茶道

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 11: November 18, 2015

 

Many JET teachers look forward to learning traditional Japanese customs the most when they move to Japan. Different schools have different clubs, so some JET teachers learn things like aikido or kyudo. At this school, we have igo club, kadobu, judo, and sadobu. I joined kadobu, but I was afraid to join sadobu because sitting seiza is very painful. I know that I would be very bad at doing tea ceremonies. I can sit seiza for a little while, so I can watch the students perform tea ceremonies. However, I can’t stand up after sitting seiza for a long time, so I can’t perform tea ceremonies myself.

 

Today, Jitsuishi-sensei invited us to learn how to make the tea for a tea ceremony with her class. I felt less embarrassed because most of the other students also didn’t know very much about tea ceremony. It was difficult because I am left-handed and you have to stir the tea with your right hand. I tried very hard, but I couldn’t move my right hand fast enough and I couldn’t make bubbles appear in the tea. Jane-sensei is very good at sitting seiza. It is a good experience to learn things with students instead of teaching them. We had a lot of fun and I hope to do more activities like this in the future.

Tea Ceremony

 

A few days ago, I got to sit in on a tea ceremony class.  It was very interesting to watch how the tea is prepared. Even though everything was in Japanese, I could understand the main gist of it. It was fun to mix the tea on my own and learn from the ladies who were so knowledgeable about this tradition. Additionally, this was the longest I have had to sit in seiza for a while. It was nice to see that I was not the only one whose legs fell asleep. Overall, I really enjoyed this opportunity and I hope to experience more of Japanese culture.

 

- Yaya Campbell

Sound of Music

 

This week the students and staff got to watch the Sound of Music as a play. It was very fun to watch and I enjoyed it very much. The actors were so talented, especially the children. It was interesting to hear how the songs were translated from English to Japanese. The most significant change was a song called Do-Re-Mi. This song uses the sounds “do re mi fa so la ti do” and in English, these sounds match up with certain words. However, in Japanese, these sounds match up with different words. It was interesting to hear how to song changed to fit the language and I was glad that I could understand most of it. Overall, this was a great language learning moment and a fun event.

 

- Yaya Campbell

サウンド・オブ・ミュージック

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 10: November 12, 2015

 

“The Sound of Music” is a very popular movie in the United States. Many people love Maria, who is played by Julie Andrews. It was very nostalgic because I watched Julie Andrews in many movies when I was a child. I have never seen “The Sound of Music” before, so it was a new story for me. I loved being able to watch it in Japanese because I was able to practice my understanding of Japanese. Since I didn’t know the story in English, I was able to get a better idea of how much Japanese I understood.

 

I loved the costumes and the actors had beautiful voices, but my favorite part of the musical was seeing the beautiful sets on stage. I was amazed by how they could change all of the scenery in such a short time. The Von Trapp mansion had beautiful architecture that reminded me of my favorite art styles. I have never seen a stage musical in the United States, but now I want to go to one.

高校一年のインタビュー

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 9: November 11, 2015

 

This week, Kawano-sensei asked Yaya and me some questions about our school and job experiences. I was excited to be able to talk to the first year high school students about preparing for their futures. Being a high school student is very difficult because you have so many different career paths to choose from. The students will face so many new challenges over the next few years. They will also have the opportunities and confidence to do so many new things over those years as well. My best advice for students is to never lose confidence in yourself. It is okay to question your plans for the future, but never lose confidence in your ability to make the right decision. This will help keep you from becoming depressed.

 

I want to thank Kawano-sensei and Ozaki-sensei for all of their help preparing for the interview. I also want to thank all of the other first year high school teachers for allowing me to speak to the first year students. It was so much fun and I hope some students decide to study abroad.

Halloween in Japan

 

This past week was Halloween! It was very interesting to see what Halloween is like in Japan. In the International Club, we had a Halloween party to celebrate. We talked about what Halloween in America is like and how it may differ from other countries like Japan and Mexico. We spent the rest of the time making masks and eating some candy while listening to Halloween music in the background. It was fun to see the variety of masks the students made and learn about their experience with Halloween.

 

- Yaya Campbell

ハロウィン

 Sarah’s Blog Post 8: November 4, 2015

Halloween is a very popular holiday in the United States. I was very interested to see how it is celebrated in Japan because I have heard that it is not as big of a holiday here. However, as I have been walking through all of the stores and streets around Kichijoji and the rest of Tokyo, I noticed many Halloween decorations. I was looking forward to the actual day. From what I have been told, Halloween has been getting much more popular in Tokyo over the past few years.

 

This year, I went to Shibuya because I heard that there would be many people. There were so many people that it was very difficult to walk along the streets. My favorite thing about Halloween in Shibuya was being able to see all of the creative costumes that people were wearing. People in the United States also think of many creative costumes, but it was fun to see the differences with popular costumes. I think that Japanese people like to make scarier costumes than people in the United States. In the United States it might be common to dress up as a police officer, but in Japan it seemed common to make many costumes into zombie versions. So I saw many zombie police officers in Shibuya.