It has been a busy week preparing for school and finishing up my orientation. I have already been able to learn many useful expressions and am looking forward to my Japanese coursework. I will be taking one core Japanese class as well as four specialized Japanese classes, Kanji Foundations, Reading, Calligraphy, and Pronunciation. I will also be taking an Economics of Globalization class as well as a class on Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement). I am very excited to get started! Last night there was information on some of the student clubs available on campus, I am hoping to participate in at least one or two. Specifically I have signed up for the Japanese Conversation club as well as a Service club which volunteers in the local community. These will be great ways of engaging in my environment and learning more about the area. In regards to this past weekend, I was able to go see a Noh play on Sunday. Noh is a traditional Japanese theatre style. As, many Noh plays can last for an entire day what I saw only lasted about three hours. Noh style is typically broken into two pieces, with a short humourous play in-between named a kyougen. The costumes were very ornate and accompanied the unique movements of the characters well. I was not able to photograph anything during the play, but above I have posted a picture of the stage. I have also posted some pictures from various places surrounding my school. If you would like to know more about Noh, I am certainly not an expert (though we were able to listen to a very interesting lecture on the subject before going) and don't want to speak too much on a subject that I know too little about, but it has a deep connection with Japan's history and its origins are very interesting, so if you get a chance to look into it it's well worth it! :) Currently we are expecting a Typhoon, so it has been very humid and is starting to rain heavily. It will be fun to watch :)
終わりました！
