clubbing here, they are such different places to be compared to back
home!! Bars are so tiny, you literally walk in and have to remind
yourself not to walk past the entrance way as that will take you to
the toilet, the entrance way is the whole bar! (and dance floor and
sitting area!) The funniest thing happened at one club "The Freezer"
that when we walked in the entrance way was lined with couches giving
about 2 metres of standing area from the bar, then as the club warmed
up in the wee hours the bartenders kicked the people off the couches
and took them outside to create a dance area… of uno a whole extra
half a metre!! You definitely learn some new dance moves though when
you are packed into a bar like sardines!! (the head moves are about
all you can manage!!) So I thought maybe that is the reason for the
bar's name because it is packed so tight you can't move but the more
bars I go to the more you realise that space is very sparse especially
in the bars! St Paddy's day was a treat where you got a free drink of
what can only be described as poison (it is called Poteen!) a 70 proof
drink that literally burns your insides and the disadvantage of a
small bar being realised when people got a bit ill from this drink it
was better to just leave the bar and go elsewhere as there was nowhere
to stand after one person of low tolerance had done the deed! Urghh!!
There are dance clubs though that are fairly decent if you can afford
them at $25 US for the entrance fee you have to hope they are
happening before you go in otherwise you find out you have bought the
entrance fee to a private club for you and your friends for the
evening!! (not always so cool when you want a raging atmos!) But you
can always bet on a Sunday to be amazing (you know you're in
when the busiest night at a club is a Sunday!!)
Then there is the Gay bar scene, one of my American friends organised
an Amateur Drag Open night at one of the Gay bars (or someones bedroom
it was about the equilivant size!) at $15US entrance fee it was a
bargain, but of course with the Gay scene evolving here it was only
him and his friend that did the Drag and all the people in the bar
were his friends (thus only 4 were gay and it was so small a space I
got to talk to everyone in the bar that night (all 30odd people) most
of them foreigners!) Always makes for an interesting night though when
you soon find out most of the people there all work or worked for
Nova!! The strangest one being the Morman looking American behind the
bar that came up to me half way through the night and said I guess
you've guess my secret by now… I say "No… what" he acts all proud and
says "I[m not really gay and I'm not really a Morman I only have the
beard because I'm a marriage celebrant and Japanese people respect a
celebrant that looks like a Morman. Do you want my number"… As I'm
trying to think of a quick answer to that question that is a polite No
my lovely roomie sweeps in a says "I'll have it" a good save …only to
remind me later of course that after 6 months in Japan I won't be so
picky and will be wanting his number! Urghh ;(
Apart from the bar scene I have been having an amazing time travelling
in
exciting things to do all the time!
I went to a Religious Water Drawing Ceremony at ancient temple in the
old Capital of Japan although the ceremony was hugely hyped up in
brochures and posters at was more the atmos of the ceremony that was
amazing. By Western standards with all our flare and pizzazz for
events the ceremony itself was very low key with a two hour wait in
the snow to get a good viewing spot (yes the only day it snowed on me
in Japan was the day I had to wait outside for two hours!! But then it
was also the first time I felt truly humbled in my life when an
elderly lady that looked about 80 came up to my friend and I and held
her umbrella over us even though she was about half our height and so
had to stretch to get it over our heads …aw shucks!)
Then the ceremony started with priests running up the side of the
temple with a large stick on a wagon, the end had a ball of brambles
stuck on it lit on fire. Once they got to the balcony of the temple
the priest picked the stick up (it was about 3m long!) and hoisted it
showering the crowd with sparks then put it on his shoulder and ran
across the balcony and shook the pole until the ball of lit brambles
fell onto the ground on the other side again showering the crowd in
sparks (later I found out that if you manage to 'catch' a spark it is
very goodluck for you and your family) This process went on for ages
but it was the 1000 people strong crowd that made the night with their
overwhelming "Ahhs", "ohhs" and applause at every movement of the
priests that made it an awe inspiring experience!!
The next festival I went to was the Plum Festival which highlighted
the fact that Japan has thousands of festivals and you really have to
be quite selective of the ones you go too as this time I ended up
travelling an hour and a half and paying an entrance fee to wander
around a garden the size of half a rugby field spotted with flowering
plum trees and crowded with the elderly an interesting experience but
without the hype and glamour!
Hmm just realised I have again managed to babble a lot more than
expected!! Urgh will do a summary of the rest! (or try! Lol!!)
Next trip was to
famous in
it's rep it is very beautiful!) We wondered around here and climbed
millions of stairs only to find out that the temples have hooked into
Tourism and so it costs to get into every one (unlike some of the less
) Will post up the photos asJtouristy places where it is still free
some of the temples are too exquisite for words, I was really lucky
this time as I was with my Chinese Canadian friend who told me what
was going on with regard to the religious practices at the temples and
showed me how to pray by throwing money at the temple bowing and then
ringing the huge bells making my "wish" as she called it. Very
interesting and enlightening!! After that it was onto making the most
of the commercialism at the temples and buying toffee mandarins and
toffee strawberries (toffee apples must be too large for the Japanese
palate I think!) and buying shindingles (my roomies new name for the
things the Japanese love to hang off their phones!!) and of course
trying the Green tea ice cream while watching the wonderously adorned
Geisha girls wandering by (they are a big attraction in Kyoto painted
faces jewelled hair wooden sandals and all) Then my friends decided
that they were templed out so went home I was still memorised so
stayed and managed to absentmindedly end up at a light festival,
always the amazing thing about not knowing a language as that you
don't know what is going on around you until you stumble across it!!
They had a river full of the hulled out trunks of bamboo trees about a
foot to half a foot long standing on their ends with candles inside
making interesting noises as the river swished past them, and a whole
lot of lit up blossom trees and sculptures with lights inside of them.
In the temple next door there was a whole lot of ahhing and ohhing so
finally parted with the entrance and walked into a lit up zen garden
they feel so other worldly and serene!
The next day I missioned out to a nunnery in the whop bops of Nara to
see a doll festival (festival mistake number 2!!) a small room adorned
with about 20 dolls awaited me after two entrance fees but it was an
interesting journey especially when it started to rain and an elderly
man gave me his umbrella and refused to take it back (very humbling
experience number 2!!) and I realised that tombs in Japan are not like
the amazing Egyptian ones but inaccessible man made islands (found out
after spending ages trying to find the "tombs" and then realising all
the tourists were taking photos of the island which were the tombs!)
After that I visited our sister city Menoh to see the waterfalls and
monkeys (yes it does exist!!) and the most green I've seen since I got
here (it was a park about the size of Percy's reserve!) and the Sumo
tourni interesting experience when the elderly man in the stall behind
me decided I would be his company for the day so kept buying me drinks
and food and then gave me a gift of special sumo drinking cups and a
marked off score card at the end of day. The whole day went past
without a word of a mutual language being said between us …
of mysteries!!
Then it was a trip to
of course because I got to catch up with Rina and Wan!! I had an
awesome time exploring Wan showing me all these amazing places and
views on islands that you would have to be a local just to know
about!! Then they had a dinner party with Wan's teachers from his
school, it was great as so far I had not gotten to actually meet any
Japanese people in a social setting (except drunk people in bars but
it is not the same!) so it was awesome and enlightening to hear their
thoughts and views and to experience the culture through their eyes.
Since then I have been delving more into my students worlds in the
lessons too and it so amazing to hear and experience ideas and beliefs
beyond what you would ever read in a tourist book about Japan, it is
really amazing how our cultures can be so different yet when we come
together we can have such fun and the differences don't stand out!
Rina then took me to Meyojima the next day to see the island famous to
of the first rice paddle!) and try mandarin ice cream, maple shaped
pancakes filled with green tea and be followed around by the hundreds
of stray deer that occupy most of the island!!
Then it was onto the
experience Okonomiyaki a dish special to
base cabbage, noodles meat and spices with a fried egg on top all
cooked before your eyes by a very diligent chef!
Hmm have just realised I have made it to page three so will leave it
there with the best part of my trip so far!
More on the final Sumo tourni, and the cherry blossoms next time.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Update 2
I finished the last one saying I would tell you about the bars and
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