I Hate Bureaucracy, or Do I Really Want To Be A Caveman?

I'll just throw this up and get it over with: I'm getting tired of studying so much. And I'm frustrated with the procedures for getting the university to act as my guarantor for the lease contract on a new apartment. Going to the International Service Office tomorrow in the hope that the 10-something papers that need to be organized can be done within a day or two. I hate bureaucracy.

Alrighty! Considered, accepted. Next up: Gion Matsuri!!!! It's finally here, and despite the occasional thunderstorm and the not-so-occasional exam, circumstances are perfect. I went last night for the first time - with Misa -, and am going again tomorrow (with Ego) and on Thursday morning (with Misa). Incidentally, I made friends with a Polish girl who's been here for a year and is leaving soon, whose field of research is something to do with Japanese religion and history. Talking to her, I was very relieved to find that there IS actually someone who knows what these things mean and where they come from! Great. (I still don't).

As for me, I'm just walking around in my yukata (generously lent by Misa's dad, handmade by her great-grandma) and geta (wooden slippers), enjoying the feast that Gion Matsuri is for my eyes, ears, nose and especially mouth. Food stalls lining the streets at night - only in matsuri time, and very cool to discover the Japanese know what street food means after all.

For lack of inspiration, I'll let the pix speak for themselves. Also some overdue pix regarding anti-G8 protesting, post-Zero drinking, my stolen bike, Titinart's goodbye, Kyoto U's welcome party (the one with the Totoro brass band), karaoke with Misa's friends (I had the pleasure of participating in an otherwise all-girls Japanese birthday party), a ski shop called Kandahar, and the rainy season.

A final note: I'm having fun planning some good stuff for this summer, though it means I won't be able to buy much else than the bare essential (stove) once I move into my new place. Oh well! Updates as stuff crystallizes out. Looks like I won't be seeing Mark but will be seeing Koki, in any case.

Brief Lapses Into Something Really Yummy

SCENE #1 --
A week or two ago, I entered a konbini. Now I have been positively surprised by the music they play in shops here ever since I got here - clothes shops have *good* house music, supermarkets have crazy funky jazz (really, I don't have the faintest clue where they got the idea, but all supermarkets do it, unless they employ very sappy Jpop which is just as good), etc. But this time, upon entering the konbini, I heard the wonderful sounds of the ending song to Whisper of the Heart - Country Roads (Japanese version ofc).

SCENE #2 --
Last Monday, there was a welcome party for all the new international students at Kyoto University (3 months after they'd arrived - gotta love Japan). The free food and drink were very enjoyable (no Japanese party, no matter how official, without alcohol), but the best part was when a brass band appeared out of nowhere and started playing the Totoro ending song!! ..followed by the Totoro intro song. They were really nicely arranged too. My heart literally jumped from joy, and I had a *very* strong impulse of happiness.

SCENE #3 --
Youri studying, tired, halfway listless.

SCENE #4 -- (unfinished)
August and September AWESOME.

North Sea Jazz Omg

Um, yeah, among others:

Bobby McFerrin with NDR Big Band
Herbie Hancock Quintet
Bootsy Collins
Wayne Shorter Quartet & Imani Winds
Horacio "El Negro" Hernández & Italuba
Paul Simon
Chaka Khan
Tower of Power
Victor Wooten
Toto Bona Lokua
Angélique Kidjo
Bobby McFerrin, Richard Bona & Cyro Baptista
Diana Krall
Artist in Residence Bobby McFerrin & Friends
Youssou N'Dour
Maceo Parker & WDR Big Band Cologne feat. Rodney "Skeet" Curtis & Poogie Bell
Zappa Plays Zappa
Grupo Fantasma
Pete Philly & Perquisite
The Mars Volta

SICK line-up!?

Stress

Stanley Clarke's "This Is Jazz" collection of tracks .. works wonders for winding down on a rainy night.

Titinart just told me I seem stressed lately (though she hasn't seen me for a week), which put me to think. This is the last month of the Japanese course I'm following, so there's some exams coming up, which I guess puts a small load on my stress tolerance. Then there's Gion Matsuri, Kyoto's (and maybe Japan's) biggest festival coming up, where I'm going to be going for 3 days straight with different people (always including Misa), wearing a yukata (a very comfortable summer kimono made of thin cotton). This is in the week of 15 July. Also a bunch of other parties coming up - fun in itself, but leaving me with less time to do the things I'm supposed to do (am I really that much of a stresskip?). Then one of the main things is probably the fact that I need to save more than half of my scholarship each month for the coming three months if I'm to make a somewhat civilized move in September (2-3 months deposit, building up a furniture collection from scratch, etc.), which causes me to worry about money every day. Very annoying.

To top it off, I just checked my YITP e-mail, and Mr. Sasaki told me that the form and date of my exams have been fixed: a small, "not very difficult" written exam consisting of 2 problems from undergraduate physics, and an interview/oral exam probably consisting of me presenting a topic of my choice in detail and questions being asked about it. Sounds great, doesn't it? Except for the fact that the whole party has been moved one month! Written exam July 31, oral August 5. I'd started to recap undergrad physics at a very leisurely pace recently, but I guess I'm going to have to skip to the good bits. Oh well, assuming that it's still impossible to fail because of the usual circumstances (people involved in the decision-making process that determines whether or not I stay here get substantial financial profit by letting me stay, etc.), this will probably all turn out to be a blessing, since it means my "real" summer vacation starts a month earlier. But for the moment, it means stress.

Quiet Afternoon - I'm thinking of all the times I've gone crazy to this super-mellow fusion tune with its incredible sax solo. I'm sure Roel, Daniel, Murielle, Mara, Martin, Freddy, Alex, Maurits, Alexander, Mauricio and some others would remember if they heard the song. Definitely a theme song for life.

There's been some very positive stuff going on as well: last Saturday, ZERO was amazing. About 25 shows, some of which were *really* entertaining - the best I've seen so far -, most of the DJ time by 2 of my acquaintances who generally play awesome tracks, and my own first show. That went quite well, though I made some mistakes from nervousness, and was really fun. I think I'm going to get hold of a DVD of the show at some point, so I'll post the vid on youtube for y'all to see. Anyway, I'm looking forward to doing it again, and actually planning to organize a zoo-themed show for an event in November. I already asked most of my friends from the different styles, and so far everyone was up for the idea, but on second thought it's not that easy to find tracks that can be used intuivitely for animal moves. Working on it, updates will come with progress.

Today, we had a nice farewell dinner for Titinart, who's leaving for Thailand (and, later this year, for Europe), including a bunch of us and some of their families with 1-year-old children ... much fun, and not-indecent Italian food for cheap (soft drink refills yeah!).

I'm off to finish my kanji homework and grab sleep. Speaking of which, during a long nap yesterday afternoon on a bench in the hot shade of the university, I dreamed that I was a princess (or prince, can't remember), turned into a frog (it didn't seem nearly as Shrekky in the dream as it does in this writing), and had a bunch of stuff going on. Among other things, I had a dream (inside the dream) from which I really wanted to wake up, and upon trying to, woke up in the real world. Then I figured, "ok, I woke up, but the whole frog story was fun so let's go back" and put myself back to sleep and back into the dream, only to have the dream-inside-the-dream happen again. Repeat. Times four.

That dream probably came from my frequent One Piece watchings the last month. (I'm on a break right now because the next 100 episodes I downloaded are unsubtitled, and I can't be bothered to watch them like that).