About the Japanese

I've been admiring Japan for a long time, even before I was too young and ignorant to be culturally appreciative. I was merely fascinated by the manga, the games, and the anime....which I still am. But before I've always dreamed of the high-tech-ness of Tokyo and the people and the shingansen and just the amazing technology.

So then I went to Japan two times. One time to Tokyo and I was stunned by the clean, civilized and incredibly crowded streets where all I could see was people's heads. The technology was scarily advanced, and I kept staring people's cellphones like a idiot.

Hm, you'd think Mocha would be less bitter.

The second time I went to Japan is to Nagoya in an exchange program. I thought of it as another way to buy manga and see high-tech stuff.

BIG MISTAKE.

I did see high technology, but then I realized something else.

Since Nagoya and Kyoto are old...I got to see the amazing architecture built by the ancient Japanese and it completely altered my point of view of Japan to a whole new perspective.

And then of course that was where the weepy-ness kicked into me.

The matter-of-fact idea of Japan having had a gloriously glittering culture hit me late, but eventually I got to learn more about their civilization in the Oxford book and in my civilization textbook. The civilization textbook talked more about the culture and what happened, and the Oxford book elaborated more on the aesthetic perspective. I wouldn't be able to link the things together if i didn't have my civilization book.....thank you civilization.

So the main topic.

It's amazing how beautiful Japan looks, huh?

Many people found the Heian period unnatural and kind of weird. But it is true that it made a huge contribution to the current Japanese culture. The Tale of Genji wouldn' be here if it wasn't for this period. The Tale of Genji made the historians know more about the way of living as well as the perspective on art.

For example:

This picture explicitly shows what the Heian people expect in a home. No separation on the inside and outside, the extremely well-organized garden with water and plants, and layers and the colors of women's clothing.

I also admired the aesthetics of the shogunate periods. It's very amazing how their views changed so dramatically in such a short period. I wonder if it was the bafuku's influence?



This is the Jochiji temple which was one of the Zen Buddhism schools.
Cool beauty huh?
In this kind of enviroment, no wonder the samurais are appreciative and willing to work.
Practising in that kind of scenery is going to get the energy out no matter what.

About Buddhism

I was reading the entire chapter on Buddhism on the Oxford book the other day.
I knew that Buddhism originated from India, but it still very fascinating to think although it began in India, it is the main religion in China and Japan and Korea. Ironically, the main religion in India is not Buddhism but Hinduism.
My family's basically Buddhists. I'm from Chinese heritage after all. I remember that I used go to Chinese temples with my family every year and burned incense until my eyes water by the strong smell. I was a little kid back then, so I didn't really get the point of kneeling down in front of a giant, scary-looking sculpture and bow for it. I mainly did it because I thought it was fun and sometimes I would mumble out random wishes like "I wish I can have candy for dinner" or something like that. For me, going to the Buddhist temples is like a festival.
My grandmother on my mother's side is Buddhist. She is fully dedicated to the religion and she is a vegetarian. She used to tell me all kinds of stories that reveals to me explicitly about her faith towards Buddha. She told me about the reincarnations, the Noble Eighth Fold Path, and Nirvana. I loved to listen to her and listen to the repeated chanting in her recorder. I loved to watch her sitting in the same place on her bed for two hours everyday, legs crossed, either meditating or praying. I liked seeing her fingers moving through the beads one by one.
She still does it right now. But I've grown to know that I'm not supposed to interrupt her meditation time anymore. But sometimes I still go into her room and watch her quietly.

So, I kinda digress.
Anyways, I think the true Buddhism is still in India. See, the Buddhism in China as well as in Japan have a twist to match their own culture. The actual Buddhism is the one with Sanskrit and no Bodhisattva. Bodhisattavas are something that the Chinese people added later on to blend with their own myths. So in the Chinese culture, there is mortals, immortals, king of the immortals, Guanyin and the Bodhisattvas, and finally Buddha. It's like a pyramid. For example, the Chinese legendary Yi who shot off 9 of the suns belongs to the immortals, who look up to Buddha and his enlightenment. If the immortals meditate, they will eventually become one of the Bodhisattavas, and if they don't behave well, they sometimes get back into the life cycle and become human again. The religion itself is perfected in the way of the Chinese, but Buddhists in India and Japan are somewhat different too, I believe.

And I am also quite intrigued by the way Buddhist perfected the ancient Chinese culture. It's because of the Buddhist religion that China was able to write one of the four most famous novels in Chinese history.

I don't know much about the Japanese (except for Zen) or Korean Buddhism......and the book is talking about the architecture so....
I'll talk about the Japanese things next time :D

Classical Music

Is classical music going out of style??

Of course not. At least not in my world.

Well, the teenagers my age don't seem to enjoy classical music that much. They tend to play it if they listen to instruments, but normally I don't think they would listen to it.

But I like classical music D: . I've listened to a lot of composers and they are all good!

And......If I may brag......I am pretty interested in the backgrounds of the music.

Don't get me wrong. I like modern music too, but I just wanna talk about classical music first.
Generally, there is no real specific style that I like.

Okay. I might start by talking about the songs of specific composers.

WARNING. THIS IS VERY LIKELY TO BE SUPER LONG.


So please bear with me?


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Do I like Mozart?
Honestly? No. I have to admit, he is a musical genius. I respect him and his talent of being able to compose music at the age of 5. The music blood runs in the family. His passion towards music is truly impressive, considering that he composed over 600 melodies in total. And I like how he likes travelling. He is very fortunate that he was able to reach his full potential in music because his family is generally wealthy enough to sustain a living. His family also provided tons of inspiration through travelling through Europe. Without the contribution of his family, he wouldn't have achieved such a massive success.

I have a close friend who basically WORSHIPS Mozart. And she hates me for saying that I don't like Mozart. The truth is, his songs are not my type. I know it is elaborate the stuff, his symphony are very very intricate...but I just cannot seem to find myself to absolutely love it.

His style of music is too happy for me. It's always extremely joyous with a lot of embellishment.

Some examples:
Marriage of Figaro.
Piano Sonata.
Magic Flute.
Violin Concertos.
Eine Kleine Nachutmusik K.525
Divertimento K.136

Everytime I listen to those songs. I can imagine a girl on plain running and laughing. His music is a little bit too classical for me, I guess.

His style is similar with Haydn. Very happy. But Haydn's music is less 'ornated'.

But there is one exception. I like Mozart's Requiem. That kind of opera sounds very magnificent and dramatic. It is not his usual style (at least what I know), so I very much enjoyed it.



Joseph Maurice Ravel



One of my favourite composers.

His style is absolutely beautiful. I fell in love with his music that even my mom can hum out the songs because I play them too much with my flute.

I seem to favour impressionists more than classics because I like Debussy and Saint-Saëns a lot as well.

He seem to have attachment to Spain, because he was born near Spain, and that attachment inspired many of his melodies.Rapsodie espagnole being only one example.
He like pizzicato a lot :D. Usually not many violin songs include so many pizzicatos.
One of his famous songs :Pavane pour une infante défunte is my favourite song that is composed by him. He is brilliant for creating this. The protrait of Margarita Teresa really relates to this song. This song is not for grieve. It tells a story of how there used to be a young little girl who danced in the castles. It's beautiful styles links perfectly to the sadness in the song.

Other than that, I really love his String Quartet too. Its magnificent usage of pizzicato of the two violins, viola and cello creats a unique harmony to the ear.

Concerto pour la main gauche as well as Concerto pour piano et orchestre, sol majeur, are not the usual style of his work. It makes a somehow evil and devil-ish atmosphere. Playing it requires high technique, like it almost has an effect of a demon's lure or Pandora's Box.

Some of the other songs I like are:
Ma mere l'Oye- absolute masterpiece~all the movements have the theme of a fairy-tale~~
Gaspard de la Nuit


Charles Camille Saint-Saëns





DANSE MACABRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am kind of crazy about Danse Macabre. I gives me a mixed feeling of danger and excitement of this omnious feeling at night. I am so enchanted. You know it is dangerous but you are too charmed to resist this sweet temptation. You cannot help but to dance with the devil, and it is almost like you want to indulge in this pleasure and sell your soul to the devil.

Oh my god I love it I love it I love it so much >_
And Saint Saens is a music genius too, starting to play piano at 2 years old!!! And performed with Bach, Mozart and Beethoven at 10!!!

His other music are not as brilliant as this one. So it doesn't leave me much impression of his other songs....i was too amazed at Danse Macabre.

I'll add more to it next time. So much more I want to talk about.