Monday July 11, 2016

Beginner:

We have apparel down pat, and now we can say clothing and accessories in Japanese. Nice boushi ! But on a more serious note, I loved flipping through a Japanese brochure for teen girls searching for words that I know (that was sarcasm people).

-Isaac

Advanced:

Today’s advanced class was pretty laid back. It started with a solid one hour taiko lesson, which included a rigorous warm-up and instruction from the famous Tomomatsu Senpai. Soon after we completed our interview questions for the Senpai and Sensei and transitioned right into the koto workshop!

-Mirai

Culture Class

Today in Tomomatsu-senpai’s class, we had a debate about the Japanese military where we had to take sides and talk about recent events going on in Japan. Not only did I learn a lot about affairs in Asia, I had a lot of fun debating with my friends (and winning twice!) We only have one more culture class left :( but I’m sure it’ll be fun! -Abhishek Mishra

Koto and Traditional Japanese Instruments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK51LblcEOw

We were treated to a fun display of many new and interesting Japanese instruments earlier today when two guests--both originally from Japan--came to visit and teach us about them. The sounds were very different from Western instruments and music, but it was very enjoyable. We saw the koto, a bamboo flute, and lots of other cool things, too. Not to mention we all learned a traditional Japanese dance to “Sakura Sakura” at the end just before lunch.

-Amara

Sunday July 10, 2016

Daruma:

Tonight we finished our daruma! (refer to the June 29th post for more details) I painted mine like Lemon Grab from Adventure Time. I’m really the best painter, but according to people who were on the way other side of the room, it looked something like the character. It was really amazing to see the different personalities of people being expressed throughout their daruma.

-Molly

Rajio Taiso Competition:

After doing our rajio taiso exercise routine every morning since the beginning of the Academy, everyone still didn’t have it memorized (hey, coordination is difficult!). So, during Recreation Time, the companies faced off against each other to see who could perform it the best. The senpai graded us on spirit, correctness, and coordination. Unfortunately, the Blog company didn’t win, but we came in third.

-Olivia

Saturday July 9, 2016

Today we had our morning language classes and afternoon topic classes. The beginner class can now discuss events in the present, future, and past tenses, as well as talk about how things went and who they did what with. Their language is growing so quickly! The topic class focused on more seasonal vocabulary with weather words, as well as weather-related activities. Soon we will debate the best season!

In the evening we had an awesome Pop Culture Night, which had 5 different activity stations: Karaoke, Art, Food Decoration, Purikura, and Kendama. We had a blast singing the pokemon theme song as well as some good-old Usher!

The purikura station, or Print Club in Japanese, had many cosplay outfits and colorful wigs and accessories. Even the teachers dressed up!

We could also decorate our own shortcakes with whipped cream, various berries, chocolate, etc. Delicious!

The Kendama station was a tough competition with some students' points totalling over 300! We have some Kendama masters here! The goal of playing Kendama is to land the wooden ball on the small concave spaces. Let me tell you, it is really hard!!!

Friday July 8, 2016

Advanced Language Class:

Today in class we did something different from usual -- we wrote songs that will be shown to the beginner students that could help them learn about Japanese conjugations. My partner and I wrote ours to the tune of Old McDonald Had a Farm; we also had to record it which was hard because we couldn’t stop laughing. Overall it was a really fun and unique class, and I hope we have similar classes in the future!

-Abhishek

Advanced Topic Class:

Topic classes have changed today; advanced/intermediate were put in Otani Sensei’s class, whereas the beginners were put in the Nemastil Sensei’s class. The advanced/intermediate were given a lesson on Japanese fortune, which included the omikuji. We wrote fortunes for one another and were given one randomly. After that activity, we had a review lesson on te-form and ended the class with instructional video on how to create the taiko drum. Five star, I highly recommend.

-Mirai

Beginner Language/Topic Class:

More vocabulary for the newbies today. We learned the words of various vehicles like cars and buses, and the past, present, and future tenses. Also, since Tanabata is over, Nemastil-sensei is teaching the beginner’s topic class from now on. She taught us how to ask and tell birthdays, seasons and how to tell the weather (and let me tell you, it is atsui here at the Academy). The culture classes danced, and learned about the military in Japan.

-Isaac

We also had a chance to cook some curry for dinner! We had a curry Iron-Chef competition with secret ingredients like chocolate and taco bell sauce. The winner was the Undokai Company with the secret ingredient of "Rayu", or Japanese Worcestershire-like sauce.

Thursday July 7, 2016

Tanabata Festival:

Yukatas and the Play:

Tonight we celebrated! After a strenuous two hours of putting on beautiful yukatas, the girls were finally ready to celebrate. The entire camp dressed up in traditional Tanabata festival clothing. You should have seen the faces on the cafeteria workers! We also had the pleasure of watching a hilarious play written by our very own students that depicted the story behind this star-crossed festival.

-Molly

Taiko & Games

The festival started out with a very impressive performance from the River City Taiko group, followed by several students getting the chance to play real taiko drums. The skill of the players really blew me away, especially since the Advanced/Intermediate class has been practicing taiko ourselves (I know how difficult it is!). As the night continued, everyone participated in games we previously learned about in class, earned tickets, and had tons of fun

-Olivia

Wednesday July 6, 2016

Language:

Beginner:

When I get home, I’m going to tell my mom to take me to a Japanese market because I can finally read off of menus! (*Insert cheers from crowd*) With our newly expanded knowledge of katakana we were also able to translate Japanese advertisements. Tonight, guest speaker, Brown Sensei gave a talk on religion in Japan, and I was able to even translate a few words!

-Molly

Intermediate/Advanced:
In class today, the intermediate and advanced classes continued their review/study of potential form grammar. Along with new vocabulary we learned about Tanabata activities, we worked in pairs to create a kaiwa (conversation) describing the instructions for playing traditional games like suika wari (splitting the watermelon). I can’t wait for tomorrow’s festival to utilize the new phrases we learned.

-Olivia