Time for the new

Last post of 2009; time to show the kanji of the year.

The winner was...

新

The reading is shin and it means new, fresh (atarashii, arata).

The main reasons that led this kanji to the top were:

• New government: After basically 50 years of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) rule, the power shifted to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) in a landslide election. With the new Obama government, a new age for the Japan-US relationship is also in sight.
• New sports records: Ichiro, a Japanese baseball player in the US (and very popular in both places - especially Japan - as far as I know), set new records in the MLB and in Japan. Also, new records were established in many other fields, with special mention to Usain Bolt's athletics records.
• New influenza: The H1N1/09 flu (a.k.a swine flu) is known in Japan as 新型インフルエンザ, or new-type influenza. I don't think I need to mention the flu outbreak this year that didn't spare Japan... neither Brazil.
• Introduction of new systems: Japan saw this year the implementation of many new systems this year. Among which the lay judge system, the eco-point system and a highway discount system.
• Coming of a new age: From the movement towards a more environmentally friendly society to the changes in the structure of the economic system after the global crisis, there's a feeling that a new age is coming. And people have hopes for what's to come.

So, the feeling of change last year (when the kanji of the year was 変) now changed into optimism for what's to come.

About my "new" meaning, it will probably be delayed until March. That's when I graduate and start a new life, wherever and whatever it will be. I hope for the best, but I also need to double my efforts to get there.

For that, the first step is get done with the thesis that is giving me so many headaches lately.

Back to research...

Osaka Hikari Renaissance

End of the year, and that brings light festivals with it.

The first one I've been in Japan was probably the Kobe Luminarie. Actually, that festival has a special meaning since it was first held on the same year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Since then, I returned to Japan, went to the Kobe Luminarie again, to some light festivals in Kyoto...

... but there was one in Kansai I was still missing: Osaka Hikari Renaissance.

That event is a bit more recent, and it is "held in hopes that the warm lights will give the city more energy and as a chance for a newer movement toward a international metropolitan Osaka" (quoted from their website). It became more popular (at least to people in Kyoto) from 2008, when a new Keihan line made it a lot easier to go there and to move around the area.

So, on December 18th, the weather was surprisingly fine. Considering I wanted to go there and I managed to get some time off on that nice day, I decided to go there check it out and Fang joined the last-minute short trip to Osaka.

Since there were different attractions in different areas, it was not awfully crowded, especially for a Friday night. Still, I wouldn't want to go there on the 24th night.

Probably the main highlight is a 10 minutes-long show with lights projected on the facade of the Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library along with music. It was the most impressive thing, and also the most crowded.


Near there, there was also the Nakanoshima Illumination Street. There were some shows there where the lights change according to the background music. Still, I think I prefer when they are still. It enhances the dream-like effect, especially because the lights are based on white and blue colors (during the shows red and green are also used).

The Osaka City Hall also had some illumination, with a cafe and some performances inside. We listened to an orchestra of mostly young people all dressed in Santa outfits. I couldn't find out the name of the group, though.

Moving on to the West Area, we could still see a sand statue from The Sand Museum Tottori City (sic) and some other illumination settings (including an interesting one made of pet bottles) before going back to Kyoto.


Check my Picasa album for more pictures.

Speech contest

As Caruso pointed out in his blog, people who are Japanese descendents or study Japanese become familiar with speech contests at some point. In part because Japanese seem to like speech contests as a way to show language proficiency.

Following his indications too, I decided to check a National Portuguese speech contest for Japanese university students at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. After joining some Japanese speech contests in Brazil, I wondered how it would feel to hear speeches from people who are actually making efforts to learn a language I'm well familiar with.

And also to see some Japanese who chose to study Portuguese. It is not a common choice. Most Japanese, when they choose a foreign language, opt for English. If not, Chinese, French, German, Spanish... Even Korean and Italian seems to be more popular. As an example, Kyoto University offers all those language courses at basic level at least, but there's no Portuguese.

Interestingly enough, disconsidering the Japanese accent there was a mixture of Portugal Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, but the latter was predominant. Also, the students I've talked to decided to study Portuguese mainly because of something related to Brazil.

The big prizes were scholarships to Portugal, though...

With stakes as high as these, just the speech wasn't enough. There was even a small interview (with a jury that included the embassadors of Portugal and Brazil) after the speeches to determine the winners.

Still, some speeches were great. The one that won the contest had as background the movie "Se Eu Fosse Voce" (If I Were You). It was clever how the plot of the movie (a couple who end up changing bodies by accident) was linked to how we should try to understand other people thinking how would it be if we were on their shoes. And from there to different cultures.

Another speech I liked a lot and with a similar message had pollen allergy as the trigger. The same way the body rejects strange bodies through reactions such as allergy, people do towards what is "different". This one I liked most because of the energy of the speaker, although the final message was also nice.

Anyway, this could go on for some time. I'll stop here.

It was an interesting experience. Now I might have an idea on how Japanese people feel when they listen to speeches from foreign students in Japanese.

And that came in handy for a speech contest in Japanese I participated.

No, not anything as big as that Portuguese speech contest. It was a speech contest organized by the Kyoto Association of Host Families (KAHF). Also, as expected, I wasn't one of the top three, although everyone who did a speech got a prize.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience giving a speech in Japanese in Japan. Probably still the language among the three I can say I am able to speak that I feel most unconfortable using.

Among speeches mentioning Japanese culture, social challenges and life with their host family, the three winners had in common the naturality while speaking. In a relaxed way, their speech was delivered smoothly with words that the jury knew (there were some with a bit of technical language).

The winner spoke about her life with her host family, remembering through a recently arrived student how most of us are when arriving, and mentioning the warmth their family had always given to their "foster children".

One that I found most interesting, including for academic reasons, was about how Japan is noisy. There is always some sound wherever you go in urban environments. And many announcements. Escalators tell you to watch your step, trucks warn people about left or right turns. The speaker himself was once tricked by an ambulance with its siren on and telling it was turning to the left, thinking it was a disaster annoucement (one car in the middle of the night with siren on and yelling something... comprehensible mistake).

There are actually some lines of research about sound directivity to prevent an annoucement to spread to undesired directions. It still has a long way to go, though.

Interview for internet radio

Other day I got a message from a friend asking if I couldn't give a short interview for an internet radio broadcast. One of the segments involves short interviews with international students from different countries, and they were looking for a Brazilian because Rio was chosen as the host for the 2016 Olympic Games.

(And they had never interviewed a Brazilian until then...)

Well, considering good part of the contents were around subjects I am not that familiar with, I may have done a good job. What were those contents? Carnival in Rio (I've never been to Rio and don't like carnival that much), soccer (no idea who are the current "top players", although I do know the groups for the next World Cup), movies like City of God (I read the book and like it, but the film is a vague memory... and I've never watched all of it)...

All that makes me wonder: am I a Brazilian without first-hand knowledge of the mainstream culture of the country?

You can listen to the interview here. Click in "世界の留学生 (Foreign Students)", then in "ゲストー覧表" in the box below. Last, look for your "victim" and enjoy.

I'm "falling"...

Yes, it is autumn - or fall - season again. And, as usual, I've had my share of momiji-hunting this year.

Unlike my previous picture-huntings (check autumn and spring posts of years past. Too many links to put here), this time most of the time I wasn't alone. Guess that, with my thesis pending, I might not have gone to all those places without an "external pressure".

Where could I go after two years in Kyoto? Well, the question is better said as "which of the many places I've never been I may be able to go this year?" That's one of the wonderful things of living in Kyoto, although beautiful places exist throughout the whole country.

The first place was the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Not that I've never been there before. Actually, it was just last spring. Nevertheless, at the time, the place was open to the general public instead of the usual reservations required to enter as part of the commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the current emperor's reign. It actually caught me a little off-guard for this year being "21st year of the Heisei era" on the Japanese calendar.

Japanese calendars counts years according to the year each emperor started its reign. So, when Emperor Akihito came, the Heisei era started; Emperor Showa reigned during the Showa era; Emperor Taisho during the Taisho era; and so on. (The era name and the posthumous name of the emperor have been the same since the Meiji era.)


Also, for being a special occasion, there were special exibitions and events. One more reason to get in and see.

Ohara is a place some people were recommending me to go to take pictures during autumn. So, I tried to gather the Brazilian group in Kyoto and go straight to the main highlight: the Sanzen-in (三千院).


Unfortunately, by a series of misunderstandings and sudden cancellations not many people gathered; and those who did ended up separated in two groups who basically didn't meet each other. Still, it was possible to taste a bit of the traditional Ohara atmosphere and appreciate the autumn leaves on the moss garden at the temple.

The next place wasn't exatcly new for me. After going there in 2007, I went again to Shugakuin Imperial Villa. That time I was with friends from Himeji who came to see the autumn in Kyoto.


Shugakuin Imperial Villa is still one of my favorite places in autumn. It's not too hard to figure out why. Even with some rainy weather by the end of the visit, it was still beautiful. Or should I say, raining while it was still possible to see the sun gave an even more special feeling to the scenario.

Talking about imperial places, the next one is the only one of the four in Kyoto I have never been to (the other ones are Shugakuin Imperial Villa, Katsura Imperial Villa and Kyoto Imperial Palace)... until now. Using a open place in a reservation Fang made, I went to Sento Imperial Palace, or the "retired emperor's palace". And I would like to live in a place like that after I retire... as long as some modern facilities were provided, of course.

It was during the peak of autumn, so the red leaves were at its maximum beauty (the guide himself said that). The garden, although it can't beat Shugakuin Imperial Villa, is really beautiful. Too bad that this time I was experimenting my polarizing filter and the results were often not close to what I expected. The cloudy weather during most of the visit also played a role in depreciating the pictures, too.

The last one was part of a part-time job activity: go to some touristic places in Kyoto with junior high school students. There we went to Toji and Nishi Honganji. The former was already withnot so many red leaves left; the latter had two full yellow beautiful trees. I will skip pictures of those two places to avoid showing the students (maybe there's no problem, but I'll play safe this time).

Well, not so many places this year. This happens when you are under pressure because your research is not going so well as it is supposed to. I would like to have gone to more places, but that was all I got.

To see more pictures, check my Picasa album.