A week without posting
And what a week it was. I don't remember what happened on Monday, so it was probably nothing noteworthy. Which I think was indeed why I didn't post any thing. I went to class and that's probably it. Oh, really late on Monday night (Tuesday morning is far more accurate) I fixed my bank fiasco. As it turns out, there was no problem, and nobody knew what I what I was talking about. Thursday was much the same, but without the bank thing. Gooooo Thursday!
Tuesday, one of the senseis from Kudan took us to a kimono store(?)-slash-classroom(?) in the dreaded Shibuya. Once there the women who ran the place separated the men from the women and dressed us in the full get up. It would have been extremely comfortable were I not wearing my street clothes underneath. The word on the tatami was that I'm damn-good looking in kimono and skirt-thing. While the women's kimonos were prettier than ours, they had to trade it for restricted mobility and breathing room. It's a theme here. I didn't take any pictures because thirty other people did. Eventually I'll have some and will post them.
Everyone was fairly comfortable, but many people (even the boys) had complaints about breathing, or sitting, or walking, etc. but I felt great. Before I left, in looking for a kanji dictionary, I found a book called "Living Japanese Style" put out by JTB (Japanese Travel Bureau.) The book is full of useful information about bathing, the post office, and the like as well as what to do at funeral, business structure, and other oddities that aren't normally provided in a travel guide. One of the latter was a page on the Japanese physique which has a tendency towards stubby legs under a long torso (I almost said thorax). Seeing as I'm a half step behind on the evolutionary scale, I share this particular physique which might be why I was fine while other people of my height were not. In any event, the book goes on to suggest that the Japanese body being shaped this way is why things like judo and sumo have evolved the way the have. We were talking about this after the experience, and Brinti made the linguistic connection that the Japanese word(s) for tall, segatakai, breaks down as "having a long or high back".
On Wednesday, we went to the National Museum (こくりつはくぶつかん). The National Museum is indeed a museum so I'm not sure what else to write. There are a lot of interesting and beautiful things there. It cost about a dollar to get in to the general exhibits, and if you're ever in Tokyo you should go. Yeah.
Last night we went to a Noh play (Aoi no Ue, an adaptation of a chapter from The Tale of Genji). I must admit that as interested as I was in going to see Noh, I was also nervous because the impression I had gotten in class was that Noh is the straight drama equivalent of Butoh but more strict in it's execution. It was great and I wanted more. I need to go soon, but perhaps I will write more about it later. kanze.com is the website of the group that put on the performance. The site is in Japanese but can translated (in a way) through bablefish or the like. Since Kanze is school of Noh, among other things, they thrive off of the propagation of their art. At the beginning of the show, there were demonstrations of how the costuming is worked, why the stage is set the way it is (the Noh stage has been the same since the solidifying of the form some 600 years ago), and breakdown of the scenes so that nobody got lost. Afterward one of the musicians/actors/chanters came out and answered questions for us.
今日は、 I'm being moved to a new host family tomorrow. I'm sad because I like my host family a lot. I'm comfortable with them all and now that my Japanese is improving I'm starting to feel like part of the team. However, Obaasan is starting to slip away, the family went to visit Ojiisan (grandfather) in the hospital, and earlier this week, my host mother's uncle had a heart attack. She's really stressed out and on top of all that she's hat some pretty bad vertigo for the past couple days. It was explained to me that she's simply worried about not being able to take care of me and that's why I'm being relocated. I can certainly take care of myself, but I don't want to be burden on a stressed house. I'm going to have to go through the introduction thing again, but at least I'll make a better first impression on the Watanabes than I did on the Yoshiokas.
That's all for now. That and I'm going to just start screening comments because I like getting them and nobody needs to read them except for me.
Tuesday, one of the senseis from Kudan took us to a kimono store(?)-slash-classroom(?) in the dreaded Shibuya. Once there the women who ran the place separated the men from the women and dressed us in the full get up. It would have been extremely comfortable were I not wearing my street clothes underneath. The word on the tatami was that I'm damn-good looking in kimono and skirt-thing. While the women's kimonos were prettier than ours, they had to trade it for restricted mobility and breathing room. It's a theme here. I didn't take any pictures because thirty other people did. Eventually I'll have some and will post them.
Everyone was fairly comfortable, but many people (even the boys) had complaints about breathing, or sitting, or walking, etc. but I felt great. Before I left, in looking for a kanji dictionary, I found a book called "Living Japanese Style" put out by JTB (Japanese Travel Bureau.) The book is full of useful information about bathing, the post office, and the like as well as what to do at funeral, business structure, and other oddities that aren't normally provided in a travel guide. One of the latter was a page on the Japanese physique which has a tendency towards stubby legs under a long torso (I almost said thorax). Seeing as I'm a half step behind on the evolutionary scale, I share this particular physique which might be why I was fine while other people of my height were not. In any event, the book goes on to suggest that the Japanese body being shaped this way is why things like judo and sumo have evolved the way the have. We were talking about this after the experience, and Brinti made the linguistic connection that the Japanese word(s) for tall, segatakai, breaks down as "having a long or high back".
On Wednesday, we went to the National Museum (こくりつはくぶつかん). The National Museum is indeed a museum so I'm not sure what else to write. There are a lot of interesting and beautiful things there. It cost about a dollar to get in to the general exhibits, and if you're ever in Tokyo you should go. Yeah.
Last night we went to a Noh play (Aoi no Ue, an adaptation of a chapter from The Tale of Genji). I must admit that as interested as I was in going to see Noh, I was also nervous because the impression I had gotten in class was that Noh is the straight drama equivalent of Butoh but more strict in it's execution. It was great and I wanted more. I need to go soon, but perhaps I will write more about it later. kanze.com is the website of the group that put on the performance. The site is in Japanese but can translated (in a way) through bablefish or the like. Since Kanze is school of Noh, among other things, they thrive off of the propagation of their art. At the beginning of the show, there were demonstrations of how the costuming is worked, why the stage is set the way it is (the Noh stage has been the same since the solidifying of the form some 600 years ago), and breakdown of the scenes so that nobody got lost. Afterward one of the musicians/actors/chanters came out and answered questions for us.
今日は、 I'm being moved to a new host family tomorrow. I'm sad because I like my host family a lot. I'm comfortable with them all and now that my Japanese is improving I'm starting to feel like part of the team. However, Obaasan is starting to slip away, the family went to visit Ojiisan (grandfather) in the hospital, and earlier this week, my host mother's uncle had a heart attack. She's really stressed out and on top of all that she's hat some pretty bad vertigo for the past couple days. It was explained to me that she's simply worried about not being able to take care of me and that's why I'm being relocated. I can certainly take care of myself, but I don't want to be burden on a stressed house. I'm going to have to go through the introduction thing again, but at least I'll make a better first impression on the Watanabes than I did on the Yoshiokas.
That's all for now. That and I'm going to just start screening comments because I like getting them and nobody needs to read them except for me.