Fire in the hills, a Samoan BBQ and the countryside

I apologize for the excess of "uninteresting" vacation posts lately, but you'll have to bear with them just a little longer. There are plenty of awesome other things going on in my head, and they'll find their way here in due time. Hakuna matata.

A week or so ago, the hills around Kyoto were lit up with bonfires in the shape of the characters representing "great", "excellent law" (referring to Buddhist teachings), "the shape of a boat", and "the shape of the entrance to a (Shinto) shrine". This event marks the end of the annual O-Bon festival, which is all about honoring one's ancestors; the week during which it is held is one of the only weeks in which many Japanese have a couple of days off. Anyway, the bonfires can be seen from various places inside the city, so I met up with a couple of friends and was able to see two of the fires as well. The streets were crowded, as usual with these things, and the fires lost their spectacularity after half an hour or so, but it was still a strong I-live-in-Kyoto moment. Identity formation!



Two days later, there was a BBQ party in Osaka, organized by members of the tight-knit Samoan community there. Since I know one Samoan girl who's here in the same situation as me, she invited all of her friends to crash the party, and so we did. Met a bunch of new people, ate and drank to my heart's content, and even got a chance to dance to the music of a group of Osakans who occasionally perform in the park the party was at. A very summery day indeed.









From Monday to Wednesday, I was in Shizuoka with Misa, two of her friends, and Jesus. We crashed at her folks' place (they were very friendly, more than usual according to M) and went around a bit, enjoying beaches (the dunes reminded me a lot of Holland) and forests with pleasantly cool rivers, and walking around a bit in Hamamatsu. I found out yesterday that the whole of Shizuoka prefecture goes completely unmentioned in my Japan Lonely Planet, which is an indication of the fact that it's not as interesting, to most people, as much of the rest of Japan. Still, it was great to see where Misa grew up, and to see another new side of Japanese family life and a bit of the countryside life. Plus, I am always very happy when surrounded by nature, especially if I can't hear any traffic noise. The only foreigners we encountered were a Dutch(!) couple with a kid, on the first beach we went to. That was kinda weird.
























Between now and the next trip (to a beautiful onsen, with Misa, next Monday) - by the way yes, I will indeed be unable to buy more than a fridge and a stove at the time of my move, but hey, I'm having a terrific time, so why care? -, it's more of the usual: chilling with friends, going out with Misa & her friends, and, in the hours I find myself at home, gaining knowledge and energy from music, dance, science, the news, cooking, documentaries, keeping in touch with the world. All is good in the land of Y.

Jungle Mic / The End of the Rainbow

I'm very happy right now! I'm listening to Jungle Mic's EP, recorded last May, which the guitarist gave to me after a pretty sweet jam session tonight. I ran into these guys when they were gigging by the river a couple of weeks ago, and dug their sound, so I went up to them for a chat, and they were very excited from the outset to jam with me. So today, it finally happened.

Briefly reflecting, it seems like I've had another of my super-awesome luckies. Check this out...

• they're funky!
• they mix funk, hiphop, jazz and pop
• keys would enter very nicely into their current sound (in fact, on the EP some songs have keys, though they have no keyboard player right now)
• they're semi-pro: regular gigs (which seem to be paid, but I'm not sure about that) and practices, everyone has their gear sorted out
• they're very friendly guys, and seem to be moderately crazy, in the good way
  
• they practice at a studio that has very, very nice rooms with great amps, double keyboards set up(! for now I'll just need to bring my laptop, which is great) and a lounge where it smells an awful lot like something that's not allowed and with a boxful of NES games for anyone to play (Street Fighter 2 YEAH!)
• one of the two vocalists has a car and is willing to pick me up and drop me off close to home (at least while I live in Oubaku)!
• they're definitely good enough for me to be able to learn a lot from them
• and not least of all...
• they seem to be excited to have me join them as a permanent member!!

I live at the end of the rainbow.

Fireworks, Funky Friends and that Fine Family Feeling: It's A Free-Fall Free-For-All Fantastic Fork !

Warning: Long.

Last evening, when I was walking to the local udon shop with Evans in the still-barely-bearable Kyoto heat, I told him how my entire stay in Japan up until now seems like one big vacation. Though my recent experience with the entrance exam reminded me that it's about time I started getting more serious focused, particularly with my physics efforts, it's hard to imagine a complete loss of this feeling of freedom and the wonder at being here. Still, I do think I'll sober up once I lose touch with most of my international friends and start hanging out in the lab for 8 hours a day. In any case, this is the middle of summer vacation, and whatever the future holds, right now it's that good old SUMMER FEELING!

I'll discuss the major activities of the past two weeks in chronological order.

On last week's Friday, there was the annual fireworks display at Lake Biwa. Though I had originally planned to go with the Ego people, I ended up going by myself and meeting up with Jesus, June and Jaa, as well as some of their friends and their friends. It was beautiful evening; Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake of Japan, and it was my first time to go there. The fireworks are launched from the water close to the shore of the southwestern part of the lake, which is closest to Kyoto; it's not far at all from the city. That part of the lake is surrounded by a 20-meter-wide strip of low vegetation and pedestrian boulevard, so the visibility is very good from a very large area on land. This makes it relatively easy to accomodate the 350,000 people that flock in, and provides for a very relaxed atmosphere with the insanity of Tenjin Matsuri and Gion Matsuri (see my respective posts here and here) being replaced by a quiet, giant picnic next to the water.

The fireworks were amazing, and the spirit of community that was all around us was very pleasant. On walking back to the station with my friends around 10, I stumbled upon Ikeyan and Nonchan, dancing in the street to the music of some girls and guys playing a bunch of rare instruments such as a jew's harp, metal thumb piano, all kinds of percussion, and a wonderful instrument I'd never seen before, called a hang (see this video for a somewhat monotonous example of play). It took me about .5 seconds to lose interest in my station-headed friends, and what ensued was a wonderful music and dance session in the streets of Ootsu. I got the contact info of the main music guy, and he was very excited to help me out with some sonic sweetness for my home-based music projects. By the way, the funky band I met at the riverside last week invited me to jam with them next Thursday, so I'm also looking forward to that. As far as music is concerned, things are going the right way.








The next day, I went to Kobe with Ikeyan, Nonchan and Misa. There's an annual event in one of the many clubs on one of the beaches around Kobe, and a bunch of Ikeyan's DJ/dancer friends from Osaka were to come as well. It turned out to be a really fun day, consisting mainly of bouncing back and forth between the dancefloor to the sea. Saw some really entertaining dance/music shows by all kinds of people - I've come to realize the Kyoto scene is really quite limited -, danced a lot, and felt intense satisfaction at being in the sea again (the previous time was before I came to Japan, on the Moz/SA trip). After getting back to Kyoto, Ikeyan joined Misa and me for nightly food and drinks in one of the cozy places close to both of their places, and the day was finished off in a relaxed, happy fashion. Also got an update regarding the status of weed among the youth in Japan - though it's not unpopular, it's quite a hassle, and in any case waaaay expensive (40 euro/g or so). We're all excited to go to Thailand's Full Moon Party and alter our minds there next year.







Sunday, then. Spent the day at Misa's place (watched Trainspotting for the first time - very cool) to take an evening train to Uji, where there was to be the annual Uji fireworks session. I underestimated the traffic and ended up in the fullest train I've been in in Japan so far (which is not the fullest ever yet for me, though I think the record might be mercilessly claimed by Tokyo next month), and once I exited the Uji station, the show was just about to begin. I managed to squeeze myself to a pleasant standing spot on a bridge 100 metres from the entrance to the station, and watched the show (which was less amazing than the one at Lake Biwa) by myself. When it was over, I met up with Tareq and Evans, who were around there as well, and spent the rest of the evening chilling with them.

Monday, I went to Nara with Tareq, Jesus and June, and we met up with Hibino, our assistant tutor of the past semester, who is from Nara, and he toured us around. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, just noting that this particular day was the lucky once-a-year that a large part of Nara is lit up by candles at night.
















On Tuesday, Koki arrived with a friend of his from Tokyo (who turned out to be a really funny guy - maybe the first person I have been able to practice my absurd humor with since I parted ways with Borgir). They were passing through on the way to their hometown Fukuoka, and had about 24 hours for Kyoto and Osaka. Meeting up (finally!!!) at Kyoto Station, the first thing they wanted to do was go to a public bath, because they'd been clubbing-not-sleeping for a couple of days. I hadn't been to one before, but there turned out to be one smack in the middle of central Kyoto, in a small alley somewhere inside a shopping district. It was a very pleasant first experience; hot and cold baths, a hottt sauna and a bath whose walls sent pulses of electricity through it every second, which I didn't find pleasant enough to enter with more than one leg. From this experience and the next, I gather that Japanese people spend about 20-30 minutes in such a bath, and come out very clean and very refreshed. It's great. I also witnessed a yakuza subordinate thoroughly scrubbing, washing and drying his aged boss's naked body, which was interesting.

Once we got out of the bath, Koki wanted to go to a temple or shrine, so we went to Fushimi Inari, where I'd been once before (the one with the thousand red gates - see this post of mine), walked around for a couple of hours, and took a train to my place, where they crashed out while I grabbed a ton of music and dance videos from Koki's hard drive. When they woke up, we headed to Osaka and met up with Kentaro, a locally well-known dancer who Koki knew, and who ended up being the dude I met at Eszteca's studio some 6 months ago - a nice coincidence. From the practice spot in front of Namba station through the showcase-packed club night, I got my first impression of the Osaka dance scene, and it's basically bigger and more exciting than in Kyoto, though Kyoto's relaxed vibe is certainly very pleasant as well. Unfortunately, DJ time was somewhat crap and the club very full, so there wasn't too much dancing on our side - in any case, not enough for to permit me to ask Kentaro for his number so we could practice together in Osaka sometime in the future, which he'd suggested in the beginning of the evening. I'll get there eventually. Anyway, after Koki and his friend took a shower in a manga/internet cafe close to the station, we went our separate ways around 6 am, and I headed straight for Sanjo, Kyoto, where I would meet Ryu (my tutor of the first semester), his friend/assistant tutor, Tareq and Evans, to depart for our two-day long "camp" trip.




This trip was something Ryu had invited us to a month or two ago, but until the day we left we didn't really have much of an idea of what it would be like. It turned out to most resemble the family gatherings I sometimes have with my extended family in Germany: people of 3 or 4 generations gathering in a comfortable house or two in the middle of nature, playing games all day and drinking and chatting the night away. In this case, the group we joined consisted of some three families, each spanning three generations, who have anually meet in this particular place (some 2-3 hours drive from Kyoto). In line with the strong contrast between insiders and outsiders, we were immediately accepted as insiders (since Ryu and Hibino, who have been doing this camp thing for a couple of years now), which meant that we really became a part of the family.

Spending two days and two nights with those people was incredibly fun. Among the three families' three generations were a ton of interesting, funny, crazy and friendly people. The program consisted of a lot of chatting (a lot of interesting stories about Jordan, Kenya and Japan), a lot of sports (outdoor baseball and soccer, indoor basketball, volleyball, badminton, tabletennis), games (cards, bingo with prizes for everyone), outdoor grilling, bathing together, lots of food and lots of drink. From what is probably the richest Japanese person I have gotten to know so far - a lady working in Tokyo who works at the top level of Toyota's hybrid program - to the grandpa who's funny as hell, knows how to hold his liquor and is extremely sporty, to the bikers and the cute small kids, a pretty lady who just returned from living in the Dominican Republic for two years, a Big Friendly Giant who's ghost-story-telling skills entertained the kids to no end (understanding them was a little tough for me, but it was a fun challenge, and I promised that next year I'll be able to tell my own stories) and the "Mother" of the whole big group (who embraced us as her children from the first minute), the group was fantastic. It was one of the most meaningful experiences I've had since getting here, and gave me a strong boost with regard to my attitude towards the whole integration problem: it is now clear to me that though it will probably be impossible to get accepted into society on the most superficial level because the differences in looks and culture are too obvious, it is very well possible to integrate into any of the endless subsocieties of this country, be it a dance circle, a university or a "family" in the sense of this camp.

I'm very relieved.