Unit 3: Lesson 1

Prompts for this blog:

1. What are your first impressions when you think of Japan or Japanese culture?
2. What makes you laugh?

The first thing that I think of when I think of Japan is a yukata. Both my husband and I wear them around the house and the first thing that I see in the morning is usually the familiar blue and white pattern of yukata fabric. My favourite one is white with blue cranes.

I also think of chopsticks (the pointy kind are Japanese) because I both collect and use them. I also collect hashioki (chopstick rests), and almost anything that I can find that has a depiction of the rabbit in the moon.

My other favourite things associated with Japan are: textiles, gardens, raku ware and flower-arranging. As mentioned earlier, I know virtually nothing about ikebana but I'm interested in learning what I can for this class project.



Oh, and I don't like manga - it all just looks like Astro Boy, to me. (sorry, folks)


As for what makes me laugh:

There are people who would probably say that I have no sense of humor. They're quite wrong, of course. I love The Daily Show, for example. My taste in comedy runs to satire and cleverness. I also like romantic comedies because we humans have such a way with making goofballs out of ourselves.

I still think that the original version of The Producers is one of the funniest things ever made.

Photos of cats doing the kinds of wacky things that cats do will generally make me laugh.

I have friends and family that also crack me up - especially The Nephew (who was writing stand-up routines for one of his grandmothers when he was about 10 yrs old).

And my husband is very funny. He has a sharp wit and I like that.

I don't much care for sit-coms. Everything being done in sit-coms today was already done on TV in the 50's and it wasn't original then, either.

The one sit-com I do like is That 70s Show.