The Setting Sun

Hello again folks, it's now the middle of Winter in Japan and the weather has turned from the crisp, clear winter days we've had for a month or so now, instead opting for the windy, wet, rain+snow combo, resulting in a slushie like mush that blows horizontally, rendering your umbrella null and void. In essence, it's not very nice outside at the moment. I'm currently sitting in the living room, the underfloor heating on maz, the "stove" (What Japanese call gas heaters) is up, and yet I'm still wearing my jacket and scarf. Pretty darn cold.

As the title reads, The Sun is metaphorically Setting, that is, my time in Japan is rapidly disappearing on me. Yesterday, Thursday the 19th of January, marked two weeks until I depart Ebina for Tokyo. TWO WEEKS! With such little time remaining, I have a very busy couple of weeks ahead, but that will have to wait for another blog. In the meantime, over the past two weeks, I've been up to a couple of things, namely finishing my winter holidays, and after a seemingly endless series of festivals and events, I went to the final New Years Celebration, two weeks after New Years Day. They really know how to draw things out over here, don't they?


My final day of the Winter Holidays was spent in a city I was yet to visit, but had wanted to go to before I left-Kawasaki. While it was only a day trip, I feel I had a decent look around, even if a large portion of that was looking through 8 storey electronics stores (I went with my classmate Genga, who is a bit of an electronics geek).

A shopping plaza adjacent to Kawasaki Station

I wish we had store names like this in NZ

The South American Music scene in Kawasaki is raging

The day I visited Kawasaki, the 9th of January, is significant in Japan as being the day when all people who turned 20 in the past year become adults in Japanese culture. To celebrate this, they don their Kimono, have their hair done elaborately (more so the girls) and go to a temple/shrine to pray for a healthy and pleasant adult life. So as we were walking through Kawasaki city centre, we saw dozens and dozens of young, new adults in Kimono, one of the stark constrasts we often associate with Japan, that is the modern, technological streets, flash cars, ultra new fashions, etc, and then someone walking down the street in traditional wooden sandals and wearing a silk Kimono. I didn't grab any photos of them in Kimono, didn't want to seem like any more of a tourist than I already was, but I'm sure you all know what a Kimono looks like.

In Kawasaki is a temple, famous in Japan as being very big and old, called Kawasaki Daishi. Daishi is particularly popular during New Years celebrations, the whole temple complez containing a multitude of smaller, sub temples, and when I said to Genga 'we're going to Kawasaki Daishi', all we had to do was follow the trail of kimono.



Arriving at the temple, crowds were such that security personnel had formed various cordons, one way zones, blockades, etc. It reminded me of the raucaus when there is a car crash, people in high visibility jackets with walkie talkies and big hats waving, shouting and generally blowing everything out of proportion. Following their incessant gestures, we walked down a street, various vendors shouting out for us (and everyone else) to buy their whatever it was they were selling, most of which fell on deaf ears. We had a temple to go to, dammit!

This doesn't even begin to capture the mass of people we'd encounter soon

The lantern by the entrance to the temple

The temple isn't on fire, rather it's from the incense burner at the front of the temple

The Japanese cup their hands and draw some of the incense smoke over their heads, in the belief it will make them smarter, and for good luck. Me, always looking to get better luck, did the same, but aas yet I haven't noticed any difference. Though it did stink out my jacket with the smell of smoke.

The smoke is so thick, it clouds out the temple

A smaller incense burning shrine

Exactly what it looks like. A dog wearing a Kimono.

There is some serious smoking going on in temples in Japan

I was surprised when Genga told me he had never before done Hatsumode, that is the praying at a temple/shrine in the New Years for a happy and healthy new year, so I, the foreigner who 10 days earlier had no idea how Hatsumode worked, had to teach a Japanese person. So I walked him up to the temple, told him to flick a coin into the tray, clap three times, bow once, and clap again, all the while hoping for a good year. We then went to the various stalls selling good luck charms for 2012, and seemingly to make up for his lack of attendance in his 17 years, he bought himself a demon killing arrow, two good luck charms, one for success at school and the other for financial success, and one Daruma, a Japanese charm shaped like a head. When you buy one, you draw one eye on it, and make a wish. When the wish comes true, you write in the other eye, after which you consecrate it to a holy fire in a temple or shrine, as a way of returning it to the spirit world as thanks for helping your wish come to realisation.

An as yet unfulfilled Daruma

By this time the day was beginning to wane, so we gradually made our way to the exit, sampling the shishoku (free samples) when we could, meandering through the stalls but not buying anything, though I did spy this one rather unique stall. As everything for sale there promotes luck, I wonder what this is for?

For preventing baldness perhaps?

And with that, my Winter Holiday in Japan for 2011/2012 came to an end.

The first week of school was fairly normal, unremarkable even. It wasn't until Saturday that anything of note happened, and that was the Dondoyaki festival. The Dondoyaki festival stems from ancient times in Japan when people would sacrifice things to the spirit world by consecrating them to a giant flame. They burn all the things they used in the New Years celebrations, plus the good luck charms they got from the previous New Years. So this year, charms celebrating the Year of the Ram were burnt, and next year it will be the Dragon that is burnt and sent back to the spirit realm.

As a part of this festival, which ends the New Years celebrations, people make dango (rice balls) which they grill over the bonfire on long sticks. So when Midori's art children came Saturday morning, everyone was rolling balls of rice paste and sticking them onto a branch, ready for grilling.

While they could be eaten as they were from the stick, they only had a slightly carbonized plain rice flavour to them, I much preferred them with the sweet red bean anko paste back home. By burning our New Years materials, we further increased our good luck for the year, so no I can say that my luck must truly be stupendously fantasmagorical, as I have:

Done Hatsumode (praying at a temple/shrine for a good year) Five Times

Got a demon/bad luck killing arrow

Got a charm for academic success

Doused myself in the incense smoke at Kawasaki Daishi temple

Caught a Dango thrown by a Sumo

Burnt my New Years materials in a holy flame

Gotten 2 Daikichi (big luck) omikuji (fortune)

I figure with all that, 12 activities in total, my luck must be 12 times better than it was going to be before hand. I'm gonna be unstoppable this year.

Sunday was the last official AFS Shonan Chapter meeting of our program, and so the 5 of us went to Fujisawa for our 'pre departure orientation', covering culture shock, homesickness etc. Personally I didn't think it was all that necessary, but afterwards when we had our farewell party, to which we had all invited friends, speeches all round, lots of food, photos etc. All good fun.

AFS Shonan Chapter, 2011-2012 program

Thinking that it could well be the last time the five of us were together in Japan, we decided to gather as many of our friends who attended the party with us, and we headed out to Karaoke! We went to the same place that Camille, Fernanda, Olivia and I went to in late October, but as we had this time 11 people rather than 4, we were given 'preferential treatment'. Instead of a fairly small room with one TV screen, two mikes, a few seats and a floor dominated by a table, we had a room that had seating for at least 30 people, 4 television screens, 5 mikes, a mirror ball, and best of all, a stage! Plus, something we didn't realise in October, there are dressups which you are free to use in the lobby, something we took full advantage of, especially Olivia, as being of a height similar to a Japanese person, she could fit one costume none of us had any hope in hell of managing.

Olivia not only pulled off the Pink Power Ranger look, she also pulled it on, I had no hope of doing that.

Had to be content with the pink afro look

So a lot of fun was had, the all you can drink drink bar and all you can eat icecream stations got a fair bit of use, and after singing a variety of songs including the works of Lady Gaga, AKB48, The Rasmus, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull, we called it a night.


A rather short blog this time, however over the next couple of weeks I have a LOT of things planned, everything I've wanted to do but haven't yet gotten around to doing are being crammed into these last two weeks, and as next week I have Monday and Tuesday as half days, and Wednesday and Thursday off school, it's perfect for getting out there and doing Japan! But I'll save that for another blog.

In another note, at school last week a peculiar thing happened with the clock in my classroom. I only managed to catch the last bit of it with my camera, but watch and see if you can work out what happened. The movie was taken at 10.57,  and I have not played with it in any way.









We time travelled!

Speaking of time travel, the next two weeks will feel like time travel, they'll go by so quickly, and before I know it I'll be on a plane headed back to Aotearoa New Zealand!

But there are still many adventures to be had before then, so come back and check out the blog soon!

Sayonara for now from Under the Kanagawan Sun,

Toroi :)

Happy Holidays

Hello everyone, it's been a busy week in Japan for me, the winter holidays are nearly over, and with that comes all the getting ready for school, doing homework, cleaning my room etc. Na, who am I kidding, I've done none of that, even today which I set aside for just that has disappeared on me, during which time I've done plenty but that. Meh, do it tomorrow.

Wednesday and Thursday were actually fairly uneventful days for me, I did actually do some homework (but not all), and somewhat cleaned my room, posted off a few things, and generally recovered from the madness of New Years. It's amazing how drained you can get after doing only 5 verbs for a few days!

Friday I got up early to get on the train to Kamakura again, this time to meet up with Claire, so that we could go on an adventure to Hachimangu, the shrine I visited earlier to see the Yabusame, and then to go to Daibutsu, a giant bronze Bhudda statue, a popular destination with tourists.

At Hachimangu we did Hatsumode again, Claire bought herself an arrow for killing Demons (handy), and I distanced myself from her as she went into tourist mode, photographing every little thing. (not really, she took very few photos, but you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story)

Had a look down 'Shopping town', the souvenir filled paradise beside the temple complex, picked up a few bits and pieces there, and made our way down to the beach. Yes, the very same beach that Olivia, Camille and I ever so foolishly brought food to in October.

Thankfully the few hawks that were there paid us no attention, probably as we lacked any food, nonetheless I was constantly scouring the skies for the feathered fiends, aware that at any time they might STRIKE! Much like in this here youtube clip actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjj32CavzU0

Beach finished, headed to Hasse, the location of Daibutsu, so we boarded a dinky little train, the outside painted all manner of pictures related to the area, followed the signage (and loads of foreigners), passed through some gates, and then we were met with the giant green head of enlightenment. At 13.35 metres tall, and weighing about 93 tonnes, it was built around 1252, but has had constant repairs and structural reinforcements over the centuries. It was once entirely covered in gold, but this has since worn off apart from a bit around the ears (always wash behind your ears kids).
For 20 yen you can also go inside the statue (it is hollow), and see the various sheets of bronze that have been welded together, as well as the cast marks, plus hundreds of years of graffiti. I was quite surprised to feel that the metal was warm to the touch, I guess the metal conducts the heat from the sun through to the inside quite well.

Looking up into Bhudda's brain

With a bit of time left, we took the train to Yokohama, as a way of burning up our last remaining hour and a bit, meandered around, did nothing too spectacular.

Came home for dinner, watched a bit of Atlantis (a disney movie for those of you not in the know), and went to bed. At the moment the moon cycle is such that I can open my curtain on a clear night (every night for the past fortnight), and look straight up into the sky to see this;

So, lying perpindicular on my bed, curtain open, I look straight up through my A-Frame window, and see three moons shining down on me. Quite nice to sleep in the moonlight I think.

Saturday was an equally exciting day, one that saw me get up even earlier than Friday (6.15, so not too bad), and on the train to Tokyo at 7.20. Olivia, Camille, Fernanda and I were headed to the Happiest Place on Earth, the place Where Dreams Come True, the Most Magical Place on Earth, Tokyo Disneyland Resort!

The idea of Disneyland and the queues, mass of people, overly priced stuff you probably don't need and fakeness is a massive turn off for many people. I will admit that on my first trip to Tokyo Disneyland in 2009, I was like that. I thought of it not as a day wasted, but something quite close. With my group of similarly minded friends, no rides were ridden, no lines were waited in, only photos were taken. However going to California Disney in 2011 with my FPS team, their insistence on going on the rides meant that I had to tag along too. And lo, my eyes were opened! With a strategy learnt at a previous Disney occasion, one of our group led us from ride to ride, attraction to attraction, with minimal (for Disneyland) waiting times. So when Olivia said she was organising a Disney trip and would I like to come, I was all for it, so that I could experience a Tokyo Disney renaissance of sorts.

Toyko Disney 2009

California Disney 2011

This prediction would turn out to be correct, and full of optimism and hope, I took the time to find an English language map of Disneyland's attractions on the internet and print it out, lest we be spending most of our time translating the various destination names instead of riding them. So on the train I was formulating the best way to work the park, taking into account waiting times, fastpass usage and time of day, and before long it looked something like a military operation.

Operation Dreams Come True was a great success, a hit rate of 100%, not a single attraction was missed, and as the day turned into night, the waiting times for some of the rides was reduced to a platry 5 minutes, so some targets were hit twice.

Fernanda said she was feeling a bit ill and therefore not able to ride the likes of Space Mountain, so while she and Camille went on Alice's Tea Party Adventure, Olivia and I zoomed through the galaxy, before getting us all fast passes for the next ride. Fernanda's lack of riding real rides was ended fairly quickly though, when we queued for Splash Mountain. Remembering what we did in California for all the rides with cameras at the end, I suggested making a pose as we were about to plummet the 30 metres, as focussing on holding the pose prevents you from worrying about the drop. As a nice juxtaposition we went for the 'we're asleep' pose, eyes closed, heads to one side, faces calm etc. Which couldn't have been further from the truth of the Japanese in the seats behind us.

The little boy in the seat right behind me looks mildly concerned at the drop, and the boy behind him is vomiting into a bag. Us four, however, are in dreamland.

Fernanda got the brunt of the splash, and so now I can say that being in the front is the place you want to be in Summer, but not Winter. (I can never remember which position is best, only that I wasn't/was in it in California, I got the waves). We proceeded to Big Thunder Mountain, which I promised to Fernanda as being far kinder than Splash Mountain (you can agree or disagree with this, I think rather the opposite) as a way of getting her on to it, and it worked I am glad to say. Before long we were tearing along a Western themed railroad, screaming all the way. (some of us anyways)

Then came lunch and the parade, lots of children waving at people in suits or wearing lots of makeup, who despite working at the Happiest Place on Earth have lost the ability to be happy, as it has been all used up in providing happiness to others. Nonetheless, the parade was a bit of fun, plus I could see over the heads of everyone else, so I had a good view, unlike plenty of others!

After the parade more rides ensued, we got to go to Star Tours, a Star Wars themed ride, the line was, at 5 minutes long, 1 hour 55 minutes shorter than the line at California Disneyland, so I was well pleased with that, and we managed to get Fernanda on Space Mountain, which I think she enjoyed.  As darkness grew the lines grew shorter as children started to get sleepy and people were lining the main road to get good spots for the night time parade, and we followed along with that plan, again my height allowing me a good vantage point regardless of location.

Apparently more than a million lights go into this parade, provided quite the visual spectacle, I was reminded of Pandora from James Cameron's Avatar at times.

We did Cinderella's Castle, reliving the story of the girl who goes from essentially a slave to being a Princess, as told by a variety of mosaics and sculptures.

 

And then, in a dramatic event, I, Troy Stade, sometimes known as King Troy to my High School classmates in NZ, sat in the throne of Cinderella's Castle, thus reaffirming my position as king.

A rather dark King, perhaps, but a King nonetheless

A few more rides ensued, namely Pooh's Hunny Hunt, a ride which pleasantly surprised me as being rather fun, something I was not expecting. Our fastpass ticket gave us the 20.10-21.10 time slot, and when we arrived the normal line was full up with waiting times of 45 minutes, it felt mighty good to walk past all of them.

We then stopped for dinner, and at around half past 9 pm, 13 hours after we arrived, I left the Happiest Place on Earth.

The day was a very fun one, starting with Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster Adventures and ending with Pooh's Hunny Hunt, we cured Fernanda's fear of rollercoasters (if Disney rides can be called as such),  I restored my faith in Tokyo Disney, and Olivia and Camille had their first Disney experience in many years. All in all, it was a successful campaign.

Arriving home late, I went to sleep just over 18 hours after waking up, so consequently I was quite tired this morning, but nonetheless I got up and was out again at 9 am, headed to the Ebina town hall where there was a demonstration by the Ebina city Fire Department.

A lot of families had come to witness the demonstration, which included an awards ceremony for the Ebina fire service for their work over the past year, a parade of the various divisions, as well as their fleet of vehicles, and then there was some hands on stuff, fire teams hitting targets with their hoses, and people being able to get up close with the fire vehicles. Before the actual parade started there was a performance by a junior high school Taiko (Japanese drum) club, which was pretty impressive. Not a lot else to say really, there were some firemen, some fire trucks, some people, and a cold wind.

 

And as well as seeing Ebina's finest in action, I also met a very peculiar character known only as 'Ebinya', Ebina's very only mascot.

Ebinya is a Shrimp hat wearing, strawberry bodied white cat. 'Ebi' means shrimp in Japanese, hence the shrimp hat, and Ebina is famous for its strawberries, hence the strawberry body. In Japan, cats don't go 'meow', they go 'nyan', a which in Ebina's case is a good substitute for the 'na'. Thus, Ebinya was born, and here I am with it.

Arrived back home thinking I'd be doing some homework and sorting out my room a bit, but then some guests arrived that I didn't know about, and once they'd left, I had to have a post afternoon tea siesta, and then it was time to write the blog (homework can wait), so that you, the reader, may have something exciting to read in your otherwise grey, mundane life.

Tomorrow I'm off to Kawasaki, it will be one more city I can tick off of my list, and I shall be doing a new blog in the coming days on that, and the return to school which I am in no shape or form looking forward to. 

However looking at my school calendar for January, I see that I have the 25th and 26th off as junior high schoolers take their high school exams, and that the 23rd, 24th and 30th are half days, so I may be able to get some last minute adventures in then.


So hoping you're all well wherever you happen to be, and Sayonara for now from Under the Kanagawan Sun!

Toroi