WORLD CLASSIC BASEBALL NEWS FROM NHK WORLD

"Defending champions Japan are headed off for the 2nd round of the World Baseball Classic. Japan ended runner-up to South Korea in the first round in Tokyo. The Japanese team, led by manager Tatsunori Hara, left for the United States on a chartered plane shortly after Monday midnight. Hours earlier, the team narrowly lost to South Korea in the final Pool A match to decide the first-round winners. The close-rivals played 2 games in the double-elimination first round. Japan routed South Korea 14-2 in the initial game on Saturday, but South Korea pulled back on Monday to beat Japan 1-0. The second round will open in San Diego on Sunday. Japan will play the top team from pool B, which includes powerhouse Cuba. Japan's all-star lineup includes Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. Both were members of the team that won the inaugural WBC title in 2006."

Both teams now move on to Round 2 in San Diego, which begins on March 15.

To follow Japans progress in the World Baseball Classic go to

http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp?team=jpn

New Flickr Link

Hey Guys! Check out our new Flickr Link at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lianadante/
You can view a slide show of our club photos, print the photos you like and share the link with your friends and family.

Remember to check out the blog during the next two weeks for news of Japan, short language lessons, prize challenges and Japanese Cuisine Tutorials.
Good luck with your tests, have a great Spring Break and I will see you again on the 25th!
Ja Matta-
Liana Sensei

It's a Sumi-e Thing

This week in club we did one of my favorite things--painting. Still, it was not like any other type of painting, it was a type of Japanese scroll painting called Sumi-e. It was fun, since we got to put whatever our hearts desired on the scroll.

We learned how some people spend life times perfecting their skills. Even so, my classmates and I did a great job on all the scrolls. The scroll paintings ranged from Howling Wolfs, to flowers, to rain drops.

Everyone was very creative with theirs. Many also learned how to write their names in Japanese. We also learned about the many different types of utensils commonly used to make these scrolls, and how every stroke of a brush, depending on how tick or thin, could represent something different. This was Indeed an interesting lesson.

Until Next week, Sayonara

Jose....san

Origami the Traditional Japanese Craft

In our Japanese club we learned a new creation the Chinese invented and the Japanese perfected which is called Origami. Origami is a traditional Japanese craft and it is used to create 3 dimensional figures out of paper. We did origami in Japanese club and it was not hard to learn. We learned to make new creations out of paper; we made foldable cups, Swans, and Happi Coats.
Martin Garcia

The process of a Japanese Tea Ceremony

February 11, 2009:
Last Wednesday in our Japanese Club...Hey I am Vanessa San and I am writing about our last week’s club. Last week our teacher brought us some tea and treats. She explained to us the process of a Japanese Tea Ceremony. I don't remember all the steps but I know there are a ton of utensils used in order to prepare the powdered Green Tea.

Our teacher told us about how to enter the room and how to admire the scrolls on the walls with the drawing. She also taught us about the names of the tea utensils. I only remember the Chawan which is the tea bowl we drink from, the Chasen which is used to whisk the tea, and the Shufuku which is the bag in which tea containers are carried. In this last meeting we each enjoyed rice chicken flavor treats, we also tried dried dragon fruit and hibiscuis flowers. They were all very good!!! :)

Our Sensei Liana San brought us Japanese Gum from Japan Town in Los Angeles. We all had fun reviewing past lessons for more candy treats. My best friend won a price as did Cindy and Juliet.

Thank you and Till next time
Sincerely,

Vanessa

Here is a link to a website with Japanese Tea ceremony steps. http://greentealovers.com/greenteapreparationteaceremony.htm

Ouch, that must hurt!

February 4, 2009:
Konnichiwa! O Genki desu ka? Well I'm great!

This week in class we reviewed what we learned from the previous lessons, and then we did some cool activities. First we went over our numbers and colors. My favorite number is Go, and my favorite color is Akai. Go means 5 and Akai means Red.

We also learned how to say our seasons:
· Fuyu desu, means it's Winter
· Haru desu means it's Spring
· Natsu desu means it's Summer
· Aki desu means it's Fall

After we got through our lessons, we got to dress four of our classmates (two girls and two boys) in Kimonos! It was so much fun! We got to see what kind of socks and shoes they wore. Something interesting that I learned was that they wear one shoe size smaller than what their real size is. Ouch, that must hurt! Both of the girls that were dressed in kimonos looked awesome, and really pulled it off. I know it must have been hard to walk in those shoes. The boys were also very cool looking in their shorter Happi’s. A Happi is a kimono for a male and the difference is that their shorter and they usually don't tie them up in big fancy bows like they do girls. I'm sure you'll be able to see the kimonos and our classmates in them, in photos we will post up. Well, that's all for this week, it was so much fun and very unique! I hope we do something like that again!



Until next time! Sayonara!

~ Caroline

IT'S SOOOOOOO COOL! I LOVE THIS LANGUAGE ^_^

Konnichiwa! O genki desu ka? Watashi no namae wa Juliette-san. Haji memmashite! ^_^

Do you know what I said? If not I'll translate it for you, lol

It means: "Hello, How are you? My name is Juliette. It's nice to meet you!"

As you can tell Japanese is a very cool and a unique language to learn, but it is also complicated to learn. There are so many Kanji and Hiragana to learn that it literally blows my mind at where it all comes from but it's fun to figure out the strokes of writing each one and also learning of where they originate from. To me it's unbelievable that the word for car (kuruma) derives from the picture of a wagon (see the Kanji on the left) if you look at the kanji.

IT'S SOOOOOOO COOL!

I LOVE THIS LANGUAGE ^_^

In this club we will learn of Japanese culture and history. We will also learn of the different Japanese characters and how to write each one of them. I'm sorry that this had to be so short but more students will post every week with their reflections.

Signing Off

Juliette

Today is our first Konnichi Wa 2009 club meeting

January 21, 2009: Today is our first club meeting for the Konnichi Wa 2009 Japanese Culture and Language Club.

We learned many things today such as the 3 different alphabets that are used in Japan; the Hiragana (seen on the left) the Katakana (used for foreign words and names) and Kanji (which originated in China but was adopted by both the Koreans and Japanese for use in their written languages). We also met each other today for the first time and learned why we are all in this club together.

I am the club leader my name is Liana Winkler or Liana Sensei (Leader/ teacher as we learned today). I was a teacher in Japan for several years. I lived in a small village (Cho) named Iwaizumi-Cho, in the county (Gun) of Shimohei-Gun, in the state (Ken) of Iwate-Ken. I loved living in Japan. It was peaceful, fun, unique, and a great learning experience. I had the opportunity to study traditional Japanese dance and even performed on TV with my dance group. My favorite foods were Ume-Boshi Onigiri (a rice ball sandwich with a pickled plum paste center) and Mochi (green tea powder) Ice Cream.

I hope you all have the time to follow the Konnichi Wa 2009 Spring Blog (check back each week for new blog posting by club members and great Japanese links) and experience the culture and language of Japan along with us.

Ga Matta!