THE JAPAN SOCIETY |
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JAPANESE CONVERSATION GROUP |
Meetings - 2009 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001
December 2003,
Thursday, 4th Dec In December, we decided to see off the year with a Japanese Christmas Pub Quiz. The questions gave the Conversation Group members the chance to show off its knowledge of the British and Japanese Monarchy, of Popular Culture, and of social history. Native and non-native Japanese speakers alike were scratching their heads for the right answer, despite the provision of a multiple choice answer system. A round of drinks was presented to the team who had taxed their brains the most and who gave the most correct answers. PHOTOS ARE HERE!.
November 2003, Thursday,
6th Nov
In November, it was a chance for us to enjoy the
old favourite of Chinese Whispers. Ambitious teams of 10 or so people
assembled in lines, while a nervous but determined team leader was given
the opening Japanese sentence. The sentence was not to be approached
lightly, comprising several elements that had to be remembered, such as
'Kitano Takeshi', 'his film Sonatine', and 'it winning an award at the
Venice film festival', but hopes were high. At speeds significantly lower
than the speed of sound, the sentence was passed along each team, until
despite problems with cross-talk, noise, and fried circuits, it arrived
several adjectives and a few nouns lighter at the last team member. The
winning team produced a fairly good result, getting most of the
ingredients correct. One team however could only mumble "Takeshi's film",
which in all fairness was probably close enough.
October 2003,
Thursday, 9th Oct Like the UK, Japan's Harvest Festival celebrations fall in September with the Full Moon Viewing or O-tsukimi festival. These days O-tsukimi is rarely observed, and much of previous generations familiarity with it has been lost. A language game based on O-tsukimi therefore seemed a perfect challenge to put to the Conversation Group in October! After short team discussions, gleaning valuable vocabulary from the native Japanese speakers, an intrepid bunch of non-native speakers translated set pieces from English into Japanese. Rabbits in the moon making O-mochi, why a blue moon appears every two and a half years, and the correct location to view the full moon (from a lake at night) were just some of the essential details covered.
September 2003, Thursday, 4th Sep
In September we were pleased to welcome Iwakawa Sensei who spoke briefly about Shuji - the Japanese art of calligraphy - before giving a workshop to our members. Somebody once said that "when something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing." and this is certainly true of Shuji. Many took part and produced really quite fine examples of the Kanji characters for "friend", "love" "eat", and "flower" (I feel there is a sentence struggling to get out here! Eanswers on a postcard please!). Afterwards, Iwakawa Sensei judged the different works and it was decided to award the coveted first prize of a box of chocolates to Clare Barclay for the best proficiency with a brush.
August 2003, Thursday 7th Aug
In August, the members of the Japanese Conversation Group showed their metal by continuing in temperatures so high that other Conversation Groups would merely have melted away! O-bon was the theme, and the plan was to perform the Tanko Bushi or ‘Coal MinersEdance (a bit like a Japanese Hokey Cokey). Gentle pressure from Nick Reeve, who had participated in the dance once or twice while on a year in Japan and who was therefore the resident ‘expertE coaxed a small number of generous volunteers to give it a whirl. For a whole 2 or 3 minutes, we shovelled and pushed (imagine John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever !), until the heat got the better of us. All in all it was a success although it will be a long time before any of us think of turning professional!
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July 2003, Thursday 3rd July |
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June 2003, Thursday 5 June |
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May 2003
In the month of May, we were delighted to welcome Francis Roads of the British Go Association, who gave us a quick history of the game and a beginner's guide to playing. His lively talk encouraged members to try their own hand at the game, and ten minutes later, Francis was playing a large number of eager opponents simultaneously, and dispatching them with true aplomb. The event was very well received, with one member now having joined a local club and playing every week. Many thanks to Francis for making it an evening to remember, and to John Kenny for arranging the event. PHOTOS ARE HERE! .
April 2003, Thursday 3rd April
In April's meeting, our language activity took on an acrobatic turn as we introduced our members to a Hayakuchi-kotoba game of tongue twisters. Practising with such gems as 'She Sells Sea Shells', 'Peter Piper', 'nama-mugi, nama-gome, nama tamago', and 'aka-pajama, ki-pajama, ao-pajama' our teams honed their verbal dexterity before a big showdown. One of the most startling revelations of the evening was that the most fiendish tongue twister in Japanese is unintentionally the name of the Tokyo Patent Office: 'to-kyo- tokkyo kyoka kyoku'. Who would have thought it?
April 2003 - Hanami - Saturday, 12 April. Every year the Conversation Group treks out into Hyde Park to view the wonderful Cherry Blossom on the trees near the Albert memorial. Despite holding this event earlier this year, with the express intention of catching the trees in full bloom, we were again outmanoeuvred by Mother Nature, and most of the blossom had already disappeared by the time we arrived. It wasn't too difficult to console ourselves though, tucking into the huge variety of different foods and drink that people had brought with them, and soon even the most disappointed were in high spirits. Many thanks to Rina Hayashi of the committee, who not only coerced more people into coming than would safely fit onto a London bus, but also thoughtfully provided plastic sheeting for all to sit on when the ground became damp. The day was rounded off nicely by a salubrious hour or three in the Southside bar of Imperial College. PHOTOS ARE HERE ! .
Place: Hyde Park. The Cherry trees are a stone's throw from the North East corner of Albert Memorial 1pm.
March 2003
In March , St Patrick's Day formed the basis of our activities. Our members were divided into groups and each group was provided with an English description of an aspect of St Patrick's Day or other Irish culture which they had to translate and later perform (of course in Japanese). We all learnt interesting things about the significance of the shamrock, the Blarney stone legend, and St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland, but by far the most interesting fact was that newly born babies used to be bathed in Guinness because of the beneficial health effects it was believed to have. The spokesperson of the winning group received a congratulatory pint of Guinness - not enough to bathe in but enjoyable nonetheless.
February 2003
In February , we were very fortunate to have Hiroko Sue with us demonstrating the koto , an instrument sometimes known as the Japanese harp. Hiroko-sensei talked us through how the instrument is played while performing some of her own compositions. 'London Rain' immediately touched a chord with the audience, while a piece with flamenco flavour gave us all a welcome glimpse of sun - exactly what was needed on an otherwise dark winter night
Sue sensei has played the Koto professionally since graduating from the Tokyo University of Fine Art and Music in 1994, and has given performances in China, Korea, Canada and the UK. The Koto, which bears a resemblance to the harp, is a traditional Japanese musical instrument, having 13 strings stretched over a frame of paulownia wood.
January 2003
In January, we took the traditional Japanese game of fuku-warai, which is a bit like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey only it uses cut-out facial features, and gave it an additional twist. Instead of our blindfolded contestants attaching ears, eyes and noses to a nondescript blank faces, we enlisted the help of photographic representations of famous celebrities. Prime Ministers Koizumi and Blair, Kylie and Robbie, Posh and Becks and Utada Hikaru all made brief appearances to liven things up
Meetings - 2009 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001