色々

OK, I officially have a new favorite band--and they're not even Japanese! (lol)
so on Tuesday for the podcast recording (www.metropolis.co.jp/podcast for those of you not in the know about where you can hear me every week) we had a special live performance. The band Vinyl Soul, out of L.A., came to our office to perform some songs! You can hear it at the very end of the Wed, Mar 25 podcast. Anyway, they gave us copies of their CD as well, which I have been listening to nonstop. I'm totally dragging some friends with me to go see their concert on Sunday, they're playing at this little cafe over in Okubo, near Shinjuku.

Oh, and I got taken out on a sort of 接待 thing on Tuesday. The good folks over at Iichiko shochu company are trying to market their product to Americans, so they wanted to take some (American) Metropolis staffers out for a  tasting, etc. It was ridiculous. they came to the office for 挨拶 with the sales people and then they took me, Sarah N and Yui (she was like, "I'm a 中途半端なアメリカ人" lol) out to this izakaya in Gaienmae and fed us sashimi, and kara-age and nabe, and then had us drink a bunch of shochu and tell them what we thought of it.
i know, "work is rough," right? lol.

oooh, and last weekend I went to see the Dustz concert. SO much fun! lol. I'm a huge fan of theirs--mostly cause the lead singer is f&%#ing hot, but also because I like the music. and they are definitely 10 times better live, the songs come across much more rock than they do on the CD. Oh, and even better, this concert was officially their last con as an indies band--cause they will be releasing their major debut with Sony/Epic Records in May! Yay! They've (obviously, since they got signed to a major label) got a pretty decent fan base, but I felt kind of sorry for them at the concert. Nermal and I were looking around like, "have any of these people ever been to a concert before...?" Nobody was getting into it, nobody was moving, and all these girls had set their purses and shit all over the floor (hello people, that's what the lockers are for!) so that we could have been practically up against the stage if it hadn't been for all the stuff in the way. whatever. Nermie and I totally rocked out, and they definitely saw us. I mean, obvi the whole being gaijin thing makes us stand out a bit, but it was also cause we were practically the only ones who were really into it. Nermie's decided she has a crush on the drummer, lol (--this was her first Dustz concert, she wasn't really a fan before this, but I dragged her to it so I'd have someone to go with). We're going to join the fan club so we can get better tickets to the concert in June.

Oh, and in other news, I got a pack of cigarettes in the mail the other day. Well, not me, they were addressed to the person who lived in my apt before me, but still (only in Japan). It says "enjoy a special coffee break moment with Cabin"--which, caffeine addict that I am, kind of makes me want to try them...  (breathe, daddy--- I'm only kidding)

PV this week isn't exactly a PV, it's a youtube vid I found of Vinyl Soul performing their song "Could This Be Heaven," which is one of the ones they sang for us the other day.
Enjoy!

Let's play a game

It's called "how long can Sarah 我慢 before she gives up and turns on the heat?"
The answer, I think, is not long, cause it's getting freaking cold in my room. Sweaters and mass quantities of hot tea aren't gonna cut it much longer. {{(>_<)}} brr....
And the trains have been annoying lately, too. Yesterday morning there was some kind of a breakdown on the Meguro line, which backed up all the trains so it took me 40 minutes to get from Jiyugaoka to Shibuya (for the record, even on the local train that usually takes 15 minutes). So of course I was late for work. Not that I got in trouble for it, I mean it wasn't my fault, it was just annoying being stuck on the train for that long. And then in the evening that same day, it was super crowded again because of a 人身事故 "bodily accident" (Japanese euphemism for "we had to stop to scrape salaryman off the tracks").
But the weekend was fun. I got 2 free meals! Well, one free meal and one that was supposed to be free (but I'm a space case and forgot to get a receipt so I can't get reimbursed for it). Yeah.
The first meal was at this place in Ebisu that's having a renewal open, so they treated us to a meal! It was awesome. They're called えびす小町 Ebisu Komachi.We got a delicious tonsoku nabe (tonsoku is like pig feet--or leg maybe?).

Plus some other really yummy stuff like this cocoa-coated imo thing, and suppon and delicious charcoal-grilled chicken. Jason was with me, pretending to be press for the night. With the hours that guy works, he deserves a free meal.

Then, Sunday night I took Felicia along on my restaurant review at Yebisusan in Sangenjaya's naka-mise (which will be coming out in 766--which means I have to write it, like, tomorrow. Lol). I really like the atmosphere of the place.. casual, friendly, no pretensions. The tables were like plywood set on top of barrels, and you sat on stools. Kind of like some Korean bbq places I've been to.

It was a ホルモン料理 horumon ryori place, which basically means they specialize in....insides. Stomach, brains, heart, liver, tongue....grilled on a stick.
Mmm....hormones...

Of course, they have lots of normal food, too. Like Japanese-style fried chicken. (Japan is the only country where a pile of shredded cabbage and a blob of mayonnaise constitutes a side dish).

Enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon.

And another yummy nabe dish.

Felicia and I weren't feeling quite up to brains, so we opted to go for some delicious grilled large intestine on a stick (with green peppers).

The peppers were really good. Intestine as it turns out, is not so bad either. It mostly tastes like the sauce, which was really yummy. My only qualm is that it's rather chewy--though not nearly so bad as some other inside-y bits can be.
Ok, with that I need to go to sleep now. More fun stuff to report on later-- we're all going to the press reception for the opening of the Christmas Illumination at Tokyo Midtown on Thursday. Yes, Christmas Illumination. See, in Japan they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, which means they get to skip straight from Halloween to Christmas. But Midtown is gorgeous and there's going to be some fantabulous Indian food, so I'm happy.
It's really funny tho, cause apparently Omotesando Hills is having their illumination reception on the same night, and the Midtown PR lady has called like 5 times already to make absolutely sure we're going to their event, and not Omotesando. ;-P

fun stuff

Let's see...what have I been doing lately?
Lots of fun things. ^_^
Molly, Jason, Misa and I finally got to meet up with some of the HamaDai kids again, and we all went to a Yokohama Baystars baseball game! About time, too. For all that I live practically next door to the stadium, it was my first time actually going. We got the cheap seats, and the Baystars lost (apparently they're not very good this year) but it was lots of fun! In the picture is Jamie, Naoko, and Molly. Yeah, I'm really not sure what that face is about....
The next weekend I went out to Enoshima, which is a small island near Tokyo--it only took about 45 minutes to get out there, but felt like a whole other world. The weather was beautiful, and there were palm trees everywhere--it felt almost like Hawaii! lol. Got a lot of exercise, too, cause there were a LOT of stairs. >_<
A little further up the stairs...
At Japanese temples, there's usually a donation box out front, where you throw in a few coins, clap your hands, and say a short prayer. This one was a little different... The sign says "Coin-Washing White Dragon. In this pure golden water, wash and purify your feelings and the coins, and make them reach it."
Lots of people out boating.
The other side of the island looks a little different.
Isn't this guy amazing? ^_^

「何、これ？！」 WTF シリーズ 1

This post marks the inaugural issue of what I've decided to call my "WTF?! Series" where I'll showcase some of the weirdnesses with which my daily life here in Japan is inundated.
It's not going to be on any particular schedule, just whenever I feel the urge to share the WTF. ^_^

Part 1: Store SignsFirst up, a motorcycle shop that I pass sometimes on my way home from school.
Slap Speed: Speed Equipments and Evil Sounds.
"When fortune smiles, embrace her."

Next, a clothing store in Landmark Plaza. Interesting... I wanna join!

Also in Landmark, two floors above Octopus Army: They took a whole bunch of cuteness and stuck it in a blender! (or...something...)

And finally, a new coffee shop that's just opened in the side street that runs parallel to Isezaki Mall. Cafe emo: espresso and biker's. (even down to the inappropriate apostrophe!). With the light-wood paneling, cheerful colors, and pretty flowers, this place is neither emo, nor biker--leaving aside the fact that emo and bikers don't really go together to begin with... But, they've got a real live motorcycle parked out front, for authenticity!

Last, but not least, is another store sign that I've passed in World Porters more times than I can count. Don't actually have a picture of it, though I promise to post one soon:

Charm
amusing goods of unknown nationality

^_^ completely embodies the Japanese aesthetic: "It's cute, and we neither know nor pretend to care where it came from."

And that concludes the first issue of my WTF Series.
Hope you enjoyed yourself!
\(^_^)/

not タコ, but TACOS??

so, when Ben R came up to Jason and me the other day and said he knew of a good taco place near the Bandobashi shotengai that we should all go to on Friday...I just assumed he meant "tako" octopus. Because, really, this is Japan after all, and while Yokohama is a wonderfully international city, with almost any kind of food that you could hope to imagine....Mexican is still pretty darn thin on the ground--or if it does exist, really just....blech. So I just assumed Ben meant octopus.
So, imagine my surprise when Jason and I arrive at Bandobashi and find ourselves directed towards a hole-in-the-wall bearing the sign "Taco Bob's."
Bridget, Ben, Travis, and Iman were already inside, getting started. It was a teeny tiny place; the arrival of Jason and me pushed our numbers to 6 (not including the owner behind the counter), which filled up the restaurant in the most literal sense--there weren't even enough stools, so Jason had to stand!
Anyway, there were some odd parts--like the fact that for an extra 50 yen you could add "camembert cheese" to your taco--or the fact that the tacos came wrapped in this...pancake...thing....that looked oddly like a crepe. And of course, this being Japan, there was mayonnaise involved as well. BUT, the most important thing is, they actually tasted like real tacos!! The owner was really nice, too. We asked him how he learned to make tacos, to which his answer was: Well, I visited lots of different Mexican restaurants, and just figured "it's something like this." (だいたい、こんな感じ。。。)
LOL. Anyway, they were really yum, and since it's super close by, we promised to come back again.

Hanami...but not

Molly, Marshall, Ben and I met up again Saturday to go to a party in Yoyogi Park, in Tokyo. Basically the same type of deal as the hanami party, only without the excuse of pretending to be there to look at flowers, since there aren't really many sakura left anymore.
The party was hosted by "Amazon," one of the people we'd met at Satoshi's hanami party last weekend. That's obviously not his real name, but he'd lived in Brazil or somewhere for a while, and so now goes by "Amazon." lol. He's part of a samba-drumming team, so that was the ostensible purpose of the party. Although really, it just ended up as a drinking picnic.
And we weren't the only ones with this idea, either. ^_^ I took these pictures pretty early on in the day, so it was still fairly empty--it got a *lot* busier later on. Amazon and some of his friends broke out the drums and started playing for a good chunk of the party. That's "Amazon" on the right. And yes, he seems to usually dress like that. It got pretty active, too--they were giving drumming lessons, and several people came over to dance. It lasted for a while--until some self-important grandma decided we were being a nuisance and called the equivalent of the park security to come over and hush us up. (we knew it was her, because we saw her gesturing and shaking her finger at the security people after, lol).
Rikako was at the party, too, as were several other people who'd been at hanami last week. Although Satoshi was MIA, off "being an idiot" as Rikako surmised. "Baka" seems to be her favorite way to describe Satoshi (lol).
And of course, true to form, there was a 二次会 afterparty as well, although I didn't go. Had to get up pretty early to get to Yoyogi, plus I stayed up pretty late Friday night cause we had a donuts-hot cocoa-movie party at Felicia's. ^_^
But then, we actually ended up having an "afterparty" of our own, lol. Jeff's old college roommate was visiting, and Jeff wanted to show him Thrash Zone. Of course, Jeff hadn't been there yet himself, and as the place is absolutely impossible to give anyone directions to, Molly, Jason and I went along to show them the way.
Fun!

花見

This past weekend I spent doing....花見 Hanami!!!!! For those of you wondering, hanami is the Japanese tradition of cherry-blossom viewing. Which, of course, is code for "sit out in the park hopefully near some cherry blossoms, and have a big giant party with your friends." The party I went to was (if you remember) the annual bash hosted by Satoshi, who I met at that beer-tasting with Molly and Ben back at the beginning of break. And it really was a big party. It was at a park in Ichigaya, and probably close to a hundred people showed up. I went with Molly, Ben, Marshall, and Jason. Satoshi was there, in full form--black leather pants, orange shirt, bright-pink feather boa, and this sort of blue mesh cowboy-hat thing. Yeah. But it was lots of fun. I saw Rikako and Izumi again (who I'd met with Satoshi the first time), as well as make lots of new friends. And the weather was *perfect!* Here's a photo of some of the people I was hanging out with. The other gaijin, second to the left, is Zel; the one sitting to her right is my friend from before, Rikako; then Yukiko; and me. (I can't remember the name of the woman on the far left--oops. I'm bad with names). The party went on for a while--started at 11, though we got there around noon. The party broke up around 5pm, which is when we left, although Satoshi was taking numbers for an "after-party" at an izakaya nearby. LOL.
One last picture of the flowers! ^_^ Molly and everyone were meeting some other IUC-ers for Indian food and then the first drinking-in-the-park party of the year. But the reason I left was to meet up with a non-IUC friend (*gasp!*) to go to a bar in Jiyugaoka and play darts! XD My friend plays in competitions and stuff, so she was teaching me how to play. Darts became fairly popular in Japan a few years back, so there are actually lots of darts bars around the Tokyo/Yokohama area. It was lots of fun, and I caught on enough that after the first couple times, I wasn't missing the board anymore (lol). We stayed late enough that I missed my train, so my friend let me crash at her place--yay, sleepover!
So...I didn't get home til Sunday afternoon! >_<

and then there was Sunday

Of course, since Sunday, I've basically become a slug--but there are those kinds of vacations, too.
On Sunday, Molly and I heard from Ben A about a microbrew tasting going on at a bar out past Aobadai (read: kind of far). I don't know a bit about beer, and I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to the darker ones, but Molly and Ben are チョウ詳しい. Anyway, it was lots of fun.They had a variety of different beers from this one label, Green Flash. Basically, you paid 3000 yen, and got a glass and 6 beer tickets, which you could redeem for a glass each. 6 tickets, 6 beers, so the idea was to try one of each, but you could also get doubles on things if you wanted. I tried everything except the Belgian Dark Ale, cause like I said, I'm a wimp about dark beer. Although I did end up really liking the Barleywine, which despite being dark was super yum.And the bar itself had a really neat atmosphere. Totally in the middle of this residential area, not where you'd expect a bar to be, and very tiny. We also made some friends--Satoshi, Rikako, and Izumi. Ben just started talking to them, and the next thing we knew, we were headed to Kabuki-cho in Tokyo to go to Satoshi's "favorite restaurant" for dinner. And it was pretty good, despite the rather...sketchy atmosphere. Kabuki-cho is known as Tokyo's red-light district, and the restaurant we went to was in a building full of host/hostess clubs, and snack bars. Rikako and Izumi were getting kind of nervous, lol, but as Satoshi assured us, the place turned out to be really good. We all exchanged contact info, and we snagged an invite to Satoshi's annual Hanami (Flower-Viewing) party in April, which apparently (according to Satoshi at least) is quite the event. ^^
All in all, it was quite the day.

Oh, new PV as well--"Monochrome," by Bennie K, who are a female pop/rap kind of duo. I hear they actually met up while studying in L.A., which explains why their English is better than your average Japanese performer. lol.
I like this song a lot.

Field trip!

this week was actually really fun, because on Thursday we went on a field trip! well, sort of anyway. at any rate, it meant no class. of course--as is invariably the case--"no class" does not equal "sleep in," as we had to meet at the Motomachi/Chukagai station at 9:15 (normally the time I leave to go to school).
first we went to the 文学館 (Literature...Museum? yet another addition to the list of words I understand the meaning of, but only in Japanese). Which was...meh. They had exhibits about different authors, showing their drafts, or early editions of their work, stuff like that. It was ok.
we stopped in Chinatown for lunch, and that was REALLY yum. also, i discovered both a niku-man place that sells veggie-man too, AND a street of restaurants with meals actually under $10. whee! now i just have to remember how to get there.... which is more of a problem than it sounds, because Chinatown is crazy confusing. it's stuck right in the middle of Yokohama, but once you enter the gate, the streets get all windy, and all go off in different directions from the streets outside. so i invariably get lost, and wind up in the complete opposite direction from where i thought i was heading.
After lunch, we went to...the LIBRARY! hehe. which is a lot more fun than it sounds. the Yokohama central library is enormous. we went to get us all library cards made, and for sort of a research orientation for our project work. i found a lot of good books--and i discovered the library's amazing magazine selection. they have several different Japanese trade magazines about publishing and editorial, which was sooooo cool to find. i'm definitely going to start checking those out. but best of all, they also get Publisher's Weekly! so now i can start reading it again! (i had been debating buying myself an online subscripton, despite the expense, but now i don't have to!)
so, all in all it was a really fun day. although, as field trips always do, it turned out to be actually longer than a regular school day.

we made a movie!

As promised, here's the short movie we made in Business Japanese, "A Day in the Life of a New Employee". Hope everyone enjoys the embarrassment as much as we did making it. ;-P

Cast
Sarah: Outa (Japan Commerce Co, Sales Dept.) / Receptionist / Suzuki-san
Katy: New Employee
Misa: Itou (Sun Commerce, Sales Dept.)
Sean: Tanaka-san / Nomura-san / Receptionist
Staff
Director: Ari-sensei

Scene 1: First day on the job
Scene 2: Telephoning Japan Commerce Co.
Scene 3: At the receptionist for Japan Commerce
Scene 4: In the reception room
Scene 5: Exchanging business cards, Take 2 (take 1 was better...)
Scene 6: Ending the business meeting
Scene 7: Leaving the company
Scene 8: At the receptionist
Credits!

文楽 (oh! i forgot!)

Today we got out of class at 11:30, because there was a field trip! Well, only those of use who signed up went, but.
We took the train into Tokyo to the National Japan Theater to go and see a 文楽 bunraku performance. Bunraku is Japanese puppet theater, but don't go imagining Pinocchio or muppets or anything. The style of the plays and the performances themselves take a lot from Kabuki and Noh theater, and so are very traditional in that way. Just, instead of people in masks, you have puppets performing the action. The puppets are fairly large, around 3 feet tall I'd guess, and incredibly intricate and expressive. I was really amazed how much range they could give, even down to being able to pick things up with the hands, or raising and lowering the eyebrows. Each puppet is manipulated by 3 people (that's right, 3!) who carry it around onstage. The main person operates the head/face and right hand; a second person is the left hand; and the third person is the feet/legs. The main puppeteer wears a traditional hakama and kimono, but the other two people are dressed all in black, with executioner-style black hoods so you can't even see their faces. The puppets don't actually do any talking. Instead, the dialogue and narration are sung, kabuki-style, by the narrator who sits off to the side of the stage, accompanied by a shamisen player.
The beginning part of the performance was really neat--it started off with a dance performed by two puppets, and then the puppeteers came out and gave an explanation of the various movements, and how the puppets are manipulated. That was really interesting, especially talking about the differences in movement between male and female puppets, &c. After a while, you really stop seeing them as puppets in such an obvious way.
After that, they did a famous scene from one of the bunraku plays, which was interesting but extremely difficult to understand. Like I said before, all the dialogue and narration is done speak-singing style by one person, so for starters it was hard for me to get a sense of who was talking when. The lines were projected above the stage, like what's typically done in opera, but the entire play is written in old Japanese--the same as when it was originally written however-long ago. Which means that even the Japanese in the audience had rented these headphone-devices that translated the play into modern Japanese for them. So of course I had no hope of understanding anything, though we were given an English synopsis of the play.
...I have to admit i nodded off a bit. But then, so did about half of the audience--I gather that this is rather common, if not expected, especially in Noh--so I don't feel quite so bad.

Asakusa + Kyudo

This past Saturday, I went with Matsuzawa-sensei to this kyudo thing in Asakusa. I still don't exactly understand what was going on, but it was for some kind of matsuri (didn't catch the details).
At any rate, it's an annual event--I guess you'd call it a tournament, although there's no "winner" in that sense. The tournament goes over 2 days, with people showing up at the dojo all day. You sign up when you arrive, they give you a number, and then when your number comes up, you get to go and shoot 4 arrows (in kyudo, called 四つ矢 yotsuya). Like in Western archery, the arrows are scored based on where on they target they hit--although this is rather unusual in kyudo, where it's usually a question of if you hit the target, not where. Then, the people with the several highest scores (I'm not sure how many, really) get some sort of prize, and you can win a kendama if you hit the bullseye.
I met Matsuzawa-sensei at Ohkurayama, on the Toyoko-sen, and we went together from there to Asakusa (cause I would've had no idea how to get there). We arrived at the dojo a little before 3pm, and were given #406 and 407, respectively. Since they were only on #300 when we got there, we didn't actually get in to shoot until a littlel after 5. I did pretty well. It was a really small dojo, and they were shooting 6 at a time, so it was more cramped than I was used to and I kept hitting the people in front of and behind me with my bow (lol), but I managed to get 10 points! The scoring went: 3pts, 5, 7, and 10 for the bullseye--I got two 5's, first and last arrows!

After we finished shooting, Matsuzawa-sensei took me to this really amazing restaurant in Asakusa to have どじょう dojou, which is apparently a bit of an Asakusa 名物 specialty, that you can only get in a few places. This restaurant is called 駒形どぜう Komagata Dozeu (dozeu being another name for dojou), and it's been around since 1801, specializing in dojou--it's actually all they serve. It's a very nostalgic-feeling restaurant, with low tables, where you sit on cushions on the straw-mat floor. And the food is nabe-style, where you cook it over a burner at the table.
Speaking of the food, I didn't really understand what dojou was (Matsuzawa-sensei kept saying that it was "like a baby eel," but I didn't understand if that meant it was a baby eel, or just looked kind of like that...). At any rate, it tastes very similar to unagi, which I LOVE, it's one of my favorite foods, so that was enough for me. For those who are curious, I've since found out (thanks to Wikipedia, both English and Japanese versions--Japanese wikipedia is just as cool, btw) that dojou is actually a type of loach, which is a small freshwater eel.
At Komagata, they bring you a small skillet filled with dojou, which you place over the burner and then cover with negi-onions, literally to the point where there's a mountain of negi on the skillet, and you can't see the fish at all. You let it cook for a while, pouring this sauce over it, and then eat! It was really good, and I'm soooooooo thankful to Matsuzawa-sensei for taking me (and treating me). She's seriously the sweetest person ever, and has really become like a second grandma to me here, always treating me to things, giving me food, checking to make sure I'm eating properly ("not just パン bread"). ^_^

We also walked by the famous Asakusa temple on our way to the restaurant, and it was huge and really beautiful. It was night by that time, so I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I'll go back sometime, and then I promise lots of photos.

dropping like flies...

So, it seems I'm not the only one who's been having a little trouble keeping up with everything lately, and this week it all really just came to a head. I think it must be some combo of exhaustion and the extreme winter-ness which has become apparent in recent weeks. But whatever the reason, about half of IUC was sick this week. In my class alone, there were 2 people out every day this week (and not always the same two people); on Thursday, in Connor's morning class, he was the only one there; and yesterday afternoon, poor Aoki-sensei looked like he really would rather have been at home, in bed. So far all is well for me, but I'm seriously feeling like it's only a matter of time--we've all kind of got that "Who's going to be next?" feeling.

Speaking of Friday, tho, we did have a bit of a break in the no afternoon class sense. Instead, we had one of our periodic special lecture things, which this time was a movie showing. The movie is a documentary called "Yokohama Mary," all about this woman known as Yokohama Mary, who was always hanging around in Isezaki Mall (cf post about where I live!). She'd been a prostitute during the postwar period--which should give some idea of her age now--and would be wandering around in Isezaki every day. Add that to the fact that she always wore this very distinctive white makeup and costume-style clothing. So she became this very famous figure and sort of a symbol for Yokohama (sort of reminds me of the Flower Lady in New Haven). Then one day, in 1995, she disappeared, and for a while it was apparently very odd for people not to see her anymore, and there were all these rumors about where she'd gone and stuff.
So, this documentary about her (less about her than about the lives around her) was made a few years ago, and on Friday the director came to the Center to talk to us about it. We screened the movie and then there was time for questions. It was really interesting, and I enjoyed the movie more than I had expected (especially given the extremely thick vocab list we were given in lieu of subtitles).
But of course the best part was that the entire movie was shot in and around the area where I live, which was really neat--and which also tells you something about the area where I live. LoL. Even funnier was the map we were given, that sort of highlighted places featured in the film. So, on the map was Kotobuki-cho, the section of town right next to Isezaki, which is where the largest number of IUC students are living. It's a...well, "unique area" is a nice way to put it, although according to the map, Mary had named it 地獄 "hell." Which of course, all the kids living in Kotobuki-cho found extremely amusing. ^_^

Kyudo! 大会, &c

So, on the Thanksgiving note, I had to leave the party early, at around 5pm, because Friday night my kyudo club, the 若葉会 had their 月例会 monthly practice tournament. It's the third one I'd gotten to go to, and this one was a lot of fun, too. Tho cold cause it's definitely become winter here. See, the way kyudo dojos are constructed, is entirely open-air. There's a covered area where you shoot from, and then opposite is the target mound which is also covered, but in between that is open--cause, if you think about it, there kind of can't be a wall in between you and the target. LoL. Which means that it's brutal in the summertime and brutal in the wintertime. Ah, the sacrifices we make.
To give an idea, I'm inserting a picture of Meishin, the dojo I used to practice at in North Carolina. (Giving credit where credit is due, I stole the photo from their website, www.meishin.kyudo.com)Anyway, I'd been having a few rough weeks in practice lately. Matsuzawa-sensei switched me to a heavier bow (12.5 kilos from 11 before), and there was definitely an adjustment period while I built up the strength to draw it correctly. I'm still not quite there yet, but it's a *lot* better than before. So I managed to do decently at the tournament (hit 1 out of my 10 arrows--so, "decently" for me). And I got a prize! :-D In addition to the 1st place, 2nd place, and all that, they also give out several 特別賞, which basically means "special prize" which, I guess they just give to whoever they think deserves it, for whatever reason--explaining why I got one.

Saturday morning I also had another tournament! And by "morning" I mean I got to the budokan at 9am, and didn't get home til around 5pm. Also a very cold day. It was a tournament I'd signed up for about a month before and totally forgotten, but it turned out to be kind of a big thing. There were about 78 people entered, from 3 different kyudo clubs. We shot 10 arrows again, and this time I hit 2! And several of my others, even though they missed, were pretty decent shots. So I was happy about that.

What I was not so happy about is the fact that I seem to be something of a failure lately. I think my batteries are just running out from the grind of the semester. I remember back during orientation when all the sensei kept going on and on--with great enjoyment, I might add--about how heavy the workload would be, and how utterly wretched we were all going to feel. I think I'm beginning to see what they meant. On the upside, though, I've heard through the past-student grapevine that 2nd term is definitely the hardest. So, there's hope I suppose. Although it's a little early for me to be running out of steam if I'm sposed to make it until Christmas. At any rate, what prompted this tangent was the fact that I slept through my alarm on Saturday morning and so was almost late for the tournament. Well, rather than "slept through," I should say I set my alarm but forgot to turn my cell phone off of manner mode, thus rendering the whole setting-of-the-alarm thing rather moot, since it "went off" in total silence. Fortunately I woke up in time (about 15 minutes before I needed to be out the door), and all my stuff was still together from the tournament the night before, so the only bad thing was that I had to sacrifice my morning shower and coffee.

On the note of making it through the rest of the semester, I tried a new thing today. Brace yourself...
Instead of going straight home after class (where I would promptly begin a vicious cycle of goofing off lasting until around dinner) I went to a coffee shop for a few hours. And--shock of shocks--I was actually productive!! Crazy, I know. By the time I left around 7pm, I'd gotten about 75% of my work done, including the afternoon class homework, which lately I've been leaving until lunch break the day of.
I'm thinking I might need to make this a habit.

Sankeien

Wednesday we had a field trip!
I didn't really have a good idea what it was all about going in--the excuse to have a day off of class was enough for me--but it turned out to be pretty interesting (if kind of cold--which is a problem only in that cold makes me sleeeeeeepy...)
So, the Yokohama Rotary Club (I know, right) was hosted this, I guess you'd call it a cultural day, down at Sankeien Garden. Sankeien is basically this large (for Japan) cultural garden with flowers and all these old, famous buildings that some rich dude basically bought and transported here from Kyoto.
LoL.
So we all met at Negishi station at 9am (that's earlier than class usually starts! some day off...) and took taxis over to Sankeien. Some of the Rotary Club members met us there and led us over to one of the buildings (semi open-air; hence the cold) where they took turns making various 日本語らしい greetings.
The first event of the day was some gagaku, or Japanese "classical music." It was neat, lots of flutes and drums and stuff, but kind of long. The best part came after, when 3 student volunteers got to try on these craaaaazy traditional costumes that (I guess?) were worn when playing the music. Not really sure on that score, but. Anyway, here's Nick--not that you can see him, really--dressed in what was by far the coolest costume. Next on the agenda was ikebana, or flower arranging--which I'd actually done once before, at HIF (cf. the "Culture Classes" post, I think). Here's my finished product! (^-^) Then we went into another room and got to watch a sort of traditional Japanese dance. The guy explained after, that it was meant to sort of tell a story, all about these various gods and things. Once he showed what each part of the dance meant, I understood much better.
Anyway, here's a video I took of part of his dance. It got really good right after I stopped, but sadly Bazes's head kept getting in the way, so I really had to.

Next was the most fun part--for me, at least. Back when we first heard about the field trip, pretty much all they said about it was that there was going to be a part where you could try on kimonos, so of course I signed up! I figured it was going to be pretty much the same as my yukata, but it turns out this one was an actual kimono, which I'd never gotten to wear before. The process is much more involved--it took 2 people to dress me! And here's a picture of the whole group: After that, we changed back into our street clothes, bundled up, and went outside for a tour of the park. It was a nice walk, but we didn't have a whole lot of time to see things, and by that time, I think people were pretty ready to go home, so the tour part did feel a bit of a chore. But the garden was pretty: I just wish I'd been able to appreciate it more.
Oh, and as always, there are *tons* more pics from all parts of the day up at my kodakgallery.

流鏑馬 Yabusame!!

I humbly apologize in advance for the overload of pics/video that is to follow.
これからの山ほどの写真とビデオで、大変申し訳ございません。
(see, Taigu Hyougen is useful for something!)
I apologize also for the sometimes poor quality of the pics. The lighting was really weird cause of the trees, and because it was so crowded I had to hold my camera all the way up in the air to get a shot of the target...so the shots aren't terribly clean-looking.

We were worried that we'd be late for the yabusame, which was supposed to start at 1pm, but Molly and I ended up running into the procession right as it was heading out for the shooting grounds. So, you can see the horses...and now, this is the size of the target that they're actually shooting at:
I took a video of the procession of archers and assistant-people as they enter the shooting grounds for the first time.


And here they are coming back over toward the starting point:
These guys have various ceremonial roles--retrieving the arrows, fixing the target if it falls off, confirming the hit... things like that. Oh, and here's another shot of one of the archers, you can see him a bit better here. Now, for some of the actual shooting! I wish I had been able to capture still shots of the archers, but they were just going too fast. And I don't have any fancy video editing software (or any of the skills to do it) so those also I will just kind of have to post as-is.
But first off--a hit!


The next one doesn't quite make it, but he was really close!


And another hit. I swear, the most common word I heard that afternoon was "かっこいい！" and it's true!! :-D


Here's the archers riding back down to the starting point after the first round of shooting. This is when the dudes with the hats get to hand them back their arrows.


For the next round, they switched the kind of target to a (*much*) smaller one. Sorry about the next couple pics--this is where my camera battery ran out, so I was reduced to using my keitai. So I mean, I spose for a cell phone the quality's pretty good, but...
At any rate, here's the new target: It's tiny!!! And here's an extremely poor-quality video of someone actually *hitting* that tiny target! It's a little difficult to see just from the vid that he hit it, but you can definitely tell from the cheering and flag-waving, LOL.

(Wow, in retrospect, that really *is* a poor-quality video.... Oh well, I'll keep it in).

And this is the end of my blog postings for the time being. I think I've pretty much covered everything interesting that's happened over the break--and nothing interesting's likely to happen on Sunday, cause well...I have to actually start all of the homework that was assigned over the break. Yes, homework. So I foresee a day of manic studying holed up in my room (which is part of the reason I wanted to get this blog stuff taken care of now, even if it did mean staying up a little late--altho it's nothing compared to my college days. Wow, I can actually say that, huh: "my college days"...ugh that's weird...).
Ok, so I got completely and utterly off-topic there...I blame it on the lateness of the hour. Anyway, wish me luck in my studying endeavors (and not *too much* procrastination).
That's all for now. じゃ、またね。

Here endeth the 休み

Friday was the best!!!
I met up with Molly and went into Tokyo to go to the 秋大祭 Great Autumn Festival at Meiji Jingu, which is a temple built to honor the spirits of the Meiji emperor and his wife. The emperor was born in early November, so each year around his birthday they hold a huge festival at the shrine, featuring performances and exhibitions of all sorts of traditional Japanese arts and martial arts. It was really amazing, and I know I didn't even see half of the stuff that was going on today.
There was a chrysanthemum exhibition, with chrysanthemums (of course) as well as all these little bonsai things that people had made into different shapes and stuff. Really cool! And everywhere we went, there were tons of people, and lots of Japanese people dressed not just in kimono, but in these really traditional, fancy outfits like what you'd wear to a coming of age ceremony or something. It was wonderful to see! I think one place in the temple that we passed, there was actually a wedding going on. At least, that's what it looked like: And of course there were lots of foreign tourists taking endless pictures of the kids all dressed up--they were really cute, but I felt kind of sorry for them. Speaking of cute...these kids weren't dressed up, but they were so adorable I just couldn't resist! ;-P We also passed a small stage where there were some people doing a taiko drumming performance, which we only watched for a few minutes, but it was really impressive. I took a video!


And then in various locations around the grounds there was a whole bunch of different martial arts demonstrations going on. I didn't get pictures of lots of it, cause my camera battery died--so what I don't have photographic evidence of is 1) the Iaido demonstration: sort of like kendo (Japanese swordfighting) except they use real swords instead of wooden ones, so I guess you could say it's more like Japanese fencing or something; 2) a whole bunch of other martial arts that I don't really know the names for--they were fighting with wooden swords like kendo, but without armor, and there was one where instead of swords they used really long wooden staffs, and even sometimes a staff-person vs. a sword-person.
One that I did manage to get some pics of was again, something I don't know the name of. But a bunch of guys in samurai armor came out onto the field and were doing exercises firing their muskets, and there was even a cannon that went off once. I wasn't expecting it, and the BOOM scared the crap out of me.But of course the whole reason that I wanted to come to the Meiji Jingu festival in the first place was because of kyudo (--whee!!). LOL. There were actually several different kyudo things going on, but most of them were at like 9am, which when it takes an hour to get to the temple, is a bit early. So I had to sacrifice those. But the best part was, fortunately, late enough that I could get there to see it. And that is something called Yabusame. Yabusame is kyudo done from horseback--they ride at breakneck speed toward the target, and then shoot as the horse runs past it, without stopping. I had heard about it, and seen pictures, but never thought I would actually get the chance to see it in person--so when I heard about the Meiji Jingu festival (thank you, Amy!!!) I was about as thrilled as it's possible to be.
...And as I'm writing this, and thinking about the million pictures and videos that I took today...I'm realizing that this post will get even longer than the last one. So in the name of economy, I think I'll cut this post off here, and then resume the Yabusame ecstasies in a new post. So until then... ;-D

A parade of what?

So, this will be the first in a series of posts about my totally amazing 秋休み。First off, is the "Quiet Shamisen Parade." And what exactly is a quiet shamisen parade?--you might be asking. I was wondering pretty much the same thing when I went to go see it.
The parade was in honor of some festival (I think?), and was held over in 祐天寺 Yutenji--Minato Mirai sen, on the way to Shibuya. 祐天寺 is apparently known for shamisen parades (or so I heard). Anyway, I went to see the parade with Paul--not an IUC student, but he's Amy L's roommate, and so has kind of become IUC by default. Paul's friend Kyoka (Japanese, but he met her in LA working at a radio station, I think?) is sort of an experimental musician/singer (I've heard her music described as "weird" or "out there") but she apparently also takes shamisen lessons--hence the parade. It was basically a whole bunch of people in kimonos and traditional Japanese dress, either playing the shamisen, singing, or doing traditional dances while they paraded down the street.
It was a really neat thing to see, and 祐天寺 is a bit of an old-fashioned sort of area so the whole thing had this really traditional, nostalgic feel to it. Made even more so by the hole in the wall ramen place that Paul and I ate dinner at after. We sat and chatted, waiting for Kyoka, and then went over with her to this sort of "after party" for the parade participants. It was held in a big room in a nearby kindergarten, which meant that we were all sitting on those preschooler-size mini chairs with our knees up in our chins, drinking beer and eating yakitori skewers. It was rather an odd experience. :-) Especially the part when the dude who was sort of in charge of the parade told me that I had "very pretty teeth." (Umm...OK.....?)

And now, for some more photos!

Paul and Kyoka.

Here's another one of Kyoka playing shamisen in the parade.

I just really liked this woman's kimono.

And now, for videos!!!


And next is one I took that lets you see a little more of the dancing.

OK, here goes... (The first of many)

First off, to wrap up my last few weeks in Hakodate! :-) す～ごく楽しかったよ。
The culture classes and community activities continued, and were lots of fun! Sorry I don't have pictures of everything, but-- First off was ikebana (flower arranging) which was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. I think it would have been nice to have more than just the one hour, but it was interesting to get to try it for ourselves. Here's mine! (left)
My favorite was shodo (calligraphy) which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of. It was at nearby Nishi High School, and we were able to go to it for two days. The sensei there was a really charismatic teacher, and I thought the class was lots of fun. On the second day, a few people got to try out writing characters on the several-feet by several-feet papers outside, and we all got to write a character on fancy hard board to take home. I wrote 嬉, the character for "happy." :-D



We also got to try out soba and mochi making at a nearby soba shop, which was great (especially the part where they fed us all loads of it after!). People took turns pounding the mochi dough with this huge mallet (see picture)--why I'm not sure, but it seemed to be the proper mochi-making method. And I got to help break the dough into balls so that it could be dipped in all the mochi-topping goodness. We didn't get to stay for much of the soba part, because that was also the day that J.E. Dean Farley and his wife came to visit all us Light-ies and take us out to an absolutely fantastic dinner (thank you, Light Fellowship!).

The last few weeks also hosted the HIF speech contest. We had a mini-contest earlier, in the first semester, and out of that 2 students from each class were picked to compete in the final speech contest (me, yay!). The Yalies represented--I managed to get second place in the advanced-class division--and Rex Isenberg got first in the intermediate-class division~go Yalies, whee~!



The final, really nice thing was that on my last night in Hakodate, my host family surprised me with a cake to celebrate my birthday--which, incidentally, was today. :-) It was personalized and everything, and just really made my night. Yet another reason why host families are definitely the way to go!