Sunday Closing Ceremony Schedule

10:00-11:30 Check out (All personal items must be out of the dorm by 11:30)
12:00-1:30  Closing ceremony
Parents must pick up their student! Students are not to leave until closing ceremony is over at 1:30.

Soy sauce. Today we took a tour of the San-J soy sauce factory outside of Richmond. We learned about the process that goes into creating soy sauce, and got the chance to see it being made. Upon leaving, we were given goodie bags with free samples and the opportunity to tear off our hair nets (!).
After returning to the campus, we took our daily language classes and attended a presentation given by Mr.Anderson on his daughter's fund and the relief efforts after the earthquake. After dinner, we attended another presentation on the Japanese governmental system.
As usual, we learned very much today. In extended studies, we finished up the film Udon, and made advertisments for the tasty dish.

This academy has been a wonderful experience that will be remembered for the rest of our lives, and it has been a pleasure to attend.

They say life is a long  journey filled with twists and turns, ups and downs and unclear outcomes. If this is true, then I believe we took one crazy stride today. We broke barriers, laughed cried and saw that in 4 days we wouldnt have each other to lean on. It was a sad moment when I realized today that what we've accomplished in three weeks will never be the same. But I dont want to focus on the bad with so much good around me. Today was a busy day. We had classes in the morning, ate lunch and headed back to the meat locker. (The Old Chapel, which is probably kept at a constant temperature of 60 degrees.) The academy was visited by a Randolph-Macon professor who taught us about the mysterious ways of the samurai. It was extremely interesting and we found that the cinema samurai is way more fictionalized than the real samurai. We soon were surprised when arriving at our cooking class. 7 tables were set out complete with basic ingredients and a cutting board. My fellow vegetarians and I were sorted out as team one to cook a more vegetable-friendly dish. Our S,enseis greeted us with "welcome to cooking curry, Iron Chef style." The rules were simple cook the best curry. We each were allowed to grab ingredients out of a pile and incorporate them into our dish. I was named team captain so I grabbed carrots, peas, corn and tofu. We had started cooking, when we were called forth again, this time to grab an odd ingredient to incorporate. These secret ingredients were chocolate, apples, cinnamon, tomatoes and broccoli.My team had the cinnamon. We cooked for a while and finally had a delicious tofu curry. The Sensei's judged and handed out prizes. We unfortunately did not place, but it was the fun we had that counted. After dinner we cleaned up and dressed up for the variety show. This show had been planned by the variety show company who had been hard at work. It was funny and very entertaining. We had 6 "celebrities" do various challenges and many ridicolous things. In between challenges, academy students would present a talent. We had talents ranging from singing to dancing and even a Kendoh act. After the challenges and acts were over, several academy goers took tothe catwalk and had a fashion show. There was no set rule to what fashion. I dressed up as Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter. We also had a Coco Chanel, a tiger and even someone dressed up in full yukata. It was a whirlwind of colors and cultures. I think we all had a fun and relaxing time. We all broke out of our comfort zone and tried something new whether it be singing in public the first time, impersonating a celebrity or strutting down the catwalk. We all came away from the show a little more confident and stronger. And I think thats one of the most important things we can come away from the academy with. This academy may only be a few footsteps in our long journey, but they are footsteps in a different direction. They are stronger and more confident footsteps.

     So, today was just a little different from our usual schedule. Rather than having language or cultural classes, we took a field trip to Maymond Park in Richmond to take a look at the Japanese-style garden that they have there. As I'd never seen a Japanese garden in person before, this was really great. The whole place just made you feel relaxed, from the koi swimming around lazily in the pond to the giant stone waterfall that you could watch from one of those "moon bridges." Unfortunately the waterfall wasn't on today, but we got the next best thing - swimming in the pond!

     Okay, so maybe not swimming, but not many people around here can say they've mucked out the pond of a Japanese garden, can they? See, the Japanese Governor's Academy has this thing where every year that they go to Maymont the students spend an hour helping out the staff of the park clean the Japanese garden area. This is because Maymont doesn't charge admission, and it's the Academy's way of giving back to this beautiful place. Not only was there algae-fishing, but also braving vicious spiders and hives of bees to pull weeds and haul fallen branches and logs around.

     As you can see, there was plenty of manual labor, but it wasn't all that bad. Besides, at least we know that our one hour of work helped the park staff out at least a little bit. All in all, the garden was beautiful and serene, but there was also an Italian garden and a zoo, and the whole park was gorgeous. I definitely intend on returning at some point, to take my time and explore all that Maymont has to offer. Check it out if you ever get the opportunity!
     But our day of fun didn't end at Maymont. On the way back to R-MC we stopped in this place somewhere in Richmond called Carytown, just to explore some stores that had Japanese items. The first - Tokyo Market - had so many things that I don't even know where to begin. Bento boxes, lacquer ware, cute rice bowls, not to mention all the food and candy. Some of us bought snacks that we didn't even know what they were, and most turned out to be delicious. After Tokyo Market we hit this toy store called the World of Mirth, where they not only had an abundance of Hello Kitty items but also weird sunglasses and hats, ridiculous books, and toys that none of us had ever even heard of. It was a pretty strange place, but it was fun to wander around and look at everything.
     Well, that's all I have for you today! Oyasumi nasai!
     - Kelsey

     One of the great things about this Academy is that no matter how repetitive the days may seem, there is always something new and exciting. Take today, for example. We had a Japanese professor from Randolph-Macon talk to us about the concept of beauty - particularly our notions of beauty today as compared to those of the Heian period of Japan. For example, a thousand years ago in Japan they valued women who were pale, had black-painted teeth, were rather rotund, and had their eyebrows painted on a good inch or two above their eyes. We learned that beauty almost always reflects the conditions in which people live - take the Heian period, for instance. In that time, most commoners were tanned from working in the sun and lean from a tough lifestyle. In contrast were the aristocrats, who never lifted a finger for anything, and in order to distance themselves as much as possible from "filthy commoners," the wealthy strove to appear as opposite as they could. Learning about this really put our notion of what is beautiful into perspective for me, and I found the whole topic fascinating. Besides, it was plenty of fun to look at pictures or old drawings of Heian beauties. Nearly everything that we consider plain or unfavorable in appearance, they considered beautiful.
     Today we also had recreation time, which is always fun. It gives us a break from our studies, and it's a great opportunity to just hang out with our friends. There's an indoor track and swimming pool, air hockey, racquet ball, basketball, lacrosse, and good old exercise machines with televisions attached. Seeing as this is the only opportunity we really get to watch T.V., there's plenty of demand for those. But there was also running and dancing, and a lot of air hockey that became rather fierce. I tell you, with the kids here, air hockey gets dangerous.
     Even as I type this, the auditions for the Variety Show are going on somewhere on the second floor of Andrews Hall. For those who don't know, the Variety Show is where anyone in the Academy can show off a particular talent or hobby. So far I have seen dancing to various songs, singing, ukulele playing, guitar, kendo, cosplay, and imitations of famous celebrities. The actual show will be this Wednesday, and you can be sure that we'll have plenty of pictures for you to look at then. For now, here's a picture of two participants in the show:

     Everyone seems to be having a great time preparing for all the activities of the week, and tomorrow we'll be able to tell you all about our day trip to the Maymont Japanese Garden in Richmond!
 - Kelsey

Tanabata

Yesterday we had the star festival (Tanabata Masturi) in the evening. Our company worked whevever we had time and after the nightly meeting to make this festival all that we can. We worked on writing the script for our play, made decorations such as cranes, worked on making Tanzaku (paper we write our wishes on). Although we tried to make this work because of our busy scedule we were not able to do everything we planned to do. However, the festival turned out to be one of the best memories we had at this academy. We made many decorations and hung them up on the bamboo. Also, we made many tanzaku and put it on the table so everyone could write their wishes and hang it up on the bamboo.
Once the decoration was ready, we all dressed up in Yukata, summer kimono, and got ready for the festival. Getting the yukata on was a whole new experience for many of the students here at the academy. For those who had trouble putting on their yukata and obi, teachers from the Virginia Beach are came to help us.
The festival opened with a performance by River City Taiko from the University of Richmond, and they did a fantastic job. They played three pieces for us and later let the students and teachers to experice playing the different types of taiko. After that, our company did the play which told the story of the legend of Tanabata. Everyone did a fabulous job telling the story and each actor and actress played their role every well. Also, we danced the Obon Odori, and everyone looked like they were having fun. We all sang the Tanabata song together and took many fun pictures together, including pictures of students all from the same school districts. Although the process of getting ready for the festival stressed out not only me, but everyone else, I was glad I was able to be a part of this company.     -Sarah

                                                                                                                       - Sarah

Another few days have passed since the last blog update, so here comes one now from Evan! So much has been jammed packed into these days, like usual. I'll try my best to hit the major points right now. In addition to all of the actual language classes, where we learn all the kanji, sentence strutcture, and whatnot, we've all been involved in a mutltiude of fun activites.

Last Tuesday, we had another cooking class! It was so good and so cool! We made gyoza, which are dumplings filled with an assortment of different meats, vegtables, and such, and it's just good. You put all the chopped meat and vegtables in a dumpling, then wet the edges of it in order to close it up. After that, you cook it on a hot plate until it's all golden brown and awesome. And finally, you enjoy! The gyoza takes a long time to make, but it's so worth it. Mine would have been bad, but lucky Rahmon did most of the work and he's a good cook. So it was super tasty! Although, we also made onigiri and I made the that completly on my own, besides the whole rice making part, and it was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself. I put all the spices and flavors in it to make it real good. I made a bunch to eat with the gyoza right then and there, and then made six for a snack later. But I only had one left the next morning. Haha.

Anyway, back to Tuesday. After we cleaned up the area in this church where we do our cooking, we headed on over to Old Chapel. That's where we had a culture class on how to put on the traditional Japanese summer kimono. And the class was taught by mine own Japanese teacher from back home, Cullison-Sensei! It was such a treat getting to see her. She showed everybody how to put on and tie yourself up in the kimono. The girls have to be elaboratly put up in their kimono, because it takes a lot of certainity and diligence to get into that thing. Luckily, the guy one is pretty simple. Execpt that darn knot at the very end keeps giving me the problems! Geez. I taught the other guys just to keep folding it and pulling it places until it works. Most of that time that's enough. After all the dressing up was conculded and Cullison-Sensei left, we had a culture class taught by the lovely and adorable, Uchida-Sensei. She gave a fantastic presentation on Japanese poety. I can honestly say that that was one of my favorite culture classes so far. It's just seems that the Japanese language conveys so much emotion and meaning with every word, when compared to English. It could also be that the mystery of not being able to understand the language completly might add to its charm. Yeah, she crushed that.

Wednesday was the fourth of July, and it was pretty much a normal day at the Japanese Academy. We had our classes in the morning and then activities in the afternoon. We painted our Daruma and boxes during arts and crafts time. And after dinner, we had a cool presentation about the first novel written. And it was by a woman! It was totally legit. I want to read that book sometime. After that we had extended studies classes. I'm in Lawless-Sensei's class and we watched "Spirited Away." I forgot how good that movie is. I must watch it with my Gran-Gran sometime. We watched half of it then and then we made our way back to the dorm. And we got back, there was a FOURTH OF JULY PARTY OUTSIDE!!! It was so much fun. There was s'mores and playing Ninja Attack, jealous Latin kids, and an all around good time! And such a fun surprise. What adventures will take place during the next few days at the Japanese Academy? Who knows? Just keeping reading the blog!

     Evan

(Sunday morning painting Daruma)

Sunday morning was our first “rest day.” By rest I mean one more hour of well-deserved sleep as another week at the Academy had stared. While others went to church, the others all gathered to paint our Daruma and start our next project of an ornate-style lacquer box. After classes, as we have them every day, we had another interesting cultural class. Sunday’s culture class was about the story Dancing Girl. During reading, we gained a deeper understanding for the Japanese collectivist culture. Later that night we started our second course of extended studies classes. We all had our choice and mine was a class about tea that will end in an original tea ceremony.

As today is Monday, we would normally be rather tired or unexcited, but at the Japanese academy, that is both unacceptable and impossible. As of now, we are all preparing in companies for festivals and ceremonies of all kinds. Origami and auditions are only parts of the things that we must prepare for these activities. There is always something happening at Virginia Governor’s Japanese Academy.

-Mallory