Day 8: Traditional Folk Music and Dancing

Breakfast:

Today John and I spent one hour in C and the other two in B. C seemed difficult, but manageable and really interesting, so I still wanted to switch. We worked on a kanji worksheet in groups, and I felt like I was able to contribute. There were no extra homeworks for C, so we only had B's homework tonight.

I made sure to get my lunch before class today at a convenience store so I wouldn't be lunch-less again.
I got a dorayaki (like two small, sweet pancakes with red bean paste in between) and Onigiri #6:

I got hungry during our long break though and had my lunch an hour early, but was sort of hungry again around lunchtime so I went with two of my friends from Class B to a small supermarket. I got an 海老克＝えびかつ（ebi-katsu）＝shrimp katsu, and a coffee jelly because I had heard of them before and had always wondered what they were like.

The supermarket had tiny, paper, fold-out, spoons that I thought were kind of cool:

It was actually pretty good. It tasted almost exactly like coffee, but was in jelly form (like JELL-O but squshier), and there was cream on top.

After lunch, I went to a 'Traditional Japanese Musical Instruments and Folk Music' workshop in the HIF building.

First, they played some music for us:

(Pardon the lack of visuals in the first video, I was trying not to be obnoxious with my phone then realized that no one else cared.)

Next, we learned how to read some traditional sheet music. After so many years of choir, it was pretty awesome to see something so wildly different from traditional western sheet music:

Here's what we sounded like singing it:

And here's what it's supposed to sound like:

I definitely have a much greater appreciation for this style of music/singing now after getting to try it myself. It is far more precise than I realized.

Afterwards, they played more music:

Then we got to try some of the instruments. I played the drums for a little while, and then got in line for the string instrument, but we stopped right before it was my turn.

Finally, they set up in the middle of the room, and played while we learned a dance and danced in a circle around them. It took a little while to catch on to because the man teaching it to us sort of just said to copy him and started dancing around the room, but it was simple enough that everyone had it down after a few minutes.

The dance went:

1. Kick your right foot forward and to the left and clap.
2. Kick your left foot forward and to the right and clap.
3. Repeat step 1, but instead of clapping gesture to the right with your left hand and curve your right hand above your head.
4. Repeat step 3 but on the opposite side.
5. Step back with your right foot, bend your knee, and put your arms out.
6. Step forward with your right foot, kick your left foot out a little, and put your arms out.
7. Repeat 1-6

I'm not sure if that makes much sense, but that was the gist of it.

For the dancing portion they had a few extra shirt-things and I got to wear one which I really enjoyed.

When I got the coffee jelly and shrimp katsu at the supermarket, I also got these matcha caramels which I tried when I got home. I thought they were pretty great, but I'm a big fan of green tea so I'm very biased.

Dinner:

The red stuff was fish.

For dessert we had cute little mochi balls filled with vanilla ice cream. They came in packs of two with a little stick to stab them with and eat them off of.

It might just be because the packaging was so neat, but I thought the ice cream was exceptionally tasty.

(Also, my phone did this weird thing and then the camera wouldn't work until I turned it off and on again. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.)