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| Shodou (Japanese Calligraphy) class |
Roger and Miki in the office were very helpful in helping me find a place to try it. One wanted someone already attending her classes to introduce me to her before allowing me to attend. I don't recall the last time, if ever, I have ever encountered that old custom. A second teacher, Inagaki Sensei, who had been instructing another student from the school I knew, was more willing to accept me knowing I was from Yamasa. She also was fairly close to the Student Village which was convenient.
I picked up the idea just in time to get a month's worth of lessons before I leave Okazaki. I started on the Thursday but move to Mondays the following weeks because it would be less crowded. As I said before, Inagaki Sensei has taught Yamasa students before but I was the only one for the time being. The rest were students from local elementary and high schools coming over to practice their shodou after their classes finished. I had to juggle my work schedule a bit to work the class in but I found out after the first session that an hour, hour-and-a-half was going to suffice each week. Four of them, cost me 3,500 yen.
Being new to the art, I arrived with no tools to work with nor did I have any concise idea what they were. Inagaki Sensei sold me a large brush fude (800 yen), ink (300 yen), and Japanese paper (50 yen) which was enough basics to start with. She also lent me a suzuri, an stone well to pour the ink into and bunchin, a pair of paperweights. I already knew hiragana and katakana but don't recall ever writing them with a fude so it was a new experience for me. What wasn't knew, but not necessarily comfortable, was kneeling on the floor to practice writing on a very low table, Japanese style. Doing this for a long time eventually puts my feet to sleep.
Inagaki Sensei, not familiar with my Japanese skills, gave me some basics to work with. This meant writing 'aisatsu' in very large hiragana on one sheet of paper at a time. She would then point out the areas I needed to work on in my brush skills. Of course, it's quite different writing with a brush, especially when it came to using the right amount of brush and pressure to get the correct thickness and stroke marks. The whole session continued like this, repeatedly writing one or two words, trying to get it right. Sensei said I seemed to understand the hiragana letters all right but somehow, it still does not quite look right but this was just the first session. I still have another three to go.
I did finally get around this week to engaging in that famous classic modern Japanese art - Karaoke! In my case, this could be called screaming therapy. Those who know me from taiko and dragon boating know that I love being able to use my voice at the top of my lungs. I haven't done karaoke much since my friends back home have generally been reluctant but I do like singing. I didn't say I do it well, but I do like singing. Here, I consider it cheap entertainment (certainly when compared to going to see a movie). For less than 500 yen on a weekday, I got a room to myself and belted out about ten or so songs from Lenny Kravitz, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Dire Straits, and David Lee Roth. I even managed to get in some Japanese songs though I could only find three that I knew enough about to sing - two from animes and my favorite so far on this trip, Natsukawa Rimi's Nada Sou-Sou. It does make good Japanese pronounciation practice though I think I will have to learn a few more Japanese songs to try.
Speaking of music, like I said before, Japan seems to be a place where eighties music lives forever. Another greatest hits compilation for Queen, called "Jewels" hit number one in the country on the strength of the music being used in the "Pride" TV show, the one about a Nagano hockey team. Not a great show though. The characters get too overwrought and it seems there is always a game-winning goal scored on the last second. Still, I like trying to understand the dialogue but then again, I haven't been watching much else lately At least they had "Shall We Dance" on Friday, a definite "nice" and very entertaining Japanese movie, but it was hard to watch while playing poker that night. There is a remake of that movie coming out soon probably starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon. I think they filmed it in Winnipeg, mid-sized city in the middle of Canada of all places.
Working daily until 6:00 on average plus making dinner and chores has been limiting time for me to watch TV anyways, not to mention my individual studying. At least, though, I've started a couple of new things this week.