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.
