Taiko and Fireworks

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06/08/06

Oh, golly, Tanabata and Fireworks. I woke up this morning in Anjo (I live in Okazaki) feeling a sensation very oddly like what I imagine the morning after a one night stand would feel like. Maybe that was from the mix of copious (and I do mean copious) amounts of grease and chocolate, stupidity, and lack of sleep the night before. I haven’t hung out with drunk people in a while. I think that there really is a “drunk by osmosis” or “second-hand drunk” phenomenon. But more of that later.

First and foremost, I had a great time at the festival!! Tanabata is actually based on something Chinese, I think. In July each year two stars cross paths, and there are supposed to be a prince and a princess. Anyway, on that day, children write wishes on strips of paper and tie them to bamboo. Now, the fact that Anjo celebrates with a big festival an entire month later is odd, but whatever. I went to the festival by myself, and just wandered through the stalls, ate really greasy, over-priced food, and saw the sights (of which there were many!). There were brightly colored windsock-like things hanging all over the place—traditional tanabata decorations. Also, there were paper-mache (?) or wire mesh framed statues of Lilo and Stitch, Doraimon, Mario, a crazy panda cartoon character, and all sorts of characters that the Japanese like. A lot of them are quite western. In fact, throughout the whole thing I was struck by how many western influences there were on everything.

A parade wound its way through the streets of Anjo as well. A lot of groups of people got together to wear brightly colored costumes and dance in what I think is a fairly traditional style. The sister of one of my student’s was dancing in one group (which, sadly I missed). It was really fun to run into my student outside of school. Her name is Ayane, and she’s a cutey! She seemed happy to see me, and was really school-girly and linked her fingers through mind and waved. I don’t know how to describe it, but I think it’s the Japanese equivalent of a hug. Anyway, we had a brief conversation, and I met her father (I already knew mother) and it was entirely delightful. Then I ran into two more of my students, Tomoka and Masaya, who lived in America for five years. It was such a surprise!

I watched the dancing for about half an hour total, and then looked at some more stalls—the ones selling things other than food. They sell beetles (as pets, I think)!!! Japanese children really love beetles. One of Rob’s students has a pet beetle he brought into school one day. Anyway, that creeped me out a little bit.

After that I heard the distinct sound of REALLY well played Taiko and ran back to the train station stage to watch. Holy fricking awesome. I am partial to drummers in the first place, and taiko is like a mix of dance and drumming. It’s just very aesthetically pleasing—and I was absolutely mesmerized. Especially so when they played a song that required them to switch between drums frequently. I know how physical drum playing can be (especially the style of drum Taiko is), but they looked elegant at the same time. Amazing. I want to join a taiko team. Anyway, it was there that I ran into another student of mine, Kotona, who is four. She was so shy! She always is in class too. Her mother is one who knows me a little (she likes me to tell her what we studied in class each week so she can reinforce it at home), so we had a short conversation. I was a bit embarrassed though, because I’m not used to being addressed as ‘sensei’, so I almost walked away when they were saying hello. I have my students call me Sarah most of the time. It’s much more friendly, I think.

Tanabata was, as I hinted at earlier, an interesting mix of western and eastern cultures. The next musical performance I watched was the Aichi Prefectural Police Band (They were doing a performance as part of a Make Anjo Safe self-patrol implementation program.) The band played Sousa!! And the cococabana song. It made me realize how much I miss being in a band. And how much I miss colorguard as well. The band had a group of cheerleaders/colorguarders. They were ridiculously precise!! It strikes me as very Japanese, though. If something can’t be done perfectly, most Japanese will forego it. Also, it was well executed, but it didn’t stretch any boundaries at all. The routines were all fairly simple, which doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable, it was just a ‘safe’ performance.

Finally, there was a Miss Tanabata who introduced a lot of the performances. I don’t know why, but I was sad that the was a Miss Tanabata. I know the Japanese are obsessed with being cute and fashionable, but I just hate beauty pageants. Oh well. By the time the second taiko performance was over it was almost time for me to meet Rob for the Okazaki fireworks. People were running late so we sat and chatted for almost an hour. It was really nice. He gave me a lot of advice about a lot of things and assured me that one of the decisions I recently made regarding a guy here was probably the right one. I didn’t need that assurance, but it was cool to hear it anyway. His most valuable advice to me was this: Adachi (my boss) is a misogynist and likes to jerk people around, and that what I need to do is tell him that he either straightens all sorts of shit out for me by Wednesday or he needs to consider it my last day. It’ll put him in a bad place if I quit suddenly—two teachers at my school are on vacation for a month, and the company as a whole is short staffed anyway. If he’s withholding what I think his is, he’ll be almost forced to give it to me. And if he doesn’t, then I’ll come home. Big deal.

Ok, back to last night. Simran, Lesley, Rob, Christine and I all watched the Okazaki fireworks from the roof of an apartment in Anjo. Awesome! I loved the fireworks. I still have roof dust under my fingernails though, and lots of mosquito bites, which is not cool. I forgot that warm climates with water have those annoying bugs. Gah!! Anyway, everyone else but me was drinking, and I was consuming a lot of sugar!, so the mood was pretty jovial, and I didn’t even think twice when someone asked me how to say penis in Japanese. Why I know this I don’t know, but I do. It’s chin-chin. The fireworks had just ended and people were staggering home from Tanabata festivities, and this seemed a perfect opportunity to scream chin-chin at people from the rooftop, apparently. I about kicked myself after I told them how to say it. But then I lightened up and just laughed because there was nothing else I could do. People were, luckily, still sober enough to not yell when they saw young children. Lesley had her video camera and was recording various things throughout the night, but I’m not sure if she filmed that. After a while we got off the roof, chilled inside for a bit, everyone else drank some more, and then we went for a walk through the Tanabata streets. It was funny because EVERYONE was so clearly drunk, and I couldn’t stop laughing (drunk-through-osmosis?), so everyone thought we were the quintessential stupid gaijin. Actually, those of us who were drunk were acting as such, but they were also having a grand time. The only embarrassing thing was when Lesley ripped some streamers off one of the decorations. That was going a bit too far. We ran into some drunken locals and had a delightfully broken, half English, half Japanese conversation. Japanese people like to speak in English when they’re drunk, it seems.

Then we ran into the Jinja where a lot of people’s wishes and mikoshi were being stored. The mikoshi were pretty awesome, but I couldn’t get a good picture. I love stumbling across shrines and temples all the time—simply fantastic.

Finally, we made our way back to the neighborhood the apartment was in, and went to the izakaya (bar) beneath the apartment building to eat crab, yakitori (grilled chicken), and negima (pork and onions). It was the best negima I’d ever tasted!! We began to settle down after that and watched the tape Lesley had made that night—though not before Rob ran to the conbini to get chocolate pies, which he “ordered” us to eat. I thought it was funny. He was getting kind of sober by the time we watched the video, and he kept chanting ‘oh my god I am such an ass’ as he saw the way he acted. Perhaps I would have been annoyed by such debauchery and pettiness if I hadn’t been so stressed through the week, but I wanted to forget about it, and I did!! 

It was so late when I finally got to bed. Happily, the futon I slept on was better than the one Adachi gave me—a fact at which I can only shake my head. It was very pleasant. Though the entire night was kind of juvenile, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Usually I don’t like drinking/drunkenness much, but it does have its place.

Anyway, since the chances that I’m coming home quickly are quite high—I’m going to muse now about my options when I get back. They stand thusly:

1) Live in Las Vegas and work for my mom, and have a contact who has agreed to teach me Japanese
2) Live in Maryland with Jon
3) See if I can find anything to do in DC and crash my sister’s place (not a good idea methinks. It’s probably full)
4) See if I can find something to do somewhere else and get my own place (in NC?? *wink*).
I love the variety. Really, there is so much I could do!! My first choice would be to stay in Japan, but if not I think number 1 is my best choice, since I do plan on returning.

That was a really long post.

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Photos

Tanabata Decorations
So colorful! I love them.

Taiko
The look so intense, like they're ready to pounce. Wait, they are!!

Flags!
I miss colorguard--though this isn't quite colorguard

Mamorou
This banner says: by everyone's strength, let's protect the city. I thought it was funny.

o-mikoshi
These are carried around the streets on people's shoulders. Little mini shrines. Awwww.

Drunken Revelry?
We thought the shrines were pretty.