February 8, 2004

• Naked Men to Tokyo

  Well, it’s been a while since my last post and I have quite a bit to cover… Let’s go in order:

  1) 500 Men in Loincloths
  The Hadaka Matsuri was quite fun to watch. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to catch sight of Shaun and the others; but there being about 500+ other men in loincloths all around the place cuts down your chances of spotting three in particular. I got some interesting pictures, but there are ass-shots a-plenty, and there ain’t too much decent enough to show. This is about the best I can do:
  
  

  Though this doesn’t do justice. I mean, you can’t even tell they’re having cold water splashed over them. Yeah… cold water… in February… and they’re wearing white loincloths.

  So ignoring the image that might conjure up, I have to say I’ve always loved the Japanese festival atmosphere. Naked men aside. Everyone’s so relaxed, just there to have fun, and you don’t have that work-work-work ethic that’s become a (not entirely accurate) common Japanese stereotype. Plus of course, there was the food… my favourite part. We managed to cover three of the five staples: choco-banana, castera, and taiyaki (but, unfortunately, we didn’t get around to some ika / tako-yaki nor okonomiyaki). There’s just something indescribable about fresh castera… in Pikachu form.

  2) Izakaya Roughly Translates to “This Be a Liquor Shop”
  But of course, I don’t drink. Though I did enjoy some matcha ice cream and a fruit parfait. I mean, who doesn’t like parfait? You ever met someone you asked “Hey you want a parfait” and they said “hell no, I don’t like parfait!”? ‘Course the parfait was pretty cheap… 75% of it being comprised of Corn Flakes.

  Friday night we hit up an Izakaya near Yagoto in the evening. Like I said, I don’t drink, but all your friends being around still makes it quite enjoyable without the alcohol. It ended up being maybe twenty people in total–mostly IES, and honorary IES. Plus that two-hour-total of walking throughout the entire day felt quite nice. I returned home after midnight for the first time in my stay here. My host mother of course had no problem; did I mention already that my host family is perfect? I thought so…

  3) Night Buses Don’t Work for Insomniacs
  I’m back in Tokyo now at my uncle’s place. Next week is a long break, so all of us are splitting off in different directions–mostly where we can manage free lodging, heh. So, I came here the cheap way by a night bus on Saturday, arriving here about 6 in the AM Sunday.

  Night buses are a pretty good idea, by the way. Half the cost of a shinkansen ticket, plus the idea is it leaves around 11PM so you can sleep the whole way there. It would’ve worked out perfectly except for one caveat: I can’t sleep on buses.

  Not just buses, either… Physically, I’ve never been able to sleep on airplanes, trains, or any other mode of transport. That includes those red-eye Europe-bound flights… and the flight over here from Japan. Yeah, I just drink enough coffee and find some way to keep myself occupied because no matter how damned tired I am, I won’t fall asleep.

  When I finally arrived, I spent half an hour looking for a bloody toilet, and another half an hour taking the train to Shibuya and heading on to my uncle’s place… Then I had a nice four-hour nap. I’m well-refreshed now.

  4) New Pictures, New Engrish, and Rice Bowl Journals Link
  If you haven’t noticed, I have a couple of new pictures on the right, and added another photo to my Engrish gallery–which is now open, if you haven’t checked out the link to the right (or just go to Kizyr’s Engrish Gararii here).

  Also, in other better news, I’m now up at Rice Bowl Journals. I have a link to the left also. If you’re unfamiliar with it, RBJ is an online journal community for the general Asian diaspora, second-gens, etc. It’s a good collection of blogs and the like, and even Onigiriman-sensei is high up on the list there. Be sure to click the links from this site–I get votes that way {^^}. I may post more on that later

  For now, though, it’s getting a little late and I’m tired again from being around all day. There’s still quite a bit more I’d like to cover, but it’s general stuff and I can save it for later. ‘Til then, and have a good break for all the other Nanzan-sei. KF

  • 8:53 am
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