Rice and Ramen

Today was another day full of the arts, of all varieties. I woke up and literally inhaled breakfast in a record time of five minutes in order to catch an earlier bus than I'd initially planned (and was still eating a lemon gelatin on the way to the bus stop). I took the bus from Izumigaoka to Korinbo, where I walked from there to the Ishikawa International Lounge where PII was hosting a cultural activity on shakuhachi--Japanese bamboo flutes. For a bit we heard about some basic history of shakuhachi and how one plays it/ the different qualities of tones that can be produced with the flute (one of them is produced by shaking your head back and forth slightly; it looks quite amusing). Blowing into the flute requires blowing half into/half out of the hole in the top. I couldn't do it hahaha. Zilch. Zip. Nada. There were a few people who could make a sound, but most of us were there futilely puffing away for twenty five minutes. After the class ended at 11, I walked next doo...

Today after school (yay Friday!) I went to the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. It was only a short bus ride from the RIFARE building, and they were having a special fine arts exhibit that several of my friends said was amazing. And it was well worth the ~$10 ticket. Only downside to going? It was pouring (oh the rainy season is upon us...) and I had to walk a little bit two and from the bus stop and got wet even though I had an umbrella. I guess that was my Friday the 13th bad luck. If that was it I'm not complaining. The museum was on the top of a hill, right next to Kenrokuen Garden. There's a lot of museums centered around the garden, including the very well known 21st Century Contemporary Art Museum which I'm planning to go to tomorrow (it's the free admissions to the special exhibitions day for people who live in Kanazawa so I want to see if I can convince them that I do indeed live here...). They have a James Turrell skyspace installation which I'm THRILLED abo...

So today I had my first PII-sponsored cultural activity: pottery making at the Hokutoh Studio. Today was the first of three sessions and we're making a chawan--a tea bowl that's used in tea ceremony. So we arrived and were given a disc of clay that weighed about 850g, a manual potter's wheel (no fancy electric things for us!), a knife, a sponge, some bowls of water, a leather strip, and a wooden shaper. The teacher's main point was that our feelings are transmitted from our mind through our hands and into the clay, so we should treat it nicely (like how you talk to flowers to help them grow). First we molded the clay into a ball and then smushed it into the center of the wheel. After shaping it a bit, we dipped one finger in water and, spinning the wheel, made a divet in the center of our lump. Then with our fingers we shaped it into a bowl, and then used the leather strap soaked in water to shape and smooth the edges while the wheel was spinning. The curved w...

Yesterday was the last day of the Hyakumangoku Festival. In the evening Kenrokuen Garden (the garden I went to with Ryo previously) had an illumination in the evening. When they said "illumination" I envisioned something dramatic and showy, like the Christmas light shows they sometimes have at zoos. So I expected colored strings of lights hung between trees and maybe some chains of lanterns lining the walkways. That's not quite what it was. There were no dramatic colored displays. Instead, certain key locations were lit with spotlights from below, and the pathways were lined with muted lanterns on the ground. In its own simple way it was very beautiful. But the most beautiful part about it was the traditional shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) performance they had. A woman wearing a kimono played the flute while being slowly poled around the pond. Everyone was silent, and the sound of her flute just echoed throughout the whole park.  And that con...

Day two of the Hyakumangoku Festival! The main event: the parade! I confess in my human fallibility I forgot to charge my camera, so these photos were taken with my iPhone on which the camera is of questionable quality. Finally got to sleep in for once! After a leisurely breakfast and finishing up Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 (which I HIGHLY recommend. Weird, but fascinating) my host family and I set off in their car for the Korinbo area to watch the parade. Korinbo is a large shopping and bar district, with popular malls, coffee shops, and restaurants. However, today the street was closed off and people were lining the sides to watch the upcoming festivities. The parade began from Kanazawa Station and progressed through the streets until it reached Kanazawa Castle, where the actor playing Toshiie Maeda symbolically enters the castle. (The parade is called the Hyakumangoku Gyoretsu.) The parade began with school bands and baton troupes, like any parade usually has: Then the pa...