amaterasu + baseball + BBQ + sanja matsuri

well in the past week or so, we've had the chance to see a bunch of events

Amaterasu:
http://www.kodo.or.jp/amaterasu/index_e.html

It was the first time that Kabuki Theatre was mixed with taiko drumming. Here's the poster:



As for the actual performance, we weren't allowed to do any photography.

But I snuck a shot of the stage in:



And nobody says no to my Leica. So once I get the prints developed, I might post some work up. They look promising though.

The performance itself was amazing. The first half was primarily the Amaterasu (Sun Goddess) strutting around and then another man running around. He represented Ama-no-Uzume, who was supposed to convince Amaterasu to come out of a cave. I thought the entire act was very beautiful. Slow, melodious as everything seemed to float from place to place. By the way, that Amaterasu person is a man.

The 2nd half was mostly taiko drumming. It was also very awesome to watch, except that my headache wasn't going away.

It looked close to this:





Baseball:
Japanese baseball is something that everybody should watch at least once in their life. Although we went to see the Yakult Swallows play (they're not very famous), the atmosphere of the crowd was very positive. Our crowd when rallying would pump these green and blue umbrellas up in the air into a sea of those colors.

'Let's Pre-game' was the theme of a small get together organized by C.W. in order to bring the people of our program together for a few drinks. 'Twas a very nice thing to do, and everyone was in a very happy state by about 6 o clock.

The downpour shortened the game. But at that point I don't think there were many people left/ i don't think many people cared. It was a great experience I think:

6.15 pm and tipsy

the ticket

peace

veiw of the field

crazy umbrella dance



CIEE Barbecue:

The day after the baseball game, the entire CIEE was invited to a country house owned by one of the host families. The food was amazing, cooked by the host families. There were activities such as calligraphy, yukata wearing, a live band performing and just generally the chance to socialize and get to meet the host families of other people.

I took the chance to wear a yukata, and practice some calligraphy. Why not?

sporting a yukata and wooden shoes

calligraphy. "Bushido" and "Asashoryuu"

Group shot!

Goofin off.


It was a great time, and I really appreciate the CIEE for throwing something like this together.


Sanja Matsuri:

One of the biggest festivals in Tokyo happened at the Asakusa shrine. The entire point of the festival was that many different portable shrines, called "Mikoshi", were to be paraded around the streets. They Mikoshi weigh a few hundred kilos and are carried on the backs of people through the streets. It was packed, and I mean PACKED with people. I don't think I'd be wrong if I said there was at least 50,000 people there. All of the roads around the temple were closed. And the streets just packed with people. An amazing event to go see.

What I saw:

Crowds

Crowds

Crowds

Close up of a Mikoshi

Coolest thing at the festival

CP+B rocks

CP+B (Crispin, Porter + Bogusky) has to be one of the coolest ad agencies out there.

And this is why:

Grand Sumo Tournament

A few weeks ago I went to a sumo tournament at the Yasukuni Shrine. Not only was it a friendly tournament, it was free, the food was good, and it was so damn early and so damn cold. But since then I'd been intrigued with sumo as a sport.

So when news of the Grand Sumo Tournament came along I became excited. Little kid in a candy store excited. The fact that it was going to be held in Tokyo was even better. So we bought "box seats" to watch sumo for an afternoon.

On Wednesday after class we rushed over to the sumo Ryogoku Kokugikan, the Arena, and found our seats. The main bouts weren't starting for an hour and a half, so we hung around, talked and laughed at our "box seats" (which were in reality 4 pillows on a tatami floor).

But I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Ryogoku Kokugikan. So Old-school looking.

The Emperor's Cup.

The ring

Our box.

Our Neighbour's box.

Ruben is definitely enjoying himself.

With Asashoryu.

Being a little cheeky.



And some actual sumo pictures:


Purifying with water.

Slapping around.

More Slapping around

Look out below. 800 pounds coming your way.

Wedgie

Flexible michelin man was there too.

Bald russian guy.

Getting air.

Grappling

Washing off the belly.



As you can see, it was a great time. I wish I could've seen more. We sat next to some crazy people who were crazy drunk:







Crazy times at crazy places. With Crazy japanese.

ChiChiBu

Chichibu


A few weeks ago I didn’t have any plans for Golden Week, the few days of holiday thrown together to create a 5 day weekend. Travel mania. 70 million Japanese would be traveling. Crazy. But I heard some friends talking about going to a place with flowers. Flowers. Macro. Yes. Let’s Go.

So on Friday morning last week, I made my way over to Ikebukuro station to meet with the other cats who were going on this trip. Matt, Ruben, Francesca, Sarah and Kendra. “Pack Light” said Matt. Apparently we were going to go trekking somewhere. But “Pack Light” is not something you tell a photographer. Especially when there’s flowers involved. But I made compromises. Packed everything into my camera backpack.

The train ride there was pretty intense. About ¾ of the way to the way to Seibu Chichibu, the train stopped at a station and then started going in reverse. I have to say it was so weird. But I guess that was the end of the tracks there or we had to change direction or something.

We got to the station and walked up towards the Chichibu flower fields. From all the advertisements, it looked like the flower fields in Leiden, Holland. Been to those tulip fields and they looked amazing. We got there, and it was slightly smaller. Regardless, it was still quite beautiful. I was satisfied. And so was my camera. Walking around the premises, we decided to have some snacks on a stick for lunch. Sitting in a pine-smelling forest, we snacked.






We decided to go to the next part, the strawberry picking. As we’re looking out onto the valley and trying to figure out where the hell this place is, we remember that there’s also a Sake factory somewhere out there. So we walk back towards the station in search of the sake factory, which happened to be on the way to the strawberry picking farms.

I was convinced that we would have a tour of the factory to see how the stuff was made, but I was wrong. They did have a sake-tasting room that we were promptly invited too. This homemade stuff was pretty damn good. And pretty cheap too. So I bought two bottles of Ume (Plum) Sake and we kept spelunking through this town.




Now when I think about it, 2 miles isn’t really that far (that’s what the scale on the map suggested). If I can do a mile in about 7 minutes, so 2 miles walking should be like 30 minutes max. But the road kept on going and going.

And going and going.


So about an hour and a half after we left the Sake place, we arrived at the strawberry picking place to find out that it had been closed at 1 pm. But alas. The lady who owned the place saw a group of hungry looking foreigners and gave us our trays. Now at first we were confused. We paid 10 dollars for a tray that would fit about 5 strawberries on it. I figured out soon that not only do we pick the strawberries, we eat them right there. The tray was for the little green things. Glad I brought my appetite. Apparently Ruben did too.

It's right over there. Past that bridge. Across the valley.






So after eating our guts out, we went back out of the greenhouses to where we left our stuff. The owner lady brought out tea and bamboo shoots as snacks. She asked us how we got here and we told her we walked over. She gave us a weird look, and then asked how we’re getting back to our hotel. Upon finding out that we’d call a cab, she said “no no no no. my son is going home and he’s going that way”. We told her that it’s ok but she resisted with the perseverance of a mad old woman. A few minutes later we were in a random Japanese guys van going towards our hotel.

We found it. It was more of a woman renting out her house. But it was still sweet. Accommodated the 6 of us perfectly fine. it came out cheaper too with having more of us. So we lounged out after the day of walking, and pretty soon decided that food is an important aspect, and we desperately need it. Apparently, the staple food of this particular group going somewhere far together is Pizza, and we passed a Pizza-La (or Pizza-Ra) as some of us like to say, so we ordered that. A cheap wine run was made, and we were sitting in front of TV, around a table that was heated underneath. Cash money.

As soon as we finished our Pizza-Ra, we busted out the playing cards. There was Ume Sake to be drunk. (drinked? drank?) With the baseball game still playing on the TV, we played a game that I don’t really remember at the moment. Oh wait. Asshole. That’s the game. It was fun.








And then Pride GP came onto the TV. Pride GP is like UFC, except in a regular boxing ring without the cage. It was ridiculous. At one point, a Japanese guy was fighting a British guy who looked like he’d been taking horse steroids or something. The Japanese guy was losing, they grappled, and then he came up and pummeled the crap out of the British guy’s face. And with the last punch, a gob of blood covered the camera lens. It was so sick and so awesome at the same time. We all cringed.

The next day we woke up to go rafting. A short train ride and walk away we got to the rafting place. Our particular guide spoke great English, and as soon as we got our wetsuit bottoms on, it was time to rock. We dragged the boat down to the water and a few minutes of safety briefing later, we were in the water. It was damn cold!

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:









After rafting, we went to this restaurant on the small street we walked on before. I ordered the beef noodle soup. My goodness. I have not had that beef noodle soup that tasty in a long long long time. Probably ever. Whatever favorite food you may have. This is better.

Here it is:

Before

After



Full and happy, we trekked back to the station, took the local train back to the main station, shopped for gifts for our host families and then got onto the train back to Ikebukuro. As everyone passed out, so did I, waking up at Ikebukuro station. The trip was successful IMO.