Autumn Struck

like a lightning bolt, quickly and beautifully. It wasn't until it was almost too late that I realized I needed to go out and see the momiji (autumn leaves); lately I've been busier than ever living my dream.

Two days ago...I unexpectedly received a call from Koichan (one of the younger kids in the dance circle - I'm very happy he's there, because he's one of the few people I can see myself hanging out with in the long term who's not graduating and moving in April). Doubly unexpected, because Japanese people don't make phone calls that often. Or at least not compared to e-mailing on their phone, which I'm estimating goes at an average of 20 messages per day per person - I go beyond that more than occasionally myself. So anyway, he was planning a dinner with "a girl I know, Bitawan-san and Purukogi-san [two dancers from the circle I know quite well] (...)" and was wondering if I had time. After I sent three people messages to see if they could move my appointments with them I realized the after-effects of the Zombie Punch were stronger than I thought, having me mistake Tuesday for Wednesday. Cancelled the cancellations and told Koichan "sure!".

The dinner was last night, and it was a blast. Purukogi was replaced by a buddy of Bitawan's (who knew no-one else) with who got along well from the start, and to match the four boys there were four girls, one of which was a co-worker of Koichan's at the trattoria he works at part-time. The others were school friends of hers, some of which hadn't seen each other in more than a year. The restaurant was another one of those places with a very fine atmosphere, like I am starting to believe there are literally infinite of in Kyoto. But our private room could only be reached by sliding down a rope to the basement (in the way firefighters slide down poles) and then crawling through a small hole in the wall, only to end up in something that could definitely double for a treasure room in a movie. Fantastic! Every single time the waiters came or left I was injected with happiness: of course they won't turn their back to you when leaving, so as they say "sorry for having interrupted" while moving backwards through a small hole in the wall...you can picture it, yeah? And when we commented about it to our main waitress, her "oh, I'm used to it" was so honest I wanted to cry. An evening to treasure, and Bear-chan's phone number as icing on the cake.

Back to autumn! Let's blast off with the scenery - I think you're going to have to agree Japan lives up to its reputation in this regard.








I only went for actual "sightseeing" to the leaves once, in Arashiyama (half an hour from central Kyoto), with Momochan (the ex-substitute-bassist of Jungle Mic), whose family lives minutes away from a major sightseeing area. That's where the above pics are from. Below, then, just a couple from Northern Kyoto: the entrance to the shrine next to school, a tree-lined stream a bit more to the North, where I got lost on the way to Ikeyan's university for dance practice, and an urban scene that made me feel quite nice when I encountered it.



Next, some November dancing:





And finally, other miscellaneities, including some older ones:

The bar at which the geisha encounter happened...


Jungle Mic in the lounge area of a rehearsal studio and at my apartment, where we had the first nabe party of my apartment...


My first calligraphy lesson - that means 'tail' by the way - (I sucked)...


After receiving a temporary replacement, before sending out mine for repairs (just heard I'm getting a good sum of money to replace what I claimed to be my irrepairably-broken-by-the-car-crash keyboard, whoopdeedoo!)...


Some famous face...


Ikeyan in a club...


...and of course, various kinds of too-good-to-be-true-I-LOVE-YOU-ALL food...

They Didn't Let Me Ride On Neko Bus

I’m sitting in Starbucks, listening to Jamiroquai. My tall green tea, the cheapest drink in the store at 340 yen, is finished and the empty mug is standing invisibly behind my laptop screen. It’s 8:40 pm on Tuesday, the second of three days of non-stop dreary rain, and I have ninety minutes left before I meet Misa. Tonight I’m breaking up with her.

The vacation has finally come to an end, and I’m working my way through a pile of chores, getting used to the feeling of responsibility once more. People have moved back, out and around, and I’m wearing a sweater for the first time in months. Kyoto’s smalltown feeling is slightly depressing, but melancholy moods like these make for productive creation.

It’s autumn, and I’ve been in Japan for exactly six months…

*REWIND*

Tokyo was a BLAAAAAST!!! In a nutshell, this is what happened.

I arrived, immediately felt at home, realized I’ve always been a city boy. I met old friends, made new friends, now have more friends there than here. Be it clubbing with Koki’s team and one of Japan’s best dancers, drinking beers in a dark park where the jogging never stops, enjoying a hearty takoyaki or nabe party, playing Super Nintendo all night or doing very irresponsible things in a friend’s 21^st-floor apartment, I went to sleep at 8 am every day and am still recovering from the jet lag.

Details, then. Remember Yokoo, Koki’s middle-school friend who I first met when they were heading back to their hometown Fukuoka for a week a couple of months ago and passed through Kansai? I probably spent 70% of my time in Tokyo with the guy, and it’s largely thanks to him that I now have the wonderful feeling that Tokyo is not the scary metropolis I anticipated it would be, but just another home, and a crazy fun one at that.

One of the best things was his driving me around on his motorcycle every day. Besides the first day, when I went around by train and foot with Koki, it was all bike. I saw most of the usual places – Asakusa, Ikebukuro, Akihabara, Ginza, Harajuku, Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba, Aoyama, Roppongi – and a bunch of places whose names I forgot. More than that: Thanks to being above ground and in the open air for the whole ride, I walked out with a tight-knitted whole of a city instead of the patchwork of towns that would have been impressed on me if I did everything by subway. It was my first time riding on (the back of) a motorcycle for more than a couple of minutes, and damn, it felt good. It’s going to be a tough decision which license I’ll get first, by the time I gather the money.

(the second pic is not his bike)

Sleeping in a different apartment just about every day helped to sharpen my perspective of Japanese normality, and made it easy to feel free – you’re just there for a couple of hours, do whatever you like, clean up a bit, and move on. I took this mentality too far on the last night, and am grateful to the friend who lives in that apartment for talking it out with me in a relaxed way – you rock, girl!

Ten days was a perfect length of time. I met everyone I had planned to, made a heap of new friends while bouncing from one party to the next with just enough to time to relax in the mornings, and left the city with things undone. Considering that my unlawful travel scheme worked and going to Tokyo is thus officially cheaper than going to school from Oubaku (though it takes nine times as long and requires nine times as many changes), I am very inclined to return to Tokyo soon. Maybe in the 5-day long Kyoto University Festival at the end of November.

Almost everyone I hung out with was originally from Fukuoka (a prefecture ten hours southwest of Kyoto, see map below). I've heard from various people that Fukuoka natives are open, friendly and like to have a good time, and I was indeed able to confirm this piece of information. More interesting, I picked up some Fukuoka-ben (dialect), and am struggling to refrain from using it back in Kyoto. It's just so catchy! I think I might be heading to Fukuoka around New Year's - the party is supposed to be great.

I also ate ramen three times. In chronological order, the biggest, the tastiest, and the spiciest ramen I’ve ever had. Definitely worth creating a new religion for.

Also, by a quite canny coincidence, the first H&M in Japan opened just five days before I arrived. Behold the organized monster that is Japanese society:

After walking for three blocks and turning a corner, I overheard a potential customer inquiring about the duration of the queue from that point. The official responded with ‘about an hour’… and it took me another three blocks and a corner turn to see the end of the queue. The next store will open in Harajuku in November. Perfect timing!

The rest of the pics, then ... proving that I did undertake some culturally educative activities after all! Koki's buddy was showing a compilation of three short movies on the floor below the floor where the paintings you can see on the pics below were hanging. I'm very interested in Japanese contemporary art, because I think it can teach me a lot about the relationship between Japanese and Western culture, the Japanese way of thinking, and all that yummy stuff. On the other side of time, I had a 90-year old calligraphy pro choose the kanji for my name (finally!). It turned out like this: 弥尾利, or ya-o-ri: the first character is quite obscure and appears in words and phrases that refer to buddhism and the lunar calendar, the second means tail, and the last means advantage. Man, that dude was one of the coolest people I ever met. Probably one of the last people alive who can actually read all those funky scrolls, and he toured my buddy and me around the exhibition, reading and translating for us with a wit that made me believe he must have been a serious playboy back in the day.

In all, I hope you realize that the reason why I say Tokyo was a BLAAAAAST!!! is only because it would be quite annoying if I used 1000000000000 exclamation marks instead of three.

*FAST FORWARD*

Finishing what I began, I broke up with Misa last night. It was emotional for both of us, but I don't doubt it was the best thing to do, and I have hope that we'll be able to maintain a lasting friendship.

Tomorrow I'm moving - my band's singer is generously driving me with my stuff -, and next week is the beginning of

another six months of CRAZY FUCKING AWESOMENESS!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. As for the title, yeah. Studio Ghibli Museum rocked and all, but holy Mr. Hankey, there's fluffy Neko Bus right in front of my face with a bunch of kids inside and around, happier than you'd ever be on conventional drugs, and the dumbass museum employee tells me "if you're smaller than the height of that bar over there" .. almost committed another major sin there.

P.P.S. Ramadan is over! Here's a pic from during Ramadan: a very happy after-sundown Benkei who was suffering for a month all by himself.