Adventures of Anette: Ceramics

Showing posts with label Ceramics. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Sakura Season in Kansai - Hanami in the Expo ’70 Commemorative Park!

Anette 11:30:00 AM

This is the season when Japan's beloved cherry threes are in bloom, and people gather in parks and other public places to do hanami, or "flower watching" with friends and family. The second Hanami-event I went to this year was arranged by my friend Masaki from the graduate school, and I went there together with some of my good friends to spend a nice day in the Expo '70 Commemorative Park (Also known as Banpaku-Kinen Kouen: 万博記念公園) which is situated close to Osaka.

This park was the place of a World's Fair back in 1970, with the theme "Progress and Harmony for Mankind". At this fair they displayed technical objects such as mobile phones and the world's first IMAX-film, but one of the biggest attractions was a display of a moon rock brought back from the moon in 1969 by astronauts of Apollo 12.

One of the main attractions of the Expo '70 Commemorative Park: The Tower of the Sun (太陽の塔)

One of the biggest attraction in the park today, is the Tower of the Sun. This statue is the first thing you'll see when you approach the park, and it can also be seen if you the blue line by train to/from Kansai Airport (KIX). I have actually passed by the statue quite a number of time, wondering what the statue was supposed to be.. So it was kind of funny that I ended up in that park for this Hanami.. :)
Anyway, the statue was also designed for Expo 70', and it has become a symbol of the 1970 World's Fair.
The park itself is really huge, and it is divided into different sections as well. We mostly stuck to one part of the park where we pulled out our big, blue mat, along with snack and drinks.

Gathered in the Expo '70 Commemorative Park for hanami!

We were by not the only people here this day..

There was also an area where they sold Japanese pottery!

We did however walk a little bit around in the park, and found one area where they were selling all sorts of pottery. Some of it was in really traditional style, and I just had to take some photos here too, of course^^

Japanese pottery dolls!

A wide range of traditional style Japanese pottery

But this is what we came for: The Sakura!

I guess if I had a lot more money and not to mention space to put things there is a chance I would have bought quite a lot of pottery this day. But I resisted it for this time..
The day in the park was really great, meeting both new and old friends and relaxing in the sun was a perfect way to spend the day! I took a lot of pictures, and here I have included some of them:

集合写真！

Entertainment in the park

Sunset and sakura!

In the evening they have light-ups in the park

..and they sell delicious Japanese food too

More pictures of food stands and sakura

The Tower of the Sun seen from behind, along with the sakura flowers

A light-up of the sakura, in different shades of pink and purple.

We stayed in the park until the sun went down, and we could see the park turning in to a light-show with the sakura as the main attraction. After having taken another bunch of photos it was time to return to Kyoto again for this time.. But the sakura season is still not over, so I will be back with some more sakura-related posts in the near future as well..! じゃ、またね！

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Traditional Arts

Ritsumeikan Traditional Art Course: Ceramics

Anette 5:45:00 PM

Now that I am finished with most of my exams for the semester I´ve decided to write some short blogposts about the traditional art courses I have taken at Ritumeikan this semester; ceramics and calligraphy.

陶芸

Out of all the courses I took this semester, the class in ceramics was by far the one I enjoyed the most. It was relaxing and fun, and at the same time we got to make really nice and unique objects which we could take with us home once they were finished.

The location of the ceramics classes was in Fujihara Togei Studio (藤平陶芸) close to Kiyomizudera, and it takes more or less an hour to get there by bike from Ritsumeikan. (If you look at it in a positive way it is an easy way to get to do some extra exercise every Saturday morning! Haha..)

In the class we got to make among others a tea-set, Japanese Chawan/茶碗 (a special tea cup style) and for one of the objects you choose what to make yourself.

The classes were varied; we learned to make the objects from the bottom and the result was surprisingly good! (Might have been because our teacher saved us every time things seemed to go out of hand)

And besides just the ordinary classes, we also had the chance to participate in a tea ceremony, which were held in a really traditional Japanese house. This was a great experience as well!

A picture of some of the objects we made. At this stage they had just been burned, which you can tell by looking at the color.

In the last class we got to see their original ceramics studio.

Me and my fellow students from the ceramics class gathered at the old Fujihara studio.

The last class we also had a small tea cermony with our teacher and the wife of the owner of the studio, where we drank tea using the Chawan we had made ourselves.

So finally a summarize of the ceramics class:

+ The teacher is great! He is really helpful and engaged in his work.

+ If you are on the verge of destroying your ceramics projects, sensei is always there to help.

+ You get to keep the things you make.

+ The classes are varied, so it never gets boring.

+ You get to try out traditional Japanese tea ceremonies as well.

+ It is easy credits.

+ It is simply FUN!

- The price. Yeah, it is a bit expensive. On the other hand, taking this course through Ritsumeikan is much cheaper than to go to the studio as a private person.

- It is a bit far from school, since the studio is situated close to Kiyomizudera.

- The classes are held on Saturdays in the morning. Do I have to say more?

Anyway, I have no doubt in my mind when I say that this class was great. It was absolutely worth both my money and my Saturday mornings.

I chose to make a flower vase as my 自由作品.

My finished tea cup

The entrance to the ceramics studio

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Ritsumeikan

All my blogposts about Japanese Culture Classes offered by Ritsumeikan:

Wagashi (confectionery) (spring semester)

Calligraphy (autumn semester

Ceramics (autumn semester)
Ikebana (flower arrangement) (spring semester)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Traditions

Japanese traditions: Tea-ceremony

Anette 8:03:00 PM

And so another week here in beautiful Kyoto has gone by..

As usual there has been a lot to do, not at least because all the midth-term tests are coming up. Non the less, I´ve had the time to do some explorations this week as well; I´ve joined the dance studio Tokiwa, which is really close to our dorm, so now I´m taking samba-classes every Wednesday. Perhaps not exactly the most traditionally Japanese experience I´ll get here, but of course it is a lot of fun and I already like it a lot.

Besides this I also joined a volunteer-circle at school, so in the upcoming months I might be able to combine my love for traveling with the chance to help others as well. Nice deal! :D

Other than that the days are passing by as usual: studying in the library and hanging out with friends.

Yesterday my usual ceramic class involved a new experience for me though: We went to a traditional Japanese house to take part in a tea-ceremony.

It was really interesting! Firstly, the house was really old; The ceiling was low and the style was quite what I would call typical Japanese. The house was quite big though, and though Japanese houses like this tends to be a bit cold during the winter I still thought it would be a nice place to live cause it was so peaceful.

The room where the tea-ceremony was quite small, but that only made the atmosphere better.

I´ve uploaded a couple of my photos from the tea-ceremony for those who wants to take a look:

A picture displaying the lady of the house mixing Japanese maccha-tea (抹茶) for the ceremony. This tea is supposed to be very healthy, so I´m tempted to start drinking this everyday instead of the cheap apple-tea I bought when I came to Japan in September.

The alcove (Tokonoma; 床の間) in the tea-cermony room. The scroll and the flower arrangements in the alcove are supposed to bring forth a spiritual atmosphere, and at the same time they are reflecting the current season.

The inside of the Japanese house. Most of us had to be really careful walking here due to the low ceiling.. But it looks really cozy! :)

一期一会

This calligraphy print shows what is considered to be a typical spirit of the tea-cermony: Ichigo-ichie (一期一会). The meaning behind the expression is that every encounter is unique, and that you therefore should care extra for your guests cause the moments that goes by will never come back.

A view of the garden. Though the leaves are beginning to turn red (known as kouyou/紅葉 in Japanese) it still doesn´t feel much like November.

My ceramic class! Our teacher (at the right side) invited us out to eat Dango (団子), or dumplings, after the tea-cermony was over.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

SKP

Karaoke, ceramics and phone troubles

Anette 10:33:00 PM

Another little update from Japan coming up..!

Like I mention in my previous blogpost I went to karaoke on friday! It was my first time actually (unless you count the Singstar-games for Playstation 2)..!

We decided to order two rooms, since we were around 15-20 people going. And so we spent the evening singing.

It was fun, but the next time I´ll be go

ing to karaoke I´ll make sure to do some research

beforehand to make sure I know which song I want to sing and so on.

They have some huge catalogues with songs you can

choose from both in Japanese and English, so it was actually kind of hard to pick a song. But the machine one uses to reserve songs is easier than the catalogue though, you can search by artist names and so on.

Anyway, since I were going to school on Saturday I didn´t join the others who were planning on going downtown but went home instead.

On Saturday I got up early and went by bus to a place called Fujihira Togei Studio where I´ll be taking my ceramics classes. It was kinda far even by bus, but next time I guess I´ll be going by bicycle instead.

The ceramic class was really fun though, it´s by first time making pottery like this.. You can see the pictures of the cups I made here too:)! Yay!

Even when the teacher told us to take lunch break I didn´t really feel like stopping the work. Haha..

After class I went home and slept for a while. Then I met up with some of my dorm-friends and we had a really funny evening playing twister and card games.! It was great:)

Today I´ve just been studying and relaxing. Well, I did actually try to get myself a cellphone though it didn´t really work out that well.

It seems the cellphone-company Softbank aren´t that eager when it comes to selling me a pre-paid phone. They are sold out everywere, and nobody knows when there will be new phones available. I could always get a phone with a contract, but then I need a japanese bank account which I haven´t got yet.. It´s so irritating.. Oh well..

At least I´ve finished all my homework now, so I´m ready for a new and challenging week.

See you later;)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Kyoto

Life in Kyoto; tanoshii!

Anette 1:35:00 PM

I must say we have had a pretty busy week. There are loads of forms we have to fill out and simply a lot to keep track on.

On Thursday we had a pretty short day though with just a Crime and Safety Seminar, we got to try an Earthquake Simulator and in the end we had a campus tour.

Though earthquakes of course are pretty scary stuff being tossed around in a safe truck isn´t that bad. We were four people sitting around the table in what was supposed to be a dining room (situated in the back of a truck), and then suddenly the whole room started shaking and we had to hide under the fake kitchen table..

After the short campus tour me and Alex went downtown and met up with Maho.

We had a lot of fun, and Maho showed us interesting places around the downtown-area of Kyoto. We even had dinner in a typical Japanese restaurant with a tatami-mat floor, where we ate okonomiyaki and yakisoba.

On Friday I went to fix my so-called "Alien registration" which is obligatory for foreign people living in Japan. Again, loads of paperwork and waiting.

Afterwards all students had to meet at the classroom for a Health Center Guidance Session which felt like it lasted forever considering that we was waiting for the announcement of the placement-test results.

I was quite lucky cause I got into all the Traditional Art courses I had pre-registrated for. But I decided to drop the Tea Ceremony and just stick with Calligraphy and Ceramics instead. If I´m lucky I´ll get the chance to take Tea Ceremony next semester.

The placement-test results were quite alright, I got into the A-level so I´m able to choose some of my Japanese subjects myself. I´ve already decided to go for the Business Japanese and the Japanese grammar courses.

I might want to choose some culture classes as well. Though I don´t think it is really necessary for my degree since I´ve probably got enough subjects already. But it is better to take too many than too few anyway, so..

Anyway, today me and a couple of my dorm-mates are going to go to the Kyoto station! Yay:)

It takes about an hour to get there if we go by bikes but today we´ll probably take the train or something.

Kyoto really is a big city but at the same time it is pretty nice and cozy too. Wherever you go there are small shrines and temples and the view kinda reminds me of my hometown in Norway because of the mountains surrounding the city.

Well, that´s all for today. Have a nice day everybody