Teacher Training Program: Japanese Culture

I've actually finished up my teacher training program (read the intro here and part two here), but I've got lots of things to remember about it, so here we go down memory lane. In between all the classes that left us feeling challenged and also exhausted (see an actual shot of us in a ten min break between lessons below), we did loads of cultural stuff. 

Some of it was just around the area we were staying, like the day we did "orienteering" in the local area, and other parts were learning about Japanese houses and etiquette for the optional homestay weekend. I really liked the focus the teachers gave on asking us to notice differences and then push ourselves to wonder why the differences exist. It was a great reminder in the world of social media videos that often complain about the differences in other cultures, or languages for likes and views that we could be different.  

After our first cultural experiences of yukata wearing and fuurin (glass wind chime) blowing, the next one we did was furoshiki. Furoshiki is a reusable cloth. The name comes from furo, meaning bath, and shiki which is like to sit. Traditionally, people would wrap up their bath things and clean clothes into the cloth and take it to the onsen to get clean. There, they would unfold their furoshiki, have their bath and when they came out, would sit on the furoshiki to finish getting dressed. 

Now days, furoshiki can be used for all sorts of things and come in a large variety of sizes and patterns. I've even made my own furoshiki before and I use them all the time in Australia. We had an intro session on furoshiki and then a hands on practical workshop to practice using them for all sorts of things. It was really great. 

We also did a shodo, or calligraphy, workshop. This was again, a very practical workshop where we learnt how to use the equipment and practice writing with the calligraphy brush and ink. I had done this before when I went to school in Japan way back in 2004, but it was great to practice again. 

After we practiced the different techniques using the kanji for eternity, we wrote a kanji of our choice on a fan to take home. I wrote frog. 

The last thing we did was a group poster with a Japanese phrase on it. We were invited to make it creative and given a number of coloured paints as well. Our group chose the Japanese saying "七転び八起き" which translates to "fall down seven times, get up eight." It's a "never give up" type of slogan. 

Pretty proud of our handiwork, though I think working together as a group was harder than actually doing the art. You think it's hard when you all come from the same place, but throw in people from five different countries with their own cultural styles a language barrier and a time limit and then you've got some work to do! 

Our art was hung in the foyer of the Japan Foundation Centre where we were in Kita Urawa, along with our classmates work. It will stay there for a year I guess, until the next summer teacher training program comes along. 

The last thing we got to do (for this post anyway) was see a shamisen performance by a world renowned shamisen player, Nobuto Yamanaka. Shamisen is a Japanese three stringed instrument which was amazing to see played so well. I could have listened for ages to all the different sounds and songs this master was performing for us. He also played shakuhachi (a wooden flute), and had a variety of shamisen for us to see. 

At the end, we got to play a little bit ourselves, so here I am playing my three notes on the shamisen. 

Finally, you might have noticed I have been wearing yukata in a few of these photos. That's because it's summer here and the right time to wear them! I wear yukata all the time back in Australia, so I figured, why not in Japan as well! I may have collected a few new ones at this point in our stay, so I just wore them when I felt like it. At first, people were shocked and confused (much like Australia), but then it was normal. 

What I wasn't expecting, was for other people to join me. A number of the ladies at my course asked me about wearing them, why and how etc. I just encouraged them to give it a go. Yukata are clothes, and there is nothing stopping you from wearing it if you want to! I was honestly so excited to have a number of the other teachers start wearing them too. Especially the teachers who said to me that they didn't think they could do it, and then were wearing them the next day. 

Didn't consider myself an influencer until now. 

Furoshiki and Other Omiyage

When we went to Japan in April, I knew I'd be seeing a fair few friends that I would need to have omiyage for. Omiyage is like a souvenir or gift that you give someone. Japan is big on this kind of gift exchange etiquette. I knew I'd have to transport them in our luggage so I didn't want anything breakable, and I also wanted something more meaningful than Tim-tams (delicious though they are). 

So I turned to sewing. I bought some lovely Jocelyn Proust fabric from Spotlight (native Australian flowers are her thing) and some other Australian themed prints. Then I cut them up and sewed the hems to make furoshiki. 

Furoshiki is a term that refers to cloth that you can wrap things up in. They come in all sorts of sizes and the most common use for them is for Japanese lunch boxes. I used one every day at school when I was in Japan, and I also had a comparatively enormous one to wrap and carry all my kimono gear to my tea ceremony classes. 

I thought some Australian furoshiki would be a nice omiyage. 

I also made (for my homestay brother's girls) this little dress up dress. It had been a while since I'd made one (2018 and 2016), but the design is so great it went together fine. I wanted to use up as much of this fabric from my stash as I could, so I added the ruffle on the skirt. 

The little girl was very pleased with her dress, and I was happy to see that fabric finally used up - it was leftover from when my mum made me a dress from it when I was 11 or 12! The last thing I popped in was a headband from the plethora I made in January, which had turned out way too small for my girls. 

Funny story about the furoshiki, I had made them, I'd given them and I'd talked about them. Then, on our last night in Kyoto, I was at a shop asking the store person if she had some when I came to realise, I was using completely the wrong word. Some how, my mixed up dyslexic brain had thought they were called fukuroshi, instead of furoshiki. The shop person very kindly gave me a history lesson on where the word came from so I'll never forget again.