17th June 2013
issue 10iJapanese Newsletter

Published by iJapanese Language & Culture School

Mount Fuji - 富士山 Fuji sanTerm 3Information
Term 3 will commence from the 1stof July and run until the 14th ofSeptember.
iCulture

Workshops

Anime Class
Wednesday 26th June
5:30pm - 6:30pm
Calligraphy Class
Friday 28th June
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Kanji Class
5th July - 7th AugustEvery Friday (5 classes)
5:50pm - 6:50pm

In order to organise our new termschedule we ask that you pleaseconfirm your next term schedulingwith your teacher.
If you have any questions
regarding the above dates
please contact us.
Contact Details: 0401 886 629
info@ijapanese.com.au

Mount Fuji is a symbol of Japan. The mountain contributes toJapan's physical, cultural, and spiritual geography.
Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan,
standing at 3,776 meters. It is an active
volcano straddles the prefectures ofYamanashi and Shizuoka. It is even visible
from Tokyo.
The mountain is now dormant, but it has
erupted 18 times in recorded history andmany more times before that according togeological evidence. The last eruptionoccurred in 1708, the eruption produced
ash that drifted and settled as far away as
Edo, today known as Tokyo.
Mount Fuji has long been a spirituality
sacred mountain. The peak has been
worshipped as the home of a fire God
and as the home of a Shinto Goddess ofTrees since at least 7th century where
there is a shrine (Sengen-Shrine) on itssummit.
Mount Fuji is also a mountain that cannot
fail to inspire artists that include thelegendary ukiyo-e painter and printmakerKatsushika Hokusai (1760~1849). Fromlong ago, beginning with the haiku of thepoet Basho, Mount Fuji has been taken up
in many songs and paintings. The Fuji ofHokusai's ukiyoe
paintings isparticularly wellknown all over theworld.

End of Term 2 Event 2013
Please come along and join us for dinner.
Let’s enjoy Japanese food and games!
All students are welcome to bring friends.

DATE : Saturday 29th June
TIME : 5:30pm - 7:30pm
PLACE : Horoki
COST : $25
RSVP : Saturday, 22nd June
Payment essential beforehand.

It was first climbed
by an anonymous
female monk in 663 AD. It was forbidden
for women to climb the sacred mountain
until the Meiji Era 1868. Nowadays,climbing Mount Fuji is very popular not
only among Japanese but also foreign
tourists. About 300,000 people climb tothe summit every year, many of themhiking throughout the night to witness thesunrise from the summit. This sunrise isregarded as a deity and worshipped by
the Japanese who call it 'Goraiko'.
On the mountain top, there is a mail box,
so you can send letters with yourimpressions upon reaching the summit.
If you want to enjoy Mount Fuji at a moreleisurely pace and from nice natural
surroundings, you should head to the Fuji
Five Lake (Fujigoko) region at the northernfoot of the mountain, or to Hakone, anearby hot spring resort.
The beautiful Mount Fuji has not been
appointed as a World Heritage site. Manyhikers leave litter on Mount Fuji and that is
why Japan's attempts at getting Fuji
designated as a Natural World Heritage
Site have failed.
Mount Fuji is however assured to beregistered as a Cultural World Heritage at
the meeting of UNESCO to be held in
Cambodia in June 2013.

Page 2 of 4Lets CookJapanese FoodIntroducing a simple natto recipe

Natto Pasta

iJapanese Newsletter
Student’s intervew - Andrew Hopcroft
1. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
Hi, My name is Andrew. I am 26 and work at a school doing
technical support.

2. What is your impression of Japan?
I find the Japanese culture really interesting. I love the foodand I've been watching Anime since I was a kid.
I went to Japan last year and had a great time even though I couldn't speak a word ofJapanese, everyone I meet was very friendly and really helpful.

3. Why do you study Japanese?
Serves 1
Ingredient:
100g pasta
1 pack(50g) natto (with sauce)
10g butter
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs lemon juice
Method:1. Add pasta into salted water andcook until al dente.
2. Put butter into big bowl and add
natto and sauce (attached to natto)
and mix it.
3. Mix paste and natto together andadd soy sauce and lemon juice.

My family had home stay students stay with us over about 8 years and most of thestudents were from Japan. Its been great to be able to speak Japanese to them for achange!

4. How long have you studied at iJapanese?
I have been studying at iJapanese for nearly a year.

5. How do you find your study of Japanese?
I really enjoy studying Japanese. I don't find languages easy to learn, but Kisai, hasmade it very fun and copes with my forgetfulness well! I really like it when I can makea full sentence (that makes sense) or a quick conversation.

6. At iJapanese, what do you enjoy most?
I find iJapanese to be a great place to learn Japanese, it’s a very friendly andencouraging place to study. Having a quick chat at the start of the class is one of myfavourite parts!

4. Serve and sprinkle shredded
seaweed to garnish.

Thank you Andrew san!

About Natto - Have you tried natto before?
Natto is a foul-smelling sticky web of fermented soybeans, it
is often eaten with cooked rice.
For centuries, natto has been made using a specialized
fermentation process by adding beneficial bacteria tosoybeans. Fermentation enhances the nutrition of soybeansand develops a unique flavour and texture. Its physicaltexture is sticky and is a natural result of the fermentationprocess.
Natto has a distinct flavour, and some people do not like it.
It's like the Japanese vegemite perhaps?
Doesn't sound nice? But let’s try it, anyway!

How to eat? - Delicious natto is how you mix.
Natto can be purchased at most Asian grocery shops. Natto
comes in plastic containers with a packet of sauce and hot
mustard.
1. Put natto into a bowl.
2. Stir the natto with chopsticks (whip at high speed in acircular motion!)
3. Add sauce and mustard (to taste) and mix.
4. Put on rice and dig in!
Adding flavour :Spring onion, egg, plum pickle, seaweed, wasabi,
even mayonnaise or tunaiJapanese Newsletter

Page 3 of 4

iCulture Workshops 文化講座
We will continue to hold our iCulture Workshops as they have been welcomed by our students.

Anime Studying Class

Calligraphy Workshop

Kanji Class

DraemonMaster the style of brush techniques

Learn useful Kanji

Learn Animation phrases andexpressions as they are different
from your day today conversation.

Learn the basic skills of calligraphy
writing. Creating your own
calligraphy works of art on
traditional Japanese fan paper orpaper board to take home.
You can also keep your calligraphy
tools so that you can continue
practicing at home.

This fun class provides Kanji with themeaning and related terms eachlesson, so it’s easier for you tomemorise them.
This Class is suitable for beginnerlevel.

Date : Wednesday, 26th June
Time : 5:30pm - 6:30pm (1hs)
Fee : $18

Date : Friday 28th June
Time : 5:30pm - 7:30pm (2hs)
Fee : $33 (Only session)$58 (With calligraphy set)

Date : 5th July - 7th AugustEvery Friday (5 classes)
Time : 5:50pm - 6:50pm (1h)Total fee :$115 Including materials

From Phillip フィルよりJapan... The world’s leaders in forefront technologies, aplace we affiliate our most reliable brands like Sony, Canon,Epson, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Honda, Toyota and of course myfavorite, Nissan.
Japan has the largest share in the world market in the areasof electronics, automotive technologies and science. It also
holds the largest number of Nobel prizes in Asia.
We associate Japan with large-scale innovation, yet it may
surprise you to know that many things are still being done ‘theold fashion way’; which also bears to attention a phrase use
in Japan meaning “by hand and no paper.” Knowing how
much paper a typical office in Japan goes through, youwould think they have declared war on the digital information
age whereupon trees are mere innocent bystanders.
How can this be, you ask? Well it’s very simple. Japan is still
very much an older generation with more than a quarter of its
population is over 60 years of age; and let’s face it, they’rein no hurry to embrace new technologies in much the samehurriedness as we are.

If you ask a Japanese person who Steve Jobs is, they may
likely look at you blindly, smile politely and ask “だれ” dare(who)? Yet the rest of the world knows him as the man whogave us Apple products.
Contrast this with the old saying “why change something thatworks?”, you will see that Japanese people take thisliterality. For instance some offices still keep many, if not allof their records on paper maintained by superfluous personal,regardless of the fact that it is also stored by computer.
You would expect Japan to have a modern approach on
what our society deems to be efficient and convenient, yet
credit cards are not widely used by Japanese people and to
make life difficult, ATM’s are not accessible 24 hours at banks
as they are in many other countries.
For such a technologically advanced
culture, whereby time and efficiency
is seemingly imbedded into theirgenes, it is interesting how the rest of
the world is geared towards having
the best of the best, whereas Japan is happy being one stepbehind…or will it be 2 steps forward. An interesting
discussion for another time perhaps.

iJapanese NewsletterFrom Kisai

Page 4 of 4

きさいより— Ofuro (Japanese bath)

Japanese love their baths. As there are many people
entering bathtubs every day, the technology of bathproducts and equipment in Japan are advancing quickly.
Most Japanese houses are equipped withan advanced bathtub that can be set topour the right amount of water at the righttemperature with a push of a button.
There is also a pre-heat function to ensure
water temperature remains controlled for long periods ofcontinues use.
Bath time in Japanese culture is shared with the whole family
and water is not drained after each member’s usage.
Bathtubs in Japan are usually equipped with jet bath function
also. This is used for massage purposes, similar to thosefound in the jacuzzis in hotels.

Since it is a public facility, don't ever think that both sexes
share the same facilities, Like public baths do in Australia. The
only joint facilities would be restaurants and accommodation.
“Super sentoo” are loved by people of various ages as theseplaces are not designed for baths only but also offer goodatmosphere for meetings and catching up.
Different sentoos are utilised differently to sometimes cater forsmall concerts, yoga lessons and host events such as rakugo(traditional Japanese comic monologue performances).
With admission fee ranging between 1,000 – 2,000 yen($10-$20), super sentoo is an affordable destination place foreveryone including tourists. So please check out this place thenext time you visit Japan and experience the culture andentertainment of Japanese people.

Bathing is not just a Japanese custom, but for entertaining as
well. Most recently, public facilities “the super sentoo” areclimbing up the popularity chart. “super sentoo” offers
various kinds of bath services ranging from saunas, bubble
baths and massage services.

There are unique concept ofStarbacks shops in Japan.
Why don’t you visit some of them?

TOKYOFUKUOKA

From Noriko のりこより - I love coffee.
Since we have moved to our new location
on Collins St, where the best coffee shops
in Melbourne are, I’m dazzled by too
many choices!
In Japan, the introduction to coffee
occurred in the 1800s by Dutch traders
who were residents of Nagasaki.
However, coffee was not popular
because it wasn’t Japanese taste.
In the Meiji era (1868–1912), Japan waseager to adopt western culture andmodernize and started to show theattitude of wanting to accept coffee as a
‘symbol of a western culture’.
From the Meiji era through to the Taishoera (1912-1926), there were many coffee
shops for social functions, although it wasstill concerned a ‘plush drink’.
In 1960’s, coffee has started to become
popular.

The first chain coffee shop started in
1962, after production of instant coffee(invented by Japanese) began.
Release of the world’s firstcanned coffee was in 1965 byUCC.

A ‘Long black’ was a populardrink and you could smoke at ‘oldfashioned’ coffee shops at the time,
however when Starbacks opened 1996,Japanese coffee drinking habitschanged. They now drink more coffeewith milk, such as lattes or cappuccinos
and can no longer smoke inside.
Coffee is very popular nowadays inJapan, but it hard to find good coffee
shops.
I hope we can drink nice coffee like
Melbourne some day!

iJapanese Language & Culture School
Suite 3, Mezzanine floor
257 Collins Street
0401 886 629
Info@ijapanese.com.au
www.ijapanese.com.au