Sunday, November 30, 2008

I have many memories...

...but a limited attention span!
First, I would like to apologize. I have been slacking (two weeks or so, yes?). I think what started it was my poor job interview, which only fueled my lack of motivation. After that, the days just sort of blur together, so I’ll just apologize one last time for being lazy.

I would like to start by telling you about a local festival called ‘Tori no Ichi’. As some of you may know, I live near Senso-ji, which is a pretty famous Temple in Tokyo (It is the second most popular place to go on New Year’s Eve!). Between my house and Senso-ji there is another Temple, called Chokoku-ji (as you might have guessed, ‘ji’ means temple. It is held every year in November, on the day of the ‘tori’ (which means bird), i.e. rooster (This year, it was held on the 5, 17, 29! Three times! I was very lucky).

Without looking it up online, I will tell you my very basic understanding of this festival: people from all over Tokyo come to pray at Chokoku-ji for protection against accidents (like car accidents) and for good luck with money. You can also buy ‘kumade’, meaning bear hand (claw), which will help you ‘rake’ in money (see picture for reference!). Also, on these three days, the main street that the temple is on is lined with food stalls (and the occasional dried fruit/fish vendor or traditional Japanese spice vendor). On the days of the festival, I had Okonomiyaki for dinner, mmm!


These are the 'kumade'. The whole inside of the temple was lined with
stalls that were selling them. It was magical!
Not the best pictures, eh? All four of them are inside the temple.
If you search 'Tori no Ichi' on google, you can get a lot more photos,
and better ones too. I am not great at picture taking...yet.

Next, I want to tell you all about our group trip




((Two quaint views...the first is when Kathleen and I walked to the convenience store,
the second is the entrance to the Shinto Shrine))

Next, I want to tell you all about our group trip to Yamanashi, a small town near Mt. Fuji. Let me give you a quick itinerary of the trip: Depart around 9:00 AM (I think? I don’t remember the exact time) from Takada no Baba (which is about 40 minutes from my house. Arrive at the Yamanashi hostel/dorm at around 1:30 PM (Again, I forget exact time). Have an hour and a half, two hour meeting about what we will be doing in February. Go to a public onsen (hot bath!) and soak our cares away. Then dinner, another hour-long meeting, nomikai (drinking party), and finally sleep.


Fuji-san! Can you see the top? No..

The next day, about half of us hiked to the lake, and we looked at Mt. Fuji (It was quite cloudy, so we couldn’t see the top!). Then, a few of us went with our Japan Study faculty advisory (Paul Watt) and walked to some local temples. This was GREAT. We went to both a Buddhist and a Shinto temple. It is really amazing how these two religions are fused in Japan.


The first is the bell at the Buddhist temple, the second is the
sumo ring at the Shinto Temple. Did you know
that sumo wrestling is a Shinto tradition? I did not!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first post in a long time!
I miss you all!

Monday, November 10, 2008

My hand hurts!

Why does my hand hurt? Well, because I have spent the last two hours working on my resume (which you'll get a nice picture of, NEXT entry) and writing post cards! Some of you lucky devils might receive one...in a month or so!

Well, last Friday I saw an AMAZING Kabuki play. I can safely say that I love Kabuki. It was So. Funny! The Kabuki play I saw is called"Sumidagawa Gonichi No Omokage". And it was a pretty avant-garde, if I do say so myself. Why? It was the 'New York Version'. What does this mean? First, it was performed in New York. Duh. Also, those foreigners who wanted, could hear the English translation while they watched. Because of this, I was a little more into it. The main reason it was so 'avant-garde' was because one of the main characters, Hokaibo, would actually do his monologues in ENGLISH! Now, if any of you have seen clips of Kabuki, you know that they way it is spoken is sort of a weird combination of singing and exaggerated sounds. When Hokaibo spoke English, it sounded...normal, albeit with a Japanese accent. But what he said was stupid, and actually breached the 'fourth wall' of theatre: he engaged with the audience, made references to current culture (such as James Bond), and even mocked other characters for not understanding English! A good example of random English spoken by Hokaibo is when he says, "Who writes this crap?" Ah...what a joker.

Not only was this play very funny, but the acting was superb (of course)! (The main actors were the same as the ones from the previous play!). The other characters stayed within the confines of the stage and their Kabuki world (except for one point, where a few characters were 'journeying' and stumbled upon a demon/evil spirit that they decided to pray to/offer sweets. Yeah, it was just a foreigner, sitting in the audience! Haha...). And the last scene, wow! There were some pretty intricate dances and fight scenes. Search 'Hokaibo' or better yet...THIS article? NY Times. Good description of the plot...something I am not good at relating!

The joint spirits of Hokaibo and the
Princess Nowake [disguised as Okumi] pose with Okumi,
as they dance to prove who is the real Okumi.
I know...Hokaibo is making a funny face
but this is Kabuki, and it totally works in context!

Next big thing...I'm trying to get a job! I have a job interview this Wednesday and I'm making a BIG deal about it because it's basically my first job interview (Well, second. But yeah...). I know there's little chance that I get this job, seeing as I'm only allowed to work 14 hrs/week (according to my work permit), but hopefully they need a waitress (or maybe a bar-person^__^) badly enough to hire me? Haaa...Wish me luck!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Happy Halloween!

So, Friday was Halloween. Did everyone have fun?

I had an interesting Halloween. I dressed up as a 'zombie maid', but I didn't have any fake blood, so I just looked kinda like a maid with bad makeup. Not to mention, the costume was a little too small for me (Japanese girls are tiny!!). Whatever...just look at the picture and see for yourself:



I went to a club with some friends. It was interesting. First, it was in Roppongi, which is foreigner central. Roppongi is probably the area with the highest concentration of foreigners (they either live there, or go there to party). The club was called Muse, and Temple University was hosting the party. We danced there. There's not much else to say besides that. Well, the club itself was an interesting place. It was made up of a lot of different rooms, and at one point I found a Karaoke room! There were so many people, drunk and otherwise, it was not (in all) that great an experience. I think the best moment of the night was when I was at the bar with two Japanese guy-friends, and we spotted a very feminine looking guy. One of them decided to talk to him, and then we all ended up talking. Both of my friends got his number. I didn't. Haha!! I kept seeing the guy-girl throughout the night (at one point in the girls bathroom...), and he would always wink and make a peace-sign. He was very pretty!

We left the club, and walked from Roppongi to Shibuya. That was a long walk! Um...we were going to do something in Shibuya, but our plans changed. We caught a Taxi, took it to Waseda, and I changed back into my normal clothes. We went to a park, met a few people, and just chilled until around 5 am, when we caught our first trains. I actually fell asleep on my train, my head was definitely on some Japanese guys shoulder.... I woke up in the middle of nowhere, had to ask some random person to get directions back to the right track (i just had to go to the train going the opposite direction, but my brain was not working...) and walked home and slept until 3 pm, when I woke with a hangover (I deserved that. I am not planning to repeat Halloween night EVER again.)

[[ANYWAY, Sorry about the lack of quality posts. I'm not very good at this blogging thing.
Next post, I'll talk about the local festival that's coming up. It's some sort of Rooster festival (you know, like the Chinese zodiac). It's going to be three days this month, and the first day is the fifth! (So...today....)

LYDIAAAAdesu