August 5, 2010
Japan Experience! 2010 Day 7
Day 7 of JE10 started off with the ancient swashbuckling art of the sword, kendo! The Seiritsu Kendo Club, lead by 7th dan Sasaki Sensei, taught the students how to hold, swing, thrust, parry and most of all strike with commitment using the shinai, bamboo training sword. Bruce seemed the most impressed, wanting to start training in kendo immediately.
The kendo club members were kind enough to put on the sparring armor and allow the JE students to whack away at them as per Sasaki Sensei's instructions. But in the end everyone looked pretty happy, which might also be due to the fact the kendo dojo is air conditioned!
Up next was a hands-on lesson in Japanese taiko drumming with the local community group, the Higashi Ju-jo Ippon Taiko team. The JE10 students walked to the group's practice space nearby and they were led into a storm of furious drumming by the taiko team members.
Here's Sarah intently striking away, trying to stay in sync with everyone.
Jordan exclaimed taiko was his highlight of the program so far, also commenting he would like to search out a taiko group back in his home town in New Zealand.
After taiko everyone had a lunch of spaghetti, salad, fried chicken, rice with mixed vegetables and fruit jello for dessert.
Tottoro taking our tickets!
Then we were off to the world famous Studio Ghibli Museum, an absolute must-see location for everyone who comes to Tokyo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghibli_Museum
A refreshing blast of cold, misty air! Several of these fans were located at the museum.
While no one is this year's group is a serious otaku like last year, for sure the most amount of shopping done in one place so far has got to have been done today at the wondrous museum gift shop that seems to have something for everyone!
Tonight the students were going to visit a few different places on their own, then be back at their host families early to spend time with them as well.
Tomorrow we are having a karate lesson, followed by a quiz contest to see who has absorbed the most of Japan on the trip. In the afternoon we'll going to the Sumo Museum and then exploring the cavernous, hands-on Edo-Tokyo Museum.