immersing

Ikebana: the art of flower arrangement

...and here were our best attempts.

The last photo in that bunch was the example that of our sensee's, who showed us what to do in a crash course demonstration lasting about 3 minutes.

We were then told to sit down and get to work, kneeling at low tables with a bundle of cut flowers, a bowl filled with water with something resembling a curry comb inside, and a pair of trimmers. While we guessed at what we were doing, two elderly Japanese women walked through the the 6 of us who signed up saying how well we were doing, asking us if it was our first time doing this, and in my case sat down next to me with a look of horror on their face as I trimmed my stems too short.

The main point of our studying Japanese in country is to immerse ourselves into the culture and experience it as raw as possible so that we may absorb it all like the little scholarly sponges we were made to be. 'Culture Experience Days' every Tuesday after our shortened class period (we only go from 9-noon on Tuesdays and Fridays), allow us to delve into specific facets of Japanese culture (traditional and modern) if we so choose.

Ikebana, as shown above, was such an event.

Next week Tuesday will be a traditional tea ceremony, followed by a lesson in weaponry martial arts (which Rory is very excited for since it is utilizing the specific type of weapon, that is eluding me at the moment, that he happened to purchase at one of the cons we've frequented), and will take place every Tuesday through the end of the summer.

But that just isn't enough immersion for Ashley and me. Oh no. Not nearly enough.

We move in with our host parents Saturday. No more slugging it up all day after class, babbling incessantly in English, or living off of rice, miso soup and baumkuchen. We have an hour (or a little less depending on our motivation for biking) commute to class and back every day, and are limited to the limited train schedule for traveling between Hikone and Nagahama (our new home town). We're planning on using as much Japanese as possible, learning as much as we can from our host mother (she cooks a lot and we have this strange addiction to bentos), and hopefully still finding time to keep everyone informed of our adventures via the internet and occasionally skype family.

In the mean time, we're spending our last few days in our comfy little apartment drawing, watching episodes of So You Think You Can Dance online, obsessing over songs on the internet (see Ashley's blog for an example of such), as well as taking long luxurious baths and buying hyaku en bath balls that apparently have little toys in them. Meet the new addition to the family, Keppery-Karol-Markl.

And in all reality I should have more to say, but with the stress of having to repack everything I own (plus many many things) and clean everything as well as figuring out when and how and everything in between,
all I can do is plug away with studies and produce small pretty much meaningless blog posts laced with complaints and random comments on life and inside jokes.

So until next time, probably after the homestay's inevitable initial awkwardness has passed, have a nice week.