Halloween! YES!

It's weird seeing Halloween decorations all over Japan when no one here actually celebrates it. Yet every shop window is adorned with pumpkins and ghosts. But I don't mind - I would've missed the decorations.
CIE held a Halloween costume contest today (instead of actual Halloween, curiously enough). If I remember correctly, there were 40-something entries into the contest, though more costumed people could be seen around campus.

I was a road. The adorable person standing next to me is my speaking partner, Megumi. She, as well as 99% of Japanese students, did not dress up.

Most of my photos from the actual competition are blurry since I was standing pretty far away from where the judging was taking place. But I managed to snap some interesting costumes that I saw.

For the fantasy and crossdressing categories, respectively.

A very creative Jellyfish!

The CIE staff being adorable.

This kid wasn't in the contest, but he was just too cute.

Ryo won. For obvious reasons.

Sushi Dinner

I had three sushi rolls, four plates of sushi, and half a bowl of edamame for a little over $7.

Just thought you should know.

Everywhere Has a Chinatown

Today, my friends Mai and Nozomi took me to Kobe's Chinatown. We had to change trains a couple times, but the trip was relatively painless. In Kobe, Chinatown is a single narrow street. It was very crowded when we were there and there were long lines outside some poplar restaurants.

Here we are at the big gate marking the entrance into Chinatown.

By the time we got to Chinatown, the three of us were starving. And what's always good in Chinatown?

The food.

We sampled different kinds of Chinese food from the restaurants lining the street. I had gyoza and nikuman, Mai had gyoza and an unidentifiable dumpling, and Nozomi had some of the duck you see in the above photo. A lot of the food was made to order, so it was fun to talk and admire the chef's handiwork while we waited.

As we were leaving, we saw an old man surrounded by a crown. By rubbing his hands along the handles of this bowl, he could make the water vibrate and shoot droplets into the air. Very cool! He beckoned me over and showed me how to do it. It's a lot harder than it looks.

After Chinatown, we decided to keep exploring Kobe since we weren't tired yet. We wandered over to a mall/arcade/amusement park complex and hit up all three parts.

We didn't ride the ferris wheel, but we did ride the equally rickety kid's rollercoaster.

Since Halloween is coming up, one of the arcade employees was chilling out as Spider-Man.

If you want to dress up like a Nazi for your purikura, there are cosumes available!
I was expecting the schoolgirl uniforms and princess dresses, but...a Nazi uniform? Really?

This angry-looking Statue of Liberty made me miss New York.

Nozomi should've bought these glasses. But she did not.

Obligatory purikura!

The following is shamelessly taken from Wikipedia:

After money has been inserted in the machine, as many as ten customers can enter the booth and pose for up to ten exposures. Some common options include the ability to alter lighting and back drops while the newest versions offer features such as fans and bluescreen effects. Some establishments even offer costumes and wigs for customers to borrow.

Once the pictures have been taken, the customers select the pictures that they wish to keep and customize them using a touch screen or pen-sensitive screen. The touch screen then displays a vast array of options such as virtual stamps, pictures, clip art, colourful backdrops, borders, and pens that can be superimposed on the photographs.

Finally, the number and size of the pictures to be printed is chosen, and the pictures print out on a glossy full-color 4 X 6 inch sheet to be cut up and divided among the group of customers. Some photo booths also allow the pictures to be sent to customers' mobile phones.

Photo sticker booths are particularly popular among young people as an inexpensive form of recreation. The pictures can be kept as souvenirs or traded with friends.

the current stuffed animal family

A veritable cornucopia of baby seals! Fresh Seal has some new younger siblings.

So, I heard you like Mudkips.

Photos Galore

First off, I would like to apologize for being the laziest updater in the world.

Secondly, I would like to announce that this post is going to be a massive picspam to cover all the things I've been neglecting to post about.

HANSHIN TIGERS:
It was a rainy, cold Monday (!) afternoon, but some friends and I had tickets to go see the Hanshin Tigers, the baseball team for the Osaka area.
The train ride to get to the stadium was pretty long and required a few transfers. By the time we reached the stadium, the rain had let up a little. We found our seats behind the outfield and lay plastic bags over our chairs, since none of us had enough foresight to bring towels. Or ponchos.
At least we bought food and souvenirs beforehand.






I would like to impress upon you how amazingly awesome Japanese baseball is. The crowd enthusiasm and participation is insane. In the picture to the left, you can see two banners (if not more) emblazoned with tigers. Throughout the game, employees wave the flags around in time to cheers or after a particularly good play. Speaking of cheers, the cheermaster is the man in yellow in the middle of the photo. Armed with a whistle and a couple cue cards, he leads the crowd in various cheers. There is never a silent moment.





As the crowd cheers in perfect unison and the banners swoop over the heads of those sitting in the closer bleachers, trumpets and drums are played for extra effect.
The crowd adds some percussion of its own, banging on plastic hollow bats in time to the cheers.

When this photo was taken, the rain really started to pour again. Our group started getting up in shifts to go buy ponchos or warm up inside. Eventually, I busted out my umbrella, which kept me and my bookbag dry (some notebooks were not so lucky).










The Tigers won! The moment the announcer declared our victory, the crown unleashed hordes of balloons that whizzed jubilantly around the stadium.

Seriously, why don't they do such awesome things in America?









Ryo, our (amazingly) 30-year-old buddy, and two of the ladies!
Note that just about everyone in the crowd is wearing Hanshin Tigers paraphernalia. That's team spirit right there.

I had so much fun! Truly one of the most enjoyable things I've done here so far. I can't even begin to imagine how mindblowing this event would've been if it wasn't freezing and raining.


Unfortunately, the Tigers' season ended with this game, so I won't be able to pay the stadium another visit. I really want to, though. Too bad it would be traitorous to attend another team's game.


TOKYO:

I sent my host family from 2004 a letter two weeks ago, expressing my interest in seeing them again. Last Thursday, I received a text message from my host cousin telling me that my family was expecting to see me on Sunday afternoon and that I could stay at her house that night. Monday was a holiday, so I decided to see the impromptu plan through. I invited one of my fellow American friends along since he wanted to see Tokyo and since I didn't want to travel alone. Everything's more fun with a friend by your side!

We took the Nozomi Shinkansen (the fastest one!) from Kyoto to Tokyo. The Shinkansen took about two and a half hours, which, combined with all the local trains to get us to the main station, brought our travel total to about 4 hours. Considering that we pretty much crossed the country in that amouth of time - awesome. And the Shinkansen is really cool! The interior is very much like a first class airplane. There are crazy amounts of legroom and super comfortable seats. I love this train. If it wasn't so expensive, I would probably make plans to travel somewhere just to use it.
My host father ("Papa") met us at Tokyo Station. It was so wonderful to see him after all this time! He hasn't changed a bit! And my friend, who speaks and understands Japanese much better than me, said that he is a geniunely cool person. As if I did not know.
Papa hailed us a cab and brought us to the busy Ginza area. After walking around for a while, he asked us if we liked Kabuki. When we replied that we had never seen a show, he took us to a gorgeous old Kabuki theater (above). This particular theater has a program that allows people to pay a low price to stand in the very back of the theater and watch one act of the show.
After that, we went to Akihabara, "Electric Town." This district is the location of many huge electronics stores, selling vaccuum cleaners to cameras to cell phones, and arcades. Akihabara is also somewhat of a haven for otaku ("fan" in Japanese...but it has a negative connotation) who love anime, manga, and video games.
Papa took us into Mandarake, the largest manga chain in Japan. Four years ago, I had been to the store in Akihabara, though it has since been relocated. The old store was dark, gloomy, and in a basement... Is it weird that I miss it?
After a long day of walking around and taking photos, Papa put my friend and me on the train to my host aunt's house. After the hour long train ride, she and my host cousin met us and drove us back home. My aunt told us that she had invited some of her neighbors, friends, and students who could speak English and who were interested in meeting some gaijin ("foreigners"). Dinner was a feast! Everyone there was very lively and fun, and we all switched between speaking Japanese and English. We all got to practice our second languages.
The next morning, my aunt took me, my friend, and her two daughters to meet up with my Mama and Papa in Asakusa. Asakusa is home to a famous...and huge...and crowded temple. After paying our respects and getting our fortunes (mine was "the bad fortune"), we navigated out of the crowd and explored the neighborhood a little more. After a while, we split into two taxis and drove to a restraunt supply district. The strip of stores was about 1km long, selling everything from chopsticks to sample food. Sample food being plastic models of what a restaurant serves its customers. After a log day, filled with lots of walking, my friend and I said our goodbyes and boarded the Shinkansen home.

It was such a fun and amazing trip! I really want to return to Tokyo soon!

CHILLIN' OUT, MAXIN, RELAXIN' ALL COOL:

Yakiniku! Delicious!

Thanks for taking a photo of yourself with my camera.

Time well spent in the CIE lounge.

There are more photos I could add to this post, but it's getting late and I'm tired. (Maybe I'll just edit some more pictures in later.) Also, I am waking up early tomorrow to go meet two of my Japanese friends and go to Kobe with them. I hear there's a lot of good food there! I'm hoping for dim sum.

Takarazuka

Sorry I haven't posted in over a week!

Last weekend, I went to see a Hanshin Tigers game with some friends. It was cold and pouring rain, but we had an amazing time! I wish the weather had been nicer...I can't imagine having more fun. Because it was raining, I didn't take out my camera since my bag was full of notebooks for school and I didn't want them to get wet. I've been waiting for friends to upload their pictures so I can post a picspam. I'll gather photos and post them soon.

Yesterday, I went to see a show at the Takarazuka Grand Theater with my Pop Culture as Social Practice class.

The poster for the play we saw, Paradise Prince.

Our professor arranged for a couple of his classes to go see a performance because of Takarazuka's enormous and highly structured fan culture. (He also provided the three following photos.) The performances themselves are pretty interesting.

Our class in front of the Takarazuka Grand Theater.

Takarazuka is lavish, Broadway-esque all-female acting/singing/dancing company. There are five troupes within the company of varying talent and popularity. (I think the troupe we saw perform was one of the lower ones.) The fans of the shows and actresses are 90% female.
The women in the company enter when they are fairly young, junior high or high school, I think. They have two years of strict training at the Takarazuka music school before they can become members fo a troupe. The school is incredibly competitive - thousands of girls from all over Japan apply each year, and only 40 to 50 are selected.

Inside the Grand Theater.

These girls are trained together for their first year, but then are separated into male performers (otokoyaku) and female roles (musumeyaku). The otokoyaku are required to cut their hair, speak in a masculine form, and take on a more masculine role in the classroom. Since the mannerisms and language in Japan differ so much between the genders, I can only imagine that this is a massive head trip.

Interestingly enough, the otokoyaku are the more popular performers. The men portrayed in Takarazuka shows are a form of "ideal male" - an androgynous combination of female sensitivity and manliness. Women are drawn to Takarazuka because of the inherent sexuality in the performances. For some, the draw is the (obvious) lesbian overtones; for others, the fascination of the otokoyaku getting away with being a man.

Overall, it was a really cool performance to attend! I really enjoyed it. The show was split into two parts: the musical Paradise Prince and an extravagant revue called Dancing for You. I actually preferred the latter. The musical was difficult to understand and the story itself, even in English, was pretty weak. The dancing was flashy and over-the-top. Think showgirls adorned with massive peacock-like feathers on their backs and "men" in sequined suits. I could have watched it for hours.