書道

What we basically did in our calligraphy class, was to copy the kanji that our teacher had written in preparation for us and try to make it look as much as possible like his.

You write the same kanji over and over again, either till you have used all your blank sheets, till the time is up or till you have one you are satisfied with. Either way you have choose one of the papers you have written, and turn it in to the teacher.

To be honest, this was basically the same process every single time, so even though the class was relaxing I did not really look forward to them.

For those who has little or no experience when it comes to kanji I guess this is a nice course though; you get to practice the stroke orders of the symbols properly and most of the kanji are quite basic. On the other hand, for those of you who have studied Japanese for a while; don´t expect the biggest challenges when it comes to learning new kanjis. I have to admit to you that there probably won´t be too many of them.

The kanji for Kyoto written in 3 different calligraphy styles. We could choose ourselves which style to write in.

The kanjis we used in class was 日本、夢、平和、鐵心、京都、忍耐、勇気、寿 in addition to some words in hiragana + the numbers 1-10 + 100 and 1000.

Hiragana practice! Yaay.. :-/

So to summarize this real quick:

+ Easy to relax

+ Easy credits

+ One of the cheaper traditional arts classes

+ You can learn stroke orders and basic kanji (for those without Japanese writing experience)

+ You can use the kanjis you have written to decorate you room! Not to mention that our teacher sometimes makes bigger kanji posters as well (like the ones on the picture above), and if you ask him he´ll give them to you.

- A bit repetitive

- Mostly basic kanji (for those who with Japanese writing experience)

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

:)