Every Band's Got to Have a Drummer
Jul. 19th, 2010 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foolish_m0rtalOkay! OH MAN am I tired!
Yesterday the international communications group went to play futsal. (We lost, but it's okay! T_T)
(top left to right) There's Tomonori-san looking dangerous (he played football for ten years), Tomoyo-san, Sato
(bottom left to right) Nikolay the Russian student and...some guy I'd never met before. Apparently he's married. He and his wife are Muslim, and in the ladies changing room, she got out her mat for her daily prayer on schedule. I was very impressed! That is dedication. The only thing I was sad about was that none of the Muslim girls wanted to play, because it was very hot, and their clothing probably made it hotter for them.
Yes, I have to hold in a laugh every time I call him Tomonori-san. Worse yet, I met him and a guy called Sakurai on the same day. XXD Oh anime, you will be the international incident of me.
Then we split up, and Tomoaki and I went to Ueno Park, because we'd both never been all the way around it before. We went to some shrines and the National Museum, which I still maintain is not as good as the Edo-Tokyo museum, no matter what freaking Lonely Planet says. Edo-Tokyo is more...absorbing, whereas the National Museum, although beautiful and full of history, is just looking at things through glass like pinned bugs. I definitely enjoyed the Edo-Tokyo Museum more.
We went out to dinner at a soba place, where Tomoaki instructed me in the customs of eating soba. There is a cup of sauce for dunking the soba and tempura, and a teapot full of water that was used to boil the soba. After finished all the food, you are supposed to fill the cup with the used soba water and drink it off like soup. It was really good!
On the way back home, I heard a lot of strange loud noises coming from around the kyu kyu (99 yen shop, you get EVERYTHING!). I thought, oh, just another one of those loud karaoke people again. But it was really loud and definitely not a pop song. So I decided to be nosy and check it out- there was a freaking city FESTIVAL going on behind the kyu kyu. (WHAT?)
There was an old woman's dance (so elegant!), a young men's dance (yessss) except not a lot of young men were interested, so some of them were crossdressing women (fine by me!) and then a children's dance. There were two sets of drums (taiko), one in front of the stage and one on top of a tower in the middle of the stage, where young children would climb and do shifts playing the drum. The drummers up front were intense, man! Especially the women. I think instead of having a singer they had a tape so they could play the same songs again for the next cycle without tiring out the singer.
I was standing there awkwardly watching the dancing until this incredibly nice old man named Yamizaki came and told me in Japanese that I should dance. I was like nooo! Then he went away. An hour later, he was back, apparently convinced I was one of those dedicated gaijin not just snapping pictures of the 'weird locals.' He gave me one of the free flavoured snow cones (which I wasn't sure if I was allowed to eat) and was like, "Here, eat this."
We talked kind of painfully in Japanese for a while, and he said it was too bad I couldn't speak English. (Because he asked me what nationality I was, so naturally I said Indian). I said no, I spoke English. So of course like all other elderly men in Japan, he started speaking in perfect English. He told me about the dancers and the festival, and then invited me to the Urawa festival the next day, where his group would be dancing. SUCH a nice man, Yamizaki-san!
Apparently there are now guys on our floor? Anna, my Russian friend totally confused Uliana and me by telling us there were three guys on our floor and three couples living near her. ("There are sometimes some...ah, suspicious noises.") We were like, "Uh? I haven't seen three couples walking around."
Anna: "No, one of the couples are men."
Me: "Ah. Oh."
Uliana: *careless European shrug and smirk*
Anna: *careless European shrug back* "They are French." (as if this explains everything)
(We all laugh. French jokes? Guys?)
Anna: "And one of the other couples are women."
I like how unruffled Europeans are about this. If this were brought up around the American people that live here, there would be a lot of outrageous things said and many uncomfortable jokes. Really? Guys? I know Americans aren't like this, especially young Americans- everyone is quite tolerant. Stop making such a big noise about it.
Like during the World Cup, one of the guys from...I want to say the Slovakian team scored a goal and did the sliding thing on his knees. And then one of his teammates slid down on the grass in front of him, and they screamed and glomped and fell over. Then the entire team piled on top of them. Ahaha, it was hilarious, and really cute.
But of course the American guys in the room ruined it and started making vaguely homophobic comments really loudly. Come on, dudes. It's not necessary, and you don't need to say these kind of things to make yourselves feel comfortable about it. I know they're joking, and the fact that they make jokes about it kind of shows they don't mean it. But I understand this, because I understand gruff American sarcasm. Other people DON'T, and you come off as complete assholes. Arg!
Right.
So the next day I got up early to go to Shibuya and Harajuku, like I'd planned. I DO actually recommend just randomly walking around Shibuya. I got completely turned around and had lots of fun. I went south instead of north and ended up walking to Ebisu rather than Harajuku. Yes, I DO recommend walking to these places rather than taking the train, especially since Shibuya and Harajuku are so close, and you can see lots of cool shops on your way. And you can see the famous Shibuya scramble right outside the station. (Go out of the Hachiko exit to go anywhere in Shibuya)
dear person who put this on Wikipedia: I don't know where and when you had to place yourself to get this picture, but good for you! Mine sucks!
One shop I recommend going into is the Tokyu Hands store. It's a lot of do it yourself stuff for EVERYTHING. They've got things from bicycle accessories to weather gear, travel bags, stationary, exercise equipment, linens, bath, electronics like lights and clocks, framing, science equipment like dinosaur models and chemistry equipment. It's really cool and worth checking out! They even have a hobby shop on the 8th floor where they have tiny plastic models for train enthusiasts, games for children, movable papercraft. SO cool. I bought these adorable erasers from stationary which I'm never going to use. They're in the exact shape down to the detail of Japanese food and desserts. Oh my GOD, kawaiiiiii.
So then I walked to Harajuku and of course caught the fashionistas on Jinja bridge. It felt really...strange. They were all in a corner and people were just standing around taking pictures. It felt too much like a zoo? And there weren't too many people, maybe eight. (this was Sunday afternoon). I also went to the Meiji shrine, which was nice, but it was way too much people and a lot of foreigners. I washed my hands at the common station and went in with my 5 yen piece to pray, and the Japanese were like WAT, you're not just going to stand there taking pictures of our strange ways? Some people were doing that, and it's like...I KNOW it's interesting for you and different, but come on, how would you feel if people came in and started photographing you in church? I've dealt with this at the Hindu temple, so I understand.
Oooh, there was a wedding going on while we were there too!
So...Meiji temple is pretty, but I recommend going to Asakusa or another less...marketed temple? Again, it didn't seem very sacred, it seemed more like a photo place for foreigners. I felt really weird being there.
Then I took the train back to Urawa, where I enjoyed the festival immensely. There were dancers representing every major city in Saitama, and lots of delicious roadside stand food. I bought takoyaki, some cold oolong tea, baby castella cakes, and some kind of round food on a stick that I thought was dango, but tasted like it had once been a part of some kind of animal. It tasted like the gelatinous parts. I'm not...exactly sure what it was. The basic parade was a long street with drummers set up on a stage at the end. The people in the parade would go down the street until they met the drummers, and then they would peel off to some side street to go change and see the festival.
I ran into Yamizaki-san again, and he was really happy that I came and told me about other events in Saitama. All the groups were really interesting.
At the end there was a freaking DRAGON float that breathed steam at people! and there were drummers on top of it. It stopped in front of the drummers' stage at the end of the street, and they had a taiko-off! ^_^ If there is some ancient Japanese rock-fist, I am doing it right now!
Then I was really REALLY tired from Saturday and Sunday, so I came back, had a hot shower, had some Sapporo beer on my balcony (forget Yebisu and Suntory. I still say Sapporo is the best. This is from someone who doesn't even LIKE beer that much). And now I'm done and ready to go to sleep. Whew, what a weekend. Now that it's close to time for me to leave Japan, I've definitely taken what The Strokes have said to heart: "Why not try it all if you only remember it once?"
Yesterday the international communications group went to play futsal. (We lost, but it's okay! T_T)
(top left to right) There's Tomonori-san looking dangerous (he played football for ten years), Tomoyo-san, Sato
(bottom left to right) Nikolay the Russian student and...some guy I'd never met before. Apparently he's married. He and his wife are Muslim, and in the ladies changing room, she got out her mat for her daily prayer on schedule. I was very impressed! That is dedication. The only thing I was sad about was that none of the Muslim girls wanted to play, because it was very hot, and their clothing probably made it hotter for them.
Yes, I have to hold in a laugh every time I call him Tomonori-san. Worse yet, I met him and a guy called Sakurai on the same day. XXD Oh anime, you will be the international incident of me.
Then we split up, and Tomoaki and I went to Ueno Park, because we'd both never been all the way around it before. We went to some shrines and the National Museum, which I still maintain is not as good as the Edo-Tokyo museum, no matter what freaking Lonely Planet says. Edo-Tokyo is more...absorbing, whereas the National Museum, although beautiful and full of history, is just looking at things through glass like pinned bugs. I definitely enjoyed the Edo-Tokyo Museum more.
We went out to dinner at a soba place, where Tomoaki instructed me in the customs of eating soba. There is a cup of sauce for dunking the soba and tempura, and a teapot full of water that was used to boil the soba. After finished all the food, you are supposed to fill the cup with the used soba water and drink it off like soup. It was really good!
On the way back home, I heard a lot of strange loud noises coming from around the kyu kyu (99 yen shop, you get EVERYTHING!). I thought, oh, just another one of those loud karaoke people again. But it was really loud and definitely not a pop song. So I decided to be nosy and check it out- there was a freaking city FESTIVAL going on behind the kyu kyu. (WHAT?)
There was an old woman's dance (so elegant!), a young men's dance (yessss) except not a lot of young men were interested, so some of them were crossdressing women (fine by me!) and then a children's dance. There were two sets of drums (taiko), one in front of the stage and one on top of a tower in the middle of the stage, where young children would climb and do shifts playing the drum. The drummers up front were intense, man! Especially the women. I think instead of having a singer they had a tape so they could play the same songs again for the next cycle without tiring out the singer.
I was standing there awkwardly watching the dancing until this incredibly nice old man named Yamizaki came and told me in Japanese that I should dance. I was like nooo! Then he went away. An hour later, he was back, apparently convinced I was one of those dedicated gaijin not just snapping pictures of the 'weird locals.' He gave me one of the free flavoured snow cones (which I wasn't sure if I was allowed to eat) and was like, "Here, eat this."
We talked kind of painfully in Japanese for a while, and he said it was too bad I couldn't speak English. (Because he asked me what nationality I was, so naturally I said Indian). I said no, I spoke English. So of course like all other elderly men in Japan, he started speaking in perfect English. He told me about the dancers and the festival, and then invited me to the Urawa festival the next day, where his group would be dancing. SUCH a nice man, Yamizaki-san!
Apparently there are now guys on our floor? Anna, my Russian friend totally confused Uliana and me by telling us there were three guys on our floor and three couples living near her. ("There are sometimes some...ah, suspicious noises.") We were like, "Uh? I haven't seen three couples walking around."
Anna: "No, one of the couples are men."
Me: "Ah. Oh."
Uliana: *careless European shrug and smirk*
Anna: *careless European shrug back* "They are French." (as if this explains everything)
(We all laugh. French jokes? Guys?)
Anna: "And one of the other couples are women."
I like how unruffled Europeans are about this. If this were brought up around the American people that live here, there would be a lot of outrageous things said and many uncomfortable jokes. Really? Guys? I know Americans aren't like this, especially young Americans- everyone is quite tolerant. Stop making such a big noise about it.
Like during the World Cup, one of the guys from...I want to say the Slovakian team scored a goal and did the sliding thing on his knees. And then one of his teammates slid down on the grass in front of him, and they screamed and glomped and fell over. Then the entire team piled on top of them. Ahaha, it was hilarious, and really cute.
But of course the American guys in the room ruined it and started making vaguely homophobic comments really loudly. Come on, dudes. It's not necessary, and you don't need to say these kind of things to make yourselves feel comfortable about it. I know they're joking, and the fact that they make jokes about it kind of shows they don't mean it. But I understand this, because I understand gruff American sarcasm. Other people DON'T, and you come off as complete assholes. Arg!
Right.
So the next day I got up early to go to Shibuya and Harajuku, like I'd planned. I DO actually recommend just randomly walking around Shibuya. I got completely turned around and had lots of fun. I went south instead of north and ended up walking to Ebisu rather than Harajuku. Yes, I DO recommend walking to these places rather than taking the train, especially since Shibuya and Harajuku are so close, and you can see lots of cool shops on your way. And you can see the famous Shibuya scramble right outside the station. (Go out of the Hachiko exit to go anywhere in Shibuya)
dear person who put this on Wikipedia: I don't know where and when you had to place yourself to get this picture, but good for you! Mine sucks!
One shop I recommend going into is the Tokyu Hands store. It's a lot of do it yourself stuff for EVERYTHING. They've got things from bicycle accessories to weather gear, travel bags, stationary, exercise equipment, linens, bath, electronics like lights and clocks, framing, science equipment like dinosaur models and chemistry equipment. It's really cool and worth checking out! They even have a hobby shop on the 8th floor where they have tiny plastic models for train enthusiasts, games for children, movable papercraft. SO cool. I bought these adorable erasers from stationary which I'm never going to use. They're in the exact shape down to the detail of Japanese food and desserts. Oh my GOD, kawaiiiiii.
So then I walked to Harajuku and of course caught the fashionistas on Jinja bridge. It felt really...strange. They were all in a corner and people were just standing around taking pictures. It felt too much like a zoo? And there weren't too many people, maybe eight. (this was Sunday afternoon). I also went to the Meiji shrine, which was nice, but it was way too much people and a lot of foreigners. I washed my hands at the common station and went in with my 5 yen piece to pray, and the Japanese were like WAT, you're not just going to stand there taking pictures of our strange ways? Some people were doing that, and it's like...I KNOW it's interesting for you and different, but come on, how would you feel if people came in and started photographing you in church? I've dealt with this at the Hindu temple, so I understand.
Oooh, there was a wedding going on while we were there too!
So...Meiji temple is pretty, but I recommend going to Asakusa or another less...marketed temple? Again, it didn't seem very sacred, it seemed more like a photo place for foreigners. I felt really weird being there.
Then I took the train back to Urawa, where I enjoyed the festival immensely. There were dancers representing every major city in Saitama, and lots of delicious roadside stand food. I bought takoyaki, some cold oolong tea, baby castella cakes, and some kind of round food on a stick that I thought was dango, but tasted like it had once been a part of some kind of animal. It tasted like the gelatinous parts. I'm not...exactly sure what it was. The basic parade was a long street with drummers set up on a stage at the end. The people in the parade would go down the street until they met the drummers, and then they would peel off to some side street to go change and see the festival.
I ran into Yamizaki-san again, and he was really happy that I came and told me about other events in Saitama. All the groups were really interesting.
At the end there was a freaking DRAGON float that breathed steam at people! and there were drummers on top of it. It stopped in front of the drummers' stage at the end of the street, and they had a taiko-off! ^_^ If there is some ancient Japanese rock-fist, I am doing it right now!
Then I was really REALLY tired from Saturday and Sunday, so I came back, had a hot shower, had some Sapporo beer on my balcony (forget Yebisu and Suntory. I still say Sapporo is the best. This is from someone who doesn't even LIKE beer that much). And now I'm done and ready to go to sleep. Whew, what a weekend. Now that it's close to time for me to leave Japan, I've definitely taken what The Strokes have said to heart: "Why not try it all if you only remember it once?"
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Date: 2010-07-19 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 04:20 pm (UTC)I'd like to think I'd not be snapping photos where inappropriate but know I'd be someone looking on wishing I understood more.
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Date: 2010-08-26 01:25 am (UTC)XDDD
Our fandom is epic~