IUC 50th Anniversary

 

After a long and isolated week of being tied to my desk, work, and computer, I took a break yesterday evening to head down to Yokohama for the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) 50th anniversary reception.The IUC is my Japanese language home. I spent a wonderful year there (2009-2010) engaged in intensive advanced language study, and the supportive staff and great resources are a fond memory for me. It was nostalgic and wonderful to walk out of Sakuragicho station and see the view of Minato-Mirai that cheered me on all those mornings walking to class (above). The reception was held at the Intercontinental Pacifico, in the half-moon shaped building where IUC classes are held. It was also fantastic to visit with my teachers and a few former classmates, as well as meet some new people.

Rice Cooker 炊飯器

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I have completely broken my pledge to everyday blogging, and for that I apologize. We only have a few more days left before we move back to the U.S., and during the last week of IUC hanging out with friends was top priority, followed closely by the many tasks involved with moving. As I begin to think about the many boxes of belongings that await my return, I've been thinking alot about the many kitchen appliances that I have missed over the past two years, and the one kitchen appliance that has gained a spot in my heart while in Japan, my rice cooker. We eat rice on a daily basis here, and I have come to love the perfectly cooked grains that are produced by a quality rice cooker. When we lived in Ono, and before we purchased a rice cooker, we had a friend over for dinner and cooked rice on a pot on top of the stove. I will never forget the look of astonishment on her face when she saw how we were cooking rice, and now that I have used a proper cooker for nearly two years I understand where that look came from. Simply put, rice cooker rice is just better. In Lawrence we had a cheap under $20 cooker that always burnt the rice on the bottom layer, an appliance that I fully plan to jettison when we return and replace with a more upscale model (I'm thinking about this one). Here, we generally purchase a 5 kilo bag of unwashed short grain white rice, which lasts us about a month. Above is our copper pot with the small rice strainer that allows us to drain the rice easily when washing it, below I am draining the rice. While I prefer brown rice for health and taste reasons, white rice is the prefered grain here, so the brown variety is generally more expensive and a bit more difficult to find.

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The rice cooker at the end of the cooking cycle, which generally takes about 35 minutes for two cups, enough to make two large rice-bowl meals or two sides of rice with leftovers.

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Tomioka Silk Mill 富岡製糸場

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Today I gave my final presentation for the IUC, a 15 minute public presentation in Japanese on the research project I've been working on for the past three months.

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Above and below are two examples of the late 19th century images that I examined for my project.

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The abstract of my paper that appeared in the program for the final presentations:

明治時代日本女性は社会で新しい役割を務め、産業界にも活動的な 生産者として参加しました。しかし、同時に女性は基本的な政治権力と自由は否定されていました。この発表では富岡製糸場を取りあげ明治時代女性のイメージがどのように１８７０年代と１８８０年代の社会の価値観を映しているか見ていきます。
富岡製糸場のイメージとして富岡の技術を称えた錦絵や富岡に昭憲皇太后の富岡行啓を描いた日本画があります。明治時代の文化コンテクストの中で富岡製糸場を題材とした視覚資料を調査することによってこの発表には明治政府が女性の役割をどう考えていたかを示します。

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And in English:
During the early Meiji period Japanese women assumed new societal roles and acted as active producers in Japan’s rapidly developing industrial economy, yet they were simultaneously denied basic political freedoms and rights. Using the Tomioka Silk Mill as a point of departure, this paper examines how images of Meiji women reflected Japanese societal values and concerns of the 1870s and 1880s.
Images of the Tomioka Silk Mill range from multi-color woodblock prints that celebrate the technological achievements of the mill to softly painted Nihonga representing the Meiji Empress’ visit to the site. By investigating the breadth of visual material referencing the Tomioka Silk Mill in the cultural context of the late nineteenth century this paper will shed light on Meiji period women’s roles as they were condoned and promoted by the government.

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As part of my research, a few weeks ago I took a day trip out to the Tomioka Silk Mill in Gunma prefecture, about three hours away by local train.
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The train from Takasaki to Tomioka was a true inaka (rural) train, departing once an hour. Tickets were stamped by hand, not machine. I purchased the combination train and site visit ticket.

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The slow and rickety train to Tomioka.

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The walking route from the Tomioka train station to the silk mill was marked by a green line along the road with occasional signs indicating the distance to the mill.

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The entry gate to the mill.

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Above and below are photos of the silk spinning building, where thread was taken from the silk cocoons after dipping them into hot water to kill the worm. These weren't the original 19th century machines, but I'm not sure when they date from. The factory was in operation until about 1985, so they were from sometime in the 20th century.
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The building where the cocoons were processed and sorted. The architectural style is a combination of traditional Japanese methods in the wood framing, and 19th century European methods in the brick construction.

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The mill was run by the Japanese government from 1873 to 1893 with assistance from overseas workers. Paul Brunat, the first foreign manager, lived in this house. The conditions experienced by the teenage women who worked at the mill were considerably less luxurious.

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The view from the cliff that the silk mill sits atop.

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Back at Tomioka Station, 125.2 km to Tokyo Station, 20.2 km to Takasaki Station.

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The newspaper stand at the station was on the honor system.

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Catching the train back to Takasaki.

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Inageya いなげや

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Today started with an amazing optional bonus class- Offensive Expressions for Japanese Interaction, a play on the title of one of our textbooks (Formal Expressions for Japanese Interaction). Indeed, we learned how to swear! While I don' t plan on using these expressions myself, I'm happy to be able to understand them if anyone uses them in my vacinity. The afternoon consisted of errands including the post office, ward office, and the grocery store. There are three grocery stores near our apartment, but the biggest one is Inageya, about a half mile away. The Yokohamaya has slightly better prices on veggies, but they don't have much selection in other goods, and My Basket is only two blocks away, but is relatively small so we mostly go there for quick pick ups. Above is the store, located on the first floor of a large apartment building. A yakitori cart (grilled chicken) is usually parked out front, and a small post box is at the left foreground.

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Above is the produce section, below some cabbage, lotus root, daikon and carrots.
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Eggplant and goya.
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Our basket just before bagging in eco bags.

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Exam 試験

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Monday was exam day. We all took a two and a half hour written exam consisting of kanji, listening and reading sections and then had fifteen minute oral interviews in the afternoon. After the exam the usual crew opted for lunch outside to forget our troubles and enjoy the beautiful weather. In the evening I had to work on finishing up my Powerpoint for the final presentations that happen next week, so all in all not a very exciting day.

Japanese 日本語

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As my year of intensive Japanese study at the IUC comes to an end, I've been thinking about how far I have come linguistically. Japanese is an incredibly complex language (see here and here), and in learning the language for academic use my classmates and I are engaged in a very difficult activity that goes far beyond the mastery of daily conversation. Many of the articles that we read in Kushida sensei's art history class would be difficult for a native speaker, and the classical texts that I've been tackling as of late are rewarding, but exhausting. On a rainy day a number of weeks ago, after a particularly grueling afternoon of coffee shop reading, I decided to clear my head by wandering along the shopping street at Kannai. I popped into a Yurindo bookstore, and remembering a conversation with a classmate about the relative ease of reading Murakami Haruki in the original Japanese, I picked up a 400 yen paperback version of 神の子どもたちはみな踊る (after the quake) as the collection of short stories seemed approchable to me. I found the book on the second floor of the sprawling shop amongst the small sized paperback versions of a variety of books. As many Japanese people have a long commute it's common to see these miniaturized books on the train, complete with a paper book cover. Since spring I've been spending my short subway commute slowly reading the stories and enjoying the fact that while I don't know every single word, I know the vast majority of them and I can understand the unknown vocabulary in the story from context. It's these little moments of linguistic clarity that make all the flashcards and grammar points of language learning so worthwhile, and after a difficult day of academic discussion in Japanese, when my confidence is shaken, I can turn to my small book to remind myself of how far I have come and how much I enjoy the Japanese language.

Everyday life 日常生活

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Today was just a regular day of class and reading, so some photos of everyday life are in order. Above is the view from the IUC break area, where I often sit to eat lunch. A few couches line the hallway, but this view is from the area near the refrigerator, and remains a bit cooler during the day. The Pacifico building (where we are housed) is in the foreground, and the bushes are on the IUC veranda. The bay is in the background.

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Also near the refrigerator is the Office Gilco (above). The drawers are stocked with snacks (think potato chips and cookies) all priced at one hundred yen. It works on the honor system (!), so just drop a 100 yen coin in the frogs mouth and take your snack of choice from the drawer.
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Every day I commute through Sakuragicho station on the Yokohama subway. It's generally pretty crowded in the morning, but this term I come home in the early afternoon, so it's off peak time.

National Archives and Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery 国立公文書館と聖徳記念絵画館

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This has turned out to be a very exciting week to begin my everyday blogging.

My day started out by meeting friends at Yokohama Station early this morning so we could head up to Tokyo for a joint Art History and History class field trip to the National Archives (above). The weather today was warm but rainy and windy, the kind of day when the train cars have foggy windows from all the humidity. Yuk. At the archive, I tried a variety of searches and came up with two documents that may be helpful for my current project. While I'm not sure how useful the documents will be, I spent the 120 yen (about $1.50 for 4 pages) to print out the digitized documents while I had the opportunity.

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While I was in Tokyo, I decided to split off from my classmates for the afternoon and visit the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery (above and below). The gallery contains 80 large paintings illustrating the life of the Meiji Emperor. Half of the works are Nihonga, the other half Yoga. I spent about an hour and a half looking at the works, during which only a handful of older Japanese ladies came and went. Usually Japanese museums are very crowded, so it was a pleasant treat to have the galleries to myself. As a bonus, the museum also contained the skeleton and taxidermied remains of the Emperor Meiji's favorite horse! The gallery is located on the grounds of the Meiji Jingu Gaien, best known for it's sports complex. Below are some of the azaleas that are currently blooming all over Yokohama and Tokyo, the gallery is visible in the background.

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I headed back to home via Shinjuku, and stopped briefly to capture the rainwater pooling on a railing at Yokohama Station.

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Yokohama Art Museum 横浜美術館

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Only half of my classmates attended art history class today, so instead of the usual seminar-style discussion on an article (all in Japanese of course), Kushida sensei took us to the Yokohama Art Museum to see the Pompei exhibition. This was my third time at the museum, I saw a French painting exhibition last summer and, "Dai-Kai-Ko: Art of the Period of the Opening of the Port of Yokohama, from Tokugawa to Meiji" last fall. Pompei, while showing art completely outside of my area of research, had some lovely sculptures, mosaics, painted works and fascinatingly, a Roman-style marble bath set up in it's entirety, complete with the plumbing structure. Above is a post-exhibit photo of Sara, Frank and Paula outside of the museum. Kushida sensei had to return to work, but as it was Sara's birthday, the rest of us headed to Bubby's for burgers (I abstained) and dessert. I opted for the huge slice of Red Velvet Cake, consuming a week's worth of sugar and probably enough carcinogenic red food coloring for a lifetime. But really, it was worth it for a delicious taste of Americana shared with some great company.
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Lecture 講演

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It's late so, a quick post to fulfill my daily blogging challenge...

After my afternoon session with Otake sensei, where we worked on translating a passage of classical Japanese into modern Japanese, I headed up to Tokyo this evening with three of my IUC friends and classmates to attend the workshop, "Public" and "Private" Interactions with Esoteric Buddhist Art: Transmission, Transformation, and Context, held at Sophia University. The speakers included Cynthea Bogel of University of Washington, Karen Mack of Atomi University (and a KU PhD), and Elizabeth Tinsley, PhD candidate at Otani University. After listening to a great group of speakers, I'm now thinking about the concepts of public and private, and how this applies to my own work in the Meiji period.

I took the above photo walking home from the subway at about 10:30 this evening. After a long and productive day, I'm off to do a little kanji review and reading before bed. お休みなさい！

National Diet Library 国立国会図書館

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Last Tuesday I went to the massive National Diet Library in Tokyo to do some research for my current project. This was my first visit to the library so I was excited and nervous, but thankfully I was accompanied by one of my instructors from the IUC, so I had a bit of assistance in navigating the complexities of the system, and a complex system it was.

The first order of business was to register for a one day user id card using an automated kiosk that asked for my name, address, etc. before spitting out a plastic card. To even get into the library we had to scan our cards at a gate, and then every action within the library required using the card. Before entering we deposited most of our belongings in a coin locker, only bringing wallets, paper, pencil, electronic dictionary, and notes into the library, all contained in a clear plastic bag provided near the entry.

Our first stop was the Modern Political History room, where I was searching for an edict referring to proper women's dress issued by the Meiji Empress. We entered the room, had the librarian scan our cards, and then he assisted us in finding the edict, which was essentially a photocopy of the original late 19th century document (written in classical Japanese) bound together (Japanese style) with a bunch of other similar documents. To obtain a copy of the edict I had to check out the book with my card (for use within the library only), use a computer station to print out a copy request form (with the card), go down to the 1st floor from the 4th, and turn in my copy request form and the book at the copy desk (again scanning the card), then wait for about 10 minutes until my number appeared on a t.v. monitor, return to the copy desk, where they scanned my card yet again, and pay for my copies, which were about 25 cents each. Then I had to return to the special collections room and return the book with another scan of the card.

After this adventure, we sought out a few books on Meiji censorship laws and on the Tomioka Silk Mill. A few of the books were in the open stacks humanities section, but most of them required a request from closed stacks. While we waited for the books to be retrieved we used the computer databases (which required a scan of the user card) to search for a few other books and made a few more copy requests.

Upon leaving the library we inserted our cards into the turn style one last time, retrieving our belongings from the coin lockers near the entrance.

After a few hours of library work I now have more materials to read for my project, and a solid understanding of the library system. This was my first experience conducting research at a national library, and I would be interetsed to compare my experiences in Tokyo with that of another major government research library (like the Library of Congress). All in a rainy afternoon's work.

Study 勉強

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Today was a rainy and cold day, perfect for coffee shop reading. In the 10 months that I've lived in Yokohama I've spent countless afternoons at the Kannai Starbucks on Bashamichi, reading with a Matcha Frappucino and occasionally a warm Chocolate Chip Scone. While I usually try to support local coffee shops, the smaller places in my neighborhood all allow smoking (which Starbucks does not), so as of late it's been the chain for me. Plus, as I think I have previously mentioned, I'm a huge fan of anything matcha, and adding cream and sugar just makes it better. From time to time I will make my own matcha latte at home, but without a blender it's just not the same. Today I read about gender and the gaze in the 12th century Genji scrolls, and I'm thinking about heading back tomorrow to work on a reading on Meiji feminism. Just another day in the life....

Fall 秋

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It's been almost a month since I've posted anything, how the time flies... Things have been pretty busy, during the week about all I do is go to class and do homework, with small breaks for eating, sleeping (though never enough), checking email, and showering. On the weekends we usually take Friday evening to relax, spend Saturday afternoon studying at a coffee shop, chat with family on Skype, and the rest of the time is studying for me, for Joe studying or working on music. Not too exciting of a routine...
Outside of the usual activities, last month I attended a series of lectures given at the Meiji Art Society meeting at Tokyo University on a Saturday afternoon (in Japanese of course). It was a nice change of pace and a strong reminder of why I'm spending so much time memorizing vocabulary. The lecture I was most interested in addressed ukiyoe (Japanese prints) at the 1910 London International Exhibition, other lectures discussed line in Meiji period Japanese-style painting and a newly discovered painting from WWII. On Halloween we went trick-or-treating with some of Joe's students at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, one of the few places in Japan where kids can participate in the American tradition of Halloween. It was facinating to see groups of Japanese kids wandering around the military base collecting candy from military families. I had the first week of November off of school (but with plenty of homework), and took the time to see the Treasures of the Imperial Collections special exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum and the Great Port Opening 150th anniversary special exhibition at the Yokohama Art Museum. Joe and I also took a day trip to Hakone, which I'll post more about soon.
The weather has remained pretty warm in Yokohama, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s throughout October. While we're still waiting for fall color, seasonal autumn foods have arrived at the grocery store, including persimmons (above) and nabe (below). Like most grocery stores, ours stocks a variety of nabe (Japanese stew) broths, which we have been methodically trying. We purchased our nabe pot in Kamakura a few weeks back, and have been making the dish once a week. So far we have tried regular, kimchi and creamy tofu sesame flavors, of which regular is my favorite. Veggie nabe is pretty healthy and inexpensive to make; although this recipe includes chicken (an environmental and health hazard) it's easy enough to substitute tofu or wheat gluten. If you aren't aware of the atrocities of eating chicken, click here for a good PBS Frontline video on how farm run-off is killing our waterways and adding to reproductive disorders, cancer, and hormonal problems in children.
Back to studying....
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Calligraphy 書道

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Last week was the first day of the optional calligraphy class at IUC. We meet once a week for an hour and fourty-five minutes in the afternoon and receive instruction in traditional Japanese calligraphy from a lovely older woman. In our first week we worked on 土 (tsuchi, earth) and 月(tsuki, moon). Today we started into 火(hi, fire). Categorize this under things that are way harder than they look. I finally mastered the corner at the top right and hook at the bottom right of 月, for which I received my teachers approval (see the circular mark on the above photo), and 土 wasn't too tough, as it is just three straight lines. But 火! I have a ways to go on this one... the photo below shows my attempt in black, and my teacher's corrections in red, the red kanji at the left is her example. It's going to take a while before I can emulate her elegant brushstrokes, but each practice sheet gets me a little bit closer.... I'll keep posting about my progress as the coruse goes on. Ganbatte!
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Sankeien 三溪園

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On Friday we took a field trip to Sankeien, a lovely historic garden in Yokohama (click here for the English guide). Our visit was sponsored by the Rotary club, so we began with some speeches from the members, and then broke into groups to do different activities. My first activity was　華道 (kadō) or flower arranging.　
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The instructor explained the principles of different arrangements, and then walked us through an arrangement while other volunteers came around to help us. I elected to "live in my own world" as the instructor said, and did a more open style arrangement than he was doing. I guess I'm not too good at conforming.... but he did say that it looked nice. I honestly felt that the wide container that I was using and the crescent shaped nature of my particular twigs lent itself to this arrangement better. This is my imitation of the shape of my arrangement...
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Some of my classmates express their feelings about their arrangements.
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Our next activity was 茶道 (sadō) or tea ceremony. This is a highly rituatlized way of serving and drinking matcha. In this photo, our hostess is preparing the tea.
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The 和菓子 (wagashi), or Japanese-style sweet served before the matcha is given. These sweets are meant to balance the slightly bitter flavor of the matcha, and are carefully crafted to represent the seasons.
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Our final activity was a stroll around the garden with one of the volunteer guides. The following photos show the (mostly) Edo period buildings that were moved to the garden when it was built by a wealthy silk merchant in the late 19th and early 20th century.
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