Japanese Culture Booths (Taiken Gakushuu/Experience and Learning)

Taiken Gakushu Booths (booths for experience and learning of Japanese culture) at 2008 Bunkasai were the following. This year, you will have more fun experiences!

1. Kazaguruma (Pinwheel) & Yo-Yo (by Smith Academy of International Language)



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_%28toy%29)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-yo)


2. Kendama (by West Mecklenburg High School):

A kendama (けん玉 or 剣玉 or 拳玉) is a Japanese toy that consists of a hammer-like object with a ball connected to it by a string. The ball (called the tama) has a hole in it, and it rests on a spike (the ken) on the top of the kendama. The two sides of the "hammer" are concave dishes; one is smaller than the other. The larger side is called the oozara (large dish,大皿) and the other is the kozara (small dish,小皿).There is also a middle position dish at the bottom of the handle called the chuzara (smallest [1], middle position dish,中皿) and toughest to play with than other two dishes.
The basic object is to throw the ball upwards and land it on one of the concave dish parts of the "hammer", as well as landing the ball on the spike. More advanced techniques involve combination moves, different landing positions and even freestyle combinations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilboquet)


3. Koma (by West Mecklenburg High School):

A koma, top, or spinning top, is a toy that can be spun on an axis, balancing on a point.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top)





4. Acchi Muite Hoi (by West Mecklenburg High School):
Acchi Muite Hoi is a Japanese game that is similar to freeze tag.

5. Omikuji (by Ashbrook High School)
*Omikuji (御御籤, 御神籤, or おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines in Japan. Literally "sacred lottery."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikuji)

6. Shuji/Calligraphy (by Japanese Language School　補習校)

7. Origami/Paper-Folding (by Japanese Language School　補習校)

8. Haiku (by University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
Haiku (俳句) is a kind of Japanese poetry. In English, haiku are written in three lines to equate to the three parts of a haiku in Japanese that traditionally consist of five, seven, and then five on (the Japanese count sounds, not syllables; for example, the word "haiku" itself counts as three sounds in Japanese (ha-i-ku), but two syllables in English (hai-ku), and writing seventeen syllables in English produces a poem that is actually quite a bit longer, with more content, than a haiku in Japanese). A haiku traditionally contains a kigo (season word) which symbolizes or intimates the season in which the poem is set with some reference to the natural world.
Possibly the most well-known of Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond" haiku:

古池や蛙飛込む水の音
This separates into on as:

furuike ya
(古池-------や)
(fu/ru/i/ke ya): 5
kawazu tobikomu
(蛙-------飛込む)
(ka/wa/zu to/bi/ko/mu): 7
mizu no oto
(水----の--音)
(mi/zu no o/to): 5

Roughly translated:

old pond
a frog jumps
the sound of water

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku)