The Touristy Thing With The Jenns

The day after carolling in Mineyama, Jen in Ine invited English JET Jenni and I to her place for FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist), Indian flat bread and whiskey night. Well the whiskey turned into umeshu but we more or less stuck to our plans. Jen picked me up and we drove the 40 minutes to Ine after stocking up on food at Otokoyama (Man Mountain, which seems to have more old women than anything) to meet up with Jenni. It was a good old fashioned girls night with the conversation constantly slipping towards politics and society both of which I know next to nothing but my own, but they found it interesting to hear what race relations were like in NZ (for some weird reason). Then it was anime watching well into the night before collapsing into bed in a umeshued heap while ushering gejigeji outside.

The next day dawned bright and sunny so we headed to the one thing we hadn't done that the area was famous for – viewing Amanohashidate from the mountains. As we left her house I looked up to the mountains around the town and noticed a waterfall descending off of the face of the hill. This waterfall only appears after a heavy rain and there was even a viewing point a little down the road which gave the best view of it.

The cloud never disappears from the hills. Ever.

The famous Ass station at Ine. It was an ugly morning...

... But cleared up as we hit Hioki.

We drove to Kasamatsu a place I pass nearly everyday to work, where I always see tourists but have never bothered to stop, and climbed the narrow streets past the small souvenir shops to the cable car that would take us to the top. There is a chairlift that also goes up and it's an extreme chairlift – no safety bars – but that was unfortunately out of order that day. The cables cars ride the same track but at a point in the middle the track diverges into two and the cars pass each other.

It's coming straight for us!

At the top we did the touristy thing with the photo of the head between the knees (this is the way to view the land bridge so it looks like it's namesake, Amanohashidate – bridge to the Heavens, and it does kind of look like it's ascending to the clouds when viewed upside down), and throwing things through the hoop that stands on the side of the hill for good luck. We met many families here and a group of old men going on an excursion, and tasted the famous dango of the area which tasted like it was soaked in beer flavoured caramel.

Take that Hashidate!

The autumn leaves were on full display and as there were periods of showers a full semi-circle rainbow appeared.

Rainbow!

We wanted to finish off our day with some ramen so we headed for the ramen place Jen and I pass to go to work but on that particular night we walked in and found a group of people surrounding a little platform with a guitarist and drummer jamming. There would be no ramen that night but we were invited to stay and listen which we politely refused and went in search for ramen in Miyazu. We found a tiny little place in the old cobbled area of Miyazu owned by an old man who made us some curry ramen which was good but the noodles needed to have had more time to soften in the water before making it great. Jenni left us at some stage before our food was ready as she needed to be home but this day struck one more thing off of the Miyazu tourist circuit we had yet to do.

And So The Damn Stupid Season Begins

I'm not a fan of Christmas. In fact I'd go so far as to say I loathe it. The last time I was in Japan I managed to avoid it almost completely as it's not widely celebrated and I had school that day so I was able to miss out on most of it. This year however, being surrounded by a lot more foreigners than last time, I was unable to hide from the garish abundance of red and green completely. The first onslaught came when Welsh JET Jo decided to organise a carolling outing for us around Mineyama. We assembled at her house on Friday 2^nd December in our gay apparel, some gayer than others, and chowed down on mince pies and biscuits as we practised our singing with mouths full. We had a list of places that had requested we sing there but we knew we couldn't fulfil all of them in one night together so we split into two groups, the town group and the temple group and piled into the cars. Our first stop was Mineyama Station where all of us sung and Jo handed out little printed books of the programme for us and the innocent bystanders subject to our attempts at singing. Song number one was the Twelve Days of Christmas. We didn't actually take into account how long this song actually is when you go through all of the days, and so the people who had invited us to sing at the station waited patiently for us to move onto the next song, but the young delinquents who had stumbled upon our show of goodwill thought it was the perfect excuse to practise their truly wretched singing. 

At Mineyama Station. After the 7th day of Christmas, as expected,
the locals were getting sore feet.

From here we went to our assigned places and because I was in the temple group we travelled outside of town and a little into the hills to a large temple where a old priest and his daughter's family lived and here they got the Condensed Twelve Days of Christmas where they have to do without the presents for a while but on the 12^th day they are given an onslaught of presents and they scarcely know what do with this ridiculous number of birds, little boys, girls off the farm and finicky lords. Other fabulous hits included Rocking and/or Rolling Around The Christmas Tree and Walking In a Slushy Winter Wonderland.

Temple Group decked out in their gay apparel.

We were supposed to meet up with the others at this stage at Yukari's house but Diana thought the photos she took of us with the candles looked cool so we spent the next half an hour taking pictures of each other holding candles and looking lovingly into each others eyes, and when we could no longer feel our toes we moved on to Yukari's house. The other group had arrived back well before us and so a party was in full swing as we stumbled in through the door of Yukari's home and English school and had a glass of wine poured for us and more snacks prepared. We stayed here drinking until the wee small hours with a trip to McDonald's for chips at some stage. As we walked back to Jo's house one of the boys who had sung along with us at the station drove up beside us on his bike and wanted to practise his English with us, he wasn't the delinquent he came across as before without his friends so he accompanied us back, then it was home after a loooong evening.

Cue The Epic Lord of the Rings Mountain Climbing Music

On Sunday 27^th November I got up early to be picked up by Keita for a trip into the mountains around Yura to see the autumn leaves. Maggie and I jumped into the car which had Rob in it already and headed to the rendezvous point outside of McDonald’s to pick up another girl who was joining us, Yuki from volleyball. We drove for half an hour past my school up into the hills to the end of the mountain road where a hostel stood. I'm pretty good at mountains especially really steep climbs and was out in front by 50 metres or so for most of the way, stopping at major points (like the 3/6s point) to wait for the others.

At the 3/6th point. Just a little bit further til the halfway point.

Halfway into the trek I hit a cordoned off area where a landslip had occurred. I was not happy. I did not go all that way to be told I couldn't go further so I slipped past the barrier and carried on. Towards the top the others started to catch up to me as I was losing energy rapidly and couldn't eat my onigiri until I made it to the top so I slowed right down to an almost stop near the top. The Eventually I did make it and even did a Rocky victory scene at the top which the Japanese people who were eating their lunch already on the top, found hilarious. From here the views were pretty awesome, but what was more awesome was the fact I got to eat, and even my meagre rice balls tasted amazing.

The beach at Yura from the top of the mountain.

I should have taken into account that the steep and slippery slope I climbed to get up to the top was going to be just that going down, and worse. We pretty much slid back down the clay areas with the others slipping over several times, but of course it took half the time. We then headed to Keita's friend's cake shop in Yura in Kunda. These cakes were the ones we tried at the sake distillery tour we did with the NZ Association several months back, but because I was in futile delusional diet mode I had water, like a true born again for the umpteenth time dieter. The cakes looked good though.

Thanks For Giving.

(From 23rd November).

I had never experienced a Thanksgiving in my life before this year, something that the Americans of the area found hard of believe. One of the Yosano JETs, Alex Zindel organised a Thanksgiving for all of us at her small place. The others had prepared stews, chicken, turkey, salads, cakes and biscuits, but the best Maggie and I could come up with was fruit salad. But it was an epic fruit salad so it was up with the best of the dessert foods. Maggie, Rob and I took the train to Iwataki and with the premise that we were going to be picked up. Yeah, when told you're going to be picked up by friends your age who are foreigners, it's likely you're not going to be high on the list of their priorities, especially when hair is involved, so we waited for about an hour in the warm station before being picked up by our friend Simon (with impeccable hair, mind you). We were some of the first to arrived so Maggie and I got started on turning all the fruit we had bought into an epic fruit salad, which actually took a lot of time. Others who had arrived were working on preparing their meals and in the portable oven we borrowed from Yukari was a big turkey that I believe had to have been bought online.

The bird is the word.

By this stage people were wandering in through the door, which was starting to set of Alex. In the facebook invite she sent out to us it specifically stated we were to be there by 1pm and seated ready for dinner at 1.30pm. This is the kind of person Alex and if she organises it, that's the way it must go. We were an hour late and after working in the kitchen it was heading towards 1.30pm. Alex wasn't happy at the many latecomers. Just to elaborate on her analness, the day after the lunch she sent out an email to everyone asking if anyone had left implements and crockery behind. Attached was a photo of all the left over dishes and cutlery, lined up straight in order of height with a corresponding number on every piece. 

All the forks are all lined up. I give you all that you own.
Take the cloth and peel it back. Now, doesn't it make it look better?

So people wandering in at 1.20pm naturally set her off a bit. We were all seated by about 2pm, and so began our feast. First we had to go around the circle saying something we were thankful for, with the most popular being friends (ghey) and we even had thankfulness to the world with tears. Me, I said what I was genuinely thankful for which brought everyone to a stunned silence. I said I was thankful for the tsunami and ensuing nuclear catastrophe because in a way it guaranteed my being in Japan at that moment as so many people who were accepted in the JET programme in NZ pulled out letting those like me on the reserve list get in. Yeah, saying you're thankful for horrendous calamities is not what any normal person wants to hear, I found out.

Om nom rawrrr!

For the entire day we ate. Some then went out for a walk, then returned to eat more. One of the Omiya JETs, Jay, brought his girlfriend who owns a bakery and baked us tons cakes, biscuits and slices. 'S gooood. We ate into the night and the huge quantity of food miraculously didn't seem like it was depleting in any way, and after missing the last train back to Miyazu, Maggie, Rob and I were forced to stay longer as our ride wanted to stay on. It wasn't a day of much happenings, but it was nice to experience something we don't have in NZ even if it was an American thing made with limited Japanese resources. 

Charming, guys.

We're Not Here To Win. We're Just Here For The Free Tea.

Here at the Miyazu BoE we're a special lot of people, at least my people, the Waruiko-chan (Naughty Children) Team of the left side of the room. Our days are filled with the simple pleasures of life, making fun of the Iiko-chan (Goody Two-shoes) Team of the right side of the room, drinking parties, lunches at Konpira Udon, drinking tea, trips away together and generally being a disturbance. We don't aspire to great heights, so when the City Hall announced an inter department volleyball match, we the Waruiko-chan Team put our hands up to represent the best of the Miyazu BoE.

We showed up at the city gym on Wednesday, 16^th November at 6pm, with our team of mostly women headed by our fearless male leader, Kawahara-san. Kawahara-san automatically assumed naming rights and so we were thoughtfully named Otokomae (The Handsome Men). We turned up a litlle early to practice and to make a whole lot of necessary noise while the organisers made there usual sportsmanship speeches to the crowd assembled. Then it was time to show our foolhardy mettle. Nobody else in our team had played volleyball as a proper team sport so it was every person for themselves which annoyed me at first but then I realised we were the Waruiko-chan Team and weren't there to win, but there as entertainment for everyone, but mostly ourselves so our huge loss was our huge victory. And it was well worth it – we got free tea.

We finished off the night with a party in WK Team fashion at Sankaiya, the izakaya in Mipple, which involved the usual WK Team shenanigans and a giant 1 metre long tube of beer propped up on the table. It's good to be naughty.

Guide To Fitting In, In Japan: Take Your Freakin Shoes Off.

I was kind of thinking of skipping it, but in the end I went along with the others into the mountains of Mineyama to get in touch with our roots with a bottle of bourbon and a packet of marshmallows. Maggie, Rob and I took the train (which we almost missed, as usual), and headed to Mineyama Station to meet up with the others for a shopping excursion around Mine to stockpile for the coming night. We then wound our way past the back blocks of Mineyama, up into the hills through the red and orange trees to a pretty little wooden cabin. The others started arriving after us and as they settled in, Jen and I started making preparations for dinner – salad, and meat to be fried on the traditional grill and cooking pot that sat in the floor of the main room. As darkness began to fall, all twenty or so of us was assembled in the tiny cabin and engaging in lively conversation with drinks, including Yukari and her family, who had organised all of this. Yukari had studied at an Australian university and her English and pronunciation was excellent. Basically we drank the night away with Maggie, another Japanese woman Yuko and I playing Monopoly with Yukari's youngest daughter Nat-chan, while the others played a version of spotlight outside. I joined them for a time but became very disheartened when I was sent to seek Matt and Mario and I happened to be standing right beside them, looking straight at them while not seeing them and moving on. Much shit was tossed my way afterwards. After this we flopped down, around the cooking pit, unable to function properly playing that time honoured drunk-time tradition of truth or dare. For several hours of drunk dirty dances, annoyed neighbours, articles of clothing lost and people's darkest pasts and desires forced out of them, we wrapped up the game with the best dare of the night, given to Yukari after discussing what would be the most un-Japanese thing we could put her though. The conclusion we came up with – the dreaded walking on the tatami with shoes on!! Even we gaijin cringe with the thought of it but for a Japanese person, putting their dirty unclean paws on that soft fibrous flooring can drive one to madness, Yukari demonstrated. A few steps turned into a frenzied stomping ritual amid her maniacal laughter.

I being the last one to haul out a futon and cover from the futon cupboard that filled on side of the room, could only find a place to sleep in the main room on one side of the cooking pit, while the others slept on in the living room, which was fine, it was at least quiet where I was by myself and not at all cold. The next morning as everyone stumbled around, hungover and bleary eyed trying to collect their belongings from all over the cabin as a bewildered old Japanese man and his wife stared at us gaijin unable to say anything but clearly hinting that he was waiting to move into the cabin. We ignored him, more concerned with our own troubles, and carried on slow and argumentative division of the leftover food and drink, while making tea and discussing everyone’s plans for the rest of the day. (The old man is getting really frustrated at this point but is still unable to speak to the gaijin, who everyone knows can't speak a word of Japanese because it was been decreed Japanese is the most difficult language in the world).Half of the group went to see the festival that was taking place in the same park where the cabin was, while the rest of us went home. Jen was feeling miserable so Sammi, Maggie and I took her for a breakfast of pizza after stopping to let her out and vomit, before going homeward bound.

Music for the Masses

Because the speech contest was on a Saturday I was supposed to have my next BoE day, Wednesday 9^th November, off but I decided to show up to the BoE because I hadn't been to the BoE in a while and I thought they needed to remember I exist by making noise and generally being annoying. And I'm glad I did. That afternoon many of the BoE members went to the Miyazu events centre for the Miyazu Children's Music Festival, something I had not been told of previously, to watch the schools put on musical performances. Maggie and I headed over to the other side of town in time for the opening singing performance done by the local kindergarten. It was very cute, and if you didn't think it was cute the ohhhh~s and kawaii~s from the rest of the audience made you think it was whether you wanted to or not.

Everyone together now: "Awww~!"

Next was my primary schools with Hioki, Kunda and Miyazu giving singing and instrumental performances, the best being Hioki with their taiko drum show. It was amazingly well done with simple background beats done by the younger kids on a bamboo plank and the complex taiko drumming done by the 5^th and 6^th grade kids. The entire school of around 20 students all were able to take part and the showiness of the piece made it really enjoyable. Kunda did the Pirates of the Caribbean theme on a variety of instruments including the marimba, piano, piano accordian and melodica. I had heard them practising during lunchtimes and they sounded great.

Photo preference goes to Hioki just because they're my favourite kids.

Finally was Maggie's junior high students in the brass band and their performance was really amazing for such young kids, they did a few upbeat tunes including Michael Jackson's Thriller before finishing on a sad slow song as it would be their final performance together before moving on to their different high schools. It was amazing to see such young kids doing such great performances, but music is really pushed at most Japanese schools, way more than it is in NZ.

The finale!

What Do You Do In Times Of High Drama? Meditate.

On November 5^th was the annual Miyazu Area School's recitation contest at Miyazu High School where I was asked to be judge along with Rob and two of the high school English teachers. I went along as Kim my predecessor did for the years she was here as Maggie couldn't judge as they were her kids and she coached them. Had I known the nature of the competition I would have relinquished the honour.

I arrived at the high school at 9.45am, a little annoyed it was earlier than the originally planned 12.30pm, as a councillor from Nelson City Council was visiting Miyazu and Masako said I could join them for a boat ride around Miyazu Harbour that morning but the change in plans struck that one out. At the massive high school I was ushered into a small room near the main room the contest was to be held and given a briefing about scoring and such, then we entered the room. As with all events of this nature we had to sit through many, many speeches about trying your best and crap like that and the importance of English, do our bows to the audience and the heads of the schools represented then finally we began.

The kids read a short story of their choice from their textbook and we would mark them on correct expression and intonation of voice and other (when I asked if body movement and hand gestures was incorporated in other, I was given a 'I guess' so that's what I did to my own peril), pronunciation, flow, etc. All the kids did very well and I marked them accordingly, but one thing that annoyed me was that we were only given a minute to fill out comments on the score sheets before we would move on to the next participant. This was not enough time for me as I found with my first sheet I filled in. I watched the first student the entire time, then turned my attention to the sheet at the end. At this stage all the other judges had filled out their sheets and were tapping their pens impatiently as I wrote, so for the rest of the competition I did as they did, which led to disaster. My friend in the audience mentioned to me at the end people around her were saying “Why aren't the judges even looking at the students? Appearance is what they are judged on among other things, so how can they judge it without looking?” That's how I felt too. The focus was all on getting the comments about improvements written up and in such a short time period so we would finish on schedule that we missed out on most of the important things. Without this visual element this caused the scores to be skewed and had a lot of people asking outraged questions at the end. I was looking up every moment I could which was more than any of the other judges but it wasn't enough to gain a valid scope of their performance. My fellow AETs rounded up on me in the end demanding why the the winners were the people they least expected, and I looked back at my scores and it showed that their preferences were indeed my own, but the fact I was one of four people showed I was a in a minority against guessed results. I felt very ashamed I couldn't do anything to show the results were not fair and after the AETs saw how beaten I looked they let it go.

At the end we had to say a few words as judges about everyone's all over performance and I talked about something I noticed there was either a lack of or an over-abundance of – hand gestures. The few kids who did use gestures were Jay's students and their huge sweeping gestures were a bit of a distraction but but nice to see amongst the po-faced students. When I opened my mouth, by the looks of it I wasn't supposed to mention it. Afterwards Jay mentioned that in past years the kids were not to use hand gestures and him being expressive person he is leapt at the chance when the ban was lifted for this year. The other AETs stuck to the old rules not knowing if it would be accepted albeit frowned upon. English is a very expressive language, we have so many adjectives for single ideas that also express the richness of our language, while hand gestures add to it expression. Use them dammit.

Another point that skewed the results was each judges perspective on Japanese English. I'm used to hearing Japanese English spoken by elementary, middle and high school students so I could accurately assess their ability but for Rob who had only heard high school students and hadn't spoken Japanese before he arrived he gave harsh scores for pronunciation which was a bit unfair. In any case the when we had photos with the winners there was a lot of hushed talk among the audience about the mistakes the winners made. The girl who came second apparently made slip ups (I couldn't tell her from the results on the piece of paper, but I'm pretty sure I gave her a low score) but as I found out weeks later she was actually Yukari's daughter and she told me how happy she was to have gotten a place at her house, which kind of made me feel a bit better. Post contest nepotism. Great.

The place holders.

We finished a little earlier than planned so I sent a message to Masako to see if the guy from Nelson was still in town and they happened to be at the temple next door to the high school so I headed in that direction. Maggie had left a little before me and had been feeling a little out of sorts after she saw her student who had worked so hard for the competition not even receive a place but I called her back and we went to the temple together. We were greeted by several priests with shaved heads and priest kimonos who had been informed about our arrival and had been waiting for us inside the main hall that housed the Buddha. They welcomed us in and ushered us to a small meeting room where Masako, the councillor and the head priest sat around a long, low table. This was my first time speaking to a priest and being able to understand him or have Masako translating so I finally got to hear about their lives at the temple that I had wondered about for so long, but was unable to ask. All the men lived in the temple and meditated daily. Some had families in town and the youngest of the priests looked to be in his late 20s.

The head priest tries to discern what he is seeing.

The head priest said there were a number of ancient works of art around the temple and he took us to several rooms in the labyrinth of stairwells and narrow passages that was the temple, all new and clean looking in pine despite the ancientness of the temple. Finally, he took us to the meditation room which was used everyday by priests and travelling monks alike. This room had tatami covered platforms against every wall and dotted around the middle of the room separated by aisles, with low walls dividing each platform into four parts, so every meditator sitting on them faced a wall. In here we were shown the way to meditate, how far our small cushions could be from each edge of of platform, how to hold our fingers, arms and legs and how far closed our eyes had to be. A usual meditation would last 40 minutes we were told, but we did the quick 15 minute crash course, so it was over in no time.

We bid farewell to the priests and received little amulets from them that ensured good luck. The amulet was made up of a tiny cocoon made of cotton with a tiny slit down one side. When you open the slit you can see a minute Buddha sitting inside. We walked back through the temples large expanse of garden and the giant front gate, and headed for the car and our next destination waving to the assembled priests at the entrance.

Walking out the temple gate defeating the urge to mess up the pattern in the zen garden.

Our next stop was a small but very beautiful private garden in Kunda. This garden was well established from the deep rooted autumn maples, to the steam water etching in the bedrock. We stayed here chatting to the owner for a while as the sun slipped past the horizon and the garden was lit up by the warm orange lights streaming out of the lounge windows of the main house. Our final stop was also in Kunda and a place we had visited once before – the sake distillery. This time was different however. We did have a tour of the distillery but afterwards we were invited into the family home at the back of the distillery for some tea. Everything in the dining room was expensive looking. We sat at an elegant table looking at the ancient sake bottles displayed on the dresser as the master of the house apologised that his wife could not perform a proper tea ceremony for us, as we would run out of time. He bid Maggie and I welcome any time into their house to learn more about Japanese traditional culture and who know I may take him up on his offer despite knowing it's probably the usual empty promise of social manners.

Scowl Like A Samurai

The last couple of weekends have been pretty full-on to the point where I was actually vertical for most of it. After the previous weekends' jaunt at Amanohashidate, this weekend played host to yet another trip away, this time to Kyoto. Keita, Nomura-san, Maggie, Rob and I departed Miyazu a the horrendous time of 7.40am in a (legally) borrowed van that belonged to one of the other volleyball members, and drove to Kyoto City, a journey that takes just under two hours. Keita, despite having no sleep the night before as he manned his 24hr fishing shop, was holding out pretty well as driver but I noticed in the boot he had an entire tray of liquid wakefulness. The ride passed impossibly fast as the countryside gave way to three and four storey buildings that gained several floors as we neared the city centre. Our first stop was the Toei Movie park. This movie park is technically a film set made up of Edo Period buildings, many of which were replicas of famous areas in Kyou (Kyoto) and Edo (Tokyo) built from descriptions and old photographs. Here, most of the jidaigeki (historical dramas) are filmed however when it is not in use for filming, it's open to the public and they hold performances in the streets and in the big gekijou hall that's built to look like the old kabuki halls. When we first arrived, Nomura-san and I dragged everyone over to the replica Shinsengumi headquarters gate. Of course I was stoked and Maggie and Keita could understand why, but Rob was completely clueless. 

Shinsengumi headquarters!! Uber excitement!!

On the way to the gekijou hall we had a photo with one of the many people dressed as samurai dotted around the park, complete with historically accurate samurai scowl.

Rob's just happy to have a live blade in his hand.

At the gekijou hall we seated ourselves on the backless benches that filled every inch of floor in the wide hall along the hundred or so others. The show we were about to see, we were told, was about ninjas, and in a puff of smoke and the playing of the shakuhachi flute it began. Of course like all such shows it was over-the-top chambara drama with lots at acrobatics which I'm used to seeing, but Rob who sat beside me was cracking up during the whole show. At the half-way point the villain who up until this point had been just a disembodied voice, appeared on stage in yet another puff of ozone depleting smoke, while doing the peace sign. Ken-chan was his name and he walked down the centre aisle posing for photos in his full evil guy costume talking to audience members, including us in English and translating for the rest of the audience. As fast as to heavily dramatic show changed to talk show mode, it was back into the action and evil guy mode. I understood the entire show so I enjoyed it a lot. I even knew what a keppanjou was, which was the object of concern in the show. It's a contract of allegiance signed in blood for those of you playing at home.

The ghost of Ken-chan.

For the rest of our time there we dawdled around checking out some of the other street shows, shops and an alley of stalls. The best street show we happened to pass by was a chambara show involving an actor playing the famous Okita Souji of the Shinsengumi, against a couple of ronin thugs down a Kyoto backstreet. It started off pretty typically as chambara does and after justice was served upon the two ronin after an exclamation of revenge and parrying thrusts of the sword, they sprang back to life to bow at the applauding audience. After this they invited several audience members to join them in the chambara action with their swords and a little boy, a junior high aged girl and a newly married man were chosen to take their place with the samurai. The ronin guys were hilarious throwing jokes of one another as the head ronin ordered his counterpart around demonstrating the correct was to die (don't take too long and not too noisy, sound advice for anyone considering this favourite pastime). Finally after the practice round, the unlikely heroes were ready to bring the ronin thugs to justice. First was the little boy. He did his rehearsed moves, slicing through the ronin and doing his finishing peace sign pose over his fallen victim. He was made of awesome. Next was the middle school girl, who wasn't as flashy as the little boy but did her moves and her peace sign. Finally was the guy, and the actors had his wife stand in the arena area to take photos, which she agreed to after much cajoling. Everything was going as expected until the ronin decided to reverse roles, cut through the guy and proceeded to run off with his wife. It was a very good show and I kind of regret not putting my hand up to join them, but that's not the last time I'll go to the movie park; the opportunity will arise again, involving cosplay. The idea was triggered by a group of Hakuouki cosplayers we saw there for a split second before they disappeared to a photo shoot somewhere in the park, so Rurouni Kenshin cosplay maybe on the boards for the next year. 

Lovin' the chonmage Souji.

Victory thumbs up!

Other street shows they put on was the oiran parade, where a woman dressed as an oiran (a high ranking Kyoto geisha) and paraded through the area of the town built to look like Yoshiwara (the biggest red-light district of Edo, now Tokyo) with her attendants: two apprentice maiko girls, an umbrella bearer and an announcer. Even though the route she took was short, only a 100 metres or so, it still took a long time because of the way she walked. She had six inch high geta on and had to walk in a gait that made her push each foot out in a fan shape before coming back to the centre (sloooowly). To get from two metres before me to two metres past me took over a minute, but I guess anyone would be slow if they had to wear monster sandals and a ten kilogram kimono.

I'm surprised she can still smile under that huge weight.

Before hitting the Edo style eateries I made everyone stop at the Shinsengumi store so I could ohhh and ahhh at the merchandise. I did buy a banner that was printed in the Shinsengumi colours and had all the names of the chiefs and squad captains (in their own handwriting, I noted). I was very tempted to buy a replica of Hijikata Toshizou's Izumi no Kanesada katana, but I thought I'd go for quality. There's no way I'd leave Japan without getting my hand's on a good one. Rob too, wanted one of the swords just for the cool factor of it; he didn't care who's. After they dragged me away from the merchandise, bodily, wiping the drool of of my chin, we headed to a small gyudon place for lunch and chowed down after a 25 minute wait to get inside. Twas good. As we said our gochisousamas and walked out of the curtained front door, Nomura-san repeatedly slapped my arm pointing at a building across the way adorned with a very familiar sign hanging above the door. Ikedaya it read. Needless to say both of us were beyond words as we staggered over to this artifact of great excitement. This was the scene to behold as we walked in the empty building, please contain your excitement.

I believe this was one of Nokia's first models they released towards the end of the Edo Period.
It even had photo capabilities. If there's one thing the Japanese know, that's technology.

This was a replica of the famous Ikedaya, the inn where the Shinsengumi raided and killed members of the anti-foreigner faction, or Joui (revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians)in Kyou, 1865, the battle that made them famous (or infamous with regards to the Joui loving Kyouans). As Nomura-san and I reenacted the entrance scene from every Shinsengumi show we had seen (we even knew from which entrance they entered, which room the Joui rebels were in... we were on fire) while Rob, Maggie and Keita looked on incredulously and later leaving us behind as they moved on. Those were moments of gold, I tell you.

Needless to say, it had piqued my interest.

To top of our time at the park we went to the obakeyashiki, or haunted house which was ninja themed. It wasn't overly scary, so much so that I actually don't remember going in (but Maggie assures me I did. Go figure). Finally we exited through the gift shop we I had to hold myself back, so much so that I didn't buy a thing, an amazing feat in itself despite most things being Hijikata themed. We marked the occasion by taking a purikura together before headed off to our next port of call, the International Manga Museum. Let the nerdy times roll.

The manga museum was cool. It was pretty much a massive library of all of the popular and influential manga of the last century. Since I have only been introduced to the world of manga and anime in the last five years, I didn't recognise many of the titles but for Maggie, Nomura-san and Keita who had been into it since childhood, they loved it. For Rob, this had been his first encounter of the world of manga and from the few shelves of English manga he picked up his new favourite story. Pretty Face. Here's a little synopsis from Wikipedia: 

   "Rando Masahi, a self-centered, brash karate star, was the victim of a horrific bus accident that left him comatose and his face terribly disfigured by extensive burns. Genius plastic surgeon Dr. Manabe saved Rando's life and went to work on his face, gradually reconstructing it based on a photograph found on the wreckage of the bus.
    When Rando wakes up from his coma, a year has passed, and Dr. Manabe has made remarkable progress. But in a cruel twist of fate, the photo the doctor used as a reference was not a picture of Rando, but a snapshot of Rina Kurimi, the girl whom Rando has a crush on!"

Trust me, my face is as incredulous as yours. We hit the gift shop where I finally picked up a copy of Tokyo by Foot, a drawing diary of a guys experiences in the neighbourhoods of Tokyo that mum showed me back in NZ. 

Shhhh!

Hunger panged as evening fell and Maggie and I wanted to introduce our friends to the awesomeness that is Ganko. Unfortunately we couldn't get a seat downstairs in front of the counter to talk to the two chefs we met last time, but we did get to eat somewhere new upstairs where it was full of people and good food and well worth being evicted from our usual place downstairs. And so ended our amazing day in Kyoto. At least it marked off one touristy thing we had done in Kyoto despite living so close which kind of drives us away from doing the tourist circuit knowing we will come back again soon. Someday I return to Kyoto with the intention of going to Mibu-mura, the Shinsengumi fan holy land. Just watch as I write three pages of stuff you have no idea nor care about.

How To Not Lose Your Mind After The 100th Person Asks You For Your Photo.

(From 19th October)

Last weekend was the festival we had all been waiting for – the Kimono Festival in Amanohashidate! We had been organising this with the help of Masako for several weeks and the Sunday had finally arrived that saw Maggie, Rob and I take the bus to Amanohashidate in the early morning to the house of the old Kimono teacher, Yamazoe-sensei. Well it wasn't that simple. We had unintentionally caused a lot of trouble before this day for our host as a few of our friends had also expressed their interest in joining us. We didn't realise they meant they would find their own kimono and we had Yamazoe-san procure kimono for them too, which costs money. We had really mucked up. Yamazoe-san was not happy according to her fellow teacher Imada-san and we were going to have to do more than just apologise. But that was going to have to wait. She had prepared the two kimono for Maggie and I and a hakama for Rob which she and, Imada-san dressed us in. The dressing took over half and hour for me as Imada-san dressed me and asked for Yamazoe-sensei's opinion. There was something she didn't like so everything had to be redone. I wore three kimono layers on top of a pair of tights, a shirt and a binding that was put over my chest, and there were several towels stuffed under the kimono and obi to add bulk around my waist (because fat is sexy or curves are not desirable when wearing a kimono) so it was very heavy by the time everything was on and strapped down with a massive obi, and I had a few minutes to learn how to live without breathing. All throughout the morning Yamazoe-sensei's students came and went from the main downstairs lounge were we dressed, dressing themselves and getting ready for the festival. After an hour and a half (for Rob it was only about 15 or so minutes) we were ready to go and we made our way to the dock for a boat ride around the harbour. As we lined up to get on, we talked with an old woman who was educating us on the etiquette of walking and sitting with a kimono while some guys from the Kinki region TV station filmed us practising. It was a nice short trip to wake us up and start the day. We then headed to the Amanohashidate Hotel to register and they even had a girl who spoke excellent English at the reception desk to explain everything. Here we got maps, coupons for free food and drink and a passport card that had to be stamped at different locations around Amanohashidate to go into the draw for prizes.

I take photos of people eating their breakfast as we sail past the backs of their houses early morning.

We had heard that almost all the other AETs in the area were coming and throughout the morning we met up with the various groups, with everyone in kimono. In the end there were about 15 of us and we headed with the crowds for the kimono parade over the Amanohashidate bridge to a traditional tea house for tea and an-covered mochi. Here we were assaulted by crowds of photographers and while many asked me if they could take my photo or in one case if they could use it in a photographic competition, many didn't ask and after sitting under the trees for five minutes with the little girl I was talking to (her parents wanted to take photos of her talking to the foreigner, which was quite alright) I got shitty with one guy with a video camera who hadn't asked and proceeded to shove his video camera in my and the little girls face so I (accidentally) knocked him as I stood up. After that I took refuge with the rest of the AETs as it was safety in numbers, and vowed not to sit away from the group.

Free tea. Life doesn't get much better.

At lunch we headed back to Yamazoe-san's house for lunch as she had bought bentos from a traditional catering place, and boy was it traditional (fancy). I prefer the modern bentos as they are pretty straightforward with rice meat and veg, but the fancy ones are full of suspicious stuff like fish eggs and weird pickled things.

An image of Rob being adjusted by Yamazoe-san just happens to be in the background of this photo of the lunches we had prepared for us. Way to go Rob.

For the rest of the day we went around the events that had been prepared including our photos taken by a professional photographer to be printed on a calendar and a calligraphy demonstration by a supposed master. She was quite young looking and very eccentric. She ascended onto the stage at the hotel where three massive white boards had been prepared for her works of art, and the Yoshida Brothers shamisen music blasted out of the speakers on the stage. She began mixing her ink and proceeded to smear it all over the boards with her massive brush held in a fist, too fast for traditional style liking and with too wet a brush so it ran everywhere. So this was modern art, apparently. Maggie and I weren't impressed. We thought it looked a lot like our attempts at doing traditional calligraphy. Maybe this was like when Picasso began painting like a child in his master status. She writes kanji like a foreigner in her master status, and she gets paid a lot for it. Maybe it's time for me to get a new job.

I can do way better.

We didn't really stay for her Q&A session, and instead went in search of the elusive jinrikusha (the root word from which rickshaw comes from – which is exactly what it is). We had seen men with short-kimono and wide hats carrying these around, bussing kimono-clad people around the area and went in search of the source point. Finally we found it and in line waiting for our turn we met lots of interesting people in beautiful kimono and hakama. The jinrikusha ride was fun especially the loading method, where you step up into it and have it lifted up and feel yourself falling backwards. It had great suspension so it was a smooth ride and the carrier who was taking us around didn't show any signs of fatigue despite doing it all day. I bet we were the heaviest patrons he'd ever had. On the way we passed some lolita cosplayers of whom Maggie was bent on getting a picture of. We were dropped off quite far away from our starting point as we had no say in the matter but also had no and then made our way back to Yamazoe-san's house so she could rid us of the colourful straitjackets. 

Jinrikusha man puts on a brave face and thanks his lucky stars these heavy gaijin are his last patrons of the day.

We met up with all the other gaijin in the evening in a shallow foot pool outside of the public bath. The water was so warm we ended up staying for an hour talking to some previous Tango JETs who had travelled down for the festival from their new positions elsewhere in the country. Finally we headed back in the cars to Mipple, while I displayed my musical talent rapping all the way to Miyazu. We did our favourite pat-time of dinner at Sankai-ya followed by taiko drumming, claw machines and purikura at the arcade. An awesome finish to an awesome day.

10 points if you can spot me. No, I'm not behind any of the Pikachu heads.