THE JAPAN SOCIETY |
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JAPANESE CONVERSATION GROUP |
Meetings - 2009 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001
Japanese Conversation Group Events for 2002:
Jan Karuta (Japanese card game) demonstration / activity
Feb Translating setsubun (seasonal story ) into English
Mar Hina-matsuri (doll festival) quiz
Apr Manga quiz; Hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) picnic in Hyde Park
May Morris Dancing demonstration
Jun World Cup Football game; Visit to the Sport's Bar for Japan vs Russia
Jul Shuji (calligraphy) demonstration
Aug Translating ghost story into Japanese
Sep Musical language game using English and Japanese songs
Oct Composing haiku
Nov Sumi-e (Japanese ink-painting) demonstration
Dec Festive language game
Thursday 5th December 2002
To encourage the JCG particpants in December into the holiday spirit, we foxed them with a festive Japanese language game. This required Christmas and New Year vocabulary to be explained in Japanese to team members, in a race against other teams, but without actually mentioning the word in question! This proved to be a case of "not as easy as it sounds!" - but participants battled on gamely with the help of (mostly attentive!) team members.
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Nov 2002 Takumasa Ono's website is at www.asahi-net.or.jp/~HH5Y-SZK/ono/ono.htm |  |
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October 2002 For this month's meeting, we will be inviting Natsuko-sensei to explain the essentials of haiku. She will be also be encouraging you to write your very own haiku, so come with your creative thinking caps on! PHOTOS ARE HERE . |  |
September 2002
Join us for our next meeting on 5th September 2002 for our usual Autumn Activities.
August 2002 Story-telling game
August brings the festival of O-bon when the spirits of the departed return home to pay a visit. To celebrate this sparky occasion we will be holding a ghost-story telling competition. Respect and prizes will be given to the best ghost stories that scare us silly, or if you don't have only of your own, to the best reaction of our own ghost story. Interesting article about the origins of Japanese ghosts: http://www.asianart.com/articles/rubin/
July 2002
Shuji -All budding artists and calligraphers, should have their pens at the ready for July's event, when we will be welcoming Sachiko Kishimoto, an expert in Japanese Calligraphy and a member of the Japan Calligraphic Arts Association, to demonstrate her art. Kishimoto Sensei was featured in the Matsuri in Hyde Park and in the World Travel Market in Earls court.
June 2002
At the beginning of June, the whole of England was in the grip of World Cup fever , and the Japanese Conversation Group was no exception. To the background music of a Brazilian football anthem (quite appropriate in retrospect), our members worked to arrange the names of the English and Japanese football squads in the correct positions on a miniature football pitch. First of all however, the name of each player had to be formed by matching two cards on each of which one half of his name was written. Nobody had any difficulty matching Bekkuhamu, Ouen, Inamoto, or Nakata, but when it came to positioning, some got lost in the midfield! Ea bit like the English team on occasion, some might say!
We continued our own participation in the World Cup, with a trip to the Sport's Bar near Piccadilly to watch the Japan v Russia game. The tension was clearly evident as Russia tried to raise a comeback after slipping behind, but that didn't stop us polishing off large quantities of the ample food and beer on sale on the premises.
May 2002
After the sedate pleasures of the Hanami picnic in April, we started our activities in May with a demonstration of Morris Dancing by Simon Wright of the Hammersmith Morris Men . After brief discussion of the history of the tradition (quoting Shakespeare no less), Simon launched into a series of set pieces comprising a full quota of flourishes, twirls and jumps, preferring it seemed to talk and explain while on the hoof rather than when standing still. No mean feat for those who have visited our room in the Mason's Arms and can imagine the agility that is required. Accompanied by music, courtesy of Gary O'Mahoney on the melodeon, the demonstration was both refined-yet-bawdy, and our members appeared to be truly fascinated by the display.
April 2002 -Hanami picnic - Saturday 27 April
Our annual "HANAMI" picnic will be at Hyde Park in the same place as last year, under three very fat, luscious pink cherry trees. And the weather forecasters have guaranteed sunshine for us! From 1 p.m. in Hyde Park. We shall be meeting at the Albert Memorial (opposite the Albert Hall) to enjoy the Cherry Blossom and the nice food that everyone brings.
April 2002
The Manga quiz held in was less highbrow but proved just as taxing. In mixed groups, the Japanese members had to learn all they could about Dennis the Menace, Asterisk and Danger Mouse from the non-Japanese members, who in turn had to learn all they could about Lupin-the-Third, Kitaro (who does that eye belong to?) and Sazae-san. Despite, the apparent difficulty, the teams proved that they had had a wasted youth by all scoring full marks.
March 2002
The group proved that Hina-Matsuri is not just for girls. In a mental exercise, we asked our members to demonstrate the correct arrangement of the figures on the Hina-Dan Ewithin a time-limit and against other teams doing the same. The Emperor and Empress were straight-forward but the Five Musicians, the Ladies in Waiting and the other characters, proved more tricky: after all does the Minister of the Left go on my left or the EmpressEleft?
February 2002
Saw our members team up to pit their wits against each other translating the traditional ghostly story of Setsubun from Japanese into English. Not content with just a literal rendering, teams opened up extra avenues of competition by employing some unusual sound effects (creaking doors, snoring) and even song!
January 2002
The All Japan Karuta Association visited us and, after an interesting discussion of the origins of the game of Karuta, whipped the members up into a frenzied state by holding actual Karuta games: previously sedate people were poised on the edge of their seats ready to slam the next-card-called away from their opponents. Our perception of card games being a quiet activity has changed forever.
Meetings - 2009 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001