Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Happy Japanniversary!
Wow! Has it really been a year already? Happy Japanniversary to us! A year ago today, James and I were stepping off of a plane into an unknown world, wondering if anyone would be picking us up, or if we would be figuring out how to get to our new home on our own. As I was about to have my first breakdown, we saw someone holding a little piece of paper with our name on it. My answer to prayer! A two hour car ride later, and we were crashing in our hotel room, too exhausted to think about the adventure that lay ahead. It seems like just yesterday that I was waking up at 4:00 am (due to the time difference, of course) and exploring our new home. And now here we are, a year later, starting to piece our lives back together after the March 11th earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. Leaving Japan during the evacuation definitely gave me a greater appreciation for everything I loved about this great country, and I am excited and happy to be back! It has been such an amazing year, and James and I have been able to experience so much.
And just to give you a sampling of everything I love about living in Japan…..
I love the people, the culture, the food, and hot coffee out of a vending machine. I love drinking green tea and eating sushi at the sushi-go-round with amazing friends. I love traveling on the trains and visiting shrines and temples. I love ordering off of menus I can’t read and I love cooking my own meat at yakiniku. I love celebrating at festivals and watching everyone dress up in traditional clothes. I love teaching English and I love getting to know all of my students. I love that my washing machine does everything for me, that I still can’t figure out our solar panels, and that I can boil water in under a minute. I love our tatami room, our cherry tree, our Japanese maple, and our Japanese plum tree. I love that you see the tip of Mt. Fuji from our balcony. I love heated toilet seats and Japanese Kit Kats!! I just LOVE so much about this awesome experience we have been blessed with, and I am so thankful to be here. So happy Japanniversary to us!
A few of our memories from the last year:
And just to give you a sampling of everything I love about living in Japan…..
I love the people, the culture, the food, and hot coffee out of a vending machine. I love drinking green tea and eating sushi at the sushi-go-round with amazing friends. I love traveling on the trains and visiting shrines and temples. I love ordering off of menus I can’t read and I love cooking my own meat at yakiniku. I love celebrating at festivals and watching everyone dress up in traditional clothes. I love teaching English and I love getting to know all of my students. I love that my washing machine does everything for me, that I still can’t figure out our solar panels, and that I can boil water in under a minute. I love our tatami room, our cherry tree, our Japanese maple, and our Japanese plum tree. I love that you see the tip of Mt. Fuji from our balcony. I love heated toilet seats and Japanese Kit Kats!! I just LOVE so much about this awesome experience we have been blessed with, and I am so thankful to be here. So happy Japanniversary to us!
A few of our memories from the last year:
Hiking Fuji-San
SUSHI!!
Golden Pavilion, Kyoto
The Imperial Palace in Tokyo
Yokohama at Night
The Great Buddha in Kamakura
Enjoying the Fall in Japan
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Picking up the brush with Shodo 書道
Leaving Japan for such a long period of time made me realize how little time I actually have left in this amazing country. With a new sense of urgency, I signed up for a few Japanese art classes, including Shodo 書道, Ikebana 生け花, and Chigirieちぎり絵. 
Last week, I had my first Japanese Calligraphy class called Shodo. While I am by no means an artist, I have always loved art, and I am a strong believer in strengthening our art and music programs in American schools. It is so disappointing that these programs are the first to go in budget situations, and I hope that in the future we will be able to see beyond the budget and focus on educating our nation’s youth to become more whole and inspired human beings. But enough of my beliefs on America’s educational system. Back to the art of Shodo.
My class was taught by a woman named Edoyo Sekoh, which is actually her artist name, not her real name. She holds a degree in Calligraphy from the Tokyo Gakugei University, which I thought was fabulous. I didn’t even realize you could earn a degree in Calligraphy! A professional Calligraphist….that made my day! We began the class with an introduction to Shodo: “Japanese writing KANJI with a brush. Play with color ink.” I like that! Play with color ink. “You enjoy writing the Chinese character of Japan with the brush, and making the work today.” And enjoy I did. We were given a list of kanji we might want to try, and since I am decorating the guest room with some of my “artwork,” I chose friendship友情.
Edoyo demonstrated what we should be doing with orange ink, and then we mimicked her using black ink. It was really very interesting, and I enjoyed having a professional to learn from. After each attempt, she would go over ours with orange ink to show us where we needed to improve.
My very first attempt was my best, and I got worse and worse, though I enjoyed it immensely. After we had practiced our character, Edoyo wrote out our names in Kanji so we could sign our work. It was amazing how difficult it was to write my name in Kanji. And you have to write it very tiny. My name ended up being almost as big as the character I was writing, but I figure it will get better with time. It was very calming and peaceful to sit there focusing on each brush stroke, and I am really excited to be trying my hand at this beautiful Japanese art.
Last week, I had my first Japanese Calligraphy class called Shodo. While I am by no means an artist, I have always loved art, and I am a strong believer in strengthening our art and music programs in American schools. It is so disappointing that these programs are the first to go in budget situations, and I hope that in the future we will be able to see beyond the budget and focus on educating our nation’s youth to become more whole and inspired human beings. But enough of my beliefs on America’s educational system. Back to the art of Shodo.My class was taught by a woman named Edoyo Sekoh, which is actually her artist name, not her real name. She holds a degree in Calligraphy from the Tokyo Gakugei University, which I thought was fabulous. I didn’t even realize you could earn a degree in Calligraphy! A professional Calligraphist….that made my day! We began the class with an introduction to Shodo: “Japanese writing KANJI with a brush. Play with color ink.” I like that! Play with color ink. “You enjoy writing the Chinese character of Japan with the brush, and making the work today.” And enjoy I did. We were given a list of kanji we might want to try, and since I am decorating the guest room with some of my “artwork,” I chose friendship友情.
Edoyo demonstrated what we should be doing with orange ink, and then we mimicked her using black ink. It was really very interesting, and I enjoyed having a professional to learn from. After each attempt, she would go over ours with orange ink to show us where we needed to improve.
My very first attempt was my best, and I got worse and worse, though I enjoyed it immensely. After we had practiced our character, Edoyo wrote out our names in Kanji so we could sign our work. It was amazing how difficult it was to write my name in Kanji. And you have to write it very tiny. My name ended up being almost as big as the character I was writing, but I figure it will get better with time. It was very calming and peaceful to sit there focusing on each brush stroke, and I am really excited to be trying my hand at this beautiful Japanese art.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Back in Nippon 日本
After a very crazy two months, James and I are both back in Japan. It is difficult to put into words our experiences over the last few weeks, and I have struggled to write anything worthwhile. I’m sure many of you are waiting for an Earthquake blog, and it will come in the near future. Know that it has been extremely difficult to write and it will never say or be what I want it to say or be. But, nonetheless, I feel like we should share a bit of our experiences with you, so be on the lookout for that post. After the earthquake, James stayed in Japan and I returned to the United States for a few weeks. It was great seeing friends and family, driving with ease, and shopping at all of my favorite stores, but I was definitely ready to come back to this beautiful country.
Over the past year, I have fallen in love with Japan, with its beauty, its people, its culture. When I was in the states, a friend asked “what don’t you love about Japan?!” Believe me, there are things that frustrate me and there are days when I want nothing but to be back in the states, but overall, I love Japan, and I love that we have such an awesome opportunity to live here! I am very excited to be back and am looking forward to sharing this wonderful country with you through our blog.
Over the past year, I have fallen in love with Japan, with its beauty, its people, its culture. When I was in the states, a friend asked “what don’t you love about Japan?!” Believe me, there are things that frustrate me and there are days when I want nothing but to be back in the states, but overall, I love Japan, and I love that we have such an awesome opportunity to live here! I am very excited to be back and am looking forward to sharing this wonderful country with you through our blog.
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