Gomennasai – It’s been a while
Life’s been ticking over at quite a pace. I’m not complaining– just mad at myself that I been letting all the mad and interesting bites of life turn to crumbs of memories before I can put my fingers on the keys. I could blame the World Cup soccer as a distraction, but since football is my first love I could never lay my blame there. I’m not going to beat on about another disappointing Dutch performance or the mockery of ‘the beautiful game’ that the sly, diving Italians turned in in the final, or Zidane’s brain explosion. I could blame my Toshiba laptop for been out of action again (now repaired – I’d never buy another), the trials of securing a new job or my new apartment – but I’ll stop myself before you do and just write. The following blog entries should hopefully put you back on track with what’s going on with me in the Red Dot and give you an excuse to procrastinate on that spreadsheet / law contract / line of code / whatever for another 10 minutes.
Ogaki Festival
Ogaki is a few towns away from Gifu and where I worked at the time. My first Japanese festival was a buzz, though I’m told its nothing compared to the famous festivals known around Japan. The Saturday it rained so the Mikoshi and Dashi that I had come to see weren’t risked in the rain. The gods cleared the night sky on the Sunday and these multi-towered floats were paraded through the streets, hauled by teams of young men. In front of the Jinja (shrine) the men sent the Dashi spinning on its two wheels as an impressive stunt. Others were less reckless – some of the floats were a few hundred years old, others were decked out with a stage type appendage where young girls in Kimono gracefully performed the ancient traditions with parasols and fans.
Street merchants tried to pass off crap festival food Japanese style (including chocolate penis bananas), cheap flashing widgets, and Manga merchandise. My friend Faith bought a Hello Kitty Lantern. Kawaii! Our favourite little stall though had to be the ‘win a turtle’ corner. Aim: catch a tiny turtle in a rice cracker that turns to soggy mush before your eyes. We won a little turtle, though we could’ve bought a whole family from the pet shop for the same price. And we cheated. Its Sara’s turtle really (I’m only the father who’s never there) and since our red-eared turtle’s higher up the great chain of being than a goldfish it’s being well loved and looked after. It has a name: Akachan (Aka = red, chan = affectionate title.)
Nights Out
I’m a bit light on those… sorry to disappoint, no I’m not feeling unwell…
An 80’s party in Nagoya was just too easy to kit up for. Since fashion has no rules in Japan there’s no ironic retro thing going down. It’s all current and everything goes as far as I can tell. I found a LASS shirt – aka KISS. There’s no story here, all 80s parties end with a hangover and lipsticked kisses slapped all over the face.
More common are the drinking episodes at Izakaya’s (drinking/eating dens) or the local favourite ‘Beerhall’ (where everybody knows your name, da da da). Sometime after the fifth jar someone will have bright idea of a Karaoke-a-thon which never expires after the first hour. I blame the lack of Kebab takeaway joints.
On one of Beerhall’s sterling open-mic nights I saw a sassy Japanese singer woo the crowd. Naomi’s now my girlfriend and her next gigs at the end of the month. Our first night out we ate at Japanese restaurant that was an experience in art as much as food. I still haven’t eaten anything like it since being in Japan – 10 courses, all mini works of art served up on individual handmade pottery for which Gifu is famous, all raw, all delish.
Lastly, as yet I am unable to report on Japanese Love Hotels. There will be notification when this changes.
Gomenasai moo ichido, Sorry once again for the long silence – my catchup posts are on their way. For now, check out the Ogaki festival photos under my photolog >Japan>Ogaki-festival
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