Japan Is Doomed

Every so often, you witness something so utterly different, so very apart from your own culture or comfort sphere, that it blows you away. To be honest, it only happened to me a few times in Japan. Maybe I’m not easily impressed. Maybe I’m more international than I realise. Nevertheless, attending Koenji’s annual Awaodori dance (Wikipedia Article) blew my mind into tiny fragments…

Basically, groups of people dancing something called ‘The Fool’s Dance’ parade their way around some of the streets of Koenji, a district of Tokyo. Each group dances their way around quite a long course, whilst literally thousands of energetic overenthusiastic drunk people cheer them on. It’s a fantastic celebration.

What blew my mind, though, was the reminder of how bizarrely open Japan can be. My mother, visiting Japan for only 10 days, jumped at the chance to borrow my friends yukata. Now in England, if a foreigner turned out in traditional English clothing (whatever that is), everyone would shake their heads and mutter about how tacky it was. But in Koenji? Not at all - everyone was far too busy joining in and ignoring the rain. Hundreds of times both the crowd and the dancers smiled and nodded at her, acknowledging and appreciating interest in their culture and traditions.

In short, the festival brought out the best in everyone.

These photos show some of the amazing clothes the dancers were wearing, but to do them justice I uploaded some pictures here in huge dimensions. Despite the downpour, I hope you guys can check out the awesome effort that went into their attire.

So, I officially annouce that when I come over here to study in September 2009, I will join an Awaodori dance troupe, and perform in August 2010. That’s a promise.

Koenji Awaodori Photo Gallery

Japan Trip '08

Translation Station Episode Two!

That’s right! Translation Station part two is here. I chose a Japanese drama by the name of Code Blue this week, which revolves around a couple of young doctors working at a hospital, with a theme around a helicopter that flies off to save people.

If you haven’t seen Translation Station part 1, check it out!

This time around the show had English subtitles on it, so I left them on so you guys can see what is supposed to be happening. Sadly I messed up the accents once or twice, it’s really difficult to stay consistant when you’re doing everything in one take. I might try cutting up all the lines for the next one, although that sounds like far too much work to me!

Translation Station Episode Two!

Video

OK, this is a scary post. Matt and I just waved off this year’s volunteers, they fly back home to the UK today and another set of volunteers come in September.

I remember leaving last year. I just need to look at my post about it to remember everything. The flat is as clean as it was when we left last year, all the goodbyes have been said, the copious amount of bye-bye alcohol consumed… it’s like stepping back in time a year. Only without the guy from Back To The Future.

But of course, this has bad implications. Rather than being the super cool ‘Last Year’s Volunteers’, we have turned into the much worse ‘Volunteers from two years ago’, or at least we will in a few weeks. Furthermore, the next set of volunteers have a ‘Mike’ as well, the third in three years, so I turn from ‘Old Mike’ into ‘Oldest Mike’. 古くなりたくない！

But of course, there’s good news too. Meeting the new volunteers will be exciting, and of course I’m still in Japan until September 25th of this year so I still have plenty of time to explore. Matt is here for a year for study so it really, really is just like the good old days. Except we’re a little taller, a little poorer, and even more sunburnt.

(For those wondering ‘why is he writing all this nonsense, where did my funny go?!‘, I’ll do a new Translation Station in a day or two…)

Gap Year, General

Translation Station is a new series of videos I’m doing, where I take typical Japanese TV, then replace the speaking with my own script. It’s great fun to do and I’m hoping to recruit a few other people to do episodes as well.

The first episode is about Ainori. On the show a group of Japanese people get on a pink bus and travel around the world. Basically when one of them falls in love with another, they confess their love. If the other person accepts them, they go back to Japan together. If they don’t, the person who asked goes back alone.

As I said this is the first episode and I had no idea how hard it is to switch between accents quickly. Next time I promise it will make even less sense. The volume is a little bit low sometimes too. Sorry about that.

Video

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ,)

So yes, the other day I saw the new Studio Ghibli film (maker of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbour Totoro, which I reviewed) I liked it, but I honestly don’t think it’s up to par with his usual films, to be totally honest.

It’s much more of a kiddy movie, with no violence at all, and no really ‘evil’ characters (other than a grumpy grandmother, but she’s hardly evil like the demons in Mononoke).

Anyway, I thought I’d do my full review as a video, so here it is;

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Japan's Culture, Sheffield University, Video