Religious, Not Religious

I haven't been a religious person. Honestly, it's been hard for me to believe that someone omnipotent is up there. But I have an interest in talking about religion and participating in religious events. That`s why I joined a Zen practice and a Christmas party last week.

 

It was my second time visiting the temple So-ji-ji (総持寺). Everytime I go there, a sculpture of Buddha is smiling as if he's welcoming my visit. I took a tour at the temple guided by a monk. This time was with a friend and two professors, one from Tsurumi University and the other from Australia. In the spacious and remarkably clean site, there was a soothing atmosphere and I became very calm inside. After the tour, we meditated for about 15 minutes. It is called 'Za-zen (座禅)', and although I'm not supposed to think anything during it, various thoughts came to mind. I think practicing it everyday will bring some level of peace in me. 

  

And on the weekend, there was a party celebrating the upcoming Christmas in Sendagaya (千駄ヶ谷), Tokyo. I was invited by my friend who is a member of the church hosting it. It was a small party with about 15 people. Chatting with new friends, eating delicious Korean style foods, and singing a carol in Japanese, I had a pleasant time. Also, my friend and the hosts singing a hymn in a rap version was something to see.

I was touched by the letter they gave me as a present at the end of the party. Every sentence was quoted from various parts of the Bible and edited into one continuing letter. It was like a letter that God has actually written for me. I got surprised reading it from the beginning, 'My dear beloved daughter', as I wasn't expecting something so intimate. And by the following words, I was so moved. Someone whose existence I didn't even know of has been loving me? I translated some of the letter into English.

  

'My dear beloved daughter,

You don't know me, but I know everything about you.

I can count every move that you sit or stand,

And even every hair on you.

I knew you before I created you in the womb,

And I chose you since the creation of the world,

You were made not by a coincidence, but in my plans.

…

I want to give you my love generously,

As you are my child and I am your father.

...

You are my precious treasure.

...

I will never leave you or desert you.

I will always be with you.

I love you till the end of the world.

 

From your loving father'

My first religion-related memory was at the age 5. My aunt tried to tempt me, saying I can get many cookies and presents if I come to the chapel. I hesitated between the cookies and the Disney animation that was regularly on TV at the same time. At the end, I turned down the proposal and chose Disney. From then, my life has been far from any kind of religion. I visited a Protestant church, Catholic church or temple from time to time, but I couldn't feel anything. But from last week, I started to think maybe there is a God. Or maybe I just want to believe that there is. I don't know. I'll find out this Christmas Eve in the church.

Thoughts on Learning Japanese

There was a Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) last Sunday. I took Level 6 (1級) which is the highest level. I have a Level 5 (2級) certificate, but many of the part time jobs or the real jobs I want to apply for require the highest level. The gap between Level 6 and Level 5 was huge. It felt so difficult even though I'd stayed in Japan for almost 3 months and studied hard for a few weeks with a vocabulary book and official sample tests. I was surprised that so many other words besides what I studied came out in the vocabulary part. I had to pick randomly on some questions that I didn`t have a clue about. I guess I was naive to have believed my vocabulary book`s authors claim that I can get any answers right once I study with this book. Well, she was obviously lying. Even though I memorized almost all the words of the book, I got many answers wrong. I should`ve memorized more words from other sources too.

What I find most difficult in Japanese language is that one kanji can be pronounced in so many ways. `生` is an example. This letter basically means `life`, and has at least 12 different ways of saying it. The pronunciation differs according to the words it is in. It's pronounced `se-i` in the word 生命 (Se-i-me-i), which means `life`, while pronounced `Sho-u` in the word 一生懸命 (Iss-sho-u-ken-me-i), which indicates when someone is doing their best. Also, when the word means `live`, it`s pronounced `i-ki-ru`. You have to memorize how it is pronounced in every word. It can happen even for Japanese people that they confuse how to read the kanji correctly. This phenomenon felt strange to me the first time I started learning Japanese, because each letter in the Korean language, my mother tongue, has a certain way of pronouncing it, so anyone who`s a literate cannot read any letters wrong. And all the writing! I wonder if all of the literate Japanese people can write the common kanji correctly. It's so complex to write.

Despite these facts, actually, Japanese is a rather easy language to learn for me, a Korean. It's because Korean and Japanese share the same kanji civilization. There are many same or similar kanji vocabularies, with just the pronunciation a little different. I can infer what the meaning and pronunciation is from the kanji. I did it on this Japanese test, and got the answer right. The question was to pick the pronunciation for the word 人脈 (jin-mya-ku/ a person's relations). I'd never heard of the pronunciation before, but as Korean has the same word pronounced 'in-maek', I could check the right answer easily. Also, there are similar concepts. Japanese often use the concept '気 (ki/ aura that comes out from something or someone)' in their language, and we Koreans do too. For example, someone is so confident and powerful, Koreans say 'His/Her 気 (ki) is strong' and in the opposite situation, 'His/Her 気 (ki) is weak'. So, we can easily understand when Japanese people say ‘気軽い(ki-garu-i)’ which means there's no burden in someone's mind.

 

Therefore I can say studying Japanese requires less time and effort for Koreans compared to other languages. I've been studying English since kindergarten, and I studied really hard in middle and high school. I have watched tons of American dramas and movies in my university years. However, I still have trouble explaining something simple I want to say in English. Compared to that, I've been studying Japanese only for 3 years since the first year of the university. My Japanese is no better than English yet, but I already feel Japanese is more comfortable to use than English. If there's a Japanese and English sentence respectively indicating the same thing, I will find the Japanese one faster to read and clearer to understand. I become a bit sad when I think about all my effort into English through many years, but what can I do? It's natural to be more comfortable in the similar language. I hope to get proficient in both languages one day.    

 

 

Halloween is for Horror Movies

I want to talk about a special experience I had this Halloween. I didn't want this day to pass by just sitting in the dorm room and doing nothing. My only Halloween memory is playing a boring 'Pinning the Tail on the Donkey' game with some Canadian teachers when I was 11 years old. I had heard that here in Japan many people wear scary costumes and do interesting stuffs, so I headed to Kawasaki where the Halloween parade was held.

The problem was my phone broke down immediately after I got there. I couldn't care less about what was going on in the street. I was only concerned about my phone. Feeling blue, I decided to watch a movie at a nearby theater. For the Halloween day special, a 1970's Italian horror film, Suspiria, was being shown. I've wanted to watch it since before and now was my chance. 

 

Although I usually prefer movies that make a happy and bright impression (my favorite movies are Disney), I really enjoyed this one. The story is kind of typical. An American girl joins a ballet academy in Germany. She experiences some mysterious things, such as the murder of her classmates. At the end, she finds out what has been behind all the incidents.

This movie was like a nightmare, but a very beautiful one. Girls were running away constantly, killed brutally, blood everywhere... Even these horrible scenes were so sophisticated. Every scene was beautiful. I liked the melody in the background too. The delicate but frightening sound doubled the mysteriousness of the movie. Later I found out it's considered one of the best soundtracks in the horror movie history.

It was spooky coming back home alone in the dark. The fact that my phone didn't work made my way even more scary. Besides, the situation of the main character was kind of similar to mine. She had started living in a foreign country, joined a school, made new friends and stayed in a dorm. I suddenly began to feel suspicious about my surroundings. I was like: 'All the people here in Tsurumi are nice, but they must be hiding something from me.' Fortunately, I got home fine. Watching a horror movie alone on Halloween in a strange land: this day, I will never forget.

 

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You can find the information about this movie here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

And you can listen to the stunning soundtrack here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUaCAIxSk4

 

Culture Shock at a School Festival

I witnessed the weirdest thing lately. Me and my friends visited the Kanagawa University Festival. At first there was nothing very special even for me, a foreigner. Students were playing music, singing, or selling snacks and some hand-made accessories, just like in any other school festival. However, things got different when we started watching the contest of Miss and Mister Kanagawa University. It was a contest where the audience picks someone as the representative face of their school.

 

The organization of the contest was like this: Each contestant starts by introducing themselves, and then they act in a proposal scene, and finally, they show their talent such as singing and dancing. What made me shudder with shock was step number two, "Acting in a proposal scene". In this step, each contestant is given a special situation, and they have to say the appropriate proposal words according to that.

 

[Narrator: (quiet music played in the background) Hotaru has been in love with Takuya ever since middle school, but unfortunately she couldn't tell him that because she was too shy. Seven years later, she runs into him in the park. Now, she wants to tell him about her feelings, and says... (the music stops)

 

The contestant:           ...            ]

The contestants acted seriously as if they were actually proposing to their lovers. It was really weird, students acting out a proposal and the audience evaluating it. However, I have to admit that I did enjoy it and laughed a lot. I picked boy no.4 and girl no.2 after some careful thoughts. Unfortunately, I couldn't submit the voting paper because I didn`t know where to put it. I heard that the girl that I picked became Miss Kanagawa University. I missed the boys' result, but I think the one I picked won. There was the most laughter of the audience in his turn.  

  

I respect this uniqueness of Japanese culture. This kind of "making a proposal scene" thing would only exist in Japan in the whole world. Come to think of it, there is a strange contest in my school in Korea too, although it's different from the one in Japan. It is called Mr. 外大 and it picks the most muscular male student of all. The contestants show their body in front of everyone only wearing really short pants. I heard they exercise really hard and go on a diet for a couple of months in an effort to win. I've never seen the contest myself, but my friend who watched it said the person who won even burst into tears and thanked his girlfriend. I guess there are some weird contests around the world.

Traveling Japan with My Friend

Last Sunday, my friend from Korea visited Japan. We have been friends since junior high, and she graduates from university next February. Wanting to have some fun for the last time as a student, she decided to travel Japan as soon as she got time. It was the day before she actually came here, and of course there was no plan. I was her tour guide (although I don't know that much about this place either), and we traveled for three days together.

 

We visited popular places in the Tokyo and Yokohama area like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Jiyu-gaoka, Minato Mirai, etc. The most memorable experience is when we tried on beautiful dresses in Omotesando. As widely known, there are a lot of luxury shops in Omotesando. While passing by casually, we were captured by some aura. It was coming from the shop, Tocca. This shop had so many beautiful dresses trageting women in their twenties. They were mostly princess style like in my dreams when I was a little girl.

 

                                                     
                                                      Unfortunately, they were all too expensive for us.

My friend suggested that we try them on in the fitting room. For a while I hesitated and thought maybe it was kind of a shameless thing to do, because we knew we wouldn't buy them. But I couldn't help myself. There is no way the clerk in front of me would remember me in the future. I ended up trying on their dress and taking a lot of pictures with her together. Walking out of the shop, we promised we would make a lot of money in a few years and buy those clothes proudly.

This sudden visit from my friend was delightful. At the same time, however, it was sad because this will be the last time we'll both be hanging around as both students. It's strange to think someone you spent most of your school days with is not a student anymore and will become an employee of some company. How time flies. It will be my turn before long and I don't think I'm ready to graduate. This travel with a friend left me some things to think about.

 

 

 

Cute Animals on Japanese Art Pieces

I went to an interesting Japanese art exhibition a few weeks ago. In Ueno Park, I was wandering around and saw many ad posters of an exhibition going on. What caught my eye was the poster of the exhibition Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art because it had photos of cute animal art pieces. I decided to see them. The exhibition was held at Tokyo University of the Arts next to the park.

 

It was my first time to see Japanese art works directly myself. There were subtle differences compared to Korean and Western art I had seen before. I can't exactly tell what the difference is, but I can definitely say that Japanese people in the Meiji times really liked animals as the model of their works. They made sculptures of bears, snakes, insects, and a dragon. Also, there were birds made of porcelain and monkeys made of gold and wood. They even carved the image of dogs on a steel kettle. 

I liked the 'Three Wise Monkeys' sculpture especially. It has a strange appearance, with one of the monkeys covering its eyes, another covering its ears, and the other one its mouth. I looked into the meaning of it, and the Internet said the monkeys show the virtue of patience. They tell people that being patient is the smartest way to live. I don't agree with this idea, but I liked how delicate, cute and little these monkeys were. It was only about 2.5 cm tall, but even the hair was carved in that tiny sculpture like it's a real monkey.

After watching the exhibition, I bought a 'Ukiyo-e' memo pad at the gift shop. On every page, a cute cat is looking out the window. I wrote some sentences from my 'Basics of Japanese classics' class on it. I have no idea what this means, but it looks as if I have done some serious art work. I like it.  

Feeling fine at Minato Mirai

Recently, I had an unforgettable experience. Two weeks ago, I visited 'Minato Mirai 21' with my friend. We started our trip walking around Chinatown, a little distance from Minato Mirai 21. Then we headed to the 'Cosmo World', an amusement park. We had a wonderful time at Minato Mirai 21, in spite of me being too scared while riding the roller coaster.  After that was the highlight of this day. On our way back home, we walked by the sea. The night view from there was so beautiful and the wind kept blowing gently. I became very calm in that moment walking on the bridge.

 

 

 

Actually, I had been confused since my arrival at Japan. I couldn't understand anything people said, and I couldn't say what I

wanted to say due to my lack of Japanese ability. I made some friends here now, but back then I nearly didn't know anyone. It was like in the movie <Lost in Translation>(2003). I actually got lost in translation here, and that made me feel completely alone. I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it at that time. However, after walking by the sea with the beautiful scenery of Yokohama, I started feeling that I was fine, and that I want to do my best here. I think I got a strength to move on in this moment. I'll cherish this memory even after I go back to Korea.