Wednesday-Thursday-Friday I had school. This was typical. Trivial things of this week include:
>starting to learn a new dance during Dance PE...there will be a test in December! egads.
>during Shodo: this week, we wrote the famous poem Iroha-uta (Song of colors) which includes the 2 archaic hiragana letters ゐ(wi) and ゑ(we). To quote Wikipedia, which explains it better than me: The iroha (Japanese: 伊呂波, いろは) is a Japanese poem most likely written sometime during the Heian era (AD 794–1179). Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, Kukai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian Period.[1] The first record of its existence dates from 1079. It is famous because it is a perfect pangram, containing each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once. Because of this, it is also used as an ordering for the syllabary...
[the translated poem is below]
Even colors and sweet perfume
Will eventually fade
Even our world
Is not eternal
The deep mountains of vanity
Cross them today
And superficial dreams
Shall no longer delude you.
Pretty cool, no? Next week during class, we are going to make special name stamps (these are really cool--will go into detail next week) and write out an ancient sutra. It will be a meditative blast.
>During handbells, we started 2 pieces for Christmas. I have been promoted to 4 bells--double the fun, right?
>the nanpa thing from last week has turned into a sort of pen-pal via-text thing, which has been nice Japanese practice for me, I'm sure--as if I don't get it everyday here already, since I'm in Japan =)
>Next week I have my first math test. Big whoop.
That completes the minor, one sentence news.
My only pictures this week are of my new guyfriends. Natsu was out doing some errand, I think, and I had just gotten home after school and track and field club and promptly flopped on my bed and started to fall asleep, when my phone rang.
*Caller ID says it is Natsu*
Me: "uhhh, moshi moshi?" (hello?)
Boy's Voice: "Herrro!"
M: "Hello? Hello?"
BV: "Herro!"
M: "Natsu?"
BV: "Herro!"
M: "uhhh, dare desuka?" (who is this?)
BV: "Nagano desu!" (It's Nagano!)
M: [extremely confused] "Oh, um, hi."
Natsu proceeded to get her phone back, and I got up and met her and her 
3 guyfriends at the next train station. It was amusing for me because we had really random conversations (in Japanese, of course!). I won't do a play-by-play, but the whole thing was really fun for me, and they were really nice and funny guys.In about 2 weeks, I am going to Kyoto with the grade above me. I am pretty excited, because I do have some friends in the 2nd grade and Kyoto is the old part of Japan = many shrines and temples, which are one of my favorite things here. I am a little--anticipatory about onsen, as mentioned in earlier posts, since taking a large public bath with the grade above me wasn't what I first thought of when I wanted a memorable trip...but anyway. We will stay in an old-style Japanese inn, so that should be really cool and, well, Japanese-y.
My dad comes for a week and a half during Christmas, so I am counting down--I am really looking forward to seeing him. It's hard to believe that I am about at the 1/3 point of my Japan exchange.
Like I said, this week was not a spectacular one in terms of news to report--but I'll keep you posted nonetheless.
1 comment:
what sutra are you going to do? the heart sutra is a really famous one... it involves avalokiteshvara and sariputra. it's really fun to chant: you say stuff like form is void and void is form. anyway... what was up with that dream?
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