Snapshots of Japan...

It snowed today! I was a little confused, though, because it was so sunny when I woke up--but when I looked out the door, I could see the snow on the rooftops, making the reflected sun even brighter. The sun is slipping behind the clouds now, though. I wonder if the snow will stick around. I kind of hope it does. It's nice to make cookies while there's snow outside! It's a cozy feeling.

Today I thought I would just post up some random pictures of Japan, so you guys back at home could get a good idea of what I've been up to. I've been feeling a little homesick lately, so it makes me feel a little closer to all of you back home.

So without further ado, some of my favorite pictures from Japan so far.

A few weeks--a month or so ago, perhaps?--I went to Tokyo to visit some friends and do some sightseeing in good old "civilization." I also decided to go see one famous garden I'd never gotten around to seeing before. It is called Hamatsu Rikyu garden. It's beautiful and peaceful, but it is also surrounded by some serious high-rise development. The buildings are seriously futuristic looking--they seem to define the stereotypical view of Tokyo. I really like the contrast that you can see here.


A beautiful day in Tokyo... who says the pollution makes everything dreary? Lies, I tell you.


Another view...

A few weeks ago, I went to Tokyo with my friend. Her name is Breanne, and she's really cool. She's a second year ALT, and she's really been a life-saver. Things would have been so much worse without someone to hang out with. She's a Canadian, and super-stylish!



Also some time ago, I went with some friends--and particularly my friend Laura, who is another ALT in a nearby village--to this place called Oze. It is a rather famous national park in Gunma, particularly known for its marshes. It was a beautiful day, if a bit cold. The park is very well-protected, so you are not allowed to drive into it, for fear of too much pollution. Instead, you have to take a special bus that runs on electricity or some such, and is specially adapted for delicate habitats.



There was some really beautiful autumn foliage just starting up at the time. Basically, you start at the top and have to walk down into the marshes. It was a little tough going back up, but basically it was an easy climb both ways. Although it was beautiful, it was very domesticated--nicely kept up paths, and old ladies and young kids doing the hike.



Once you got to the bottom, you could walk out over the marsh. The entire thing was honeycombed with paths made of planks. The marsh itself was really quite beautiful, but strange. In the spring, Oze is famous for the skunk cabbages, which have a much more poetic and beautiful name in Japanese. Apparently, they have really beautiful blossoms. (That's Laura and another friend, Harmony.)



There were little ponds in among the long grasses, filled with lily pads, and, once you looked closer, tadpoles and salamanders. The sky was brilliantly blue, and reflected in all the strangely shaped ponds.

Numata can be really beautiful sometimes. It can also be very ugly. I've tried to take pictures that capture the beauty I've seen here. When I'm feeling down about all the powerlines and ugly grey buildings, it's good to remember that.


A few weeks ago, we were getting some really stunning sunsets and cloud formations. This was one of them... you can still see the powerlines, but just look at that sky!


It's autumn here now, beginning to turn into real, proper winter. But just a few weeks ago, I managed to get this picture before the final leaves fell. It's the slope a few minutes walk away from my house, which leads down the Numata train station. For a few short days, right before they fell, the leaves all turned absolutely stunning colors. I managed to get a good shot.


Numata is surrounded by mountains, and it is winter now. There is snow on the distant mountains--they're far, but still closer than they were back home in Oregon. From Numata park, you can get some really stunning views, but even from my school the view is amazing. Unfortunately, my apartment faces the wrong way--I don't get to see this view all the time--but it's gorgeous, nonetheless.


This is a Christian church of some description in Numata, a few blocks from my house. Isn't it bizarre? It's made of concrete, virtually undecorated. It's not even "severe," which conjures up images of Gothic cathedrals--it's just plain, brutal, raw. So ugly that it almost approaches beauty against the blue sky.


A few days ago I went to a Christmas enkai up at Lake Haruna. We had a traditional style Japanese dinner, that night. There was a great deal of raw fish, sushi, eel, random things made of fish paste, etc. but there was also a basket full of tiny potatoes. Each one was about the size of a fingernail, and they were purple inside. Unfortunately the picture is too blurry to see it clearly, but they looked exactly like normal potatoes. They even had tiny, miniature "eye" dimples, like a normal potato. They tasted like normal potatoes too, but with a strange aftertaste. I have no idea what was going on there.

And here's a picture of me! Thought you might like to see your daughter...


I'm at a place called Fukiwara Falls. It's very beautiful, and quite famous. It's a very strange set of waterfalls. They are not steep at all, but they flow over smooth, solid rock, no doubt worn down by thousands of years, and it looks very strange. It's hard to describe, but here's another picture!


It was a nice trip.

Well, that's all for now! I actually feel a bit better now.

Music in Japan

One of the things that made me happiest about going to Japan was the opportunity to see all kinds of bands that I would never normally have been able to see. Visual kei bands don't really tour in the USA all that often. So I've been trying to go see as many bands as I can; after all, once I leave Japan I probably won't be able to do this anymore. It's expensive sometimes, but still worth it to me.

I've seen a lot of shows since I got here:
- Antique Cafe (at Club Fleez, really fun, Miku did a lot of cute MCing, they put on some ridiculous skit about rabbits, saying ii ichiban usagi, instead of onna, and they really rocked the place. I couldn't deal with the crazy para-para but it was still super-fun. I hadn't expected that much from them, I thought they were just kinda fluffy, but they were really good)
- Ogre You Asshole (also at Club Fleez, not really a VK band, just straight-ahead indies, they call themselves post-punk which is fair enough. I actually saw them when I went to an Art School show, but they were way better than Art School, I thought, just a lot more interesting and enthusiastic. The lead singer was very charismatic with his weird voice and intense looks. I bought their CD from him, he was super cute.)
- Random bands (at Takadanobaba Area and Club Fleez, nothing too special, but generally still fun.)
- Ayabie (at Club Fleez, they weren't too exciting, to be honest, but I didn't know them that well to begin with, so oh well.)

But the band I really wanted to see finally went on tour and I decided to go all out... two Merry shows in one weekend! I decided to become an obsessive fan, and do the whole "follow the band around the country" in some small way at least once in my life. Hey, why not? I've got enough cash at the moment, and I probably won't for quite some time after I leave Japan...

Mito Lighthouse, 12/8

So on Saturday, I took the 9 AM train into the city and went on a four hour train ride to Mito, in Ibaraki prefecture. I was going to meet a nice girl there named Yun, who had kindly agreed to sell me the tickets. She sold them to me for the same price the venue was selling them (before it sold out)--4200 yen. And they were pretty decent tickets too--A130. Yun told me she was a student at a university in Saitama, and that she tutored at a cram school, teaching history and English. She was there with her friend who had bleached blonde hair and a somewhat vacant stare.

I arrived at about 3:00 in order to buy the tickets from Yun (the concert started at 6) and so I was there when a few of the band members arrived at the venue. I saw Gara! Yeah, that was exciting. Anyways, when I got inside I realized the Lighthouse was absolutely tiny--I was so glad! However, it had two floors, so they could squeeze quite a few people inside. I got fairly close to the front, and right in the middle, although I could have gotten even closer if I hadn't had to go to the bathroom... I had to wait there forever! Girls take so long in the bathroom. Why?

Anyways, the concert was amazing. I was RIGHT in front of Gara, and the place was so small he was probably only 5 or so feet away. The others were pretty close as well, but it was hard to see Nero (my favorite boy!) because he was placed down low, behind the drumkit. But I could see him during MCs.

Anyways, I am terrible at remembering set lists. This is all I can remember, in random order.

Yellow Girl
Violent Harenchi
Japanese Modernist
Bluesy Night
Sweet Powder*
TOP*

* Not sure about these...

I was so happy, because they played Bluesy Night and Yellow Girl! Those are two of my favorite Merry songs! Bluesy night was particularly awesome. It's an amazing song, rock with jazz influences, and Gara's voice is so strange and beautiful and raw. I really like his voice. The rest of the concert was an excellent blend of hard songs and calm ballad-type songs (as far as Merry does ballads) so I didn't get TOO exhausted, but I was right in the middle of the pit. Japanese Modernist and TOP were pretty hardcore considering how much of the audience consisted of tiny Japanese girls. Although, actually, there were a lot of guys there--generally there are more guys at Merry concerts than your more traditional VK concerts, I find. It was a more mainstream crowd in general, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Yay for hot boys in the mosh pit!

At any rate, the concert was amazing, like I said. I used to find the whole hand movement/para para thing really awkward, but now I am totally into it. We did all sorts of crazy movements. It really gives you a sense of accomplishment when you know how to stay in sync with those movements. At first, it's really confusing, but there's a set number of different moves that are put together in various ways, so you do eventually get the hang of it. It's very Japanese in that it gives the whole audience and the band something to be a part of. Mosh pits in America can be violent, almost combative, but Japanese concerts are all about the unity--cliche as that might be.

Fun things that happened at the concert:

-- Lots of audience singing. They are really good... man, I can't remember Japanese lyrics so I feel like a jerk.
-- Gara brought out a piece of toast with jam on it... which he then smeared on his nipple. (He had taken off his shirt by this point.
-- When Nero was talking to the audience he messed up when saying something and banged his head on his drumset... aww, so adorable!
-- Yuu (? I'm pretty sure) does a lot of back up singing on various songs, and sometimes at this concert he would do all the singing. He has a nice voice! But not as good as Gara...
-- Apparently Gara talks now? He shouts things, anyways. And he really seemed to be into the Mito concert especially, because he even smiled! Aww, it was so sweet!
-- After the last encore, the band was all taking pictures with fans in the background. My hand may well be in those pictures, heh. Yuu took a picture with his cell phone, silly boy!
-- I was wondering what was up with all the pictures, and it seems to be the case that you can buy a picture of each member, from each concert on the tour, via 7-11. It's hard to make out because my Japanese is not so much of the goodness, but I'm going to give it a try! If I'm understanding correctly, that's a pretty cool idea.
-- Gara got delightfully sweaty and licked his shoulder, among other things. He makes me laugh. I kinda wondered what all the boys there thought about that...
-- Nero often talks to the audience, but I can't understand anything he says.
-- Tetsu is amazing. Seriously, I can't believe he's actually that hot in real life. Also, they did various instrumental solos and his bass solo was fucking awesome.
-- Yuu gave a little speech at the end of the concert... I think he made some kind of corny pun about the city's name, Mito. Heh.

All together there were three encores, and the live lasted about 2 and a half hours... pretty good value, if you ask me! They played a lot of stuff from the new album, I think.

After the concert, I headed to Tokyo. It's about a 2 hour trip, but it wasn't too bad. Luckily, there were no line changes--my stop was one the line directly from Mito station to Ueno, so it worked out very well. I got to my nice hotel and just chilled there before going to sleep.

Yokohama Bay Hall, 12/9

The next day I spent some time shopping in Tokyo. I though about improving my mind via museums, but I had no energy. Instead, I went to the used book store and a Uniqlo. I spent a lot of time trying, futilely, to find a certain restaurant, but I eventually failed after an hour or so (I am very stubborn.) But instead, I ended up going to this random "American-style" restaurant, called Zest. The outside was faux-corrugated cardboard, painted to look rusted, with random vintage Americana signs on the front. They had overpriced, undersized enchiladas that were nonetheless delicious. I don't even like enchiladas, but being unable to acquire it gives me a craving for all Mexican food. Then I went to good old Harajuku, and just hung out there for a while. It was a beautiful day, blue and clear, as it has been for quite a few weeks recently. I watched some concerts and checked out the rockabilly dancers, then headed for Yokohama.

By coincidence, my first ever merry concert was also at the Bay Hall, last year, at about exactly the same time of year. Deja vu! But luckily, that meant I knew exactly how to find the place, as it's quite tricky to find. It's in a kinda sketchy looking industrial area, on, I suppose, the bay. The venue is quite a bit bigger than the Mito Lighthouse, and it's got these annoying big posts in the middle of the floor. Alas, I had a crappy number (B 30) so I ended up quite far at the back. But I had to leave this concert a bit early (to catch the last train) so that was just as well. But I had a pretty decent view, really--just a bunch of short Japanese girls in front of me, and I was right in the center again. I was able to see all the members, but especially got a clear view of Nero! Yay! He's super-cool.

Anyways, this concert was also pretty great. It was a little annoying, though, because doors opened at 5:00, practically everyone was inside by 5:20 or so, and it didn't start until 6... way too much waiting around. But they started right on time, at least. I was really happy though, that I got to see almost all of the concert. I left after the second encore, but I made it through most of it! (I ended up missing the last train back home anyways... bummer.) Anyways, the set list at this concert was definitely different, with some repeats. No bluesy nights, unless they played it in the third encore.

Pretty much all I can remember is...
TOP
Blind Romance
Yellow Girl
Japanese Modernist
Utagoe Kissa
etc. etc.

Yuu sung a lot at this concert as well. He also did something crazy to his hair so it was all standing up in spikes. It was pretty hot, he should do that more often. Most of the rest was quite similar to last concert. Gara likes to take off his jacket, then his shirt, and then just end up wearing a jacket over his bare chest. It's kinda hot... I approve. But he's sooooo skinny, it's a little disturbing. During one encore he was wearing a Merry tshirt and it must have been like an extra small! Jeez.

Tetsu looked really good at this concert, nice suit and jacket combo, but! He never ever smiles. Anyways, this concert was really fun too, but I think the Mito one was better--everyone was just SO into it there, band and fans alike. Someone even went crowd-surfing! You almost never see that at Japanese concerts (or at least not at VK concerts.)

As I mentioned, I had to leave after the second encore to catch the last train. I did catch that one--to Yokohama--and the next one to Akabane--and the next one--to Takasaki. But I did not catch the train back to Numata, which meant I had to stay in Takasaki for the night. An expensive mistake, because I ended up staying at the Toyoko Inn. Even with their late-night Cinderella special, it costs about 4000 yen per night for a single. But it was really comfortable--worth it, even though I was only there for about 5 hours. I had to wake up at 5:30 to get back to Numata--and back to work--but 8:20. It wasn't a fun day, I can tell you that. Still, the concert was amazing. I hope I can go to the Takasaki one--on the 22nd. I'm trying to buy tickets now.