Eager Response

When I checked my email this morning, I was slightly too excited to hear back from Mizue Kido. She was recommended to me by Suzanne and is going to be an amazing resource for me. She was born in Japan and her mother preformed tea ceremonies nearly every day. I'm eager to meet with her and immediately emailed her back trying to schedule a time.

Anyways, that's it for today!

It's Thursday so obviously I'm going to yoga tonight and guess who's coming with me..... +Molly Pritz!!!!!! Killing two WISE projects with one yoga session.

日本
Nippon
Japan

Emails, Emails, and More Emails

I kind of fell behind last week and forgot to email the community members that Suzanne had suggested.  Finally, though, I just sent about 9 emails to various people in the community, including local potters (as Ms. Lutter had suggested) and a Japanese native who moved here during her high school years.

I'm excited to actually start talking to people about my project and gaining first-person information. I also realized that I need to find someone who will be able to perform the tea ceremony for me. Hopefully after talking to many community members, I will get connections to someone who will be able to do that.

 Also, Japanese is really hard to learn. I don't know what I got myself into...

メール
Mēru
Email

First Mentor Meeting

I had my first mentor meeting with Ms. Lutter today. She gave me some good contact information and suggested that I contact local potters and ask if I could "shadow" them or just observe their studio. I think this is a great idea as it would help me gain some more knowledge about pottery outside of the classroom.

I also set a time frame for when I will be making my tea set. My goal is to start the teacups before Spring Break (March 29th). That way, I will have plenty of time to focus on the teapot, which I've heard is the hardest part.

Well, I'm off to go send emails!

陶器
Tōki
Pottery

Peer Review of Blogs

I read Luke's journal today and loved how enthusiastic he was about his project! He already set his goals for which songs he'd like to learn on the harmonica and who he will contact to help him with his project. I also like how he talked about why he decided to get into playing the harmonica and gave us some background information.

I also read Emma Denman's blog. I loved how she wrote really honestly and I could imagine her saying everything she wrote. It was fun to read because of her easy-going tone. Her project (to learn how to sew) seems awesome and I can't wait to see what her final products turn out to be!

That's it for today I think.. I've been using my "Human Japanese" app this week and continuing to read "Liquid Jade" for research.

More to come!

ジャーナル
Jānaru
Journal

Community Help

One of the community members helping me with my project is Suzanne from the East Asia Program Outreach at Cornell. She has recently contacted me and given me emails of numerous other people in the community that will be able to help me in the research portion of my project.

I plan on emailing all of these people tomorrow morning and hopefully meeting them either this weekend or next week!

I'm gonna keep this post short and sweet, and will update once I contact these community members.

研究
Kenkyū
Research

The Joys of Learning a Fourth Language

Ms. G gave me some great material today. One was a Japanese-English dictionary (which will definitely become useful as I get lost trying to learn the language). The other book was a study guide of Japanese language!

I'm really excited to start learning Japanese. Mrs. G also told me about a great App called "Human Japanese". It's an interactive learning app where you can actually hear and see the words as you learn them. Needless to say I've spent a good amount of time on the iPad tonight....

Yoga has been going great. Although I am a little sore today (my teacher really pushed on working on our hip flexors), I have decided to go on Thursdays as well! If any one of my lovely readers is interested in going, you are more than welcome to join me!

言語
Gengo
Language

Live in the Moment

I've spent this week reading a book I picked up at the public library. It's called "Liquid Jade" and is about the ancient history of tea. It's actually really good!

My yoga experience the other day was awesome. The teacher primarily talked about how we need to learn to be present in the moment and remain mellow. I loved that!

ヨガ
Yoga