Jekyll&Hyde

Last Saturday my friends and I, we went to the Musical Theatre in Poznan to see musical "Jekyll and Hyde". I'm in love ! Before I saw the American version of this musical with David Hasselhoff ( to be honest, I think that he can do something more than walking in orange lifeguard swimming trunks). I was scared a little before going to watch polish version, but I'm happy that I saw this. This musical was made by Roma Theatre where the actors are really talented, e.g. M. Janusz Kruciński, who played the main role, is genius. The role of Jekyll/Hyde is one of the most difficult roles for actor, because he has to change his voice, talk to himself, etc.

I suppose that all of you know the history of this schizophrenic hero form book written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is the history of the battle between two natures, good and bad, which is in all of us. Dr. Jekyll is a highly respected London physician who discovers the secret potion that allows to change the character. Under the cover of night, Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde, who becomes the embodiment of evil. Dr. Jekyll, unable to come to terms with a double personality, commits suicide.

The plot of the musical is a little different. Here is also a love plot. Dr. Jekyll has a fiancée (Emma) who is a daughter of one of the most important people in London. While, Mr. Hyde is crazy about a beautiful prostitute (Lucy), who is in love in Dr. Jekyll. When Dr. Jekyll wrote a letter to Lucy asked her to leave London, because she is in danger, Mr. Hyde killed her.

I didn't find the Polish version, but here you can see the best scene from American version. This is a confrotation between Jekyll and Hyde :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Pyjw_ZnD8

foreign languages

Today I will write something about foreign languages. I have always loved learn other languages although it isn't so easy for me. I have to be really concentrated and motivated to learn. I remember a lot of expressions and some words, but I would to speak other languages as fluently like I speak in French. In this week, I realised that I have to come back to learn German, which I had learned in the elementary school, college and high school. I loved this language, but after secondary school certificate I didn't have any opportunity to speak this language so I don't remember too much at the moment. It's so sad ! I decided, that I have to find some time for learn German, English, Japanese and Korean. Wish me luck, please ! ;)

Travels

I've always liked to travel. When I was little my parents used to take me for the trips to Poland, because they knew well that a foreign trip can be tiring for the child. I spent holidays at the campsite with my grandfather very often. I bathed the lake, I learned to swim at boat and to fish, also I was collecting mushrooms and berries.
For several years, if I have the money and the opportunity, I go abroad with my parents or my friends. My dream is to visit all the capitals of Europe. Another dream, which so far is not realistic is to visit Japan and South Korea.
So far, I've seen Paris (where I feel at home), Berlin, Prague, London, Rome and Budapest. Honestly, every time I am fascinated by the city and the culture. Budapest and Paris are cities where I have the greatest fondness. I can go back there a few times and I think I never get tired of.
Now I'd love to go to Vienna and Vilnius.

Gagakuikai

Last Thursday I had a great opportunity for participate in a concert of Japanese imperial court music and dance form 5th century, Ichihime gagakukai in the hall of university in Poznan. 

By the 7th century, the gakuso (a zither) and the gakubiwa (a short-necked lute) had been introduced in Japan from China. Various instruments including these two were the earliest used to play gagaku. It is the oldest classical music in Japan, was introduced into in with Buddhism from China.

Gagaku also accompanies classical dance performances, and both are used in religious ceremonies by a few Buddhist temples.

Gagaku is related to theater, which developed in parallel. It was developed in the 14th century.

 

This performance that I saw, it was really beautiful. I mean not only music but also the costumes of musicians and a dancer. The instruments was amazing and original.

It is a video with a dance (not in the hall of university): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRM_FNooJHc

last year

This is the last year of study and it scary me of a little. The time past really fast. I would like to profit of this year and do things like a student. For now I don't know what can I do after the study, but I hope that I will find some inspiration in this year. At this moment, carpe diem !

training

Today I would to go to the concerts, but I had spent 8 houres on the training of the tai chi chuan. We practised chan si gong, it is a spiral motion of the whole body and each body part separately and at the same time. It is really difficult but important to do right the tai chi chuan. This training was additional so there were fewer people than usual. This pleased me because the coach could focus on each one of us and say what we were doing wrong. I'm really tried (but HAPPY) now and I don't what it my name is ;) and of course I'm sending this evening at home...

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is my favourite Japanese writer. He is genius, really ! For this moment I read all his books which are translated in Polish and French. Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949. He grew up in Kobe, a port city in which particularly easy contact with other cultures. He is interested in the others cultures, he reads an American literature, he listens to jazz. He graduated from the Faculty of Drama Classical Literature at Waseda University. In the years 1974-1981, he had a jazz club. Now he is living in New York.

He made his debut as a novelist in 1979 Encouraged by Naoma Literary Prize for Beginners Writers continues writing career. The first novel, Hear the Wind Sing was available only in Japan for a long time. In this year this novel was translated in Polish. 

His books are interesting, it's a mix of the real world with the fantastic, but in terms of the subconscious and imagination of heroes. In his books, Murakami is not focused on action, but on the internal development of heroes.

The books which I recommend to you :

- A Wild Sheep Chase

- Dance Dance Dance 

- Norwegian Wood 

- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 

- Kafka on the Shore

- 1Q84

summer holidays

Approaching terrible exam session, but then they will be holidays :) This year, the holiday will be great. July and half of August outside the home, I'm going to camp of tai chi chuan, where they will be training all day of long forms and sword. Then I'm going to Belgium to volunteer, and then to Paris for the weekend to visit friends. I really can not wait :)

And you have any plans for summer holidays?

London

I was in London 4 years ago. I remember, this trip was really exciting because I had only 3 days for visit London ;). The pace of the sightseeing was crazy, but I had enough time for visit the most important monuments and places in this city (and for a cup of tee at 5 o'clock ;)). I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Big Ben, the modern part of London with a skyscraper in the shape of "cucumber", I was also in China Town, known as Soho, I was sunning  on a lounger in the park Buckingham, I also saw Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. I was in a waxworks museum of Madame Tussauds, in a museum of modern art and in the national museum. The most I was impressed by the natural art museum. and the science museum, which were huge and the entrance was free. The exhibitions were fantastic, it was possible to touch them.
I hope that I will ever come back, because London also is impressive at night, I wasn't enough time to benefit it. Besides, I also dream of a trip in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper and Harry Potter.

martial arts

"Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons: self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, entertainment, as well as mental, physical, and spiritual development.
Although the term martial art has become heavily associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia, it was originally used in regard to the combat systems of Europe as early as the 1550s. An English fencing manual of 1639 used the term in reference specifically to the "Science and Art" of swordplay. The term is ultimately derived from Latin, and means "arts of Mars," where Mars is the Roman god of war."


Of course, I am interested by Eastern martial arts ( Japanese Aikido and Chinese Taiji quan in the West it is called as Tai chi chuan). I trained aikido for two years as part of physical education in Toruń. The reason why I do not do this here in Poznań is that those classes were free and I could practice 7 hours / week .
Now I found a school of Tai chi chuan (Piotr Ziemba is a leader,he is a multiple champion of Polish and European Champions). The most people associate Tai chi chuan with the Chinese who doing the gentle movements in the parks. Of course they are right, but this is a very simplistic image of this martial art.
Style name appeared hundreds of years ago. Tai chi chuan is a term found in the Chinese philosophy of Yin Yang and Taoist philosophy. The concept of Tai chi, describes a world in which the original unity ( wuji ) emerged complementary elements of yin and yang. Tai chi chuan can  be translated as " fist / style taiji ".
Training includes the basic exercises, forms, or complex forms including weapons (eg, with a sword, spear, stick, halberd, two swords, hand fan, etc., exercise with a partner ( pushing hands ), teaching combat and self-defense, meditation and breathing exercises called as Qigong (chi kung). The training is significantly different from most martial arts because the most important in Tai chi chuan is the coordination between mind and body.
Tai chi chuan is divided into different styles, of which the most famous and popular are: Chen, Yang, Wu, Hao and Sun. Tai chi chuan training is usually associated with a slow movements of the exercise called as forms. However, many forms of Tai chi chuan combines both slow movements and dynamic.
I  exercise the Yang style, which is the basic style and I just started to exercise the Chen style, which was the first and the most difficult. To be honest, Tai chi chuan is for me one of the most important elements of my life at the moment. By training this, I feel that I finally found something that I love ;)
 
Here you have a link at the web side of this school of Tai chi chuan :http://www.taichi.com.pl/

30 reasons to go to Japan

I have always wanted to go to Japan. In total, I came to the conclusion that this is my biggest dream (about two others I will write some other time;)). On the web page, I found 30 beautiful photos that make you really want to go to Japan. One of the reasons why I did not go there yet is the cost of the trip ... unfortunately. However, when I will go there, I would like to visit e.g. Tokyo in the footsteps of heroes of Haruki Murakami's books, take a bath in hot springs, to visit the cultural capital of Japan - Kyoto, to eat real sushi and sweets made ​​with red beans and to sleep in a capsule. 

 

http://www.tsunagujapan.com/c/view/en/2213
Enjoy watching photos :)

Diego Velázquez "Peasants at the Table"

Diego Velázquez "Peasants at the Table" (1620)

"Peasants at the Table" was painted by Diego Velázquez. It was the Spanish painter who lived from 1599 to 1660. He painted this picture in 1620 in Seville. The dimensions of the picture are 96 cm x 112 cm, and the type of the painting is an oil on canvas. The picture can be admired in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. 

In the foreground we can see a still life which is connected with the scene in the background. 

The artist painted three peasants having breakfast. Two men are sitting at the table nicely decorating, and in the middle there is a woman who is filling one goblet with wine. The oldest man is listening to the youngest man, and he is holding the goblet. The youngest man is probably telling something with holding his arm up. 

The still life which is presented in the foreground is exposed by the whiteness of the tablecloth. On the table we can see a loaf of bread, some fish, a lemon, a carrot, a glass and a teapot. When we look at the elements of the still life, they seem to be tangibles.

An one hand the background of the picture is dark and hardly visible, and in the other hand the light directed on the table is bright and strong. It is difficult to find a source of the light. 

In my opinion, the picture is extremely realistic and this proved of how talented artist Diego Velázquez was. He knew a lot about a human body. 

Japanese animation

I recommend to you one of Japanese animations "Tsumiki no Ie" (The House of Small Cubes) directed by Kunio Kato which won Oscar in 2009.

 As his town is flooded by water, an old man is forced to add additional levels onto his home with cubes in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favourite smoking pipe into the lower levels of his home, he recalled the nice family moments.

At the beginning of this animation bored me, but in the end I found that it was touching. It takes only 12 minutes, so I think that you can see something good :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_2Sc8fD_Kc

The best weekend ever (for a moment :P)

In the last weekend I was with a friend in Budapest the second time in my life. This time we went there for a concert of Mate Kamaras, who is a Hungarian singer in musicals. He also spent a lot of time in Germany and Japan, playing in local versions of musicals such as Elisabeth or Dance of the Vampires. In addition to spending time allowed at the concert, we were also in the baths, which are called Kiraly Bath (it is the oldest thermal bath in Budapest, one of the medieval Turkish baths built by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century). First time we slept on couchsurfing ( none of my friends had a bad experience with couchsurfing , and I share their opinion ). This is a great experience, especially if you will go to such a nice person he was Balázs. He took us for the night, he took on the Hungarian beer and drove us to the airport at ungodly hour, at 5 am !Overall I would recommend to visit Budapest, because this city is great !

5 interesting facts

It's time for 5 interesting facts about Japan :

I. THE FACE MASK

The face mask protects Japanese against disease, but also hides imperfections on the face.

II. KIT KAT

Japanese have a lot of types of Kit Kat. Words "kitto katsu" mines " you will win" or something like that, so parents buy these chocolate bars to children.

III. SAKE 

Overall it is alcohol, being in the bar should be clarified what you want.

IV. WAVING HAND

For us "waving hand" means greeting someone or valediction. Japanese wave hand when they want to talk to someone.

V.  FASHION

The personality is characterized by cloths. The Japanese have their own style, can go dressed as e.g. characters from anime, in pink, in gray etc., and no one will say a bad word about it.

The Ballad of Narayama (1983)

The Ballad of Narayama is a Japanese film by director Shōhei Imamura from 1983, tells a story about long-standing Japanese tradition of treatment of older people. The film bases on a really old tradition of treatment of older people who were escorted by sons to the Mount Fuji. Script writer : Shōhei Imamura and lead roles : Ken Ogata (Tatsuhei), Sumiko Sakamoto (Orin, mother of Tatsuhei).

The action takes place in Narayama, it is a small village in the inaccessible mountains. There is a age-old principle that every villager, who finished 70 years must go to the mountains to die. Refusal pulls shame and contempt for the whole family. Old Orin is 69 years. This winter is her turn. Before leaving she wants to make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei find a wife... 

The great advantage of this film are costiumes created by Kyoto Isho and music composed by Shinichirô Ikebe. However the bad side of the film are scenes of animal's copulation. The director has not left anything the viewer's imagination. 

I recommend to you this film because is not very well known, but it is worth to watch it. Shows the life of the Japanese people in the nineteenth century village away from civilization.

The wood Horse year

I know this subject is a little in opposite with a matter topic of my blog, however I will talk about Chinese New Year. Today in Poznań, the students of sinology prepared a little party to welcome the wood Horse year. From 4 pm to 8 pm were different attractions. It was possible to practice Chinese calligraphy (it is always good fun;)), to mold the dumplings (jiaozi, in Japan called gyōza) and to participate in a lecture about the celebration of New Year in China. After that we listened to the Chinese horoscope for the year. At 6 pm were performances of wushu style (this is a very dynamic form of martial art) and of tai chi chuan style (I was doing this with my group, among other things :P) My friend of Tai Chi, he is great in this form of martial art and I think his performance was genius! At the end we had a Chinese dinner. 

This evening was amazing and I hope for the next time :) 

I do not believe in horoscopes, but according to what I heard today, I'm screwed :P The Chinese symbolic is very rich and detailed. It's amazing that the Chinese attach to it so much attention since ancient times.

In the Chinese horoscope I am a horse, and do you know what's your sign?

雪女 - snow woman

One of the most popular figure in Japanese culture is yuki onna (snow woman). We can meet her in Japanese literature and animations. She is shown as a beautiful woman with a pale skin. She has long black hair and red lips. She is often dressed in a white kimono, but sometimes  she is naked. Appears with snow (most with snowstorm). She heralds death. Her kiss makes the man freezes. Sometimes she pushes people from the mountains or give to someone to sustain a child who is so heavy that a person falls and can't stand up.

The most popular story about the yuki onna is a story about two hunters who went hunting in the mountains. In order to avoid the storm , took refuge in a cabin. Father fell asleep quickly, but the son could not sleep. When the snow began to fall harder, the son saw that the door to the house open. He saw a beautiful woman dressed in a white kimono, with black hair, which glided over the ground. She approached to the elder hunter, she bent over him and kissed him. Hunter was killed by freezing. The younger hunter could not find his voice. Yuki onna said she did not kill him because he is young, but he can't tell anyone about what he saw.
Some time later, in his house came a woman who had no where to hide from snow blizzard. She was with him longer, until they fell in love and started a family. After a few years, during a blizzard, hunter remembered the night in the yuki onna killed his father. He told his wife about it. She she started to cry and it turned out that she is a yuki onna. She wanted to make sure that a man will never tell anyone about it. He broke his promise, and she disappeared in the snow and left him alive with their child.