ŌGI ("SEN")

Lorayne and Jake are the two people from
the right.  Here we were playing a
Japanese game at the festival that night!
I won.. ahem... :D

Besides Una, Tehilah and I staying at the monastery, we also met a really nice girl from Singapore named Lorayne and a really kind yet introverted guy named Jake from California.  Each of them had been traveling with others but came to Koyasan on their own.  Jake was trying to enjoy his last week in Japan because he was to start Medical School soon.  I think this was mostly occupying his mind then. 

Other than us, we were staying at the monastery with a group of old ladies that danced with folding fans.  They were going to perform the next day so they were practicing that evening.

One lady in particular, though she did not speak one bit of English, became my friend! Haha.  When I was peaking through the sliding doors to catch a glimpse at the rehearsal, she was very insisting that I come inside and sit down to get a better look. =)

We even exchanged numbers and email and I told her (through Google Translate) that I would email her as soon as I learned Japanese. =)

My new Japanese friend was this old and incredibly nice lady!

Here some videos of the ladies practicing their fan dance at the monastery:

Now for the Kanji!

扇
Kunyomi:  おうぎ - "ōgi"
Onyomi: セン - "sen"
Meaning: fan, folding fan

Jōyō Kanji taught in junior high
JLPT level N1
1805 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

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KAWA

For my study abroad program to Japan, China, and S. Korea with the University of Miami School of Architecture, I had the opportunity of living in Kyoto, Japan for a little over a month.  

A very kind waitress taught my friend Miguel and I how
to make origami!

I loved Kyoto.  It is a very traditional city as it is the center of Japanese culture and of Buddhism in Japan.  This is where all Japanese people travel to in order to learn about their traditional culture, with almost a third of the entire Japanese population visiting there annually.  

Kyoto is also the city where the oldest people in the world reside, where there are people over 110 years old. 

There are also a number of universities in Kyoto.  I found this mix of really old traditional people and a lot of college students to be very interesting.  Along with the presence of many universities is the presence of many college students from all over the world studying abroad here.  I met people from all over including Canada, Austria, Switzerland, France, Finland, Mexico, Venezuela, Singapore, China, Sweden, Australia and more.  

Awesome nights hanging out at the Kamogawa with
my friends Una from China and David from Mexico

I met most of them at the KAWA (Kamogawa river)! =) Kawa means river in Japanese.  In Kyoto, most young people at night will buy drinks from a nearby convenience store and then head to the Kamogawa and just sit with their friends on the river bank and drink, talk, and be silly.  This is where I made lots of new friends in Kyoto!  Including this one Venezuelan guy named Jorge Eduardo, who had been living in Japan for over 9 years and spoke perfect Japanese.  This guy was hilarious!  He had a very latin, friendly personality which I think amuses the Japanese a lot hahaha... 

He called our nightly visits to the kawa, "kawagando" (this joke may only make sense if you know some Spanish, sorry about that!).

"Vamos a kawagar!" - Jorge Eduardo Padrón

Part of the "kawa" group from Left to Right: Jorge Eduardo (Venezuela), Tyler (New Jersey, USA),
Shimaa (Saudi Arabia & China), ME! =), Lucas (Austria), Philip (Switzerland), Una (China), David (Mexico),
Sofi (Finland), Aky (Venezuela).  In the very back: Luis Miguel (Mexico), Priya (Canada & India),
Alexandra (Romania), Ashley (New Jersey, USA)

Now for the Kanji! 

川
Kunyomi:  かわ - "kawa"
Onyomi: セン - "sen"
Meaning: river, stream

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 1
JLPT level N5
181 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

          










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HI

The other day I stumbled upon this video which gives you a sort of crash course on the entire history of Japan in a humorous and entertaining way.  Check it out:

 Thanks Bill Wurtz for this awesome and hilarious video! I've seen it way more times than I care to admit. =)

I've always found Japan's name in Japanese to be very beautiful.  Japan is commonly referred to as the "land of the rising sun".

In Kanji, Japan is written as: 日本 - にほん - "nihon"
Breaking the name down:
日 - に - "ni" - sun (in this case, but can also mean day)
本 - ほん - "hon" - source, origin (in this case, but can also mean book)

The sun plays an important role in Japanese mythology and religion as the Emperor is believed to be the direct descendent of the sun goddess Amaterasu.  The name of the country as well as the design of their flag reflect the importance of the sun for the Japanese.

日
Kunyomi:  ひ - "hi", -び - "-bi"
Onyomi: ニチ - "nichi", ジツ - "jitsu"
Meaning: sun, day

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 1
JLPT level N5
1 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

In Kanji, the common name for the Japanese flag is written as:
日の丸 - ひのまる - "hinomaru"
Where:
丸 - まる - "maru" - means circle (in this case, but can also mean correct)

A photo I took while on a hike in the mountains in the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan

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UN

If you want to read the full story, start here: Koyasan story - Part 1

When we arrived to Koya-san we were not expecting what we found.  When we got there we realized that the next day (a Monday) was the birthday of Kobo Daishi, the man who introduced Esoteric Buddhism in Japan from China over a thousand years ago.  Also, we soon discovered  that this was the year that they celebrate exactly 1200 years of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan. We were amazed at how lucky we were to just so happen to be in Koya-san while they were celebrating such an important holiday for them on a very special year. It was fate.

Group of monks headed to the main temple where the Kobo Daishi
birthday celebration and prayers were to take place.

There were festivities going on everywhere and they would continue on to the next day.  Monks were roaming around the small religious town and were all in very beautiful celebratory clothes.  The place felt very lively and happy.  There was a lot of people packed in the small town.  It seemed as if all the religious Buddhists of Japan were in Koya-san that weekend.  I also felt very humbled to have that opportunity to see get a glimpse of this aspect of Japanese culture, as there were very few foreigners there with us.  

We ended up deciding to stay the night at a temple with monks and skipped class the next day.  We felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we could not miss.. and we were right.

The character "un" means luck or fortune but it could also mean to carry or motion. For instance, 運動 (undou) means exercise.

It can be paired with the character "inochi" which is also used in words and pronounced as "mei":

INOCHI

Inochi or mei, can represent things like destiny, life and decree, as in something that has "ordered" for stuff to happen to you throughout your existence. 

Together, these characters form the word UNMEI.

UNMEI

Unmei is the word for fate/destiny.

Whew, with two characters we knocked out so many different words :)

Continue this story HERE


OR

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YAMA

We were on our way to Koya-san (高野山), which is where I finally decided that the three of us should go for a day trip on our day off.  There was not much said in my book about the place except that this is where esoteric Buddhism was founded in Japan back in 800-something A.D.  We had considered going to a few major cities like Kobē, Nagoya, and Ōsaka but we were having trouble making a final decision.  Finally I hastily decided at the last minute that we were going to "off-road" and have an adventure: we were going to the remotely-located town of Koya-san.  

On the last train headed to Koyasan.  I was reading "The
Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan" by Yasushi Inoue

It was pretty complicated to get there.  We had to take three different trains and then a cable car up the mountain. While in the third train, until then I had not payed much attention to the outside of the train until I was engulfed by mountains all of a sudden.

There is something about mountains that make a place feel so spiritual.  I had never thought of mountains in that way before traveling to Japan.  Koya-san is nestled in the mountains in the center of the Kii Peninsula.  It had one main street and a few minor streets where more than one-hundred temples were right next to one another.  Other than that there was the prevailing presence of the mountains and the nature.  It was extremely breath-taking and it felt like a very sacred place.

Looking out of my window on the train and suddenly being
engulfed in mountains!

Continue this story HERE

Now for the Kani!

山
Kunyomi:  やま - "yama"
Onyomi: サン - "san", セン "sen"
Meaning: mountain

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 1
JLPT level N5
131 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

                      

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KAMI

Happy middle of summer everyone.  I am digging up this blog from the grave and turning it into my next project: each new post from now on will be somewhat related to a new Kanji character that I will write about and meanwhile try to learn.  I thought this could be a creative way to learn Japanese Kanji for myself and perhaps other people out there as well that stumble upon this blog some day.

My first name is Kamilah but most people call me "Kami" for short.  Earlier this summer I set out on one of the most amazing adventures of my life: I travelled to Japan.  When I was asked for my name over there, I would simply reply "Kami" thinking "Kamilah" was too long and complicated a name.  The reactions of the Japanese people were mostly either surprised, impressed, or they would laugh.  During my first week, I picked up this book called "Shinto: The Kami Way" by Sokyo Ono that I found in a bookstore outside the Kyoto National Museum.

Book I picked up in the Kyoto National
Museum bookstore

I then realized my name in Japanese is the word for "god" or "spirit" or "deity".  It comes from the Shinto religion, which is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people.  Shintō is composed of two ideographs.  The kanji above can also be called "shin", or "kami", and then 道 (dō or tō) meaning "way".  In other words, "Shinto" implies faith in the kami or spiritual life and harmony attained through worship and in communion with the kami.  It is an all-inclusive term embracing the various faiths which have the kami-idea (including Buddhism and Christianity).

So I decided to learn this Kanji character first because I found it interesting how my nickname had a deeper meaning in Japanese culture and spirituality.  

Now for the Kanji!

神
Kunyomi:  かみ - "kami"
Onyomi: シン - "shin", ジン - "jin"
Meaning: god(s), spirit(s), mind, soul

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 3
JLPT level N3
347 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

神社 - "jinja" means Shinto Shrine

神主 - "Kan'nushi" means Shinto priest

神風 - "Kamikaze" means Kamikaze (in WWII a Japanese aircraft loaded with 

explosives that would make a deliberate suicidal crash on enemy targets),

or it means mysterious wind.

神隠し - "Kamikakoshi" means mysterious disappearance. 

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