Hello all! I have been feeling especially guilty about not updating the blog and especially concerned that if i don't hurry up and update I will have forgotten everything that has been taking place...aside from disturbing stuff (see previous blog).
So, Summer vacation - what a blast. Sounds like an ad for a B grade early 90s Chevy Chase related film. Apologies. But, Summer vacation was excellent, really fun, really relaxing and really interesting - lots of new 'Japan Experiences' to add to my list. I'm not sure if Ive mentioned this previously but Ross and I purchased a postcard on a visit to a sightseeing destination. It's a map of Japan, a sort of cartoon style map with all the main sightseeing spots in Japa drawn on it ith happy looking expeditioners scaling Mount Fuji and visiting temples and drinking green tea and doing all sorts of sterotypically Japanesey things and Ross has decided that we will conquer Japan one iconic postcard worthy sight at a time. Hence, our Summer vacation. We went to a baseball game, visited Nara by candlelight, saw amazing fireworks on our very own roof (in the torrential rain) and went to Tokyo for five fun filled days! Woohoo! No wasted holiday time whatsoever, unless you include those last four days where we sat around tha apartment all day and got cabin fever. i had to force Ross to go to the gym as at one point he had moved beyond his 'swallow the light switch' game and was literally running into walls, jogging on the spot and occasionally bumping into the kitchen walls...kind of like a sim trapped by a refrigerator. Have you played the sims? Necessary if you are to truly picture how Ross was. Before I move on, Im sure youre wondering about the 'swallow the kight switch game'..... You really need to see it to believe it but essentially our lights in our apartment are turned on and off using a pulley string thing that hangs down. The pulley thing has a plastic knob that is on my eye level...and Ross' mouth level. When he is bored, or occasionally just as a 'personal challenge' Ross stands under the kight and blows the light pulley string forward, then waits for it to come back to his mouth, upon which time he will make a sort of gulp-swallop-heaulp sound as he catches the pulley in his mouth. Charming. Almost as attractive as when he drinks milk from the carton. (Note: I am secretly jealous that this game is completely out of my reach...literally. I often find myself wishing the pulley was on my mouth, and not my eye, level. Note#2: Ross often ends a session of this game with the comment....'Hmm, we really do have no responsibilities or stresses in Japan, do we?' At which point, I must agree.)
So, back to the Summer vacation. I'm going to go through it in a sort of chronological order in an effort to not forget anything. We had two weeks off for summer and it was awesome. We really came back feeling refreshed. It was especially great to get holidays when the worst of Osaka's mad crazy rabid humidity is happening and we weren't having to wear a suit every day. So, the first day of our holidays was spent heading to the baseball. Baseball is HUGE in Japan. Really popular. To be quite honest, it is something I am not at all interested in and have very little understanding of, but to enjoy a baseball game in Japan you do not need any knowledge of the actual game, no sir, but it does help if you are familiar with the song and dance routines. Yes, you read it right. SONG AND DANCE ROUTINES. Note the plural there too. We're not talking one measly team chant, no EACH player has their own (rather lengthy and involved) personalised song and dance routine. When you head to the baseball here, you are expected to deck yourself out literally from top to toe in team finery, bring along whistling balloons (more on them later) and purchase your very own pair of fluoro bashing sticks. The fluoro bashing sticks (pink, green or yellow) are a kind of prop for the song and dance routines which involve lots of chanting and harmonious singing of a players name accompanied by various shaking, rolling and bashing of the aforementioned bashing sticks. Hard to explain. Even harder to get the damn songs out of your head. Amazing to be there. The whistling balloons are a piece of fabulous in the midst of the most boring game ever invented...seriously....rivalling cricket. At the end of the eight inning, the entire stadium is rather silent save for lots of huffing and puffing as everyone blows up these brightly coloured balloons. They are long and lets be honest, phaelic but they are an incredibly sight to behold. Unfortunately you'll need to be patient with beholding that sight as Ross and I accidentally deleted the baseball photos....whoops. Anyway, you blow up the long balloons, then wait until the end of the ninth inning, then together all of the thousands of you in the stadium let the balloons go and the sky is full of colour and beauty and highpitched whistling. It really is amazing. I actually ended up really enjoying the game - I didnt watch any of it but i loved being part of such a huge, excited crowd and I loved the organised madness of it all. It was like going to the theatre. So much colour, singing, dancing, costumes live music and expensive food. :)
On the Friday we had organised a group of friends to head on a bit of a sightseeing trip to Nara. Nara is a very famous area of Japan, close to both Osaka and Kyoto and really very famous for its giant Buddha, a must see when you come to Japan. I had seen lots of posters advertising 'Nara To-Kae' a kind of light festival where historical parts of Nara, surrounding the famous Todaiji temple and it's Buddha and the deer parks, were going to be lit up with hundreds of thousands of little lanterns with candles in them and i really wanted to see it, so we headed to Nara around midday for some sightseeing and dinner and waited for night to fall so we could see the lights in all their glory. It was lovely to be there as night was coming as we had the chance to watch all the hundreds of volunteers light each candle individually. I was struck by one of the things I love about Japan. The Japanese have a real love for events and for beauty and spectacle. They love to fcreate opportunities for people to attend events and see something beautiful. Nara ToKae was just thatm a chance to walk around fields with thousands and thousands of beautifully arranged lights. It was really lovely.
On the Saturdaym we hosted a party on out building rooftop. The rooftop of our building is somewhat famous in Juso as an amazing viewing spot for the Juso fireworks. Lucky us! Held every year, early in August, these fireworks last for 45 mins (Can you believe it Livvy?!) and are breathtaking, incredible and easily one of the most magical things I have ever experienced. I honestly cannot put it into words. Japanese LOVE fireworks and the show put on at Yodogawa river tht night was absolutely amazing. The other foreigners standing on our roof that night felt similarly to me when I proclaimed by feeling of disappointment in Australia...we definitely do not invest enough in fireworks. :) The fireworks day was a really special one. We had claimed our spot on the roof about a week in advance, putting down big blue tarpaulins and claiming the best possible vantage point, and we had told everyone to meet us at the station at 5 oclock, at which point we would lead our friends thru the streets of Juso to our apartment, as we'd been warned by many friends that the streets would be packed and confusing. They werent wrong. When I left the apartment early in the day to head to the gym and do some early morning shopping, people were already claiming space on the riverfront, leaving their picnic baskets and elderly Japanese grandmothers (easily the most frightening person to reckon with over picnic ground space) to mind the tarpaulins. Space on the high path alongside the riverfront was reserved for ticket holders (tickets were over $100 apiece) and we had an amazing free spot on our very own roof! By the time I headed out to meet friends, Juso was mad. It made me feel very lucky that I was meeting friends for a fun night of fireworks and not actually in a crush due to a massive earthquake or something....although it certainly felt like what I'd imagine a natural disaster induced crush in Osaka would be like...people running everywhere, lots of pushing and shoving, police directing people as they people ignore police (police are openly and most commonly ignored in Japan) and phone lines down! That's right...the Juso fireworks had the phone lines overloaded! Madness. Anyway, I escorted a group of train crush weary friends to our apartment, we set up the picnic and all seemed wonderful. Lots of good friends we've made here had come to celebrate the summer vacation, Leigh and Chris were pumped up for a sleepover on the futons t our place, Natalie and i were revved up, making snowcones (kakigori wa doo desu ka???!!!) with the home snowcone maker Ross bought at Don Quixote and Yoshimi and Kei chan fit in really well with everyone...especially Kei whose amazing English dazzled everyone as he joked around and looked after our pregnant ladies, Yosh and Rumi. All was well on our rooftop...even with the looming thunderclouds and the constant warnings we could hear on the loudspeakers by the river "If a thunderstorm occurs, the fireworks will be cancelled'. Now, I'm no fireworks expert but I personally felt that a little bit of rain wasn't going to effect the show and that cancelling such a massive event and attempting to move thousands upon thousands of people back out of Juso then back in again for another fireworks day was just a little bit ridiculous. I have since then had many conversations with students who have informed me that thunder and lightning are very dangerous and that they hate rain...actually Ross feels that based on conversations with complaining students; Japanese people actually hate weather. All weather. Full stop. The fireworks were scheduled to take place at 7.45pm. At 7.35pm, the sky opened up despite Kei chan's repeated assurances 'It'll pass guys, no worries' and the 'show' from our rooftop almost rivalled the fireworks. As the rain poured down and we on the roof either fled to apartments, hid in the building's stairwell or braved the rooftop standing under our communal tarps and umbrellas we watched as insane Japanese people ran screaming and clambering for safety from the rain...ridiculous. The stampeding in the city streets was so insane that a there were repeated warnings on megaphones 'Take Care, be careful, go slowly, etc'. I have never seen such ludicrous, dangerous behavior in my life, but I can definitely confirm, Japanese people are indeed frightened of rain. At 7.40pm, in light of all the madness on the city streets, the fireworks show took place. It was as though the event officials were like: 'Oh my, if we don't put on there fireworks we're going to have a whole lot of accidents on the streets' and so, they began. Incredible. Majestic. Beautiful. Once in a lifetime fireworks that absolutely opened up the sky above our apartment.
Photos:
-the gang heading to Nara
-Beautiful Deer in Nara Park
Nara ToKai - Gorgeous candle lanterns as far as you could see
Party on the roof in Juso - With two of Allie's favourite ECC staffers, Monika and Aimi.
The rain sets in - under the tarp with Ross and crazy Keichan!
Hello all! I have been feeling especially guilty about not updating the blog and especially concerned that if i don't hurry up and update I will have forgotten everything that has been taking place...aside from disturbing stuff (see previous blog).
So, Summer vacation - what a blast. Sounds like an ad for a B grade early 90s Chevy Chase related film. Apologies. But, Summer vacation was excellent, really fun, really relaxing and really interesting - lots of new 'Japan Experiences' to add to my list. I'm not sure if Ive mentioned this previously but Ross and I purchased a postcard on a visit to a sightseeing destination. It's a map of Japan, a sort of cartoon style map with all the main sightseeing spots in Japa drawn on it ith happy looking expeditioners scaling Mount Fuji and visiting temples and drinking green tea and doing all sorts of sterotypically Japanesey things and Ross has decided that we will conquer Japan one iconic postcard worthy sight at a time. Hence, our Summer vacation. We went to a baseball game, visited Nara by candlelight, saw amazing fireworks on our very own roof (in the torrential rain) and went to Tokyo for five fun filled days! Woohoo! No wasted holiday time whatsoever, unless you include those last four days where we sat around tha apartment all day and got cabin fever. i had to force Ross to go to the gym as at one point he had moved beyond his 'swallow the light switch' game and was literally running into walls, jogging on the spot and occasionally bumping into the kitchen walls...kind of like a sim trapped by a refrigerator. Have you played the sims? Necessary if you are to truly picture how Ross was. Before I move on, Im sure youre wondering about the 'swallow the kight switch game'..... You really need to see it to believe it but essentially our lights in our apartment are turned on and off using a pulley string thing that hangs down. The pulley thing has a plastic knob that is on my eye level...and Ross' mouth level. When he is bored, or occasionally just as a 'personal challenge' Ross stands under the kight and blows the light pulley string forward, then waits for it to come back to his mouth, upon which time he will make a sort of gulp-swallop-heaulp sound as he catches the pulley in his mouth. Charming. Almost as attractive as when he drinks milk from the carton. (Note: I am secretly jealous that this game is completely out of my reach...literally. I often find myself wishing the pulley was on my mouth, and not my eye, level. Note#2: Ross often ends a session of this game with the comment....'Hmm, we really do have no responsibilities or stresses in Japan, do we?' At which point, I must agree.)
So, back to the Summer vacation. I'm going to go through it in a sort of chronological order in an effort to not forget anything. We had two weeks off for summer and it was awesome. We really came back feeling refreshed. It was especially great to get holidays when the worst of Osaka's mad crazy rabid humidity is happening and we weren't having to wear a suit every day. So, the first day of our holidays was spent heading to the baseball. Baseball is HUGE in Japan. Really popular. To be quite honest, it is something I am not at all interested in and have very little understanding of, but to enjoy a baseball game in Japan you do not need any knowledge of the actual game, no sir, but it does help if you are familiar with the song and dance routines. Yes, you read it right. SONG AND DANCE ROUTINES. Note the plural there too. We're not talking one measly team chant, no EACH player has their own (rather lengthy and involved) personalised song and dance routine. When you head to the baseball here, you are expected to deck yourself out literally from top to toe in team finery, bring along whistling balloons (more on them later) and purchase your very own pair of fluoro bashing sticks. The fluoro bashing sticks (pink, green or yellow) are a kind of prop for the song and dance routines which involve lots of chanting and harmonious singing of a players name accompanied by various shaking, rolling and bashing of the aforementioned bashing sticks. Hard to explain. Even harder to get the damn songs out of your head. Amazing to be there. The whistling balloons are a piece of fabulous in the midst of the most boring game ever invented...seriously....rivalling cricket. At the end of the eight inning, the entire stadium is rather silent save for lots of huffing and puffing as everyone blows up these brightly coloured balloons. They are long and lets be honest, phaelic but they are an incredibly sight to behold. Unfortunately you'll need to be patient with beholding that sight as Ross and I accidentally deleted the baseball photos....whoops. Anyway, you blow up the long balloons, then wait until the end of the ninth inning, then together all of the thousands of you in the stadium let the balloons go and the sky is full of colour and beauty and highpitched whistling. It really is amazing. I actually ended up really enjoying the game - I didnt watch any of it but i loved being part of such a huge, excited crowd and I loved the organised madness of it all. It was like going to the theatre. So much colour, singing, dancing, costumes live music and expensive food. :)
On the Friday we had organised a group of friends to head on a bit of a sightseeing trip to Nara. Nara is a very famous area of Japan, close to both Osaka and Kyoto and really very famous for its giant Buddha, a must see when you come to Japan. I had seen lots of posters advertising 'Nara To-Kae' a kind of light festival where historical parts of Nara, surrounding the famous Todaiji temple and it's Buddha and the deer parks, were going to be lit up with hundreds of thousands of little lanterns with candles in them and i really wanted to see it, so we headed to Nara around midday for some sightseeing and dinner and waited for night to fall so we could see the lights in all their glory. It was lovely to be there as night was coming as we had the chance to watch all the hundreds of volunteers light each candle individually. I was struck by one of the things I love about Japan. The Japanese have a real love for events and for beauty and spectacle. They love to fcreate opportunities for people to attend events and see something beautiful. Nara ToKae was just thatm a chance to walk around fields with thousands and thousands of beautifully arranged lights. It was really lovely.
On the Saturdaym we hosted a party on out building rooftop. The rooftop of our building is somewhat famous in Juso as an amazing viewing spot for the Juso fireworks. Lucky us! Held every year, early in August, these fireworks last for 45 mins (Can you believe it Livvy?!) and are breathtaking, incredible and easily one of the most magical things I have ever experienced. I honestly cannot put it into words. Japanese LOVE fireworks and the show put on at Yodogawa river tht night was absolutely amazing. The other foreigners standing on our roof that night felt similarly to me when I proclaimed by feeling of disappointment in Australia...we definitely do not invest enough in fireworks. :) The fireworks day was a really special one. We had claimed our spot on the roof about a week in advance, putting down big blue tarpaulins and claiming the best possible vantage point, and we had told everyone to meet us at the station at 5 oclock, at which point we would lead our friends thru the streets of Juso to our apartment, as we'd been warned by many friends that the streets would be packed and confusing. They werent wrong. When I left the apartment early in the day to head to the gym and do some early morning shopping, people were already claiming space on the riverfront, leaving their picnic baskets and elderly Japanese grandmothers (easily the most frightening person to reckon with over picnic ground space) to mind the tarpaulins. Space on the high path alongside the riverfront was reserved for ticket holders (tickets were over $100 apiece) and we had an amazing free spot on our very own roof! By the time I headed out to meet friends, Juso was mad. It made me feel very lucky that I was meeting friends for a fun night of fireworks and not actually in a crush due to a massive earthquake or something....although it certainly felt like what I'd imagine a natural disaster induced crush in Osaka would be like...people running everywhere, lots of pushing and shoving, police directing people as they people ignore police (police are openly and most commonly ignored in Japan) and phone lines down! That's right...the Juso fireworks had the phone lines overloaded! Madness. Anyway, I escorted a group of train crush weary friends to our apartment, we set up the picnic and all seemed wonderful. Lots of good friends we've made here had come to celebrate the summer vacation, Leigh and Chris were pumped up for a sleepover on the futons t our place, Natalie and i were revved up, making snowcones (kakigori wa doo desu ka???!!!) with the home snowcone maker Ross bought at Don Quixote and Yoshimi and Kei chan fit in really well with everyone...especially Kei whose amazing English dazzled everyone as he joked around and looked after our pregnant ladies, Yosh and Rumi. All was well on our rooftop...even with the looming thunderclouds and the constant warnings we could hear on the loudspeakers by the river "If a thunderstorm occurs, the fireworks will be cancelled'. Now, I'm no fireworks expert but I personally felt that a little bit of rain wasn't going to effect the show and that cancelling such a massive event and attempting to move thousands upon thousands of people back out of Juso then back in again for another fireworks day was just a little bit ridiculous. I have since then had many conversations with students who have informed me that thunder and lightning are very dangerous and that they hate rain...actually Ross feels that based on conversations with complaining students; Japanese people actually hate weather. All weather. Full stop. The fireworks were scheduled to take place at 7.45pm. At 7.35pm, the sky opened up despite Kei chan's repeated assurances 'It'll pass guys, no worries' and the 'show' from our rooftop almost rivalled the fireworks. As the rain poured down and we on the roof either fled to apartments, hid in the building's stairwell or braved the rooftop standing under our communal tarps and umbrellas we watched as insane Japanese people ran screaming and clambering for safety from the rain...ridiculous. The stampeding in the city streets was so insane that a there were repeated warnings on megaphones 'Take Care, be careful, go slowly, etc'. I have never seen such ludicrous, dangerous behavior in my life, but I can definitely confirm, Japanese people are indeed frightened of rain. At 7.40pm, in light of all the madness on the city streets, the fireworks show took place. It was as though the event officials were like: 'Oh my, if we don't put on there fireworks we're going to have a whole lot of accidents on the streets' and so, they began. Incredible. Majestic. Beautiful. Once in a lifetime fireworks that absolutely opened up the sky above our apartment.
Photos:
-the gang heading to Nara
-Beautiful Deer in Nara Park
Nara ToKai - Gorgeous candle lanterns as far as you could see
Party on the roof in Juso - With two of Allie's favourite ECC staffers, Monika and Aimi.
The rain sets in - under the tarp with Ross and crazy Keichan!
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