. The name "Geddo Senki" roughly means "The War Chronicles of Ged", but really it's based on the Ursula K. LeGuin novels about "Earthsea". It hasn't been released in the US yet because there's a rights battle going on over the title. Some people want to name it Earthsea, but the SciFi channel just finished a TV series version of the books under that same title and it's all complicated and silly.
Anyway, the movie was EXCELLENT. The Japanese voices were really great, though the translation of the English subtitles was a little sketchy at parts. The animation and the backgrounds were beyond gorgeous, as to be expected from Studio Ghibli. However, it was quite dark for a Studio Ghibli film, and also not a little creepy, especially towards the end. The characters were really compelling and the music, though not composed by Miyazaki's usual Joe Hisaishi, was beautiful in a haunting way. I don't want to talk too much about the plot because it could ruin it for any of you who might see it, but, suffice to say, parts of it reminded me of Full Metal Alchemist.
I highly recommend it to any Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli fan (or anime fan in general...or, really, anyone :) ), especially one who wants something a little more adult than Ponyo :).
Alrighty, enough with the silly movie talk! Some exciting things are coming up soon...
This weekend, my Art History class is taking a field trip to Kyoto!
Next weekend, the ryuugakusei are taking an overnight field trip to Kanazawa!
The weekend after that (a four day weekend! yay!), I may be going to Tokyo for the first time!
I think that's about all for now, but I'll write again soon!
I love and miss you all!
Love,
Christy
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