PRE-DEPARTURE; The significance of Journals, Water and Grinding Things up

I. Journals, and Word Diaries

I have already talked a little about my thoughts on just how significant Journals are, and have briefly mentioned my intent to bring my word diary, but I haven't talked much on why and just how useful both can be.

I have what I call a word diary, which is basically a running vocabulary list from conversations with Japanese people, new or interesting words from dramas, and wherever else I find new vocab. In my word diary I write the Japanese word first in hiragana or kanji of I know it and then the English translation or equivalent. Then I typically ask my Japanese friends who know English if it makes sense and I try to use it as much as possible. 

This is how I learned the words for rare (Mezurashii), joking (Joudan) and addiction (Chuudoku) -My friend is addicted to coffee so it came up a lot.

So in addition to having these new words that are not the typical words you find in classroom textbooks but do come up in conversation, I also have connections to these memories from when I learned about them the first time, who told me the new word and so on.

So these words are similar to the journal I kept and will keep again in Japan to document my experiences and perceptions and both are significantly useful in language retention as well as keeping memories of Japan.

Check out this great blog post on Journaling from The Study Abroad Blog.

II. Uchimizu and Chozu

I consider Michigan to be my homestate, and I deeply love the availability of beautiful water here. This may be one reason why I really like the ideas of Uchimizu and Chozu. 


Uchimizu can be seen here in this video. In the summer  Japanese gather to sprinkle water (collected in rain barrels or buckets so as not to waste drinking water) on the streets to cool the area since concrete and ashphalt tend to get hotter than elsewhere. 

Here is another video in Japanese describing the history of Uchimizu in a fun, interesting, yet exaggerated skit. 

Screenshot of Bamboo 手水 (Chozu) search result images

Chozu or 手水 on the other hand, is water meant for washing your hands mainly at temples and shrines which is ladled onto ones hands and often used to rinse ones mouth as well. A Note: it is not BYOC or Bring Your Own Chozu, they are supplied by, used at, and left at the temple by everyone.

Here is a video of Chozu in action, showing you how it is done.

III. Suribachi
I visited my Japanese friend for conversation time this week and learned about a new thing; Suribachi or すりばち.

It is basically a bowl with ridges for grinding things like a mortar and pestle except it seems to work better for me. The grooves in the suribachi are perfect for getting sesame seeds into small bits!

I thought it was an especially beautiful and centering piece of earthenware to say the least and I could sit there for hours just grinding away.

(Screenshot from my search) Search for suribachi or すりばち and you can see many beautiful types.