Sunday, April 13, 2008

Going out =))

  A month ago couple of nice people left Japan. They are back to Belgium. This is the last evening - karaoke - one of the most popular japanese entertainments =)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A shrine to be cleaned...

  There is a town near Toyota city. The town of Okazaki. 
Everybody who takes train to get to Toyota Technical Center in the morning knows this name. And in this city there are shrines. And some of them are being cleaned on Sunday...

  Saturday evening, when Hiraoka-san was still at our place having dinner, he mentioned this tradition to us. The neighborhood around the shrine is divided into groups and each group has to clean the area around shrine at a given Sunday, once a year. So that Sunday was their turn. That was one of the reasons he needed to wake up early (hence there is still beer in our fridge).
  We, on the other hand, are very curious about every non-tourist aspect of Japanese life, so we could not miss this opportunity to learn something new.

  And there we were the next morning, getting in the car at 8.00 to find surprisingly busy roads as we drove south. That area is full of cherry blossom! No wonder he did not go anywhere special to see this with his family...

  So they gave us gloves and asked to pick the grass from the lawn. And in 20 min everybody was done. We thought this would take a least couple of hours. 
  Apparently what's important here is not the final result (although, there was much less grass in the end), but your commitment. The good thing is that you don't have to do this - that's why everybody was there.

  Later we had a cup of tea at Hiraoka-san's place and he showed me some items from his camera's collection. Film cameras that is. Truly impressive. That is really a collection, because a man does not need all these just to take pictures.
  One day I hope to have another look.
More pictures of Sakura here.
More pictures of the shrine here.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Japanese Lessons

  My teacher of Japanese is a very, very nice woman. She is super smart and intelligent: she was traveling around the Europe for 40 days, her husband is a professor at the Aichi University, she likes impressionists and speaks English and French... But she is so japanese =)

  I have one hour lesson twice a week. But sometimes the hour is not enough... So last time I was so excited I was making some progress that I simply kept asking the questions. The clock which I had in front of me (it was standing on the cupboard) kept showing me that we still have 20 minutes to go. Suddenly she said something like: "I'm terribly sorry but we have to finish for today because I have to go out". I was looking at the clock - still 20 minutes to go. So I was doubting if I would say it to her or not... But then I decided to say nothing this time 'cause usually she is so nice =) So I stood up and then accidentally I looked at my watch... What did I see??? It was half an hour later than the finish hour of our lesson!!! She didn't dare to say to me that the lesson was over half an hour ago. Now it was my turn to say: "Sumimasen" which means... of course, "I'm sorry" =)