new camera

bought a new camera for the trip tomrrow - i've been meaning to get a really small cameral and finally did - it's charging now. i also bought some semi-small jeans and they actually fit - cheers uniqlo. roughly 35 bucks and better cut than anything i've bought from seven, diesel, etc.

went to fireworks with tomoko and yukari last night in kamakura. beforehand, tomoko took us to a chinese restaurant where the entire floor was a model train set underneath a layer of glass. was kind of cheesy, but cute. the food was good.

we then went to the daibutsu(big buddha) and went inside(my second time). i forgot how peaceful it is there. we sat behind the adjacent temple(or shrine?) and talked for a while. it was nice. yukari kept slapping my face though - cute but strange. they took a bunch of pics - i'll post them when they send them to me.

we then went to the fireworks fest, which was my first - i thought it was pretty amazing. fireworks are a much bigger deal here than they are in the states( patriotic bullshit aside). the display was much less about a few fireworks building up to a bunch of fireworks than it was about enjoying the difference between a series of somewhat carefully constructed segments. they were still just fireworks, but it seemed like a bit more thought went into the entire thing.

Afterwards, because of the ridiculous amount of people heading for a small train station, we decided to wait it out and set off tiny fireworks( which about 10 percent of the others also decided to do) was fun.

I learned some more japanese from them ....

i never finished this post, so I'm going to combine it with a vacation recap. On MOnday, I braved the shinkansen(not really much braving about it) and went down to tokushima to visit tomohisa and see the awa odori festival. I arrived an hour later than I had planned(by boarding the hikari instead of the nozomi shinkansen) and thus missed dinner and had to wait until 10 before anyone showed up. I decided to check out the festival by myself, and being that I had a camera, didn't feel too awkward on account of having something to "do". I ended up taking about 150 pictures in three hours. I had some "home soba" and a beer, and then met tomohisa and a number of friends. We grabbed a drink/some sashimi and I ended up talking to Yurie, who was the only one who could speak english(I spoke some japanese as well). She grew up in tokushima but recently moved to tokyo - we planned to hang out again with tomohisa(who needs to get out of the lab every once in a while) in tokyo sometime in the not so distant future.

was woken up at 8:00 am the following morning by a hyper japanese father whom, being i'd only been asleep for about four hours, I was incapable of communicating with. He cooked us a huge breakfast and then made all of the houseguests(of which there were 6 or so) write our names on a chalkboard and do introductions.

he then proceded to speak to me in quite good english and asked me about work etc. He then took me down to the station to retrieve my bag( which was in a locker room that closed before we had returned from the previous night's get together) and asked me about my views on the "japanese diet". I told him i thought it was pretty good and was one of the factors which contributed to the long lifespan here, which he agreed with. He then started complaining about health insurance and fat people in america...

tomohisa's friend chie came and picked us up and we went to the beach. I had on black jeans, a black tshirt ( i didn't know we were going to the beach), and i turned super red by the end of the day. Chie wore a sweatshirt and sunglasses, b/c she didn't want to get a sunburn, so I hung out with her most of the time. another dude asked me about music, to which I said I played something along the lines of hardcore. The closest reference we both knew of was "superjoint ritual". we then drank beer and played a game where one person is blindfolded and then spins around and is directed by shouts towards a watermelon. he or she then gets one swing to break it open. The first dude got it on the first try, so we all ate.

At night, we ate again at the toda's house and then went back to the awaodori. I was convinced to dance, and during the "training" they were asking people to raise there hands to show japanese regional representation at the festival. When they asked about foreigners, I raised my hand and got up on stage with a "sudachi" mascot, which had a giant lime with a smiley face on it. I was presented with a sudachi drink and sudachi man strap for my camera. I then danced.

the next day, I was again woken up by toda-san, who fed me, advised me to shower, and then saw me off. He was really into the fact that I am interested in japanese architecture and gave me a lot of information about some places I was unaware of in tokyo.

oh yeah, on the previous day, todasantachi presented me with a tea ceremony and mr. toda explained it's history to me. was a truly great experience, but the room was hot as fuck.

I then took the bus to maiko. UPon departing, I couldn't find my ticket, which was hiding in my copy of "the history of western philosophy". bus driver was actually pretty cool about it, but insisted on stopping the bus until I found it, which made ame a little uncomfortable, being that the entire bus was staring at me(i was one of the two people who got out there).


i then took the train to kyoto, where I went to three places (sanjusangendo, kiyomizu temple, and arashiyama - the food was actually more exciting than the bamboo forest I had been eagerly anticipating). everything was beautiful, but I was a bit surprised at how ugly the majority of kyoto(which is a normal japanese aside from the temples scattered around) was.

I posted pictures.

Band practice on wednesday. i'm stoked, even though I haven't written much

did a private with chiaki today and then bought some clothes, some manga, and the new zelda game(in japanese). it took me about 2 hours to do what would have likely taken about 10 minutes to do had i been playing the english game.
new word - 幽霊船 - yuureisen - phantom ship

I'm going to do a bit more studying and finish cleaning the house - i have a dinner with some students tomorrow that dave(thanks!) insisted I attended and then bailed. Only one of the students is one of mine and the other 7 are his.