Thursday, June 10, 2010

Chocopan, Shodo, and Japanese Ultimate Frisbee

Today was a great day but I am SO SO SO TIRED. I had my new class with Aratake-sensei today; it was good. I learned some new rules about particles. Hooray for grammar! Soon we will have to do a research, interview, and presentation project, all in Japanese.

During the 10-minute break, I ate CHOCOPAN (chocolate bread). Mmm, oishii. :)

Today we had a shodo (Japanese calligraphy) lesson after class. I thought it would be so easy to paint Japanese characters in a pretty way but actually it was extremely difficult. I enjoyed the learning experience but my lack of skills was a little disheartening.

After class and shodo, Ethan, Robaato-san, Sachi-san, and I went to the KUIS library. Take a look at this fantabulous building. We climbed up to the roof and took lots of pictures, then went inside to study. Sachi-san went home. :(

The men and I bought macha (green tea) bubble tea with milk (the Japanese call it "tapioca juice") and did homework together. We also made new friends up there when I asked someone if they knew where the bathroom was. They wanted to practice English and speak in Japanese. :D Sooo many new Japanese friends!

The most fun part of today came at the end. I was about to walk to the station at around 6pm so I could get home by around 7 or 7:15. As I was leaving the library, I passed the sports fields, like this one on the right. Immediately to the left of that field was another with people playing Ultimate Frisbee!! I haven't played that since high school, and it looked like so much fun. They didn't seem to be an intense team because there were college, high school, and elementary school students all playing on various teams. There was even an American from North Carolina there! He couldn't speak much Japanese, haha.

So I was looking at them longingly and one of the students asked in half-Japanese, half-English if I wanted to play. I did! So I did. :D I was wearing my nice clothes today for the shodo activity after class, but I played anyway. It was SO SO SO SO much fun and I made like 20 new friends. :D I even scored a few goals! I found out that the group meets every Thursday at 5pm so I'm going to go again next week. It was a really good time, because the players weren't too serious and we all dropped the frisbee sometimes. :) There were two very young kids and we passed the frisbee to them too, even though they rarely caught it. :) But one time, the little girl scored a goal!!

Anyway, it was so fun that it got dark before I realized I should go home. So I called Namiko-san and apologized in Japanese for the fact that I would be a little late for dinner. But she said it was fine, because she was also running late. Thankfully, after walking for ~40 minutes and taking three trains, I arrived home before dinner at ~8:20 and there was even time for me to help with the salad. :) The food was soooo good but I ate it before I could take a picture.

Faux pas check:
1. Today we did shodo, or Japanese calligraphy. Being the genius that I am, I just looked in a kanji book and picked out one that I thought was pretty, and it means "to float". I showed it to Shiho and she wouldn't stop laughing or telling me what it meant other than float. She said, "It fits you perfectly!" and I was like omg. Tell me what it means. Apparently the kanji for float is part of the word for "cheating" or infidelity/extramarital affairs. My face was like, "WOT. No way. I have to pick a different kanji!!!!" But when I told the teachers, they said that it was a perfectly good kanji as long as it didn't have "ki" after it, which together means cheating. It is found in many Japanese poems. They also told me that it would be impossible to change kanjis. :( So, I made my shodo with floating/cheating. Oh fail. I think it's a nice kanji and I like to float in the water!

2. The shodo teacher, who is old and very, very famous in the shodo realm, asked us if we wanted to see him draw any other kanjis. I asked for kao (face) because I think it looks beautiful. Some other people asked for things but then there was silence. I thought it would be rude if no one wanted to see any more kanjis, and I really wanted to see midori (green), so I asked to see it. But a lot of people in the room looked at me like I was being demanding for asking to see two kanjis. :/ Then after that was done, one of our instructors asked if anyone wanted to see any more kanjis and made a hand gesture that means "no more, don't ask for any more!" I felt bad. :/

Let's have some more photos of the KUIS library. The architecture on the inside is even cooler, but I didn't photograph it today. But the first floor is a fantastic study place, and the second floor is for practicing languages other than English. There are large areas designed like buildings from each country, so that the Chinese-practicing area looks like a temple, and the Spanish area looks like an adobe house, and the Hindi-area looks like Indian architecture, etc. It's very elaborate! Anyway, here is more of the outside. This is the view from the roof. There are four floors and the third and fourth both have roof gardens! SUGOI. There are stairs to go from the field all the way to the top of the library using just the outside. It's so cool.



I'd better go see if I remembered to do all of my homework... I am so, so tired. Next time I will try to get home earlier than 8pm!!

2 comments:

  1. Hahaha only you would say "yay for grammar".

    The KUIS library/super glass structure looks AMAZING.

    Wow that's surprising that you randomly found an American from North Carolina here.

    I CAN"T BELIEVE YOU ROCKED ULTIMATE FRISBEE IN JAPAN! You haven't even played Frisbee here in the U.S., or at UNC (where it's played all the fucking time!) I can't believe that haha I'm so mad at you :D. I'm excited that you are experiencing that there - glory Frisbee times await back in the U.S. =).

    Explain the concept of Kanjis. Why can't you change Kanjis? What is a Kanji? Haha at your bad choice of words though ;P.

    There was probably no way that you could've known that it would be imposing or rude to ask for more than one Kanji there, so ah well.

    What an intense library. Keep rocking shit Caroline!

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  2. It is a great place to study! When I go back there, I'll take pictures of the different language study areas, with their amazing architecture.

    Yeah!! He said he was from Greenville and now lives in some town I've never heard of. He was in Japan since March and is leaving next month. I'm really surprised he hasn't learned much Japanese. His name is Steven. :)

    I love Ultimate Frisbee! I used to play it in high school a lot with some friends at lunch after we ate. I just never have time/energy to play it in college. But I will have to do that, especially when it gets colder outside. I could play it in Japan only because the sun was setting and it was windy and cool outside.

    Kanjis are Japanese characters that come from Chinese. They are often very complicated to write or draw. Each kanji represents a meaning and is used to form either a whole word or part of a word. The pronunciation varies, and depending on the combination of kanji characters, the meaning and pronunciation can be quite different (as you saw in my example of floating/extramarital affairs).

    The reason I couldn't change kanjis was because I picked one awhile ago, and the very famous and esteemed instructor already made me some examples of how to draw it. So if I asked to change it, it would be REALLY rude of me.

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