Japanese class, Odawara Castle, and Kakizome

- January 14, 2018

We've had a few down weeks lately, so I haven't had much to write about. This past week we took a class through Bonj's job and were able to learn some Japanese and history and geography of Japan. It was great! The cub went to daycare and did way better than I expected, phew! He did wake up shortly after I put him to bed one night, covered in puke, then covered me in it, so we sat in the bathtub together after we ran out of pajamas. Poor guy! Fortunately it was a quick stomach bug and he was back to normal the next day! But boy, I can't handle puke. Bonj thought I was going to start when I was in the tub with our cub... High praises to Bonj for cleaning up the crib and starting the laundry while I tried to comfort the cub.

Anyway, the class was wonderful! We learned how to say "Excuse me, can I have whatever," and "I like to whatever," and he/she wants, he/she likes, etc. So "Excuse me, can I have ramen" is "sumimasen, watashi wa ramen o onegaishemasu." I'll attempt to write it out how it sounds, bear with me... "soo me may sen, wah tah she wa, ramen oh, oh nay guy she mas." Or "I like traveling," is "watashi wa camping ga suki desu." --> "wah tah she wah, camping gah, soo key dess (or "day soo")." We learned how their sentence structure is set up and it makes a lot more sense now why when they speak English sometimes it sounds "backwards." For example, I like camping," translates to "I camping like." The most complicated part to me, was numbers. They have different words for each number based on a whole slew of things; animate vs inanimate objects, big vs little, thin vs thick, the list goes on. I missed the day of class where they learned numbers and telling time, so maybe it just seemed overwhelming and confusing to jump in from scratch when I returned after the cub was better. Overall, I really enjoyed it and hope I can continue to learn. Bonj was impressed with how quickly I was picking it all up! Our instructors were hilarious and easy to talk to as well. Mr. Onozaki was hilarious and would get side tracked telling stories a lot, but they were amusing and he was totally into it, so I don't think anyone minded too much. He said "goodagoodagooda" often and this made me chuckle. The last day of class we took a field trip to Odawara Castle. It's not a castle like you picture in fairy tales or Europe and the inside was a museum instead of what it would've looked like originally. There was a group of preschoolers there, so I took the cub over to play with them. Mr. Onozaki came over and talked to the kids and told them he was an American boy and the little girls swarmed him while the boys continued to chase each other and leap off of trees and embankments.

One of the stories he told us in class.

Sitting on the bus waiting to go on the field trip.

A snack on the way to the castle

Front gates to the castle

Everything is hand made and the copper is all hammered.

A sweet Japanese man brought his dogs over for our cub to pet, then set them up for a photo.

View from the top of the Castle

Snow monkeys

Yesterday I took a Kakizome (Japanese calligraphy) class. It was a lot of fun and way harder than I imagined. I had dreams of recreating the Kanjii writing effortlessly, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. My first one was actually the best, go figure! The instructor said, "oh wow, professional!" The following attempts, not so much. Haha! He gave a brief demonstration, then set us loose to try it on our own. Apparently, the Japanese write their wish for the new year like this and display it, then burn it on the 14th so it will come true. I was bummed when they said on the 5th there was a huge gathering in Tokyo where you can watch people writing these, darn! Next year!