Cultural classes

So this past week the university was nice enough to provide us some opportunities to engage in really traditional Japanese activities.

First up on Monday was Koto, or a type of Japanese harp. This was actually my favorite. The harps themselves are rather large, not very wide, but very long, and you sit perpendicular to them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto_%28musical_instrument%29

So we had 2 hours, with 6 little Japanese ladies trying to help 30 of us play this Japanese song. It was actually a lot of fun. There are 13 strings, and you have 3 picks on your right hand, one on your thumb, and the other 2 on your first two fingers. You can also push down the strings to get sharp notes.

The song we were attempting to play was called sakura, which is a super traditional song, which is about Japanese cherry trees...I think. Sakura means Japanese cherry tree, in Japanese of course...but I couldn't really get the lyrics from the song, and was more focused on playing the instrument than signing the song. It was a lot of fun, even though my fingers hurt pretty bad by the end.

On Tuesday we were doing Kado, or Ikebana, or flower arranging. There's actually a ton of different ways to go about arranging flowers, and they all have their own unique styles and beauty. So I was given a couple of branches from a cherry tree, some twigs, grassy things, and 2 flowers. I began chopping and sticking and moving and removing my flowers and twigs and such, and finally ended up with an arrangement that I was satisfied with. I raised my hand to tell the sensei that I was done and she made her way over to me. She stood, examining my...arrangement...for a couple of seconds, and then sort of sighed in a disappointed manner. I was heart broken.

She then basically took everything out, and put it back in, creating an entirely different set up than I had. I was sort of insulted, but I guess that's the way of the Japanese. Maybe that's why they have so many problems with creative thinking...whenever someone creates something outside the box, they throw it away and force them back into the box....

On Wednesday, we headed to a temple, where we practiced some Soto-zen, or zahzen. Apparently this particular sect had been brought to Japan in the 6th century, and is 1 of the only 2 that are practiced in Japan. The other kind, Rinzai, has temples that are more famous, such as toudaizi (largest wooded building in the world in Nara), but Soto has more followers in Japan.

I wanted to hum...but much to my dismay this sect doesn't really do that :(. We learned a couple of hand positions and breathing techniques, and how to sit correctly, and then we bowed, sat down, and began to meditate. Normally you meditate in a special super quiet hall, and everyone faces the wall. This temple was freezing however, and so the monk turned on the heater, which roared to life, breaking the much needed silence lol. My legs were also hurting a ton, so I think I only got really into the mood for maybe 5 of the 30 minutes we were supposed to be meditating. You also have to keep your eyes open, and your posture is super important, so I wasn't exactly comfortable. Also, if the monk thinks you are getting sleepy, they can wack you with this wooden stick, so the 2 monks that were there were constantly prowling behind us while we were trying to concentrate, which was rather unnerving, especially when every once in awhile you heard the crack of someone else getting hit.

So it was fun, but meditating and such really isn't for me. I'll just go take a nice nap.

On Thursday, I went to the Sapporo snow (or ice) festival that is super popular in Japan these days. There were tons of people, and tons of foreigners. There were 3 sites, one had snow sculptures, another had ice sculptures and the last just had things for kids to do, like snow slides and such. So I only went to the 2 that had the sculptures and stuff.

We (me and a couple Japanese friends) headed to the snow place first, it was super cold and crowded, but a lot of the sculptures were really cool. Some of them were the size of a small house, others were 20 meters tall. My favorite was a sculpture of a famous church in Dresden. Also, funny little fact, all the snow sculptures were made by the Japanese Self Defense Force. Apparently they have nothing better to do that play with snow, while the people in Haiti could use all the help they can get.

Anyway, as the evening wore on, we made our way towards a tower that is at the end of Odoori Park. We went up to the top of it (by stairs btw) and were able to get some great photos. This one is my favorite. The colors are so vibrant and you can see the city and park stretch away before your eyes. I wish it was clear enough to see the mountains in the background, but I am still happy with the shot.

After the snow sculptures, we headed over to the ice ones, and I was pretty disappointed. I guess we ended up going on the last day, so most of the ice has melted somewhat, leaving some of the sculptures in a rather sad state. But it was still fun.

On Friday then I got my hands dirty with Japanese shodou, or calligraphy. I hate Japanese calligraphy...