Beans, beans, demons and happiness!

We celebrated osetsubun in our Japanese elective class today. Yes, about three weeks late. Without telling any student what I was doing, I picked up a handful of beans, walked over to the door, hollered "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" and threw my beans outside onto the sidewalk.

I told the students to go Google "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" to see what I had just done.

They discovered that I was throwing out the demons and bringing in happiness as part of the transition to Spring. They found out that Japanese people eat beans on osetsubun for good luck, one bean for every year and an extra bean for the upcoming year.

I gave them jelly beans instead ... but they had to eat them with chopsticks.

One of videos shows Nick messing up the saying and throwing out happiness and bringing in demons. I sure hope the four other people who went after him got rid of all the demons by saying the expression correctly!

Questions for Kazuko's English Village

We're looking forward to the answers!

1. What's your favorite food?
2. What's your favorite fashion?
3. How do you cuss in Japanese? (You can censor this one!)
4. Are there hot springs near your town?
5. What are some traditional events in Japan?
6. What kind of dancing to the Japanese do?
7. What kind of food do Japanese people eat?
8. Are you allowed to bring music from home to school and listen to it?
9. When is your New Year and how do you celebrate it?
10. What kind of music is hot in Japan?
11. What are the top video games in Japan?
12. How is life in Japan?
13. Do they listen to rap music?
14. How do they do the wedding celebration?
15. How is your grading system?

No Female Fans of 'Giri Chocolate'!

On Friday, one day before Valentine's Day, we learned about "giri choco" and the girls of the class were not too impressed.

In Japan, only the girls buy chocolate on Valentine's Day. And some of the chocolate they buy isn't even for their boyfriend or crush. It's "obligation chocolate" that they have to buy for co-workers or bosses.

One of my students wants to hear from Kazuko's English Village about Valentine's Day. Specifically, she wants to know what is the most famous or expensive type of chocolate in Japan.

We talked about how the Japanese don't really say "I love you" very much, but we learned how to say it anyway. We also tried our hand at writing "kokoro" with the shodoh set I received in Ena City. Let's just say we are no masters yet.

Hello Kazuko English Village!

We are pleased to welcome Kazuko's English Village to our blog. Students in the juku, or "cram school," apparently will check out our blog and help us answer some questions. Hajimemashite, say Media Academy students!

We've had technical difficulties using this web site at our school ... but stay tuned for some questions about Japan and Japanese teens!

For starters, how old were you when you made your first origami tsuru? We tried today and most of us thought it was hard!

Hisashiburi! Long Time, No Blog!

Japanese Elective is Back at Media Academy. I am posting a video of our first week of Japanese and will ask Lina-San to update this blog with questions that my students have for Kazuko's English Village Juku students. Pardon my very messy room that can be seen in this video. We need to initiate osoji (cleaning) for sure!

Rising Son, Too

Back from Japan -- and a week away from starting my five-week Japanese elective! -- I really want to get some student reaction to the 44th President on this blog to share with friends, family and fellow Media Academy folk. Check them out!

Sunday Afternoon of Free Performances

These are 50s style rockers, and they looked like they were in the 30s or 40s. They gather every weekend in Yoyogi Park near Harajuku Station in Tokyo.

This is Transistor Kiraku, or so the leaflet she handed me says. I am not sure exactly what she is or does. Maybe I don't want to know.

This band was one of a dozen or so lining the sidewalk outside Yoyogi Park. I liked this band best, though the sounds all sort of merged because of their close proximity.

This solo act was the most visually interesting.

Not in Yoyogi Park, but at a mall in Harajuku. The artist drew the geisha while a band played some funky music above.