23 June 2015: Maymont Park

Today, the students took a visit to the Japanese Garden located in Maymont Park. Although the temperatures were super high, everyone managed to have a good time and had the opportunity to take in the view that the garden had to offer. Japanese gardens on the surface don't appear to be all that decorative. However, unlike a typical garden's aesthetic, the goal is to make the area appear completely natural. We learned that nothing within the garden exists without meaning and purpose. We all ate lunch and admired the scenery and then came back to the dorms to study and work on upcoming projects. 

- Maggie San

26 June 2014: Picnic and Community Service at Maymont

6/26 

Word of the Day: Garden, niwa

Stone bridge in the Japanese gardens at Maymont

We were able to visit the beautiful Japanese gardens at Maymont in Richmond, VA. There were various aspects of a typical Japanese garden including a waterfall, stone islands, and a meditation rock garden. The irregular paths in the garden are designed to have the visitor slow down, stop, and look at the beauty and wonder around them. Some of the trees original to the owners are over a hundred years old.  It was a hot and humid day; so many were thankful to find areas of shade and cool off. 

-Melissa

Yesterday, the Japanese Academy visited the Maymont Japanese Garden in Richmond. The students split up into two groups and went on a tour with Ruth and Diane. After the brief tour, the groups split up once again to participate in some community service. Each group had an individualized task to help the garden. The tasks included students cutting down bamboo, picking out weeds, and cleaning algae from the pond. A few willing students got the opportunity to enter the pond itself and sweep algae towards the edges of the pond. The group worked for about an hour, but it was intense and productive. Maymont Estate does not receive funds to maintain the garden, so it relies on volunteers such as us.

              -Matias

GJA Students crossing the pond on stone steps

25 June 2014: Wonderful Adventures in Japanese Land

6/25

The word of the day today is ohirugohan, or lunch. Sometimes, the initial o is omitted, but as the o makes the word more polite; I have added it here.

           The intermediate class is composed of students with various levels of Japanese language experience. We are currently focusing on clothing and “customer and clerk” scenarios.  Yesterday, we were able explore the online counterpart of Uniqlo, a popular Japanese store, to view Japanese fashion and apply new vocabularies. We learned specialized vocabulary called keigo, which is an honorific form that clerks use to respect the customers. The clerks use this style of speech to honor customers, as they would honor gods.  However, this tends to be confusing for foreigners, because they are unfamiliar with this form of speech.  Lawless Sensei (Teacher) also taught us the art of haggling. 

            -Melissa   

   

Antoine and Katherine learning how to make origami in Otani-sensei's class

Origami birds

Today, before dinner, we had a guest speaker, Sones Sensei. Sones Sensei teaches in Richmond and is interested in Japanese art and bonsai. He lectured on common motifs in Japanese visual arts, as well as Japanese gardens.

One common motif in Japanese art is the sun, which is depicted on the Japanese flag. It is commonly known of as a symbol for Japan. However, what people don’t generally know is that the sun is a symbol of rebirth and renewal, since it rises and sets every day. The motif of the sakura, or cherry blossom, is also very common and important to the Japanese culture. Samurai saw the fragile cherry blossom as a metaphor for their own lives, because it is fleeting, yet beautiful. A tenet of Buddhist philosophy is that humans should live every day as if it were the last, because a person’s life can be here one day and gone the next, just as one big storm can wipe out the cherry blossoms.

Sones Sensei also told us about many different types of Japanese gardens, such as the strolling garden, the rock garden, and the tea garden. The tea garden style originated in the Muromachi Period, when Japan experienced civil unrest. Samurai needed a quiet place to relax and meditate after battle, so the tea ceremony and small, contained tea gardens were started. In general, Japanese gardens are made to blend in to nature so that one cannot tell where the garden ends and the surrounding forest begins. Tomorrow, we will see this philosophy of life espoused by the Japanese people. We will visit a Japanese garden in Richmond. Thanks to Sones Sensei’s lecture, we will be able to fully appreciate the meaning of the gardens.

- Christina B.

Examples of Japanese symbolism in art

Lesson about Japanese gardens: Sones-sensei (Guest Speaker)

Today’s culture lesson with Chung-Senpai included topics about ongaku (おんがく), also known as music, and Japanese game shows. His music lesson mentioned various Japanese and Korean artists such as Supercell, Younha, 2PM, Jyongui, and Spyair. A few of these artists sang the opening songs for popular anime. Aside from the deep lyrics that can be found in many of the song covers, we learned that songs can be created without a real person being there. Software developed in 2000 allows anyone to create a song using the pre-recorded voices of famous singers. This development is called Vocaloid and is popular throughout the region.

After Chung-Senpai’s lesson, we participated in a mock Japanese game show. The game show had three groups participate in three rounds of activities. The first had students present a PowerPoint on the spot without knowing the subject and information, the second round was a hiragana matching game, and the third round was a quiz that required students to recall information from the lecture. At the end, all teams performed a comedic skit using three new Japanese vocabulary words. Students were rewarded with a shiny, star sticker. YATTA! (Hooray!)

- Matias

Adam and Katherine learning how to write numbers in Kanji