ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

A couple of weeks ago, my friend took me to see the Senyuji Temple in the mountains near Shikokuchuo. It was a gorgeous day, and I was happy to be able to get out and have some fresh air. The temple itself was very beautiful as well. It’s built into the side of a mountain, and there is a stream running under the temple itself. The stream tumbled swiftly down the mountainside, and we climbed beside it, up many stone steps. Once we reached the courtyard in front of the temple, the building itself loomed above us, old and rustic. My friend told me that it was 1,300 years old, and the temple felt heavy with its years. But there was something whimsical about it too, probably because the style reminded me of the bathhouse from the movie Spirited Away. Isn’t funny how such a simple thing can connect an ancient temple to a modern movie, two pieces of culture so far removed from each other, but still emerging as parts of a whole? Culture really is fascinating that way.
The greenery around the temple was verdant and lively with spring. I was feeling pretty lively myself, so I tried to reach the top of one of the staircases that started in the courtyard and ascended up the mountain. I thought I would reach the end quickly, snap a few pictures, and then come down. Unfortunately for me, there were a lot of stairs! There were many friendly Buddha statues on the way, and each one seemed to whisper, “Just a little bit further.” Up and up I went, think that each curve in the path would reveal the end. But, finally, I had to give up. My friend was waiting for me, and I didn’t want him to think that I had fallen off the mountain. So I went back down, stepping carefully. The steps were covered in old leaves, and I was worried that I would slip and break my neck on the stairs. Luckily, I reached the bottom safely but much winded. If I am going to be climbing up all sorts of stairs at Buddhist temples, I’m going to need to be in better shape!
  

Hello!

Today is an exciting day, because it's the GEM School Easter picnic! Today, there will be 4 picnics all around Kagawa and Ehime for the kids and parents of GEM to come together and have a fun time outside with English. Look out for pictures on this blog and on the Facebook site soon, and keep watch for the handsome dude in a costume!

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Pictured above is a shot of me and the same actress in one of my recent posts about attending the Japanese theatre. Her and I are pointing at our arms because one of my students broke her arm recently and I wanted to show her that I was thinking of her recovery. My student looks like this actress, so I thought it'd be in some good humor to show my student that I located her twin.

In that last shot she seemed to play the Angry dwarf. She was, at least, dressed in red and she put on an angry act when we took one of our pictures. While the last show was of a story I was familiar with (Snow White and the 7 Dwarves), this one I couldn’t really make heads or tails of. It was perhaps an original Japanese story. The director was the same as the last production and so displayed some of the expected ingenuity. In the last play the stage director integrated (included) interactions between the actors and the audience, which was partly composed (made up) of children. I wrote last time that in that production (of Snow White…) Malificent, or the evil witch, asked the audience who the most beautiful woman in Japan was, and the audience of children would respond that she was. Additionally, the audience helped pick the nick name for Snow White when she was discovered sleeping on the Dwarves’ beds, after it was agreed upon that she could stay with them. This time, this production made the stage the centerpiece of the production, a thing and cast member itself. In fact, the stage was a stage on a stage, since the actors stepped on and off of it, skipping around it and taking things off and onto the center stage from without. It was extraordinary and really reinvigorated (renewed) my drive to learn the language. What was happening on stage? Why did everyone keep leaving all their props on stage? One actor left his cigarette on it, another some sort of forbidden picture, and another some scissors and a table. The center stage just kept piling up with forgotten props, accumulating traces and clues of past actions. The name of the play was “The City of Memories,” if I remember correctly, and this must be why: the stage was the city and the props abandoned on it were the memories of all its inhabitants. I also gathered or guessed that the actors were aging, one actress even dying on stage. In the end, I think everyone passed away since all the actors then played animals that went on stage and then built lots of miniatures buildings out of the blocks that were lying around on the ground floor around the center stage. Wow, I wish I could describe more the experience I had.