It took the train to the center in the morning and started out the day by helping Moe Enoki practice her presentation. Moe draws the cartoons for my newsletter and she is extremely talented. But she is also really shy. She was supposed to read the English translation and I would read the Japanese but she was too nervous and so we ended up reading it the other way....more on that later.
The event started with a presentation by the Hozu River Project. My friend Shigeno-san from my taiko group is also a member. The Hozu River Project is designed to protect the natural environment of the Hozu River. They have an online trash map, which I thought was kind of interesting. Basically random citizens take photos of trash and send them in with the location and then they map it on Google Maps.
They also had a bucket with some of the things that live in the river.
After the Hozu River Project, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, gave a presentation on their work in Ghana. What really caught my attention was when she mentioned that one of the children she met was saying that it would be great if everyone in the world spoke the same language. I certainly think it would make things easier, but I don't agree that it would be better. Language is very closely tied with culture and I think the world would lose a lot if everyone spoke one language and only one language.
They let one of the girls participating try on some native clothing from Ghana as well. I just thought she was really cute. And very energetic. She kind of reminded me of myself when I was younger. Energetic to the point of annoying. She had an answer to every question and volunteered for everything...
Then it was my turn. Moe was so cute. She was really nervous so I tried to lend her a little bit of confidence. I figured it didn't really matter what I said because I was actually the ONLY English speaker in the room. So I was translating out loud to everyone...for myself. But it was still fun.
Next was the Korean presentation. I didn't really understand what was going on because a lot of the presentation was actually in Korean, but I think it was the performance of some kind of folk story.
They also performed traditional Korean dance in the Korean version of the kimono.
After the Koreans, a group called Hippo Family, in which all the members speak multiple languages, gave a presentation. It was impressive to see a high school aged girl speaking what sounded like fluent Spanish and Chines, but I wasn't really too interested in their presentation. The only people who seemed excited to be there were the adults. The kids just seemed bored or embarrassed.
They tried to teach us some kind of hand game, but I couldn't follow. They were counting in about 7 different languages...so I got lost. As did everyone else.
After the Hippo Family presentation we took a lunch break and I snuck off to take a nap outside. I was exhausted. Going out to the bar the night before work is NOT a great idea.
After my awesome nap on the bench behind the Exchange Center I went back inside for the movie.
We were watching a film called "The Witch of the West is Dead" and it is about a little girl who goes to live with her grandmother, who happens to be a white woman. I fell asleep halfway through so I don't really know what it was about. So...yeah.
After the event I took the bus back to Kameoka and The Boy met me at the station. He took me to a temple just off the Philosopher's Walk (ie. a path near Kyoto University where famous Japanese philosopher's used to stroll and ponder all those things that philosopher's ponder). The temple was holding a special Electronica Music event.
The traditional Japanese garden was decorated with a bunch of multicolored lights, about the size of the small Christmas lights, that would flash or change colors. The inside of the temple also had some different light shows emitting from projectors onto the walls or the zen rock gardens. At first we sat out on the porch that wraps around the temple overlooking the garden. It was actually really cool because there was the light show ahead of us, and modern, electronica music played on traditional Japanese instruments behind us, and then there were the natural elements when the cicadas started singing and then it suddenly began pouring rain. We were under and over hang so there was just a curtain of water right in front of us. It was an unexpected addition to the show, but I really liked it.
It was a bit surreal to be standing in a traditional temple with such a modern show going on, but I think that was the main point: the juxtaposition of the modern and the traditional.
After a few live performances we went to do the tea ceremony. The funny part about this was that I knew more about tea ceremony than he did, because I have to take part in them sometimes as work functions. So I taught him to eat the dessert first and then to look at the bowl as you turn it in your hands. Then to drink the whole bowl in only 3 sips.
We went back into the main room to listen to the final performance. It's not the kind of music I would put on my iPod but it was pretty cool. The last girl who performed was using a koto with a guitar and synthesizer accompaniment.
(this is not her because I did not have my camera, but is just an example of a koto)
It was raining lightly as we made our way to the bus stop to get back to our train station. We decided to grab something to eat but couldn't find a good restaurant that was still open. Finally I just told him I was hungry and didn't care where we ate, and that we don't always have to eat at nice places...so we went to McDonalds :)
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