Day 13

Today, the Japanese Language Academy traveled to Richmond to view the Japanese gardens at Maymont Park. The day was beautiful and no rain fell as we had feared. We had the opportunity to take a tour along the winding paths and over the glistening water in the garden. There was a great variety of plants although most of the scenery was green to provide a natural look. There were multiple pools of water with beautiful koi. The fish were gold, orange, white, and black with dapples of red and silver. We all crossed a wooden moon bridge which is called such due to its circular reflection mimicking the shape of the moon. There was also a cascading waterfall and a dry riverbed. The purpose of the dry riverbed was to represent the flowing motion of water using only rocks.
After the tour, we had a chance to explore the park in groups. We all took excursions along the rough paths. The paths in Japanese gardens are created as uneven and slightly hard to navigate so that the walker will slow down and take in what’s around them. This allowed us all to slow down and pay attention to the beautiful scenery. A few of us sat on the stepping stones that led across the lake and watched for koi to swim around the lily pads. It was a nice, relaxing day and we all learned a great deal about the culture of the society that we all so love!

Katelyn

Tokyo Market & Virginia Fine Arts Museum

Once we were done with our excursion in Maymont Park’s gorgeous Japanese garden and our picnic, we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Tokyo Market. We split up into groups, rotated walking to the Tokyo Market to do a bit of shopping, and toured the grandiose Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Tokyo Market was a cute little shop located right off of Cary Street. Inside, a woman greeted us as we hunted for items in the tiny three aisle store.

Inside the Museum, there was a huge multicolored statue on one end of the foyer and on the other, a golden rabbit stretched fully, as if in mid jump. Most students went upstairs to contemplate the renaissance art and modern art exhibits, which were both very well done. Many who saw the contemporary pieces of artwork found them mind blowing. Melanie, Jillian, and Nic found the 1980’s Apocalyptic Era paintings especially stunning, a favorite being The Astronomer by Robert Morris. They found it a bit perplexing, yet profound: the colors, the sculpted body parts in the frame, the big eyeball on the rocket, blending together to create the field of astronomy and its challenges. At the very end of the museum visit, some students went into the gift shop and bought interesting items. Once everyone was done making their purchases, we boarded the bus and came back to Charlottesville. Many people slept on the bus ride back, and the students who stayed awake took embarrassing pictures of the unaware.

Melanie

DAY 12

STAR FESTIVAL !!!!!!!

Tanabata (七夕meaning "Evening of the Seventh") is the Japanese Star Festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival.

Everyone dressed in comfortable yukata, (浴衣) a casual summer kimono usually made of cotton, and worn during exciting festivals, such as Tanabata. Part of Academy tradition calls for wearing the yukata to dinner before the night's activities and wear them we did. Capturing the eyes of other people at the cafeteria at once, many students of the academy were as to the nature of their peculiar attire. Overall, it was exciting being in the spotlight for a night.

After dinner, the Star Festival officially started. We watched a play that the company hosting Tanabata had prepared for us, sang along to the traditional song sung specially for this day, and performed a dance that the teachers taught us with much difficulty and laughter. At the end, following traditional custom, everyone wrote a wish and hung it up on a bamboo tree. The night ended with smiles on everyone's faces.

Kevin

Day 10-11

Classes
The beginner classes have begun writing sentences at this point. They can ask people’s ages （なんさいですか）and can even write long, silly sentences such as, "My dad’s friend’s dog’s name is Ichiro." They’re trying their best to keep up with the endless vocabulary. Today, the beginners learned their first kanji, including water （水）and day（曜日）. They also started to sing a song in Japanese. The learning is tough, but there’s plenty of work to make the days fly by!
The intermediate class spent a majority of their day learning and practicing grammar. They took a test to enable their teacher (せんせい) to make sure that they all understood what they had learned. Afterwards, they researched Japanese summer activities and created PowerPoints to present. This was a great window into the culture, in addition to the language, of Japan.
The advanced class has been acting out skits from the textbook they use. They’ve also been having timed speaking practice. This everyday use of Japanese is helping them to increase their confidence and proficiency in their language abilities. Like the beginner classes, they are also singing Japanese songs. All the classes are having a great time while they learn!

Katelyn


Culture Class

This evening’s culture class surpassed previous days thus far. A majority of the instruction was interactive and hands-on, with students participating in a Japanese literature discussion, a formal tea ceremony, and the tying of yukatas in preparation for Tanabata. Incidents occurred in the bustle: students making faces and spitting out the bitter green tea, knots coming undone or tied too loosely, and a general, playful mayhem. Thought to be the least interesting of the trio, the literature discussion on Kenko’s Tsurezuregusa turned into a period for students to express their opinions, academic or otherwise. Kenko was exposed as a recluse, another human possessing contempt and disappointment; with himself and with the world.
After that session, taught wonderfully by Riggins-sensei, we moved to the next room for captivating instruction on the famous Japanese Tea Ceremony, originally started during the time of Tokugawa. Much more goes into the ceremony than one may expect: everything involved is a symbol and, if chosen incorrectly, could be offensive and break tradition. A chasen, a tea wisk carved out of bamboo, is used to mix the water and matcha, crushed and dried green tea leaves, into a frothy tea then drunk by the guest. Before one drinks, however, the host must turn the cup twice so the decoration faces the guest and follow a series of procedures before, during, and after.
The most exciting aspect of tonight’s culture class was being able to try on and learn to tie the obi for the gorgeous yukata we will be wearing tomorrow night. Childhood fantasies and dreams came true as the girls and boys both decked themselves out in floral cotton robes. Yukatas consist of more than tying a robe and wrapping a big “belt” around one’s waist, as some may think. Much lifting, folding, and tying takes place even before the “big belt,” or obi, is wrapped tightly around the waist. Making a bow in the back of the robe is the hardest, however. Steadiness of hand is required to fold and make a bow Japanese-style out of fabric roughly as thick and textured as a seat belt. Everyone conquered the challenge thankfully and now feel prepared enough to dress for the Tanabata events tomorrow night.

Jillian

Day 8-9

Culture Class- Kimonos

This evening’s culture class was a fantastic presentation on Japanese wear, specifically kimonos. Kimonos are worn at all times of the year; thicker fabric used during the winter and “breathable” fabrics during the summer. Yukatas, another common type of clothing, are worn in the summertime and are 100% cotton, making them light and flexible. But there is more to the preparation and appearance of these gorgeous outfits than meets the eye. As Cullison-sensei showed us clip after clip of putting on a kimono, we were amazed by the number of knots and steadiness of hand necessary to keep the kimono together. Most Japanese people cannot put a kimono on by themselves and need to go to a professional “kimono parlor” for the special occasions kimonos are worn. Several of these occasions include Shichi-go-san Festival, Coming-of- Age Day, weddings, and even funerals. The first kimonos were created during Japan’s Heian Period, the time of the nobles. Juni- Hitoe is the most famous of these Heian kimonos; Juu ni literally means “twelve,” representative of the Juni-Hitoe’s twelve layers. One layer is complicated enough; I can imagine it must take hours to put these gorgeous kimonos on, still worn by the royal family today.
The videos shown to us by Cullison-sensei were meant to prepare us for Thursday’s festivities, in which all 37 of us will be wearing traditional yukata and will be practicing techniques for tying them. The class left us hanging in anticipation and ready to get another taste of Japanese life.

Jillian

Day 7

Language class has been going on normally. Today, the beginner classes read a new story in hiragana about a Japanese family at dinner. They practiced writing hiragana on white boards and had a quiz on retention. Everyone has a lot of new vocabulary words to study!
In the intermediate class, the students learned more kanji. They played a game so they could better remember the stroke order of the kanji; stroke order is the way in which you write a character. In addition, they learned how to talk about comparisons such as ‘I like this more than this’. All are working hard to learn at a high level.
The advanced classes did some AP practice to prepare themselves for the AP Japanese exam. They also wrote in their journals to exemplify their growing mastery of the language. Otani Sensei played a Japanese song while the students read the lyrics and tried their best to sing along.
Everyone is anxiously awaiting Monday, when lunch will be a no English zone!

Katelyn


Culture Class: Bansai
In culture class, Sones-sensei gave a powerpoint presentation about Japanese gardens. To the Japanese, gardens offer a source of peace, meditation, rest, and repose. Furthermore, all the elements of Japanese gardens are specifically placed so that as one is walking through, he or she can experience a new view. Sones-sensei also taught us about Japanese artistic symbols and motifs. For example, bamboo represents strength, adaptability, and flexibility, and the sun signifies renewal and rebirth.

Lizzi

Day 6

Undokai

Two hours of mental and physical strain, champions against champions. Head to head, the six companies raced to become the winner of the day’s events, including a three-legged race, chopstick and bean race, water race, frozen t-shirt contest, whipped cream eating contest, and, for the finale, a ferocious water balloon fight. Undokai took the place of morning language classes, quite a treat for tired teenagers. Even though there were only three winners, everyone had a ton of fun cheering for their teammates, the opposing teams, and being crazy. Dressing up was also a big deal. Crazy costumes stuck out everywhere one turned: a red Power Ranger mask, a superman cape, a Pikachu hat, music note war paint. If teams lacked in physical strength, they certainly made up for it in spirit. Weldon won the Spirit Award for his prize winning war cry and Samir and Monica won the Ganbarri Award for the best effort shown. They certainly were up to the tasks laid out before them.

To top off the morning, rewards and punishments were given to the winners and losers respectively. A tradition at the Academy, the losers are forced to take on tray duty for the rest of the Academy; winners were rewarded simply with the privilege of not having to do this. Simple but effective; the entire event was successful, prizes or no. Having to work as a team brought us closer together, the fast paced nature of the activities gave us a chance to stretch our legs before sitting in a classroom, and many pictures and memories were made. Everyone left tired and with smiles on their faces. (:

Jillian

Photos from San-J