|
What happened after that? Well, it was a whirlwind of intrepid stagework, heartfelt speeches, and loving goodbyes, as our students performed their final show on Saturday, and graduated on Sunday. On behalf of the Academy staff, I can only give my thanks once again to the amazing students of our 2024 Academy. You have been an inspiration, and we are all proud to have shared this moment that now binds us together in each other's hearts forever. It's now my turn to read about all of you as you go out and do spectacular things in the world.
-Kyle Sensei, signing off and staying tuned
0 Comments
In the morning we presented our chihou geographical area research projects to the Academy staff and students. We each had 90 seconds to talk through our presentations and teach others about our region of Japan. We also got to play a Kahoot game based on each chihou presentation, where we answered using paper flags. The competition was fierce and exciting. We also had a fun lecture from Kristie-sensei about Japanese music. She covered the origins of Japanese music and introduced us to traditional Japanese instruments, two of which we’ve already gotten to see at the Academy: koto and taiko. She also showed us how traditional and modern influences come together in J-pop and J-rock. At the end she gave us each a fitting gift: a guitar pick with Japanese art! There’s only one more day until the Oshibai performance! Nerves are high and words are flying. The sets and props are finally done so all we need to do is practice the play top to bottom. We spent the morning completing preparations and were planning on practicing and setting up the theater after dinner. However, a thunderstorm forced us to shelter from the pouring rain. But we never give up! We practiced our lines in the dining hall, and once the rain slowed a bit, we ran to the theater and did a full rehearsal. Did you know that the first novel in the world was The Tale of Genji, written many years ago in Japan? It’s true! Japan has had a long and rich history of literature, especially poetry. Sana-sensei taught us about the history of Japanese literature as well as the traditional Japanese poetry rules and patterns. You’ve probably heard or read haiku (5-7-5 syllable verse poems) before. We got to write some! Some people wrote in English and some wrote in Japanese. We quickly learned how difficult it really is to keep within the rules of the syllable pattern. For our final cooking class, we made tri-colored dango; balls of sticky rice mochi. It was supposed to be a lot easier than sushi, but you never know what's going to happen with cooking! In other news, we worked so hard and efficiently on Oshibai prep that the staff gave us time to watch a movie instead. After taking a vote, we decided to watch the Studio Ghibli classic: Howl’s Moving Castle (in Japanese, of course). Right after dinner, we all went to the theater to watch it, and Rie-sensei even made us popcorn! The theater was full of the sounds of snacks crunching and whispered fangirling. With the Oshibai performance on the horizon, we’re powering through and preparing everything for our production. Today, we got to go to the theater and run through our lines and blocking (stage directions and movements). We also made it to part three of woodblock printing! We coated our woodblocks with ink and started pressing away, printing on postcards and art paper. We got to choose from three colors: black, blue, and red. We all made multiple colors and copies. It was messy but fun, and some people made as many as ten prints! We loved seeing all of the beautiful art! Today we had our first table read of the script for the Oshibai stage performance. We became increasingly aware of how close our performance is. Tomorrow we will begin rehearsals in the theater. We’re excited for the performance on Saturday! It was kanji day in the Beginner class, and we learned how to write simple kanji characters like the numbers and days of the week. Intermediate class had a quiz on counters and started learning the short casual form of speech. The Advanced class watched rakugo (a traditional Japanese comic performance) and had fun learning about this art form and Japanese wordplay. For the first time since the Academy has started, we finally got a moment of peace with our zen gardens. Lauryn-senpai gave a presentation on the history of Buddhism and Zen and showed us how Zen gardens are made in Japan. We then had the chance to make our own gardens with craft boxes, sand, tiny rakes, and rocks. It was a calming experience and a nice break from the chatter of the Academy. It also left time to think about how there is less than a week until we go home. During the Edo period, Japan was almost completely gated away for many centuries. During that time, Europe was developing math like never-before. You may be wondering, did Japan not have any math then? No math homework to give to unfortunate students? The answer is: Japan developed their own style of math. Today we learned about the history and development of math in Japan from Dr. David Clark, a professor of math at Randolph-Macon College. We saw old problems carved into wood and heard about the samurai’s change in career to math. We even got to solve two traditional Japanese math problems. If there’s one thing we’ll say about math, it’s the fact that European, American, or Japanese, they’re all hard. Today we also carved out our designs into woodblocks. If anyone ever told you that carving is easy, they were lying. This was only part two of the woodblock process, so stay tuned for the final product! Two lovers, kept apart by the river of the Milky Way Galaxy, are finally able to meet on this day (unless you are in Tohoku where they celebrate Tanabata in August). And so on this day, we put on our yukata and celebrated the festival of Tanabata! Everyone got to choose a yukata and an obi (waist belt) to match. We then ate lunch and started the festivities. We listened to the Tanabata song to get into the spirit, and then were set free to enjoy the various rooms. There was a karaoke room, a history room, a games room with fortune telling and prizes, and a crafts room with origami. We also participated in an important Tanabata tradition: writing our wishes for this year on a piece of paper called a tanzaku and hanging them on the branches of a bamboo tree. Afterwards we had dinner and tried VERY hard not to spill anything on our yukata. The secret evening activity turned out to be a taiko (drum) performance from River City Taiko. They performed many powerful songs, then let us have a turn at playing the drums (it takes a lot of strength). Of course we couldn’t leave without putting our Bon Odori dance skills to good use! We danced to two songs with the taiko playing in the middle of the circle. We hope all your Tanabata wishes come true! As week two classes come to a close, there are some milestones to celebrate. The Beginner class took a katakana quiz, where we wrote all of the characters and sounds. We also played a game where we wrote katakana words on the whiteboards, with some of us winning prizes for speed and accuracy. We were also very happy because we got to watch the first episode of Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime series, at the end of class. The Intermediate class began learning te-form, which is a notoriously confusing aspect of Japanese but a very important verb conjugation. In the afternoon we had our second cooking class, where we learned how to make makizushi (rolled sushi) from Rie-sensei and the cooking han. They prepared seasoned rice, nori (seaweed), smoked salmon, cucumber, cheese, imitation crab, tamagoyaki (egg), avocado, and other seasonings. We got to choose our own fillings, and trus us when we say it was so good. Since it was some people’s first time making sushi rolls, there definitely were some interestingly shaped rolls along the way; but by the end, everyone had become a professional. We also finished the script for the Oshibai (play), with the Advanced class leading in translating it from English to Japanese. Tanabata is tomorrow, and we finished decorating the classrooms and making games. We can’t wait! Today we had an impressive line-up of guest speakers. First was Dr. Lauren Bell, a politics professor at Randolph-Macon College, who gave a lecture on comparative government. We learned about the US’s influence on Japan’s government, and many students who are interested in political science were very engaged in her lecture. The best part of the presentation was watching a video of a brawl in Japan’s parliament. In the afternoon we enjoyed a tea ceremony performed by Hanako-sensei. After giving a lecture on the history and art form, she demonstrated part of the ceremony for us. We were served matcha and ohigashi (colorful sugar sweets). The bitter matcha paired well with the sugary ohigashi. We had to take our shoes off to sit on the tatami mats. We also attempted to sit in seiza (kneeling position). Key word: attempted. With satisfied palates and numb legs, we concluded the meditative tea ceremony. It was very elegant, and a completely new experience for everyone at the Academy. Finally, we had a history lesson from Nick-senpai, who talked about the Meiji Period/Restoration, which was highly influential in shaping modern Japan. He talked about Japan’s rapid industrialization and covered the positive and negative effects that came about during this period. Estes, our dining hall, was closed for the holiday, so to keep us fed and happy the Academy provided Panera Bread for breakfast and lunch, and Domino’s pizza for dinner. It was very tasty! We started the day with a Bon Odori dance class taught by Hanako-sensei. Bon Odori are dances that are performed at summer festivals in Japan. We learned two dances that we will be performing again on Sunday during the Tanabata festival. In the afternoon we had a surprise event called Taste of Japan, where we taste-tested Japanese foods that have unique and polarizing flavors, including nattou (fermented soybeans), umeboshi (pickled plums), daikon (pickled radish), and gari (pickled ginger). Some people really didn’t like them, but some loved the new flavors. Peter was a nattou fiend and ate three boxes! In the evening we learned about how Japanese fireworks are made in honor of the Fourth of July. We then watched videos of Japanese fireworks shows. It was really fun and we sang the Star Spangled Banner. |
