Buyo and Ikebana-IMAGE HEAVY, EXPLANATION LIGHT

SO! It's been a while since my last update. I blame that on the combination of nerves, food poisoning, and motion sickness that kept me from going to Kabuki on Friday and the resultant mess made of my weekend sleep schedule. And that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

Moving on, I have two cultural activity updates to make. First is Nihon Buyo/Odori--traditional Japanese dance--and second is Ikebana--traditional Japanese flower arrangement.

Nihon Buyo took place on Monday in two parts. In the first part, groups of ICU students performed four Buyo dances and the two Buyo Sensei performed two more. The explanation of these dances can be found in conjunction with the photos at the website below (it's hard to explain without the photos and uploading photos to this blog still confuses me). I took upwards of 200 photos while there, but most were pretty lame, so there are a little less than 100 in the photo album below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030914&id=1186934580&l=3882295f51

In the second part, we all got to try on yukata and learn the Sakura dance. We did the dance about four times and by the end we were actually pretty good. Then the Sensei and students taught me what all the different motions of the fan mean, as well as how to properly spin a Buyo fan. IT WAS FRIGGIN AWESOME!! A picture of me in my yukata follows, and I hope to get a video of the dance up ASAP.

(7/23 EDIT: Video of the 'Sakura' dance imbedded below:



Yay for figuring out the internet!!)

I also made a new friend--Natsumi Shishido. She's cho~~~u-kawaii (Toooooootally cute) yo!!

The other cultural activity that I've done since my last update is Ikebana--traditional Japanese flower arranging. As with Nihon Buyo, the activity took place in two parts; first the Sensei doing some demonstrative arrangements. Pictures and explanations of these arrangements can be found with the photo album below. I took upwards of 100 photos while there but, as with Nihon Buyo, less than half of them were decent enough to put up; those that were can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031000&id=1186934580&l=142c48c5d2

After the Sensei was done, we all got to do our own arrangements. Here's a picture of mine:

I also made two more new friends; Yurika Honjo and Marina Masuda. I'd put up pictures of them too but I forgot to take any. T_T BUT, I have their phone numbers, so hopefully I'll get to see them again and take pictures then. :D

Tomorrow is the Ghibli Museum, so you can bet I'll have PLENTY to talk about then, although there probably won't be much in the way of pictures; I've heard you're not allowed to take them inside the museum. At least that entry will be more involved than this one... (Hopefully)

Take care!!

~ Anna