A quote from an old Japanese verse in the early 19th century says, “Many people are gathered on the street corner that has no vendors.” This described the scene where wind bells were sold - people gathering around drawn by the sound of wind bells. Furin is a type of wind bell made out of glass. The quote tells us that the best way to sell this type of wind bell is not to let the vendors call out, but to let the summer breeze ring the bells and draw the people.

Abi trying to make furin bigger and rounder	Thomas concentrating on blowing	Yutaka-san taking a small amount of glass from the furnace

On a Saturday afternoon in October, we went on an excursion to make Edo Furin – furin from the Edo period. Abigail, Andy, Tomas (all from U.S.), David (from England), Thomas (from Sweden), Victoria and Wi Feen (both from Malaysia) were all eager to be a part of this hands-on activity.

These days, there are few working furin artists around. However, the Shinohara family is one of the treasured families which has handed down the tradition to present day and we headed to their studio to learn how to make the hand-blown glass furin.

The owner of the house, Yutaka-san warmly welcomed us. As soon as we entered the studio, the high temperature of the room gave us a shock. Yutaka-san said that the temperature can reach approximately 33 C (92 F) because of the furnace which heats up to 1,335 C (2,435 F). To our surprise, the furnace keeps burning 24hours a day all throughout the year except for a few exceptional cases.

Furin prince and princess	David holding a tiger furin!	Procedure of how to make furin

Seven of the students blew glass bells with the assistance of Yutaka-san. He jokingly said, “Only people with beautiful minds can make beautiful sounding Furin. Can you do that?!”

The procedure for making Furin is as follows:
1. Take out a small amount of melted glass (about the size of a 1 yen coin) from a skull crucible placed inside the furnace by twisting a long glass straw.
2. Put the straw into the crucible again and pour glass over it. This portion will become the wind bell.
3. Slowly blow the glass to make it bigger, and then insert wire into the straw. The wire pierces the bottom of the glass. This small hole is to thread the string through afterwards.
4. Twisting the straw, blow the glass continuously.
5. After it has cooled for 10 minutes, detach the bell from the straw and decorate.

“It’s hard to paint from the inside of the furin,” Wi Feen says.	Look at Victoria’s elaborate work!	Discussing and considering the coloration

Each student tried hard to make the Furin round in shape. Tomas said, “It wasn’t easy to figure out the right amount of air I should blow into the straw.” To blow the melted glass, we were instructed to blow hard at first, and once it started to grow, we needed to constantly adjust the amount of air blown so that it would become round shape.

Thomas smiling with his furin	Tomas writing his name perfectly	Students enjoy painting (left-Wi Feen, right-Victoria)

While the glass was cooling, we spent some time at the souvenir shop hoping to get some ideas for own decorations. Patterns ,words and colors were painted from the inside of the furin to avoid the paint from being worn away. Shitatsuki-san, Yutaka-san’s assistant, said, “Please be careful if you write letters on the bells – mind that you don’t write them back-to-front!” Despite some students’ struggles, Thomas wrote his name perfectly. Victoria, who majored in textiles, made a pretty one using bright colors.

Each of us went home that day not only with our beautiful works of art but with memories of this unique and wonderful experience. No matter which country we will return home to, whenever the summer breezes blow and our bells ring, we will be reminded of these precious memories of our time spent in Japan.

At the start of December, most Japanese people start preparing to welcome the New Year. Since WLE students come from all parts of the world, we organized an end of year feast to create a home-away-from-home gathering.

The WLE students included Julia, Lukas, Alexandra (all from Germany), Jackie, Abi (from the United States), Scott (from New Zealand), Matt (from Canada), Tomas (from Italy), and Winnie (from Australia). We headed to “Yaneura,” which is a famous restaurant known for its all-you-can-eat buffet of Okonomi-yaki and Monja-yaki. What makes this restaurant special is that customers can make their own meals on the grill at their own tables!

Julia ordering her toppings in perfect Japanese	Lukas and Scott enjoy conversation	Jackie’s first trial to make Okonomi-yaki

Okonomi-yaki, which translates literally as “grilled what you like,” is a cross between a pancake and pizza. The customer chooses the toppings, which usually consist of meat or seafood, and vegetables. Similar to Okonomi-yaki, Monja-yaki is a specialty of Tokyo, but is thinner because the batter is more watery and does not contain egg.

Yaneura smelled of soy-sauce. We took off our shoes and sat on tatami mats, like the ones found in traditional Japanese homes. We looked around at other tables to get an idea of what types of toppings to choose for our own meals. Reading through the Japanese menu we realized there was quite a lot to choose from including beef, pork, shrimp, squid, scallops, plums, natto, kimuchi (Korean spicy nappa pickles), corn, mochi (rice cake), tuna and soba (buckwheat noodle). Although it was hard for many of us to imagine what would taste well together, Julia ordered her choice perfectly in Japanese, “Mochi to negi to ika wo onegai shimasu!” (Rice cake, leek and squid, please!) Her Japanese has come a long way since she first arrived in Japan!

Matt trying to make Okonomi-yaki	Lukus dividing the Okonomi-yaki into pieces

Both Okonomi-yaki and Monja-yaki consist of almost the same ingredients - flour, water, bits of meat (or seafood) and vegetables. To cook Okonomi-yaki, we poured the mixture onto the grill and left it until it was cooked. Before eating it, we put a special sauce and dried bonito flakes on top.

Because the consistency of Monja-yaki is more watery, it required more patience. We started by stir-frying the filling of the Monja-yaki and shaping it into a big doughnut. Then we slowly poured the soup base batter into the doughnut hole being careful not to let the soup leak out. Once the center had turned into a gel-like mixture, we mixed the outer ingredients together with the center, and spread the mixture evenly and thinly, before eating the Monja-yaki with a small spatula!

Layout of the table	Tomas and Abi are fully content	Ready to eat Okonomi-yaki!

Matt struggled to cook his first Monja-yaki and tried hard not to let the soup seep out of the doughnut hole. Jackie gave up making it the traditional way and poured the soup in all at once saying, “I’m impatient!” which made everybody laugh.
Japanese-food lover Winnie ordered a Monja-yaki with curry powder and kimuchi. This was quite an unusual combination, but contrary to our expectations, she finished her plate within a minute. She also shared with us her plans to visit Osaka, Japan’s second largest city and also the hometown of Okonomi-yaki.

Even though the average person normally eats one to two pancakes, each student ended up eating three to four Okonomi-yaki and Monja-yaki that night! It was great fun making traditional Japanese food on our own. Two hours passed with lively conversation, and our year end excursion ended with full stomachs!

Despite the humid and muggy weather, we went to the Tokyo Somemonogatari Museum in Shinjuku, which is famous for Somemono, a traditional method of Japanese cloth dying. The students included Abigail, Jason, Chris (all from US,) Moreno (from Canada). Kie also joined us as a Japanese volunteer.

We were going to the museum to learn and paint Koinobori, a type of flag/windsock in the shape of a carp. Ohashi-sensei, the curator of the museum, told us about the origins of Koinobori. Traditionally, it is believed a carp one day swam up a waterfall and transformed into a dragon. During Children’s Day held in May, people hoist Koinobori in the hope that their sons will succeed in life, just as a carp succeeded in defeating the strong current of the waterfall to become a dragon.

Reiko (from WLE) and Moreno work on their Koinobori	Students and other participants	Jason paying close attention

The first step was for us to decide what color to paint our own Koinobori. The Koinobori already had the outline of the carp with its eyes and scales on the cloth. Traditionally the Koinobori design is painted in one main color, usually black, red or blue with a white belly. We split into two groups and discussed what colors to paint our Koinobori.

Once we began painting, Moreno noticed, “It’s not easy to figure out the balance of water and dye.” Natural dyes are mainly made out of minerals, so they are heavier and thicker than chemical dyes. Ohashi-sensei explained, “The dye plays a role in holding the cloth together so it works as a glue as well as a dye, making it difficult for the cloth to stretch.” It was a challenge to paint our Koinobori - we found that if we used too much water in the dye, the colors would blur and if the consistency of the dye was not right, the colors would be diluted. Jason and Moreno did exceptionally well painting and paid lots of attention to the details, while the others just enjoyed learning how to paint using the special dye.

Almost completed!	Jason, Abi, Kie, Chris, Reiko, Moreno holding the work!

Near the end, Chris came up with an interesting idea of putting Kanji　(Japanese character) on our Koinobori. Japanese traditionally do not use Kanji on Koinobori, so this unique idea was accepted right away by his group. After having discussed what Kanji word looked good on ours, we decided to paint ‘夢’ (which means dream) and ‘希望’ (which means hope) on our Koinobori and was followed by the story of Koinobori. Because I had learned calligraphy for five years, I was excited by this unique idea and painted “dream” and “hope” on our Koinobori.

After approximately four hours of hard work, we finally finished painting our Koinobori. The two groups had very different designs. Abigail, Jason and Kie focused on keeping with the traditional Koinobori design colors - gray, dark blue, and white. They took plenty of time to make their own unique design, which was mainly gray and gradually faded at the tail. They were satisfied with their collaborative artistic work. On the other hand, Moreno, Chris and I ended up with mainly bright colors in pink, yellow, and orange. This color scheme along with the Kanji characters was actually very rare for Koinobori. Another Japanese participant remarked, ‘That’s very international and unique!’

Ohashi-sensei was happy to have the opportunity to explain to us the Japanese tradition of Koinobori and Somemono. On our way back to the station, we came across a real carp in the river swimming energetically, as if praising our hard work on our Koinobori.

Name: Marika Sboros Program Enrolled in WLE: Conversation Program Country of residence: South Africa Citizenship: South African Profession: Journalist Educational background: BA English, politics, philosophy Languages spoken: English, Afrikaans, a little Greek and French and now some Japanese Hobbies: martial arts, travelling, reading

Is this your first time in Japan?
My third time.

Why did you decide to study Japanese Language?
For my heart and soul. I have been studying Japanese traditional martial art, Yuishinkai and RyuKyu kobujutsu, for 12 years. That stimulated my interest in Japan and the language. My first two visits to the country made me long to speak the language and be able to communicate with the people on a meaningful level.

How are you finding your studies in Japan?
Wonderful, an unforgettable experience that was also very difficult, challenging and frustrating at times.

1. The teachers were outstanding. They were all professional, caring, funny, helpful, kind and clearly experts in their fields. They made the learning experience an enjoyable and interesting one. They had authority and kept good control of the students.

2. The use of different teachers - four in all - was good. It gave us exposure to varying tones and speech patterns. That is important in language learning, as one can get too used to one's personal way of speaking.

3. The content of the classes was excellent. While I did not anticipate doing so much reading and writing, I was delighted to learn to read and write both hiragana and katakana.

4. The teachers taught more than just grammar, vocabulary and conversation. They taught a lot about Japanese culture and etiquette, which was fascinating.

5. The resource material - textbooks, worksheets - was of a very high standard.

6. The use of Japanese university students for a practice conversation session was an enjoyable experience.

7. A conversation partner outside of the language school was helpful.

How do you like Tokyo?
I love it.

What do you find most interesting about Tokyo?
The energy and wide variety of stores, activities, old and new places, shrines, gardens, temples.

How has your experience in Japan changed you if it has?
It made me feel different, more confident in my ability to learn languages, and it made me love the country even more than I did during my first two visits.

What is the thing you like most about Tokyo/Japan?
The people. The bookstores. The temples. The spirit.

Will you come to Japan/Tokyo again?
Definitely and as soon as possible. I don't know how or when, but I felt like I was leaving my heart behind. Ushirogami o hikareru omoi desu. Kokoro nokori desu. I long to return.

What advice/tips would you give to others who plan to come and study in Japan?
Learn hiragana and katakana. Buy a good pocket dictionary or electronic one. Find accommodation as close to the language school as you can, so you don't waste time and money on commuting. Try hard not to talk your native language at school. Read about the country, its history, its culture. Learn about etiquette and practise the rules. Practise the When in Rome rule - when in Japan, do as the Japanese do. If you offend someone, apologise and mean it.