Day 13-14: Ikebana & Tea Ceremony

Sooo, after free days, we were back to attend some lectures in Sophia University, and in the afternoon we had cultural experiences. Day 13 was Ikebana, or flower arrangement. And day 14 was tea ceremony. And afterwards, we’re free to do our individual research until June 25th. In the mean time, take a look at these pictures I took during day 13 and day 14.

The sensei started to do a demo before we try to do it ourselves.

And now it’s time for us to try it out! I was in a group with Zura (right) and Helen (left), however it turned out that one group should only consist of 2 persons, so Zura moved to another group.

The son of the sensei explained the way to arrange flowers on the blackboard. At a glance, it looks like some kind of math formula.

the class

the boys didn’t look too excited, and yet they still arranged the flowers beautifully.

the result of the flowers arranged by my group. Yes, it looks like the flowers poke my nose. But no, that’s not what happened.

And the next day (Day 14), we had a lesson about tea ceremony.

the demonstration of tea ceremony

and then some of the group tried out the ceremony

Then the other group (which including me) tried the ceremony as well. Luke (the guy who was on his knees, next to me) felt so uncomfortable to sit the way Japanese do because of his long legs.

Started with some Japanese traditional sweets.

Ended with a bitter Japanese green tea.

These two guys, Timothy (left) and Mangboi (right) didn’t want to try out at first, because they cannot do the traditional way of sitting. But then the sensei managed to make them do it, and look how awkward their faces are! This situation made the whole group laugh and enjoy their “suffering”.

Bowing to respect the tea. Timothy doesn’t look sure about what he’s doing.

Yes, it was a great experience. The next days of the program is individual research. I really need to figure out what I have to do about  my research! Wish me luck!

Day 10: Sophia University & Kabuki

Yep, I’m still here, sitting in a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Still doing some program by the JENESYS, and it’s already Day 10 of the program. Precisely 33 days to go before I leave this country. Today was my second day in Sophia University. Yes we had another day of classes in Japanese introduction there. Today’s classes were Political Science and History. The first one was thaught by a German whom I thought looks like a vampire because he’s so pale and look like the guy from Twilight. We made fun a little bit about it, especially when the staff hurried on closing all the curtains. We thought he would dissapear if being exposed too much to the sun. So that was fun. The second lecture was okay, but I don’t really like history so, yeah. Not much to talk about it.

But after the class, we got to the Ginza area, and went to watch Kabuki. It’s basically a traditional play of Japanese. With an exaggeration on the make up and also on the way of talking. Usually with white faces and fancy kimonos and traditional clothes. Well, you can google some more about Kabuki if you’re interested on that particular topic. But, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really enjoy the play, and there are 2 reasons: first, it was in Japanese, even if they give us some receiver with an earphone so we can listen to some kind of translation of the play, but it was still not the same because you don’t really know what the actors are saying; and second, it was five-hour long. Yes. FIVE HOURS. It consisted of 3 acts, and there are 2 breaks between the acts, each was 30 minutes. But it’s just not enough. No, it isn’t. I fell asleep in the last 30 minutes of the play (I just couldn’t stand it anymore) and one of the participants actually said that I was asleep with mouth open. Yeah, it was kinda embarassing, but since we’re not allowed to take pictures in the room anyway, so I’m safe.

I tried to take some pictures, but in kabuki they prohibited you to take any, so I just took the picture of the stage. So here you go.

the lecturer that we thought looks like a vampire.

the intersection near the Ginza street, on our way to the Kabuki theater.

the Seiko watch. No particular explanation, I just love looking at it.

The Kabuki stage. The ticket is quite expensive, actually. Good thing we got it for free.

So there we are. Tomorrow I’m going to have a free day, and I really need to catch up on my classes back home in UGM. I’ll try to write something more interesting, maybe about my impression on the Japanese people, although I doubt it that people really read what I wrote. Ah well, I write therefore I am. So maybe now not really worried about how many people actually read my blog. In the mean time, I hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

Day 8-9: Host Family and First Day in Sophia University

This post won’t have a lot of photos like the previous ones, because there is something wrong with my camera’s memory card, but I’m working on it, and I hope I’ll be back on getting more pictures with my camera in no time. But before I get it fixed, I only got some pictures with my blackberry, which are not so good, but I think can describe a little bit of what is going on. So, yesterday (day 8), the group went to National Diet Library, the library of the parliament of Japan, and had a tour there. Then we went to Indian restaurant for lunch. I was surprised to find out that one of the waitresses is actually from Indonesia. Her hometown is in West Sumatera, and she’s been living in Japan for 8 years. Too bad I couldn’t chat that much because of the tight schedule.

In the afternoon, we had a meeting with our host family. Every two kids got to visit a Japanese family house to really feel the real Japanese daily life and food. I went with Nisa, a participant from Malaysia, probably because we have the same food preference (Nisa is also a Muslim who eats only halal food). Our host family is Kirita Family, Hiroshi and Kimiko. They are husband and wife, age around 40, and with no kids. We went to their house near the Tokyo Bay Area. They live in a really fancy building and nice neighbourhood. Their apartment is in 37th floor, and they have a really comfy house with a great view. Kimiko is a great cook, and she practically cooked every awesome thing in Japanese culinary. And they both are really considerate with our food preference, they wouldn’t serve any food without asking first if it’s okay or not. They even asked if mayonnaise is okay or not. At the end of the day Kimiko even wrote “is this including pork?” in Japanese in a small piece of paper so I can carry it along in my nametag, and next time I get a meal I’ll just show the paper to the shop keeper if I hesitate about what’s in the food. We had a really nice meal, a good chat, and Nisa and I got to give our little presents from our countries so that they won’t forget about us. It was a great night that we went home quite late (we should’ve arrived in the hotel at 8, but we were 30 mins late). They took us to the hotel and make sure that we’re okay, and promise that we’ll keep in touch through facebook. I wish I get to meet them again before I leave Tokyo.

Hiroshi-san and Kimiko-san, in the subway to their house.

The next day, which is Day 9, was our first day to visit Sophia University. We had a small tour in the morning, and then we attended a class about Japanese and Chinese art history. After lunch break we had another class about Japanese and Chinese macroeconomic changes. I didn’t take any picture with my phone during the classes because… well, it’s a lecture, it’s pretty much explaining itself. Anyway, what’s exciting is the afternoon activity that we had after finishing the class. We went to a studio in Aoyama area and learn how to play Wadaiko, a Japanese traditional drums. It was fun and an incredible experience. I enjoyed beating the drums and the harmony that comes up from it are really awesome. Eventhough now I feel my right arm a little bit sore. At the end of the lesson, the two sensei perform and they were really great. I imagine that it must have taken a long time to be really great like that, considering how hard it was to really play it well. Anyway, I took some pictures but they aren’t so good because my phone camera is not the best choice to have a picture. But I think it’s better than nothing.

Some of the girl participants posing in front of the drum

me and Roxy, a participant from the Philippines. She probably thinks that my head is one of the drums.

The two sensei who taught us how to play, this is the beginning of their performance which was really awesome.

So I guess that’s it for now. I should really go to sleep. Oyasu minasai! ~

Day 7: Tokyo Disneyland

So we had our free day today, and some of us decided to visit Tokyo Disneyland. Too bad it was raining, so the fun wasn’t really in the maximum point. And my camera is also kinda broken, so I was only able to take few pictures, and the rest here I took from Jaja, one of the participants. But after all, look at the title of this post. It’s Disney-freaking-land. Enough said.

Day 3-6: Hiroshima and Kyoto

Day 3 to day 6 of the programme is trip to Hiroshima and Kyoto, but I didn’t bring my laptop or any other device that would help me to write posts and upload photos. So I guess I’ll just wrap up this 3 days trip into one post. Pretty sure it won’t accommodate every single experience I had during the trip, but I’m gonna try my best. So here we go.

the greetings in the city hall for us, the JENESYS/Japan Foundation Participants of Special Invitation Programme for Graduate Students. We were going to meet the mayor of Hiroshima city, Mr. Kazumi Matsui

Hanif-san, one of the participants from Indonesia, delivered a question regarding the peace program in Hiroshima during the courtesy call with the mayor.

the group photo with the mayor at the end of the courtesy call.

the entrance to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the museum to commemorate the event of atomic bombing on 1945.

the A-bomb dome, this is the ruins of original building from the bombing on 1945, and preserved as a landmark.

the peer of Miyajima Island, the island known as the tourism spot near Hiroshima. Locals believed it as a sacred island with the shrines and pagoda.

having traditional Japanese dinner in Yukata.

some of the boys enjoying the massage chairs after a long travelling day.

group photo in the Itsukushima shrine area, the icon of Miyajima Island.

headed to Kyoto by Shinkansen, the bullet train, the fastest in the world so they said.

preparing for the class of making Japanese traditional sweets.

these are the result of the sweets that I made. Kawaii (cute), isn’t it?

Yep, we were wearing aprons like professionals, or just so we didn’t make our clothes dirty since we’re not professionals?

the bitterness of Japanese green tea and the sweetness of the sweets balance each other.

the fish pond in the Zen Garden around the Arashiyama area, Kyoto. Those fish are huge, aren’t they?

the beauty of the Zen Garden. Fresh air and a nice view are just perfect combination.

me in front of the Golden Pavillion, one of the famous landmark of Kyoto. I looked tired because of all the cycling I had to do to get to the location.

in the area of Nijojo Castle, where the shogun, Tokugawa, once lived.

I didn’t really take a lot of good pictures, especially in the third day (Day 6) because I went around Kyoto by bicycle with some friends, and it was not easy taking pictures while you’re concentrating on being tired and exhausted from the cycling. I know the pictures don’t perfectly describe what I did, but I think they show enough of how much fun I had during the trip.

Day 2: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office & Asakusa

Earlier today we had presentation and self-introduction among the participants, but I don’t really wanna talk about the boring part, so let’s skip it. After lunch we had a little bit city tour, visiting the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, which is the office of the governor of Tokyo (or something like that…), and also Asakusa, an area with temple, pagoda, shrine, and a street with a lot of shops. I know I promise pictures yesterday, so here they are. Then again, pictures speak more than a thousand words.

One of the entrances to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Tokyo skyline, view from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building #1

Tokyo skyline, view from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building #2

Ms. Akiko Enoki, the tour coordinator/guide, explaining to the group the differences between temple and shrine

Jaja, one of the participants from the Philippines, trying her luck by shaking the box and taking the stick that will lead up to the number in one of the drawers in front of her, and read the paper in it that is about her future.

people are trying to ‘wear’ or bring the smoke to cover their bodies because it is believed will cure diseases and help people to get a long and prosper life.

the three participants from Indonesia, (from the left) Hanif, Helen and myself.

the lampoon in front of the Golden Dragon Temple, or also known as the Asakusa Temple.

The five-storey Pagoda

Nakamise-dori, a street before the entrance of the gate to the area of Asakusa temple, lots of souvenirs and snack vendors in this street. Should be interesting for tourists.

Kaminari-mon, the gate/entrance before the Nakamise-dori, and me of course, below the giant lampoon.

the clean and friendly streets of Tokyo, around the Asakusa area.

The golden building of Asahi, a beer company in Japan.

Tempura for dinner. Itadakimasu!

So I guess that’s it for today. The group (and I) will be headed to Hiroshima tomorrow. And two days later, to Kyoto. Wish for more exciting adventures!