A Japanophile Amongst Us

Ian wants not only to visit Japan, but also to learn Japanese.  This yearning was reinforced by an outing we took this past weekend.

In our visit to the Children's Museum on Sunday, we stopped by the Japanese House on the third floor - yes, an actual house from Kyoto, over 100 years old, reconstituted within the museum itself. In years past, I've had a hard time getting the boys interested in this wonderfully exotic expanse of wood-framed paper interior walls and straw-mat floors and low-lying tables and sitting cushions, complete with a futon.  But I don't think we're Kansas any more, Pikachu.

The house had, of all things, a Pokemon book from Japan, which looked like it might have been printed backwards, somehow.  This reverse-printing phenomenon prompted an eager lecture from The One Who Understands, followed by two or more queries to make sure that Daddy understands the reasoning behind this most unusual bit of typography.  I stopped by to ask one of the two very enthusiastic employees about ancestor worship, Shinto, etc., and Ian was quite fascinated by our brief conversation, referring back to it a couple of times later in the day.

Tonight, I went online, to Wikipedia, and played for Ian an instrumental rendition of "Kimigayo," the Japanese national anthem.  I had told him that it only lasted about 25 seconds long, but was very beautiful - simple, like the flag itself.  After I played it, he corrected me:  it was actually 37 seconds.   And I was moved by his own succinct characterization of the piece:  it's "proud but gentle."

(December 4, 2013)