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Today were visited by representatives from the Japanese embassy who came all the way from Washington DC. We heard from Fumito Miyake, the Minister of Public Relations, and Yuki Sugiyama, a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They spoke to us about US-Japan relationships and opportunities to travel, teach, and study in Japan. It was very informative, and we also had the chance to talk to them at lunch and practice our Japanese. Shane M interviewed Minister Miyake and asked him what his favorite color is (which goes along with our theme of junin toiro “Ten People, Ten Colors”). Minister Miyake’s favorite color is…shiro (white)! In the Beginner class, we learned how to say things that we like and dislike, which was really fun. In the Intermediate class, we had our first quiz on katakana, which was stressful but helpful. In the Advanced class, Lauryn-senpai taught us about transitive and intransitive verbs. Students also had gym and independent study time, and some students chose to hit the pool to cool down!
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This morning we had a guest speaker, Dr. Jim Doering, Professor of Music at Randolph-Macon College. He talked about music’s role in movies, especially Japanese movies, and the tradition of narrators (benshi) for early Japanese silent films. We then got to watch a Japanese silent short film called “A Straightforward Boy,” for which Dr. Doering played the piano soundtrack live, and Kyle-sensei narrated, whipping out his incredible voice acting skills. In the afternoon we decorated uchiwa (fans), which brought out everyone’s personality and creativity. In the evening we watched Spirited Away, or Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, a classic Studio Ghibli film. Kyle-sensei shared facts throughout the movie, including hidden symbolism. During the scene in the movie when the main character receives an onigiri (rice ball), Rie-sensei and Emily-sensei surprised us with homemade onigiri! We loved the movie, and highly recommend that everyone watch it. In morning language class, the Beginner class started learning katakana, the second Japanese writing system that is used for foreign loan words. The intermediate class started learning kanji, which is the most difficult aspect of Japanese, but it felt like we made a lot of progress, as we were able to write multiple sentences with what we’d learned. Finally, in the afternoon the much-anticipated event arrived: Undoukai! We played 6 different games to determine which team would reign supreme. Ultimately the white team won the athletic games, but the red team won the spirit award, and all our voices are hoarse from cheering. We polled students on what their favorite event was, and soccer came in 1st place, followed by the baton relay race, sumo ball, and kendama relay. On Sunday morning at the Academy, we had free time and the option to attend religious services. We reconvened for lunch, and had one language class in the afternoon. The Beginner class finished our study of hiragana and took a quiz. We also played hiragana Jeopardy, which was fun and well-fought. We also had a class on woodblock prints taught by Emily-sensei, who introduced us to processes and techniques. We are going to be making our own woodblock prints, so we started sketching our designs. The secret evening activity turned out to be a special guest appearance by Miki-sensei and Tadao-sensei, who introduced a traditional instrument called a koto. The koto is a very old instrument that originated in China and is used in traditional Japanese music. Miki-sensei played songs such as Sakura Sakura and Amazing Grace. The music played on the koto was so beautiful and different from other classical instruments that we have heard before. After the demonstration, we each got a chance to play the koto, and there are possibly some prodigies hidden among us! Today’s main activity was the long-awaited dorayaki cooking class led by Rie-sensei and the cooking han. Dorayaki are sweet treats that consist of red bean paste sandwiched between two small pancakes. The hardest part is making the pancakes the perfect shape and size. We interviewed our fellow students and asked them, “What is the secret to making a perfect dorayaki pancake?” Here are some answers: “Teamwork” - Jean S. “And love” - Elijah F. “You have to pour it” - Darius B. “Hold the pancake up to check the pancake, then flip it” - Peter N. “Copy Peter” - Undoukai han. Once we were done, we got to eat our warm and fresh dorayaki. We also made enough to give to each of the Latin Academy students as a gift. We hope our new friends enjoy them! In other news, we did our laundry! We also had back-to-back language classes today to make time for the cooking class. Students in the Advanced class presented their favorite places, and learned how to use keigo (formal speech). The Intermediate class continued learning how to conjugate verbs. The Beginner class learned about even more sounds in Japanese that are formed by diacritical marks and contractions. Drum roll, please…introducing our first guest speaker: Dr Timothy Brown! As an expert in Japanese religion, he gave a lecture on religious trends and differences in Japanese religion. From Buddhism to Shintoism to atheism, Japanese religion is more a practice than an identity. This was an interesting lecture as this idea of religion is so different from religions in America. Today’s core language classes included a significant milestone for the Beginner class, because we finished learning the hiragana chart. We also learned how to say our birthdays and practiced speaking in front of the class. In the afternoon we had a special shodo (calligraphy) class taught by our very own Rie-sensei. Shodo takes a lot of practice and patience, and we learned how important breathing is. We wrote Japanese characters on our hachimaki (headbands) that we will wear during our sports festival. Our favorite activity of the day was singing and dancing at karaoke! We sang a mixture of English and Japanese songs, and bonded over dance numbers and Taylor Swift ballads. During our language classes today, the Beginner class continued learning ten more hiragana and started learning basic grammar. We learned how to introduce ourselves in Japanese to the whole class which was a big step for the Beginner class and we’re all proud of each other! In the Intermediate class, we learned how to negate adjectives, conjugate verbs to past tense, and used these to create new sentence structures. In the Advanced class, we learned new kanji and learned how to count different types of objects in Japanese, playing a matching game with cards. (Much like in English, where we have terms like a "flock" of birds or a "slice" of pizza.) In the afternoon we had an event with the Latin Academy where we learned how to greet each other in the other Academy’s language. It was fun to meet new people and teach them how to say things in the language we’re learning. We also spent time preparing for Undoukai, our sports festival. We’ve been divided into two rivals teams, the red team and the white team, and we started making posters and coming up with team chants. Today we braved the 99 degree heat on our field trip day to Richmond. First we went to Maymont’s Japanese Garden, exploring beautiful bridges, gazebos, and groves. The koi pond was especially pretty. Next we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and saw their special samurai exhibit which displayed armor, weapons, masks, and textiles from Japan’s warrior class. The elaborate details and quality of decoration blew us away. We saw archery bows that were taller than us, which we thought was really cool. We took a shopping spree to Tokyo Market, which was packed with cute souvenirs and tempting snacks. We spent too much money, but so far the snacks have been worth it! The day ended with a delicious meal at Sticky Rice. The Bucket of Tots was a hit, and we filled our bellies with sushi, noodles, and tempura. Today, like every morning at the Academy, we started off with Radio Taiso, a Japanese exercise routine where we stretch our bodies and minds before starting the day. During our core language classes, the beginner class started off with reviewing the hiragana we learned yesterday with a fun game that came with a candy reward. We continued learning more rows of hiragana, and learned how to say the days of the week, numbers 1-12, and the months of the year in Japanese. We also learned about the different seasonal festivals in Japan. The intermediate class learned adjectives and how to ask questions in Japanese. The advanced class got to learn more about each other with self-introductions in Japanese and were rewarded with a fake 10,000 yen bill. We then learned about how Valentine’s day is celebrated in Japan, as well as learning the many verbs for giving and receiving. In the afternoon, we took trips to the library to see Randolph-Macon College’s collection of Japanese woodblock prints, including original prints from the 18th century. An exciting part of today is that we started research on our chihou projects. We were given computer time to research our chosen regions, including things like famous places, products, history, festivals, and mascots. On the first day of Academy, we had a “Survival Japanese” class as a group to learn common greetings and phrases. We then broke off into three levels for our daily language classes. In the beginner class, we went over the sounds of Japanese and learned ten hiragana (one of the Japanese alphabets), including how to write them in the correct stroke order. In the intermediate class, we did jikoshoukai (self-introductions) and reviewed hiragana. In the advanced class, we reviewed basic jikoshoukai and learned ways to express ourselves and our aspirations with new adjectives and phrases. In the afternoon, we had a mixer led by the RAs, where we got to know each other by playing Trainwreck and a story game with dice. We also played a tournament of janken (Japanese rock paper scissors). Students played against each other before battling each of the staff, winning stickers as prizes. We were also divided into six han, which are working groups that have different tasks during the Academy. For example, the blog han will be selecting the photos and writing the posts for this blog! |
