Sunday, April 10, 2016

Hanami!


Now is the time of the Sakura here in Japan. The weather is getting warmer, and on Shikoku the Cherry Blossoms have bloomed. They won't last long from what I'm told, and already they seem to be growing thinner. Last weekend I went with Masamichi and his friends early Saturday to do as Japanese people do during this time; drink and eat outdoors under the pink blossoms. We headed to Marugame Castle to do so. It was perfect weather for it. Warm enough that it was no pain to be outside, yet not so hot that I was sweating under the various layers of clothes I need to cover my tattoos.
Marugame Castle was pretty crowded but not obnoxiously so. In fact it was nice to see so many people out in the open air interacting with each other. Nice to remember that Winter comes to an end, and see people just enjoying one another's company and the fine weather. Kids were cooing  and running free through the grass. Food stalls lined the street cutting up from the entrance and down into the nearby public park. The air smelled sweet with the mix of flowers and salted, grilled meats. Everywhere there were tarps of people and picnics, and talk that I could only understand a spare word or two of.


While we were there they taught me a few Japanese drinking games, and I taught them a scaled back version of Kings.After we had had our fill of drinking and food, we headed up to the summit of the mountain. From there the view was outrageously gorgeous. Below us was the thickest batch of Sakura trees, the tips of their branches just reaching the floor of the highest fewing spot, so that it looked like you were looking down into clouds made of cotton candy from above.

After we headed to Majong, which I managed to win a handful of times thanks to the advice of Masamichi. I almost think I understand the game. Almost. I learned the Kanji for "naka" lately, and as they were laying tiles down I pointed to a tile that looked to be marked "naka" and said it was so. Apparently it is not, because this seemed to amuse them all to the point where they kept saying naka whenever it came up. Though they were pretty impressed during a section of Kings where the rule was no one could speak their mother tongue, at how far my Japanese has come along.

Pictured above; my crew of O.G.sans
As always, I hope things at home are going well. And also ha, I heard it snowed. Suck it losers. I haven't seen snow in a year. 

Saturday, March 26, 2016

ヨーロッパにいきました

Wow I meant to write this a long, long time ago but I've been keeping myself pretty busy, and something was always popping up on the weekends.
Last month (wow, exactly, really) I went to Europe. London and Edinburgh specifically. It was a pretty radical time. The day after I arrived I traveled to downtown and arrived at the massively well known King's Cross station, which looked a little less wizardy than I expected.

Behind these doors; the key to wonder or an okayish mall? You be the judge.

That is until I went round the corner and saw what was the proper entrance/exit. 
Although there were more homeless people than Rowling had mentioned.
I spent the bulk of that day roaming around the city and looking at things, getting lost a bit, and chilling at the British Library. Which was amazing. They were running an exhibit on Alice in Wonderland at the time, and had a (what I assume is) an ongoing exhibit of their treasures. These included hand written original manuscripts by such big bads as Jane Austen, (ah gasp) T.S. Eliot, Oscar Wilde--and so on and so forth. It was pretty radical seeing them, especially since some were written in a sloppy of hand writing as I have, and had huge swatches of exes drawn all over the page, and revision notes. Not Austen's though. Her shit was neat as fuck. 


The next day was the day of the reading. I headed back to downtown and found my way to Charles Dicken's house which is now a museum. I wandered the halls and looked at all his old stuff like his writing desk, bed and wine cellar. Old portraits (he waskinda hot) and love letters written to his wife before she got old and he decided to leave her in the most dickish way possible.



I wandered a bit more in that area--came across a spot for George Orwell, saw some nice, tidy parks, and so on, and then headed to the reading for the feminist YA Anthology I was pub'd in. It was at this little literary bar that I eventually had to cave and hail a taxi to get to, as my phone died and I was GPSless. It went really well. The people were nice, the selections interesting, and the moderator fantastic. She was introduced as an erotic poet jazz singer, and she didn't fail to live up to that title. She had a stunning stage presence. I got to talk to her and a few other folks from For Books' Sake after the reading, and I really dig what they're doing. They're dedicated to promoting the voices of women authors, and they seem really passionate, and really friendly. I def. suggest checking them out and watching what they do. 

The anthology (which you can buy here:  http://forbookssake.net/store/products/resisters-stories-of-rebel-girls-revolution-empowerment-and-escape/ ) is marketed as stories of empowerment and escape and it is exactly that. The genres within it and the styles of writing are diverse and engaging--there's straight up realism to (of course) fantasy, dystopias, and steam punk, and at the heart of every story, a girl handling her girlness in her own unique way. It isn't full of the same cookie-cutter strong female leads who are strong mostly because they act and are like men--there's a range of femininity and gender expression, and they're all discovering themselves. I think its really great that fiction like this is being produced for teenaged girls. Its also really, spectacularly queer friendly, and not in a shy way. 

The next day I hoofed it down to the British Museum, which was fantastic. Probably the biggest museum I've ever seen in my life. I must have spent three hours wandering around in there just looking at things. There were ancient Egyptian statues--the god damned Rosetta Stone--greek statues, parts of the Parthenon--you name it they pretty much have a part of it. 10/10, would recommend. 









 My favorite of the above is probs the decapitated horse head which out of context looks like an exhibit on the history of internet memes. After having spent what felt like enough time marveling at things I stepped back outside to reup my depleted nicotine stores and head down to some of the hottest tourist spots. I stopped off in the garden near the palace and shared bits of my sandwich with the birds there, learning that Charles Dickens was 100% right, crows are fucking awesome. Then I wandered over to the Palace itself and looked at it for a bit before heading towards Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. 




This was  a pretty hellacious day of walking so I turned in not long after, read a bit of the anthology, and went to bed. The next day I had to catch a train after all. To God's Country. Scotland. EDINBURGH. Which was--if you can't tell by the enthusiastic caps lock--the most beautiful city this kid has ever seen. Did you know that they filmed Diagon Alley in Edinburgh? I didn't. But I do now. And woah can I see it. 



The people in Edinburgh were super nice and welcoming. The first pub I stepped in at 5ish pm was full of the kindest folk I ever did meet, so I stayed there for quite awhile getting drunk with them and talking about Scotland and America. There was another American woman there as well, in Scotland for a wedding, and we shot the shit about politics and Trump, and had a blast in general. It was just so rad. I think I understand where a lot of my personality comes from, having seen Scottish people party. 
The next day (despite a hangover) I took to the streets and explored Edinburgh a bit before I had to catch my train back. I visited the Scottish National Museum, and took a look at the super scary haunted Grayfrair's Churchyard, where apparently a vengeful ghost lives that will from time to time scratch the fuck out of people.Its also home to this dude who had the sweetest most loyal pup that would chill by his grave all the time, and was eventually buried next to him. 




Then, I sat down for some Haggis. In Scotland. Land of my ancestors. Just as I always dreamed I would. On my 27th birthday. Fuck. Yes. 
After, I took a train back to London, passed out, and got up at 6am to find out trains weren't running that early. I had to find myself a cab--which is an interesting story in and of itself, but I prefer to tell that one on one. 
Having been back in Japan now there's some small stuff I did, and also a doll festival I attended-but I think I'll handle that next post cause now I gotta finish off my taxes. Yay bureaucracy. 

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Let's Make Mochi and Have a Prom

Thursday was a national holiday celebrating the founding of Japan, so I had off work. Masamichi invited me to his neighborhood association's get together, where a bunch of people showed up to make mochi.



Mochi is made from a special rice that they soak in water for a night before steaming for about half an hour. Afterward they put it in a mortar and beat it with hammers. Then they roll it into a cake with sweet bean paste inside (I also saw them make a few with chocolate for kids.) It was super cool to watch, and they even let me try my hand at the hammer and the rolling. You can watch the process here:

Everyone was super friendly, and there was even a youngster there who spoke a little English. We talked about Pokemon, which is the usual bridge between me and the young, be they Japanese or not.
After we made all the mochi and ate most of it we got to see an ancient Buddhist statue. The neighborhood association's club house used to be a shrine, so they had a lot of old Buddhist paraphernalia.

Saturday the Mitoyo International Exchange Society threw a Valentines Day Prom. Japan doesn't do the prom thing so much, so it was cool to give them an idea of what its like. To make things even sweeter than the sweaty awkward dances of our youths, there was actually a fellow there who was super sweet at ballroom dance, and he showed us how to do the Jitterbug. After we mixed a bit and I got to know some pretty cool folk.
Here's a couple of us towards the end posing it up. I like to think I dress better now, but I have about as much poise as I did at 18. More tattoos though, so there's that.

On our way back to the train station while we were coming around the mountain corner, a tanuki scurried out into the middle of the road and back again. He was absolutely beautiful. It was the first time I got to see one. I'm hoping next time I get an even better eye full. 

I hope you all are having your own wonderful Valentines Day back home. Catch ya'll soon.

(Just wanna point out I totally held myself to my word and followed my blogging schedule this week. And almost did all the studying and other things I had on my plate. BOOM! High five, me. You are the best. Let's see if we can do it again this week.)

Sunday, February 7, 2016

わたしのにほんじんおとうさん

Today was the Marugame International Half Marathon. There were a ton of runners from all over who ran from my city Marugame to Sakaide and back. I went to see it with my Japanese Dad, Masamichi, and his friends. We put meant in the parking garage of a nearby mall and put together a bunch of flags. We were rooting for runners from Masamichi's friend's old college, Senshuu University. That's up in Tokyo. Senshuu also means last week, and I was a little confused by this. When I brought it up everyone thought I was making a joke, so I rolled with it. 

There were tons of runners both professional and non. My friend Laura ran it, but I think we left before she made it to our point. We were right next to the half way point where folks turned around.
Shrine behind the marathon route. 
Masamichi decked out with Senshuu gear. 

Afterward we went to an Okanmiyaki restaurant, which is where you cook your own food on a grill. Me and Masamichi got a dish that was basically like a pancake of a bunch of stuff--seafood, egg, lettuce and meat. He let me try to flip it, which was a disaster. You can see my failure at the end of this montage of me and Masamichi kicking it:
 
Then the group split up for a little bit and Masamichi showed me this super popular view from the top of a nearby mountain. Like that famous place in Europe I know pretty much nothing about other than it exists, lovers put locks on the wire fence in celebration of their bumping uglies. 


 The Seto Ohashi Bridge
 What is a Bridal Mother?
You tried so hard to English. 
(says the girl who misspells everything she writes in Japanese 
and 1/3rd of the shit she types online)
Afterward we all gathered back together at a little cafe where I played Majong for the first time. We played two rounds of games, and with the help of Masamichi I came out on top the first time and SO CLOSE to number 1 the second time. Don't ask me how though. I understood maybe a 3rd of what I was doing. 

This is an automated majong table. Somehow it spit out the same color tiles each time. No fucking clue how. 




Masamichi is a pretty rad dude. I'm really lucky that he's taken me under his wing. I learn and see a lot thanks to him. Like about Koukai, who brought zen Buddhism to Japan and built the 88 temples on Shikoku. So far Masamich and I have visited 74-78. He's also taken me to the Marugame Fan Museum. Marugame is famous for its paper fans, and you can watch people build them by hand there. It looks mega mega hard. Also we've gone to the Seto Ohashi museum, which was hella rad.

I'm working on re-stabilizing myself after the death of both Matt and Steve Watkins. Part of that involves sticking to a schedule for awhile. So hopefully if I stick to it, I'll be updating this more. 

Hope you all are doing well. 
-Couri