Thursday, October 22, 2009

War.. HUH!



Kuniyoshi and his mouth mask


In Japan, it is common to use a mouth mask when you are sick, in respect to those who have to be around you and doesn't want to catch your nasty germs - though many people seem to be wearing them all the time. It's pretty weird to most foreigners.

It's difficult, trying to communicate with the lady at the city hall, when her mouth mask is covering half of her face and you can't see her facial expressions. Often I see entire families with a bunch of small children, all wearing masks, and I wonder if they are thinking that the mask will protect them, and what kind of signals they give their children, always making them wear these masks. I mean, aren't you supposed to be exposed to a certain amount of germs, and that it'll help building your immune system, or some sheit?

Oh, what do I know. In our house it was always "the ten-second rule" that counted, and if there was a bug in our soup it was considered as "extra protein".

And we're all healthy as a horse.

Stop being so paranoid and at least start washing your hands more often, Japanese people.


Calligraphy Club people


Today we were
invited to the calligraphy club at school. I don't have an artistic bone in my body, but having the opportunity to play around with a big brush and black ink for one afternoon - and to be able to say that I've tried real Japanese calligraphy - was an offer I couldn't refuse.


Lotte

First we were given prints of kanjis (Chinese characters) to practise copying on to the special calligraphy paper. Then they translated our names into kanjis, so we could practise them too.

Calligraphy is hard. You have to hold the big brush in a special way, not the same way you would hold a paint brush. Then, of course, you have to write in the specific stroke order of the kanji, and put pressure on the right places and bla, bla, bla. You're not supposed to rest your arm on the table either.


My name written by those who knew what they were doing

My name written in kanji is the character for hope (ki) and sound (ne).

The clutter on the paper in the middle is my take on writing it

I think calligraphy requires a type of patience that I don't possess.

I got bored pretty quickly. I had to fight the urge to take the brush and war paint my face with black ink.

I doubt that would have been very popular.

5 comments:

Gee said...

I cannot read your try out LOL

Benedicte said...

I don't have the patient for caligraphy either.. oO
you should have painted war paint instead!

Hoshifune said...

Også har man folk som Kuniyoshi, som går med maske fordi kinnet hans er hovent og lignende grunner XD
Word på kalligrafien, Tror ikke det var noen klassen vår som engang gikk på try out-timene, selv om de maste HELE TIDEN O__o

Kine said...

Heisann! Jeg setter pris på at du leser bloggen min, men du trenger ikke føle at du må "rette" på det jeg skriver hele tiden. "Yan er Taiwaneser, Kuniyoshi har trukket en visdomstann og bruker munnbind fordi han har et hovent kinn, ikke fordi han er syk" osv. Jég vet alt dette, men det trenger ikke alltid være poenget for det jeg skriver :)

Hoshifune said...

Æsj, var ikke meningen å høres sånn rettete ut :P
Det med maska nevnte jeg fordi jeg synes det er jvlig morsomt at han "later som han er syk" noenganger fori han rett og slett er forfengelig (^-^;)