Aren't these amazing!

Last week one of my students brought some hand made Kyoto sweets to class for everyone.

Kyoto as you may or may not know, is famous for their sweets and especially their sugar candies. 

Here are some Kyo-Yasai liquor filled bon bons!  Can you name all the vegetables?  How do you say sora-mame in English anyways?! Everyone chime in you your Kyo-Yasai guesses!

Review Challenge!

For those of you who have come to class in the last week or so here is a good chance for you to read and review some of the things that we went over.  Can you remember all of that vocabulary?  Let's see how you do!

I have a very large soft spot for Lupin the third and the Castle of Cagliostro.  It was the very first Japanese Anime that I saw when I was a child.  The first time that I saw it I was about 12 years old and starting to outgrow cartoons.  When I saw this movie I was surprised that an animated movie could be so cool!  I was basically hooked on Japanese anime from that moment on.

The main character is Lupin who is a gentleman cat-burglar based on French novelist Maurice Leblanc's "Les Aventure de Arsene Lupin"  Lupin is supposedly the grandson of this legendary gentleman thief, who was renowned for not only his ingenious crimes that would part beautiful women from the money and jewelry but also their hearts.  Although Lupin is a thief and a criminal he is after all a gentleman and will spend most or even all of his loot to uphold the honor of a lady or give the money to a truly deserving cause.

Lupin III is much like his grandfather in that he may have grand and ingenious plans for a theft, but over the course of the story he finds something even more valuable;  the love of a kind and beautiful woman.

I have seen most of the Lupin movies and have even read most of the classic comic books done by famous comic artist Monkey-Punch, but Castle of Cagliostro remains my all time favorite Lupin story.

The story goes:  Lupin and his partner in crime Jigen discover a large number of near perfect fake money.  They decide to try and steal the printing plates for themselves and become insanely rich. Lupin traces the bills back to a small European country called Cagliostro.  While trying to find a way to break-in and loot the castle Lupin runs into a princess who is being forced to marry against her will so that the evil Count Cagliostro can learn the true secret behind the his family's power and wealth. 

Lupin quickly decides to change his caper from finding the goat-bills, to saving the princess.   Over the course of the heist Lupin also bumps into his ex-girlfriend Fujiko as well as teams up with his arch rival Inspector Zenigatta of the international police agency.  Together they all work to take down Count Cagliostro.  In the end the count runs out of time and meets an ironic end.  Lupin discovers the secret of Cagliostro and sets the princess free to live her own life.  Lupin with his gang then make a clean get away into the setting sun.

Review Vocabulary:  Soft spot, cat-burglar, thief, break-in, loot, caper, heist, a get away

So, how did you do?

Two years ago I decided to do something "Japanese" so I started my new hobby and passion of Aikido.  Aikido is a defensive martial art that uses a collection of joint locks as well as throws to move the attacker away from you and onto the ground.  Pretty cool!  To help focus our movements we do a lot of wooden sword drills or Kata.  These Kata have their roots in the sword schools and training yards of feudal Japan.
Last night I was lucky enough to have a private Aikido lesson with my teacher so we were able to practice several Kata together in depth and discuss the theory behind the motions.

Something that continues to amaze me is the difference between Eastern and Western sword philosophy.  Arms (aka weaponry) and Armor have fascinated me since I was about 8 or 9 years old and even now I find my self an eager learner.

Here is a quick Arms and Armor 101.
In 15th century Europe Armor was very thick and heavy.  Weapons were also big and heavy so that they could penetrate such heavy armor!

The main philosophy was to have thick enough armor to deflect an opponent's blow and then counter with your own heavy weapon.  It was also common to use your armor and or shield as a weapon as well, to either disarm, stun or batter your opponent!

This armor took a long time to put on and was almost impossible to put on by yourself.  Modern armor enthusiasts say that to put on a full suit of armor with help, takes about 15min.


In Japan at about the same time (Sengoku-jidai) the theory was totally different!
Armor was lighter, weighing only half as much as its European equivalent, and mobility was more important than stopping power.  Japanese sword technique stresses attacking exposed or weak areas in armor and moving around to your opponent's flanks for an attack.  Most sword technique also stresses a two handed grip on a sword.  I'm learning that with proper sword posture it is very hard for an opponent to close and attack you!

If you had armor of this quality, you were probably rich enough to have servants assist you in putting it on, but that does not mean that you couldn't do it yourself in a pinch.
I love instructional diagrams and this one is almost as good as one I found in Hikkone castle several years ago. Enjoy!

hi·a·tus


1.a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

2.a missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript.

3.any gap or opening.

4.Grammar, Prosody . the coming together, with or without break or slight pause, and without contraction, of two vowels in successive words or syllables, as in see easily.

5.Anatomy . a natural fissure, cleft, or foramen in a bone or other structure.

WOW!  I have really had one of these haven't I! 

It's Back to School Time!

Hello everyone! 
After a very nice Long summer vacation I'm ready to start blogging again.  I don't know what it was but during the month of August something deep down in my soul said "August is no time for work!" So I neglected my blog and its updates. 
Now that it's September I can say that I'm ready to start again with the back to school season!

August was great fun but I seem to have spent much of my time trying to stay cool during the "dog days of summer"  I tell my friends and family living in the US that its been 36 or 37 degrees every day for the past 2 weeks and they cant believe it!

I've started a new back to school morning regimen that should look like this.

7am-wake up
Drink a 500-600ml of water
stretch or exercise
watch "the wife of ge ge ge" (8am)
check my e-mail
see my wife off to work
finish e-mail and do blog!!
start first lessons......

some of you might be wondering why i drink water first thing in the morning.  I'll let you guess for now.  Your hint is "its for health reasons".

anyways.
see you again soon!

Did you eat your "U" foods?

Yesterday was a day where you are supposed to eat foods that begin with the "u" sound.  A popular food to eat on this day is "unagi".  In Japanese there are many foods that start with "u" but there are very few in English.  Can you think of any?   "American Style Udon" doesn't count!

Here are a few that I could think of, but they have the serious disadvantage of being  One: not very delicious, and Two: Difficult to acquire in Japan. :(

Ugli fruit
Umquat
Upside down cake

Good Weekend

Hello Everyone.  I hope that you all took advantage of the nice 3 day weekend this last week to do something fun!  I did!  I had a great time starting with the Osaka brew Fest held in the Kyocera dome.  I was able to sample many beers from around the world and I even got to have some beer made in my home town.  I was really surprised!  The beer was excellent and they had a very wide variety of both domestic and foreign beers.  I especially liked the Hefeweizen style beers, which are a kind of wheat beer that is very good drinking in summer! For more information look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer. 

Closer to home you all should check out the Minoh beer company!  They had a very nice selection of specialty beers that were both delicious and cool, because they were made so close to home! 

This beer is called Anchor Steam, Its very bitter but it reminds me of my home in SF.