here’s where we live. I live in girls dorm in the bottom left
hand corner. It’s on a big street called Horikawa. It’s in the “no
aisatsu” zone, which we could also call “outside.” When you turn at the
temple, next to the center (where kokusaibu, the international division
is) you are “inside” the aisatsu zone. That means you have to greet
everyone you see with a bow and ohayo gozaimasu, konnichiwa, konbanwa,
or shitsurei itashimasu, depending on time of day and whether you’re
departing. If you see another gakuen student you say “otsukaresama
desu.” This means basically, “you must be tired,” and although it’s
slightly euphemistic to say it in the morning, I can assure you this is
usually no mere platitude. We *are* tired. If you see a car, you bow but
you don’t have to say anything. This is because anyone could be inside.
Anyway, daily weekday life is bounded within these confines for the most part. Turn into the temple, cross through then turn left up Ogawa. But first at the corner bow to and greet the security guard at the gate to Chado Kaikan, then bow to Kabuto-mon, the gate into Konnichian, the Sen family home. This is, we are told, because somewhere back there is a statue of Rikyu. Now head up and away from Kabuto-mon and to Gakuen, where we have morning classes on second floor, and afternoon keiko (practice) on either the 1st or 3rd floor. 1st floor is a series of 6 8-mat tearooms and upstairs is hiroma, a wide expense of tatami that we also clean four days a week (M-Thurs). More on that later. Across the street is Shokudo, the cafeteria where we eat two meals Monday through Friday. I have been devouring every meal and cleaning my plate every day. I’m always starving. No idea why that is. And so much meat.
I think we should make a side-scrolling video game of this— you have to aisatsu all the right people in the proper manner at the right time while trying to get from dorm to gakuen. Bonus points if you meet a Sen family member— we are supposed to say “Gokigen wa yoroshu gozaimasu” if we see one of them. I can tell you that that phrasing will be an extremely complicated button sequence on the game.
There are many other levels on the way— more on that soon.
Anyway, daily weekday life is bounded within these confines for the most part. Turn into the temple, cross through then turn left up Ogawa. But first at the corner bow to and greet the security guard at the gate to Chado Kaikan, then bow to Kabuto-mon, the gate into Konnichian, the Sen family home. This is, we are told, because somewhere back there is a statue of Rikyu. Now head up and away from Kabuto-mon and to Gakuen, where we have morning classes on second floor, and afternoon keiko (practice) on either the 1st or 3rd floor. 1st floor is a series of 6 8-mat tearooms and upstairs is hiroma, a wide expense of tatami that we also clean four days a week (M-Thurs). More on that later. Across the street is Shokudo, the cafeteria where we eat two meals Monday through Friday. I have been devouring every meal and cleaning my plate every day. I’m always starving. No idea why that is. And so much meat.
I think we should make a side-scrolling video game of this— you have to aisatsu all the right people in the proper manner at the right time while trying to get from dorm to gakuen. Bonus points if you meet a Sen family member— we are supposed to say “Gokigen wa yoroshu gozaimasu” if we see one of them. I can tell you that that phrasing will be an extremely complicated button sequence on the game.
There are many other levels on the way— more on that soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment