This weekend I decided that the best way to prepare for the four exams I have this week was to go and explore some cultural exhibitions across town. Obviously.
On Saturday, a local temple was hosting a zen arts experience, taught by IB students from a high school affiliated with my university. I ended up meeting a couple of friends from my course there, both of whom also did the IB at school! It was interesting to hear what the students get up to on the IB in Japan.
Also, of course, we got to have a go at calligraphy, raking of stones in the zen garden, and we took part in a tea ceremony.
This is my very first attempt at calligraphy! The character means 'Japanese'. It's not the worst first attempt, but I don't think it'll pave my way to becoming a calligraphy master any time soon...
This is the garden that we tried raking. The deal with raking is that you've got to try to create perfectly straight lines, while thinking of nothing else but the moment. Hard to stay in the moment when you're all too aware that if you take one step too far backwards you'll end up stuck in the branches of one of these lovely trees... It was really cool getting to actually walk in a garden like this, instead of just viewing it from the veranda.
Although, speaking of which;
I really liked this temple; it was very beautiful and calm, and also incredibly welcoming. You can even stay there overnight as a tourist.
The next day I went to a bonsai exhibition at the Miyako Messe exhibition centre. Here are some of my favourites:
I thought the lone fruit hanging off this bare tree looked a little sad, but my friend pointed out that from this angle it kind of looks like the moon seen through the branches. I was lucky I went to the exhibition with such a poetic person!
The other fun thing about Miyako Messe is that in the basement is the museum of traditional crafts, which was super interesting! Every Sunday it also features a dance by a real maiko (an apprentice geiko, or geisha)
She was incredibly graceful and I wish I could try on a kimono like the one she's wearing.
On the way home we cycled along the canal to the Kamogawa river (much like London, the arty district is found in the old industrial area and there are a few canals around there). It looked like all the trees were cherry trees, so they must look amazing in the spring, but I actually also really liked how they all looked without any leaves against the grey sky.
Almost forgot to mention, but I also experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake! Don't worry, you would have seen it on the news if anything that major had really happened! Outside the Miyako Messe the fire department were having a community information day or something, which included a truck rigged up to simulate earthquakes.
You sit at a table and tell the guy in charge what magnitude you'd like, then the system counts down and you get your earthquake. I'd heard that once it reaches 5 or 6 you can't stand, but at 7 I could barely stay in my chair, even clutching tight to the desk! It was scary, but I'm glad that we ran across something like this. So far I've only experienced very mini earthquakes, and this made me feel like if a bigger one does come along I'll be less likely to panic.
And now that I've terrified my family with all of this talk of earthquakes, here's some soothing pictures of the woodland walk I took today in the local nature reserve (5 minutes away from my dorm):
This week is the last week of term so it's full of tests, but then the two month spring holiday begins! I've got lots of fun trips planned, starting with Tokyo as soon as we're officially finished, on Tuesday. I'm really excited to go and see that other side of Japan.
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