This will be one of the last vacation posts, since that blissful time is slowly drawing to a close. I have yet to hear the distinct call of the cicadas, who supposedly produce a very recognizable "Kids, sit down and do your summer homework, time's running out!" sound around this time of year, but my phone's calendar works in equally depressing fashion. It's not that bad, because I almost feel like I'm dumbing down by not studying for so long (besides inserting hundreds of words into Anki; my Japanese conversation skill has definitely improved this summer). So before I leave on my last trip of this summer, to Tokyo, here's a quick Previously...on to recap what's been going on.

After coming back from Shizuoka (see this previous post), it was only a couple of days until I left with Misa to go to some onsen, about 5 hours' train, cable car and bus travel from Kyoto. We only went for a night, but the town's isolation and completely different climate made it seem like longer. What a relief it was to run around in the 15-degree rain! Maybe Dutch climate isn't that bad after all, and I just need mountains and forests to make me happy...nah, actually I hate it, but it was really refreshing after hanging out for months in 35-degree, 90%+ humid places.

We stayed in a ryokan, the only thing to do in onsen towns. It was my first time for both onsen and ryokan, and both of them were very pleasing experiences - I have already recommended my Finnish grandmother to take her sister to some of them as soon as possible, since I think they'd have a fabulous time. Anyway, when we arrived at our ryokan, which we had specifically chosen for its pretty-looking outdoor bath and the possibility of mixed bathing, we received the unpleasant notice that "We are sorry, but our outdoor bath is currently broken". We were very disappointed, not knowing what could possibly be broken about a hot spring, since that bath was basically the reason why we spent the whole day traveling to get there in the first place. Fortunately, there turned out to be plenty of other pretty outdoor baths in the town (even one with the possibility of mixed bathing), all accessible for a small fee.

I am thoroughly enjoying the Japanese public bathing experience. It makes me feel clean and reinvigorated. With saunas, hot and cold baths both indoor and outdoor, and even baths that have electric pulses sent through them periodically, there's plenty of fun to be had for the whole family. The onsen water, however, is another experience altogether, and as soon as I entered into my first onsen, I felt my limbs starting to tingle - this was the good stuff. Healing properties of the mineral-rich water, or in any case a very, very good way to relax while looking out over some uninhabited forest on the hills across the river.








On the way back from the onsen town, we took an afternoon stop for some sightseeing at a UN World Heritage site whose name I can't remember, where the main attraction was a huge graveyard in the middle of the forest. Not just any graveyard, but probably the funkiest graveyard I've ever seen. There were many graves belonging to companies instead of people, supposedly to honour the people who died while working for those companies (from accidental machinery mishap to actual honorable service - either way it's pretty weird to see graves marked by the words NISSAN, JAPAN SPACE AGENCY or YAKULT), graves for animals who died as a consequence of laboratory experiments, graves for children, a gravestone dedicated to graffiti, and many other things Misa also couldn't figure out. Most of these didn't have any actual physical remains in them, but were there for the symbolic meaning. However, there were some graves that I think contained actual physical remains, and they belonged to rather important people in Japanese history, like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu's brother. Quite impressive to be so close to them.








One last remark about the onsen trip, for those of you who are wondering what that last picture is about. It's the latest in Japanese weeding technologies: an old-school flamethrower! I can hear the dude thinking "and STAY down!". What a job.

On to the next trip, then. The dance camp! Four days in a place more or less as isolated as the onsen town, in Hiroshima-ken (didn't get to see the city). Four days of dance, play and party. Four days, 130 dancers! Crazy fun. Great chance to make new friends and strengthen bonds with existing ones. Joined a couple of sweet workshops (funking, hiphop, locking) as well as the big battle (lost out in the second round, which is progress!) and had a blast overall. There was even a nightly ghost tour. Sweet fun.






















On the topic of dance: Yesterday was the long-awaited day of the event called Symbol (or its Kyoto version, at least - Kobe and Osaka have their own versions). Different universities from Kyoto create elaborate shows to show off their circles' prowess, and there's inter-university battles (Ego lost to Air Action, Kyoto Sangyou University's circle...it's a boring truth that b-boys win without fail in inter-genre battles). Unfortunately, I had to leave before the event was halfway through (before the really cool stuff went down), since I had agreed to meet with the band at the riverside.

Before I continue, here's a quick summary of the first gig I had with Jungle Mic, last Wednesday: it was AWESOME! The live scene is well organized here; this particular live house (Kyoto Mojo) was quite small but very cozy, with everything you need, including sound quality way beyond my expectations. Soundchecked around 1 pm, then spent most of the day hanging out with the other bands and doing nothing much, until doors opened around 18h and it was back and forth between seeing the other bands and chilling backstage. The gig itself went well, considering we had practiced the songs together just twice, I had never seen them live so didn't know what to expect in terms of show, and it was my first gig in a long time. About 100 people in the audience (including some steady fans, who happen to be cute girls), a lot of humor and most importantly, FUNK! There's a DVD, but I think I'll wait to show you all what we're made of until we're a little tighter.

Back to yesterday. Got to the river, prepared for the outside gig, and headed off to a small but cool radio studio in Sanjo belonging to a small local station broadcasting on FM and in particular to a cafe nearby, where Yuuki (the guitarist) has a half-hour show once a month. This time Yuuta (singer) and I joined him, they introduced me and we had some laughs. It was my first time to participate in a radio program, and I enjoyed it a lot, so I'm looking forward to more of it in the future.

After that we got started on the gig, which was great fun for about an hour and a half, when a policeman (unprecededently for that early hour) arrived to inform us that someone was complaining and we had better pack up and leave. He was sorry, we were sorry, the 50 people sitting by the river were sorry, since we were all having a great time and honestly not playing any abhorrent music, but that all didn't matter. Anyway, it was a good experience, and there probably won't be a problem next time (they've been playing there twice a month for about 6 months now). We headed to the rehearsal studio and recorded a rough version of a work-in-progress, after which we had gyuudon and laughs (I can laugh til tears with these guys, it's great) before they dropped me off at home and I crashed an hour or two later.

As a final treat, some recent miscellaneous pics. Thanks for reading, and keep in touch.









P.S. An Indian girl committed suicide out of bullshit-based fear of the world ending by LHC's attempts to recreate early universe physics (LHC finally started operation last Wednesday). No comment.

Those green specks coloring the nightscape - it's the first time I see them

Just watched Tae Guk Gi, a Korean movie with a predictable, bitter, and stimulating ending about the Korean war and two brothers who get caught up in it in the worst way. After it finished, Tareq gave me the update on the Iraq war, since I really didn't know that much about it. Simply put, there are about 5 groups who largely overlap in terms of one aspect (religion, ethnicity, nationality) but are opposed to each other in another of those aspects, and all of who are out to get control of the oil, so they all fight each other. Yay! In other olds, about 70% of the world population is opposed to 'the' Iraq war, Mugabe = sad, and it's cloudy with 18 degrees Celsius in Kyoto at 3 am.

Back to my daily life, everything is 'koek en ei' (literally, 'cookie and egg'; I really need to pick up on English proverbs/figurative expressions .. if anyone has any links or recommended reading, I'm all ears).

Thursday, my keyboard came back from Tokyo and in the same state as it was when I first bought it - working with old firmware. Waiting for the new firmware to be published before I update now, on the distributor's recommendation. Also played with an expression pedal for the first time ever, after having Ari and Tareq cut the cable and switch the red and white wires to fix the polarity (there is an occasional incompatibility between different brands of keyboards and pedals), and it is FUN! Friday, drinking tequila with mates in Sanjo, and then meeting Misa and a friend of hers in another of those Japanese restaurants I'd never find or enter without her expert guidance. I'm so grateful.

Yesterday morning I went to my lab to attend some lectures on conceptual issues in the field I'm specializing in, string cosmology. Among the speakers were Andrei Linde and his wife, who are kind of like celebrities in the field, so it was interesting to hear them speak about this stuff. Though the technicalities were way beyond me, it gave me a good idea of what I'm heading for with my studies, and I got a much-desired boost of motivation.

After that, I was quite exhausted (barely slept the night before) and just chilled at the riverside with Misa, eating Japanese and American-style pastries. Then to Ego (the dance circle), where I joined in the monthly battle for the first time. I was paired randomly to a guy who's more or less my polar opposite as a dancer, a guy who dives to the floor as soon as possible and does headspins or flares for the larger part of the duration of the battle. I suppose we were quite a funny team to behold. Anyway, we lost in the first round, but that was fine, because I had a great time in that round, and the response I got from the other dancers (especially the 20-30 people who know me by name) was REALLY great. I totally didn't expect them to be that excited, and at the end of the entire event one of the judges (the guy at who's place we always have afterparties) made a comment about how one of the things that people in generally need to focus on is their personal expression through the rhythm of the music, something which he apparently thought I was good at since he used my name as an example. I can't wait for my first show in two weeks!!

From there, about ten of us biked/ran to Shimogamo Jinja, where we drank beers and watched the fireflies (and felt the mosquitoes) on a bridge over a stream in the forest next to the shrine - a genuinely Japanese moment, and one of complete happiness with my fate. Misa also joined us there, and after an hour or two we slowly headed for Akio's place, where we made merry until around 4 am. Twelve hours later, I woke up at Misa's, went home, and that was my weekend. Very satisfying indeed.

One last remark: if you write me a comment/e-mail, you *will* get a decent reply. I value personal contact very much, and as much as I am enjoying writing this blog because I know some of you read it regularly, I will definitely get around to writing more personal things as well, to each of you individually. I miss all of you and am always very happy to hear from you.