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Published: July 24th 2006
Karel and Toby's Going-Away Party
From viewer's left to right: Toby, Nouka, Steven, Me. Good times.******************************************
But, regretfully, not a good one. It's seems I'm quite unable to write this time, so I'm just gonna shove these posts out into the internet mostly unedited and let the pictures tell the story of what I've been up to - lest they become so stale I don't even remember them. Allow me to provide but a thin drapery of narrative for some images...
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Well, the last few days at the center passed fairly uneventfully. I headed back to the center and hung out with people, but priorities had definitely changed by then. People were focused on moving out, packing up, and rocking their new locations. Selling bikes, paying up center debts, returning things, and wrapping up Kyoto dominated thoughts. So, it turned out to be fairly uneventful for those of us staying in Kyoto. No doubt those who moved on to Tokyo are having a ridiculous time there - they have to start over, but they're doing it in the capital of cool. Some of the guys knew places to go before heading up, so I have no doubt that they'll rock Tokyo as well as they did Kyoto.
Splitting up was a little sad,
My apartment's kitchen
Yeah, it is small. Absurdly small kitchen. This is taken from the doorway looking in: go right and you hit my living room, go left you hit the kitchen, and, facing the kitchen, the bathroom. but we'll see each other back at Stanford. Plus, I'll be heading up to see them in Tokyo sometime this summer.
Meanwhile, I needed to prep for my new apartment. I assumed the center had told my host family I would be leaving soon, but when I mentioned I was moving out, they seemed very surprised. Nonetheless, I spent a last good evening with them. Food was good, conversation was fun, and it was relaxing.
The next day I couldn't wait to move out - my first apartment! As much as I enjoyed my host family, I missed the freedom of being able to come and go as I please. Whenever I stay out late I have to call home first, I'm expected to be home for certain meals, and I have to defer to other people's opinions. I missed being in charge of my own stuff. My host family helped me pack, dumped all my stuff in a car, and drove me to my apartment. I headed back one last time after all the stuff was moved out to say goodbye and bike to my apartment. Although I had to give back my own snazzy bike, I
My apartment's living / sleeping room
Ah, pretty pretty. Enjoy my plants ($1 apiece) and the bass guitar, on loan from the Stanford center semi-permanently. bought Max's bike for the summer and it works fine. Plus it’s green, so I can be oozin’ cool as I cruise (in a very moseying sort of way) around the city. Alas, it has but one gear.
I love my apartment. It isn't large, but it's big enough for me, and I don't have to pay utilities. I have a snazzy air conditioner, which turns out to be CRUCIAL in Kyoto. The day after I moved in, I was walking through downtown and one of the signs said it was 34 degrees Celsius - and in Kyoto, the humidity is outrageous. I grew up in region that you'd be hard-pressed to not call exceedingly moist, but Kyoto reigns supreme. This place has ABSURD levels of humidity. And heat to top it off. One of my Japanese friends says it's because the place is completely surrounded by hills which lock in the heat and moisture. Delightful.
Anyway, moving in was fun, but I didn't have too much time to relax in it because I had a party that evening. It was, in fact, the farewell party for Karel (correct spelling) and Toby, for they were taking their meager
My stuff
TV, microwave and clock came with the room. Fundamentally, that's all I really need - but check out my favorite hat chillin' on top. 2000 pounds (British) for a year's teaching and heading back home (after some more traveling). Nouka, an interesting ex-pat from the U.S. we had met, was holding it at her house and had invited us. The theme of the party was hard - dress as something offensive - but promising. I wanted to go not only to hang out with the dudes one last time, but in an attempt to meet some more possible friends for the summer.
What a ridiculous party.
Meeting ex-pats is always fun - they've all got some interesting story about how they ended up living in Japan. I met a guy who just decided to leave his job one day, didn't go home and went to the airport instead. He spent a while in Greece, traveled around some more, and - around a year later - went back to his apartment to sell all of his stuff. He ended up visiting Japan, met his wife, and has been living here since. Since everyone has a story, going to a party of ex-pats is interesting. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story, though. Enjoy.
Since it was my one weekend of
At the Party
Yup that is in fact Karel on the right with the makeup. summer between school and a job, I ended up getting quite inebriated. Unfortunately for me, the extremely comfortable lawn next door proved to be a poor resting spot when I went to get some air. At around three in the morning on a Saturday, two extremely well-built Japanese men came out to request politely, but firmly, that I find another spot to relax. Alas. When I returned to the party, I was informed that, in fact, their neighbors were the Yakuza. The police don't even patrol the neighborhood. The random things you run into...
Anyway, the next day was Sunday and devoted completely to actually unpacking the things I dumped on the floor, and setting myself up for a week at work (which will be discussed in the next post).
There are a couple of difficulties with my job, though. The first is that everything is in Japanese - I know, I know, I'm in Japan, but my teacher / boss graduated from Stanford. He can speak English just fine. And it's really hard to work on very fragile things when you have trouble understanding the instructions. Everyone pretends like I speak Japanese, but I constantly feel like
At the Party
Toby instructs me on how to be offensive. shouting at everyone that I DON'T understand what's going on, period, so I can stop talking in this freakin' language. Of course, this is similar to everything else - the only time I really improve rapidly is when I'm put in a situation where I'm uncomfortably pressured to succeed. In the past two weeks, my Japanese ability has jumped up again. People are floored when they learn I've only been taking it for two years (although that's probably because everyone in Japan takes English for like 10 years but can hardly speak it, due to the paucity of good instructors and the sheer number of students), and I can pretend to be mildly fluent. Most small talk is pretty easy for me now, and meeting people isn't bad. I can start up a conversaion in Japanese and keep it going for at least an hour. I can't do anything complex, though, and if people step outside their prescribed roles, I won't understand it.
Context is key. It's usually pretty easy to figure out how to react - we all do it based on facial expressions, and faking being an attentive and understanding speaker is pretty easy. You smile, nod,
Gion Matsuri
Lots and lots o' people. laugh at all the right places - the facial cues are the same - and people are pleased with you, even if you didn't understand it at all. It's easy for me to get bogged down in details - in my first job at Starbucks, I had trouble memorizing what goes in all their like 50 drinks, and in what proportions, on the first day. Then I realized that to make hot cider, use common sense - you simply just add cinnamon, cider, and heat the thing. If you don't use the right quantities it'll still be cider. Language is a lot like that. If you're in line at a lunch place, the maitre-de won't ask you why people think or the meaning of existence. If you don't understand, I've discovered that answering "A table for two" will be the right answer 99% of the time, so I memorize what they say, look it up later, and answer the question I think they should've asked.
Gion Matsuri was the next weekend - I'm gonna miss festivals when I go back to the U.S. We simply don't have festivals to the same degree that Japan does. They're these big occasions
Gion Matsuri
More people. Surrounding a giant lantern of unknown purpose (light?). to dress up in cool traditional costume, flood into the streets, and enjoy being in Japan. They're just a ton of fun. Anyway, I decided to go to Gion Matsuri with Kanako and we ended up walking around for quite a while. However, I seem quite unable to describe most of this well, so again I’ll let the pictures tell the story while I accent them with context.
Mostly, the thing about Gion Matsuri is that there were simply an astounding number of people. The next day, the news said there were 40,000 people on Shijo street - the main street for Gion Matsuri - at around 9 at night. I'd never seen the police close a central street to cars in Japan before, but they closed off one of the main intersections in Kyoto and let pedestrians simply wander about. I'd never been in a sea of people before. It was an amazing site to behold - lots of very pretty traditional decorations, lanterns, lots of interesting people, and lots of pretty ladies in kimonos. Quite a delightful time.
~Danny
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Doreen the Great
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Your kingdom
So much in so little space- all yours! What a terrific apartment. And the festivals are amazing....Fantastic float, drawn by a zillion guys- that's not a Wendy's along the street?!