Katakana Exercise

I read that the movie “Wolf of Wall Street” premiered on Japan. Along with the article is the Japanese version of the poster.

I was happy because it’s fun reading the Katakana in this poster. How about you? Read it too as an exercise. I will post the answer at the end of this entry.

First line: Ma–ti-in Sukosesshi (turns out it’s the Director’s name, Martin Sorsese)

Reonarudo Deikapurio (It’s obvious, it’s Leaonardo DiCaprio!)

Secondline: Warupo Obu Wo–rusuterito. (Wolf of the Wolf Street. Wow! I never knew that the word “of” would spell “obu” in katakana. I would have done it in different way.)

2012 no Hanabi*2012年の花火*Fireworks of 2012

That is my sister and my mother posing with beautiful fireworks from SM Mall of Asia.I realized that I always love Fireworks. I think it’s the only beautiful visual thing to welcome New Year. On the other hand, I hate firecrackers. They’re too loud, annoying and injures a lot of people.

 By the way, Fireworks is Hanabi in Japanese. It’s kanji is 花火. It’s a combination of 花 hana which means flower and 火 hi which means fire. So literally hanabi means flowerfire. I think it really make sense that fireworks were really like flowers made of fire.

Little Japanese Calligraphy Session

In Japanese, calligraphy is called shodou, or “the way of writing”. Unlike its Western counterpart, it is widely practiced by people of all ages and all walks of life in Japan. Indeed, all Japanese children have to learn the basics of calligraphy as part of their elementary school education. (quoted from this site)

This is Kamimurasan demostrating his calligraphy skills.

Since this session has been few months ago, I quite forgot most of the details. Then I found this site JNT.COM and It contains the very same procedure on how to do it. I might as well share them with you.

1.Just as an artist mixes the colors on her palette before she starts to paint, so the calligrapher first has to mix water and sumi. Here you can see Tsurutani sensei using his mizusashi to add a little water to the hollow at one end of the suzuri whetstone.

2.He then takes the stick of sumi, which you can see in the foreground of the last picture, and rubs it gently on the suzuri, blending it with the water to form the liquid ink

 

3.Taking his brush, he dips it in the ink, being sure to allow it to soak up just the right amount. The calligraphy brush you can see him using here has bristles made of horse hair,

4.Finally he is ready to put brush to paper. The bunchin holds the paper steady as he focuses on creating the kanji character. He writes each stroke in a particular order, applying or reducing pressure to produce the most balanced form.

 

It’s our turn to shine! Honestly it’s very hard to adjust the pressure of your hand to

the brush into the paper. And I think its the key to ba able to right beautifully.

Ellen-san is quite good!

We’re waiting for our works to be all dried up!