Category: Japan

Aaaaahhhh. So it’s taken me all of four months to decide. but japan is a strange place indeed. From the TV shows to the general everyday lives I just don’t get it. It sure is amusing though!!! Here’s the address of a clip from a popular TV show.
Click IT!!!!!! and although I haven’t seen this actual clip I have seen this show quite a few times…. All of which are nearly as enlightening.

The general rule of thumb is to keep your head down and accept whatever cards are dealt. If you find yourself in a bad situation you’re pretty much expected to deal with it in whatever way you can and to do your best not to make any waves. I suppose that that can be an admirable quality when you’re living in such a restricted society, but I just don’t get it. With so much to rebel against people still somehow manage to rebel in a very uniform way. There’s hardly any unique forms of rebellion. It’s a strange place…….

Well, I don’t have too much to report – not even any new pictures to share…… But I was starting to feel like I was neglecting the blog so I thought I’d type some nonsense in an effort to fill up some space. My roommate Kerry and I joined a gym last week. She went for the first time this morning (her day off today) and I went this evening when I finished work. I am TIRED!!! We’re both running out of energy what with using it all putting on a show every forty minutes at work and the huge amounts of beer that we regularly consume probably don’t help very much either. Hopefully working out’ll help in some kind of way.

Last week I went to Kanayama (near Nagoya port) to the Nagoya-Boston Museum of Art. It’s a smallish museum that has a partnership with the Boston Museum of Art so they rotate through a new exhibit every few months. Now there’s a history of portrait paintings from the 15th century up to the 20th century. Here’s the English page of their website: http://www.nagoya-boston.or.jp/english/eng1.htm I spent around two hours there. There was a whole lotta amazing artists: Cezanne, Titian, Rembrandt, Picasso, Degas, Van Gogh, and a ton of others I can’t remember now but that who’s names I recognized. Even though I’m not much for painting it was great to study their techniques. We’ll see if I can apply any of it to my drawing.

Japanese TV is EXTREMELY weird. I keep forgetting to buy a video tape so I can record some of it. I don’t even know where to start describing it, so I’m just going to give up. But rest assured, it’s weird. We probably catch something totally off the wall once a week. After I start video taping then I’ll have to figure out how to get it onto a DVD so I can share the love. and laughs…. And then you can feel just as clueless about the Japanese language as I do every day!!!

Today was the coldest day so far since I’ve been here. It’s a whopping 64 degrees!!! Yargh!!! I’m going to have to go shopping for a winter jacket pretty soon. I’ve discovered that I’m a medium or a large size in most Japanese clothes!! Heheheh. Yet another reason to go to the gym I guess. But, at least I can actually buy clothes here. Oh and my feet are also a size medium or large in Japanese shoes. One of my roommates is a LL and the other is a LLL (which there is no such thing here apparently). :-P Strangely enough though, most of the shoes are really wide, so it’s still tough to find a good fit…..

Well, I’m actually surprised at how long this is…. Who knew that miscellaneous information with no well-defined point to it could effectively fill such a large area? Ooh, and a funny website: http://www.venganza.org/ I’ve decided to become a Pastafarian. RAmen. Teehee. Oyasuminasai!!!!!!! [Goodnight!]

So, of course there’s more stuff that just doesn’t fit nicely into a big long post but I HAVE to share it with you. :) Further explanations are found by clicking on the pictures of course, except for my EXTREME makeover at the bottom. :-P

Chika used to be on the Japanese staff at Nova but she quit recently to go to beauty school and be a professional hair and makup artist! So I had to offer to let her practice on me and practice she did!! She spent around an hour fixing me up. This was also the day after I got my first haircut in Japan (frightening! but no problems) so she gave me a cutie hairstyle too. She’s quite the artist……

Wow, so after a LONG delay I am finally going to write a post about my trip to Tokyo… :-) It seems like so long ago – and, in fact, it has already been a month since I went! I left Nagoya on Tuesday, August 8th and took the shinkansen to Tokyo. I arrived at around 9pm and met Sister Morinaga for the first time (yes, she’s a nun). She was SO sweet to invite me to stay with her at her niece’s house outside of Tokyo. The first day (Wednesday) Hitomi (the niece’s 14 year old daughter) chaperoned me all around Tokyo. First we went to Ueno, then Asakusa, then Ginza, then Roppongi, then Harajuku and finally passed thru Shinjuku to go back to the house utterly exhausted!!! Pics below…..

So, in case you missed it, the play by play for the first day’s adventure is in each thumbnail. Yes, you have to click on the picture if you want to get the story. :-P So, after a fantastic dinner cooked by my hosts and a good night’s rest I was off and running for my second day. I now felt MUCH more comfortable with the various strands of spaghetti strewn across the city that they affectionately refer to as a subway system. Especially since Hitomi had found me an english map of the subways. It had rained pretty much the whole first day (but we still walked around in it) but the second day was hot and muggy.

Sister Morinaga was on her way to Kamakura for a retreat so she and I left early in the morning and took a train towards Shinjuku. It was the local train so it stopped at every single stop and we leisurely made our way to Shinjuku. She doesn’t really leave the grounds of the convent other than for a retreat or to teach at another school so she went walking with me in Shinjuku. We went to the governement building and took in the panoramic views of the city (amazing!). And then we walked a bit in the park too. Then we parted ways at the subway station and I headed back to Ginza for one last walk around before heading back. I went to two small museums (one for calligraphy and the other for pottery). I had intended to go back to Ueno to see the museum but started feeling like crap in the afternoon (due to rain the previous day) so hopped on the shinkansen around 3pm and headed back to Nagoya. Pictures of my Thursday adventures:

And that’s the end of my Tokyo adventure. Of course I went back to Nagoya and had to work the next day. Had a fever and thought I was going to pass out at work…. And then I lost my voice over the next two days!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!! I’m sure I’ll go back and check out Tokyo again before I leave but in all honesty – it was depressing. So busy and claustrophobic. The only place people actually looked happy was in Harajuku. And that’s just cause they were rebelling. It was an interesting contrast to see so many labels and brand names and couture things and then to actually see homeless people in Japan. Felt a little like America. People weren’t really any friendlier than in Nagoya, though my Japanese skills don’t exactly help the situation very much.

And I’m back! After a (big) technical snafu I can now access my blog again. (Thanks Sebastien!) :) So I’m long overdue for my post about Oiden – this is a yearly summer festival that is held in Toyota on the last weekend of July. On Friday and Saturday they do a huge dance production and Sunday there are fireworks and most everyone dresses in yukata (cotton summer kimono). The dancing part is not at all what you’d expect. People organize into teams and choreograph aerobics-like dances to the same music (which is blared all over Toyota City) and wear the same costumes. They dance in the middle of the streets and move very slowly in a great big loop around the city. The dancing continues for around 3 hours and apparently there are judges because some of the teams get awarded cash prizes at the end of it all. The costumes are also surprising. I guess this is the time of year for people to shed their conservative button downed image. It looked like Miami on Halloween! Everywhere you looked there were half naked people – anything you could think of, they were there. So here are some photos of the first two days of Oiden:

Ah, so many memories. Goofy people and wide eyed foreigners… So then there were fireworks the following day! And most everyone from Nova went to see them. I took a TON of pictures but edited them down to what you see here.

In quite a few of the pictures you can see the bridge that goes to Toyota stadium (especially in the second to last picture). The show lasted abour an hour and a half. Pretty cool!!! :)

SO, it was my birthday on the 24th (Monday) and we decided to go out on Sunday night. Nova closes a little early on Sundays, so it seemed sensible. A few students had recommended an Irish pub called Rickey’s which is in Toyota – about a 3 minute walk from Nova. Just about everyone from work went. Even the Japanese staff who got off later than we did. It was a lot of fun! Especially because I didn’t have to pay for anything… Thanks guys!!! :) Photos with explanations below:

And then I had the pleasure of working on my actual birthday, but that was ok. Neither bad nor good. Kerry took a trip to Osaka on Monday and Lisa was extremely nice and cooked me dinner Monday night (spaghetti!!!) and had bought me a little strawberry mousse tart thingie from a bakery.