Japan Is Doomed

This weekend went from being a recuperation weekend from the midterm exams (which I got a B in, by some lucky fluke!) to a very impromptu but really interesting few days. The whole time I’ve really been reminded of my gap year quite a few times, and that warm feeling of nostalgia was really welcome. It sure beats the bitter, bitter cold of winter in Tokyo, anyway.

On Saturday I was invited along to the Hosei University Symphony Orchestra performance. My friend Haruka, who was an exchange student at Sheffield university back in 2007 generously gave me two tickets so I went along with a friend from Sophia university. I can’t say I know a huge amount about orchestral music, but the quality was fantastic. I was amazed, really. The hall was huge, the orchestra was top quality. Sadly I couldn’t take any photos, so you will have to trust me that I went. I don’t think it was a drunken dream, anyway.

On Sunday I had originally planned to go to Kamakura (my first visit was way back in December 2006) with the volunteers but it was too cold and too late in the day by the time we got our lazy selves out of bed, so we opted to visit Meiji Shrine and then wander around Tokyo a bit. Here’s a few of my favourite photos (the rest are all here on Flickr)

This photo was taken under the canopy of the trees inside the shrine courtyard. It’s a pretty big tree, and gives you a great vantage of the whole place. Also, if you look carefully you can see a procession with a red umbrella, way off in the right of the shot. Well, that’s a traditional Japanese wedding! I felt it was a bit rude to take photos, but since everyone including the Japanese were, I figured I might as well.

The bride is wearing the white circle thing on her head. (Wow, traditional Japanese vocabulary fail!) The two girls in front of her are I think bridesmaids, someone might have to correct me on that. They made their way across the courtyard and back. It was a bit strange as none of them looked around at the people photographing them, I assume looking forward is part of the ceremony. (I guess ignoring all the cameras is probably easier, too).

Finally, these are 絵馬 (ema, or votive tablets) on which you write your hopes, dreams and wishes and leave them under the tree in the shrine, and they come true! A pretty great deal I think!

It really was kind of refreshing to do this sort of thing again. I think I’ve been so caught up with learning and university recently, I couldn’t just cut loose, grab my camera and some friends and take things at my own pace. So thanks to Ralph and Andy (the current vols) for putting up with this old man’s trip down memory lane!

As I mentioned previously the photos from today are on Flickr.

When fellow Japan video maker ElevenColors made the offer of donating his TV in order to escape the hold of Television Addiction, I jumped at the chance. I mean, what better way to practice Japanese comprehension than learning about how to clean hot springs, and exactly which prefecture in Japan makes the best Tofu!? (…and that’s just what I learned today!)

So I made a video about it! Click the photo below to enjoy!

As I mention in the video, I finally found a group and Sophia that looks like fun – racquetball. Barely any English speakers, and I get to hit things! And I love hitting things!

Hi guys! Just a brief update. As I may have mentioned, recently I made a mistake that resulted in me losing 2500+ photographs from the last year. It was pretty gutting, although thanks to the blog and my Flickr account (more on that later!) it wasn’t life destroying.

But to prevent that ever, ever happening again, I set up a gallery, so that I’d be able to view my photos from anywhere in the world. Then I thought – why not let everyone look at them?

So whilst they’re not very well managed, and I got sick of writing descriptions for them, they are all available. I’m still using my Flickr account as a sort of ’showcase’ – all my favourite photos will be uploaded there. But if you’re really into photographs, or just want to see what I deemed ‘not so good’, head over to the gallery. If you click the link at the top of the page, you’ll see a menu to navigate to both of these.

Hope that wasn’t too boring!

If you don’t follow me on Youtube, you may not find this post very interesting!

Hikosaemon, one of the better know video bloggers on Youtube recently had a celebration as he just hit 100 videos, and more importantly he became a dad! (Sorry, I just spoiled the video!) To celebrate he had a bunch of us say ‘cheers!’ or ‘kampai!’ on video, then mixed it all together. Keep your eyes peeled, I’m in there somewhere!

Hikosaemon’s ‘Kampai!’ video

I have posted my own video in response and posed the question of a Youtuber meet up in Tokyo. If you’re a video maker and you’re interested, why not hit the ‘video’ link up there and send me a private message on Youtube? You could comment on the following video or on this blog, too.

Congratulations Hikosaemon & Japan Youtubers Meet? KAMPAI!

It’s great to be part of this community, this blog is just paying off in better ways all the time! That’s about it for now. Next weekend I have FIVE days in a row off! (Thanks Japan’s love of national holidays!) so I am hoping to go traveling, which means a multitude of photos, blog posts and videos in the near future. Or I may just get drunk and challenge a police officer to sumo. But that would make a pretty good video too.