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Noemi Noemi

20 mai 2009

The Conquest of Space

Two short movies to illustrate the issue of space in Japan : the shock of building and the harmony of building...
(Nobuo Takahashi's animation Japan - National Geographic's documentary The Penguin House).

Japan - Nobuo Takahashi

Small House seems large

National Geographic


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19 mai 2009

Sure we go to the land of Ni

Today, during the Japanese class, while I was trying to make a sentence to answer to the teacher's question, I forgot the precious and meaningful grammatical particle に (ni). One of my classmates, smartly noticing my mistake, suddenly interrupted my wrong sentence with a loud "Ni !". And of course, the two guys in the room who had ever seen the British Monthy Ponthy's terrific movie immediatly thought of the scaring Ni Knights. And it was hard not to laugh.

Finally, after seeing it again, our ETP expedition looks like the quest of the Monthy Python heroes who enter the Land of Ni, who meet the hostile and/but insane Ni Knights and who are totally lost in nonsense (they are absurd too, of course). Moreover, Ni stands for the first syllab of Nihon, the word for Japan in Japanese. And in Asia, we could also be taken for the ambassadors of christianity. So, for me, the metaphore is valid ! Let's bring them a shrubbery directly.

If you still don't understand what I am referring to, please have fun with the Knights of Ni !

 

Ni1_sacrée graal

 

Ni2_sacrée graal


 

9 mai 2009

France and Germany : a true love story !!!

Totally useless but awesome high-school-musical-style dance between Germany and France from the manga/anime Hetalia !!!
Congratulations to the maker, a crazy guy - I am so thanksful to you.

9 mai 2009

Noemi-no-Nihon likes A*eyes

こちらはオレリさんです。aurelie
オレリさんもフランス人で、ETP についてブログの史記を書いて、日本が好きの人です。
目が美しいですからこのブログの名前A*eyesは本当にいい考えだったと思います。


Have a look at my ETP colleague Aurelie's blog, A*eyes (or the world seen through Aurelie's eyes). Of course, anyone who met the lady already knows that Aurelie's eyes, in true life, are especially beautiful green-grey eyes...

You should have a look just to get another point of you on our ETP adventure and on Japan in general. I also like the banner of the homepage, flashing like winks !

A* … like Anonymous and Adventurous.
*EYES … for whatever they want to possess remains available to all.
http://www.a-eyes.fr/

See you soon for more ETP fresh news !

27 avril 2009

ETP J 27 in London - First stay

Let's live on an island

 

Before the far-East archipelago experience, nothing better than an immersion in the most Western islands of Europe :  ETP J 27 invaded the UK !
Just forget the pityful image of the English weather that you have kept since that junior-school language trip, remember... actually, spring here is amazing. It is sunny, it is colourful, it is perfect. London under the sun just makes you hesitate to leave for Japan, finally... Just have a look at this Russel Square...

russel

 

high_holbornsoas_3


SOAS, School of Oriental and Asian Studies

 

... anyway, we can not really enjoy the city, because of our six-days a week intensive language training - if you do your soas_0job properly, you spend all your free time learning these new kanji, doing these extra exercices, reading or re-reading this additional material... and your week-end to do everything that you could not do during the week, as usual. As a result, I did not often (you should pronounce the "t" of often, this is the British way, the other way is... "incorrect") have a walk out of the area of High Holborn. Fortunately we have everything around Russel Square : the square itself, perfect to have lunch in the grass and to run a bit after the classes; the uni premices which are convenient enough; and a quantity of restaurants offering any kind of food you can dream of...

Group_4

 

In class, we were finally divided into small level groups - a bit strange after two modules "all together" with ETP Koreasoas_2 too, most of the time; in my own"level four" group, we spent the first week to try to remember how to use keigo and how not to mix everything. I fully realize now how far I was from managing with daily Japanese, especially about kanji. Personally, there is no common point between the language school classes I took before and this specific training. Good new, I reached 99% for the first weekly kanji exam (with a mistake on the easiest kanji, as you can guess) : what you give is what you get returned !


Saturday Night Fever

After exams, let's dance ! I discovered that some of us are quite good dancers, and at least very cheerful ones ! Good to know...

S_Japanese_restaurantS_our_gentlemen

Valentina__me___Chris_2S_me___Francesco

We finished this first Japanese language module as we began - under the sun, hunting kanji, having a drink after the classes.

To be continued soon with the second stay in London !

Publicité
26 avril 2009

Self-irony about the Japanese "art-de-vivre"

Chopsticks, sushi, tea cremony... Japanese treasures... but they seem to be conscious that sometimes they do too much...

La tradition japonaise : les hashis


Thank you sis to have let me know about that !

More funny video about the Japanese tradition on Dailymotion.fr

18 avril 2009

Ponyo Osakana no ko

Just forget everything you have read or seen about the Little Mermaid. ponyo_sur_la_falaise_300
First, she did not need any extra help from a dark witch to become a human being : she was powerful enough to give proper legs to herself.
She was not the youngest, but the elder daughter in her family.
Then, she was not running after a weak and blind-hearted prince : the man who was waiting for her was totally conscious that she was the woman of her life.
Moreover, she did not stupidely sacrifice her voice to become human : on the opposite, her language skills strangely improved during her stay on the land...
And finally, more than "the daughter of the King of the seas", she was the daughter of the Sea Goddess herself.
As a result : Miyazaki's Ponyo is, for a change, an energic, joyful and life-enjoying little mermaid. Haaaaa....


So what did our beloved Miyazaki-sama keep from Andersen's tale ?
ponyo004

He kept the nice solidarity between the heroin and her sisters - but not only in the common spirit of self-sacrifice ; Ponyo's sisters are actively helping her to reach her goals. He kept the love story, but the naive innocence of the original mermaid has turned into the innocence of childhood - fresher and less desperate... He kept the female power of the sea, but instead of a witch, he imagined a beautiful incarnation of the mother-sea.


The most amazing scene is the "rebirth" of Ponyo ; the violence of the typhun, the roaring waves, the little girl running
ponyo_sur_la_falaise_photo_afficheover the water, the mother trying to drive her car in the storm (not even afraid, as if the power of nature was something she had accepted a long time ago), the eyes of the little boy catching the details of the moving landscape - and every single image of the movie, drawn in the traditional way, without computers... a pure enjoyment.


The movie has been released in France on April 8th 2009. It is already a success, we lovooove Ghibli's animation !

So take a break to welcome properly Gake no ue no Ponyo...

ponyo_sur_la_falaise_gake_no_ue_no_ponyo_ponyo_on_a_cliff_08_04_2009_19_0_19_g


The Little Mermaid that you have known all your life just made you depressed ; have a look at Ponyo to feel happier than ever !

18 avril 2009

First step

Ive_got_my_visa_for_japan

14 avril 2009

United Red Army : a fault in the myth of civil obedience

When Japan was defeated by the US army, the Japanese bowed to the American soldiers who entered the archipelago.gd_affiche_fr
But a few years later, thousands of Japanese violently protested against the PLD's policy and the renewal of the "alliance" between Japan and the USA. All the Japanese didn't "naturally" accept the dictature of growth and capitalism, especially the generation who assisted to the raise of their university fees and to the start of the American war in Viet-Nam, for which the USA used their military bases of Okinawa.

Wakamatsu's movie United Red Army deals with an extreme-left organisation, born with the radicalisation of the students' movement, advocating the violent revolution in Japan. In the complete version, the beginning of the movie is mostly made of original TV news showing the "events" of the 1960's ; then we follow the rebels in the mountain where they train for their "rebirth" as the soldiers of the Japanese revolution. Then, between ideology and group pressure, the bashing and torture of a few members change the story of United Red Army as a reality-remake of Battle Royal...

The movie is very shocking, but deeply moving at the same time, because the madness is totally shared between the society and the eccentrics. We perfectly see the fanatism of "auto-criticism" to submerge the dreamers like a wave.

United Red Army was selected for the Cinema Festival of Berlin in 2008. I watched it in preview in Paris, in presence of the author who was himself very closed to the radical movements in his youth... Uuuuuh...

United Red Army
Koji Wakamatsu
Release in France : May 6th 2009

5 avril 2009

Hanami time - Sakura moment of grace

Sakura song performed by Moriyama Naotaro;
and a few pictures of beautiful sakura directly sent by Japanese direct delivery special agent !

Feel the Hanami spirit:

Nothing is more beautiful than the precise moment when the things begin to die.

8312dd955d8213a5

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