Blogs from Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan, Asia - page 2

Today was one of the most culturally immersed days I have experienced thus far in Japan. Because my host dad came home from Korea a few days ago, we have a lot more freedom about moving about and going places, and we all took full advantage of it. For starters, in the morning, we all went as a family to Yuzu's kindergarten (called youchien here) because today they were hosting a bazaar, an event where all the students and teacher come together to create a fun family social event with games, food, prizes, and a mini kiosk full of random things, almost like a garage sale. It was really fun. There were lots of adorable kids, all about 5 to 7 years old, and a lot of the girls were in children's yukata, and they were ... read more

The last few days have been really busy, but I've managed to stay mostly on top of things, but my quiz grades are starting to suffer a little from the strain. Hopefully, after a restful Sunday, I'll be ready to start another week afresh. Because today was Friday, we had our class trip, and this time we went to the Ghibli (Jiburi) museum in Mitaka. It was wonderful, almost like going to Disneyland, but cuter and more intellectual. I really enjoyed looking at the studios, and viewing the dozens and dozens of watercolor pictures pasted up on the walls in the "studio," they were all gorgeous. I'll have to admit, it was a Ghibli film that first got me interested in Japan. Back when I was a freshman in high school, my mom came home one ... read more

Here I am, with one full week in Japan under my belt already. The last few days have been quite exciting, and more than a little exhausting. Not only am I getting into the rhythm of a school student, taking the trains and hanging out after school, but I'm also becoming a new family member, a friend, a role model for the kids... its all quite exhausting. Yesterday we went on our first class trip to the Mingeikan and Shibuya. The Mingeikan was very interesting. We were fortunate enough to be able to see a special exhibition of Noboribata, and meet the collector, as well as get a special tour of the Yanagi house. The Noboribata were especially interesting to me, because they incorportated not only Japanese written characters and stories, but also ancient Chinese scripts ... read more

I have not yet been in Japan a full week, yet it feels like I've been here either forever, or just a few minutes. Excluding the last time I came to Japan, which was last summer for the Fifth International Conference for East Asian Calligraphy Education, held in Hiroshima, these last few days have included some of the most exciting and challenging experiences I can remember. Even living abroad in Ireland posed no challenge compared to the culture and language shock I went through here, these last few days. The first few days of the program, from Thursday to Saturday, all participants in the UNC Tokyo Summer program participated in an orientation, held at a traditional Japanese honten. The food was exquisite traditional Japanese fare (much of which I did not recognize) and we were housed ... read more