Thurday I headed over to the town hall and finally got my gaijin card or to put it less offensively my certificate of alien registration card. Now with this I can get a cell phone (you also don’t have to carry your passport). Although, they said I had to return the card before I go back to America boo. Hisano-san would let me know the day he’d be able to take me to sign up for a cell phone service soon.

That day I got to bust out my cheap plastic calligraphy set for the first time. Sensei guided me on how to set it up. I layed out a sheet of hanshi calligraphy paper and then set it flat with the long paperweight holder. She said I didn’t have to use the small inkstone that came with it, since I can just use the bottled liquid ink (however the traditional way is to ground the inkstone into water to create the ink). And with the brush, dip enough ink and make the strokes on the paper. The kanji they were covering in that class was difficult, so to start me off, sensei created a special booklet with basic kanjis I can practice, pretty much ones I am already familiar with. (She’s too nice to go to the trouble to have a booklet prepared for me!) So sensei would demonstrate to me how to do the strokes, and I would have to mimic what I saw, while she gave me some advice. So I would have to fold the paper into four boxes and write each kanji 4 times each paper (from top to bottom, right to left) Wow this is pretty hard T_T I would be making 4 pathetic blobs, then sensei would come over to draw the kanji saying “こう。。こう” “like this…like this” and the result practically pwns all 4 of mine… sensei’s skills are too awesome T___T *happy tears* But yes it’s pretty tough, every stroke is carefully controlled, every stroke with a different energy or meaning, so every stroke has to count. I guess I have to learn how to control that brush.

The only kanji calligraphy I’m proud of so far is 一 “ichi” hahahah…