So Desu Ka?

Apologies for the lack of updates. It's been an exhausted week - with a renewed dedication to the daily grind and a general post-midterm slump contributing to my lack of motivation for blogging.

This morning the group rode the Chuo line JR train out to Hino, where we took a tour of the Jissen Women's University and met some Japanese college students for an afternoon of amusement and cross-cultural exchange. The girls were extremely kind and accommodating, laughing at even the most rudimentary American jokes (often given in indifferent Japanese).

For some of the students it was difficult going, as only two of us were beyond level one in our studies, but I really got a lot out of the trip. I spoke with them about their interests and mine, discussed differences in education styles, and even got a chance to look through the art history section of the library (and visit an in-progress sculpture class). In the art history section of the library we came across a Disney animation book, and when we spotted stills from Song of the South I managed to successfully explain the controversy surrounding that film to the girls - much to my pride and amazement. All in all, I felt very positive about my speaking abilities. It wasn't always perfect grammar - no doubt far from it - and I sometimes got tripped up in looking for vocab words to express my ideas, but for the most part I made myself understood, understood them in turn, and had a conversation that was well beyond "I like basketball."

One thing that was amusing was that I, as I had been taught in America, tended to say "ah, so desu ka?" whenever they mentioned a curious fact to me. ("Ah so desu ka" and "Ii desu ne" are the so-called bread-and-butter of gaijin conversational filler.) And damned if they didn't giggle at me every time I said it. I guess "ah, so desu ka" is kind of staid. Exactly what you'd expect of a foreigner, or something.

[shrug]

Ruined?

I was pointed in the direction of this article (from SFGate.com), about a little boy who did a tap dance on a partially completed sand mandala, by a good friend (who has his own very awesome blogsite that everyone should check out).

I wanted to post about this because I think it brings up an interesting concept - the notion of something being ruined. Click on the image to the right of the article to get a view of the boy's handiwork, and then tell me that's ruined. Granted, it's not what the monks who were creating the piece were going for (at least not yet), but it's certainly not "ruined." In fact, I think the result was completely beautiful, and highly illustrative of the wonders inherent to living within a chaotic system.

It also beautifully encapsulates the Buddhist concept of gyakuen; the idea that every stride taken in life - even those taken in the wrong direction - leads one toward enlightenment. Even anti-pilgrimage is pilgrimage. Even destruction is a kind of creation. Even those things we initially consider bad turn out to be good.