Saturday 4 October 2014

AKJ_Inuyama Castle


Hi,

Another school organised trip - this time to Inuyama. The castle there is a reasonably famous one. It isn't all that big, but it was important to protecting Aichi, located as it is on the Kisogawa river - the border between Aichi and Gifu.

While we were at Inuyama, we also experienced Ukai, or fishing using birds called U. The method is fairly old, and apparently U are rare these days...

We went to a wind-up doll museum too, which was actually interesting - some of those things have the scariest faces! We also saw some of the giant floats that often have puppet dolls on them at festivals, or dashi. 

Anyway, the photos will say all of this, so here they are!


Doll Museum














Random interval - Cosplay just because you can...







Thanks to the people who owned the shop (?) for letting us dress up! 


Ukai



 We had lunch on the boat - and what a lunch it was!









The fire is generally used for the night fishing...







Inuyama Castle

From the water:



The castle:











Dashi (floats)




Just in case you need help on the perspective...


That's all! At last...


(some photos by Sorin sensei and Tanaka san)


AKJ_Japanese Dance


Hi all,

The start of the second semester here brought the start of a new class about Japanese culture etc. Our first lesson was in Japanese buyou, or dance. What we learned about was kind of like what you can see in Kabuki, but women also perform this type.

Anyway, I don't like dancing much, probably because I'm no good at it - but this had a kind of feel to it because we used fans - it was kind of more appealing to do than normal dancing. Also, I felt a kind of similarity between the movements and movements used in karate. In that sense it was very interesting. Kotobuki is the name of the dance (style) we attempted.








Thanks!

(Photos by Okubo san)