Mooncoin Jig

At first I was planning to begin this entry with something like "For once, not much to report about Monday." But after examining my memories and thoughts a bit more carefully I think I can make a decent report after all. One more slice of Ima Ai ni Yuku in the morning; it's a sweet and amusing film (I'd recommend it if anyone can find it), and it feels good that I can understand a good deal of it.

Next up was Tea, the ceremony was much the same as usual, but we also got a bit of history on how it became popular. Back in the day (pre-Edo period, when Japan was in the process of being unified) there was a great teacher of the Way of taking tea called Rikyu, who taught it to Oda Nobunaga (one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan). Nobunaga proceeded to build a magnificent golden tea room, then considered he had surpassed his teacher, and told Rikyu to go kill himself. What a prick. But before he shuffled off this mortal coil Rikyu was able to pass on his knowledge to other people, who in turn passed it on through the ages all the way to now, when I'm learning it. There was also a cookery book detailing how to make the kind of sweets eaten during the ceremony - that's something to hunt down a copy of before I leave!

Classic Japanese started off with a written test. I think it went quite well, but while filling it in I remembered the breakdown of assessment for this course - End of Term Exam, Mid-Term Exam, Mini-Tests, Homework and Attendance all worth 20% of the final mark each. The fact that just showing up to lessons carried as much weight as the test gave me rather a strange feeling. This week the teacher hadn't brought along any music, but asked us if we knew any songs that used older versions of our languages. I was tempted to give a rendition of "Twa Corbies" but was a little shy of doing so, given the content (for those of you who don't know it, this is a song about two ravens discussing a dead knight they intend to eat).

In the evening I managed to start work on my Modern Japanese Literature essay, and did so in the Community Room, so I managed to be a bit social as well. One more miscellaneous scrap of information before I sign off - I probably mentioned a while back that I acquired a money bank in the shape of a frog wearing a crown. I recently granted it the name Kaerō-chan, from running "kaeru" (frog) and "ō," (king) together, but "kaerō" is also homophonous with "let's go home," for one day I shall take him home with me. It's a simple name, but it pleases me. ^^

カエローちゃん