JAPANEXILE

Or African drumming as it is probably better know around the world. Not long before I quit Yosakoi Craig I started doing Taiko. Its only a one a week thing, its very relaxed, and great fun, so suits me well. We had two sessions with just Taiki, Yumi and the drum leader Ken-chan to get the basics down before being introduced to the larger group of percussionists in the area. There are three types of sound, closed fingers in the centre, closed fingers on the rim, and open fingers on the rim. Simple enough, damn painful after a while, fingers are raw at the end of each session! All the songs are made seemingly by combining these and then just altering the speed and layering different tunes together performed by different members of the group. In out fine group there are 14 members, collectively known as “Toya Toya”. I think I’ve already had four performances as part of “Toya Toya”, about the same number of practice sessions I’ve had! Craig and I don’t have to do anything too complex though, the same beat whilst the more advanced people show their skills. The past two performances we’ve also had our moment in the spot light performing a brief solo whilst everyone else sticks to the main tune. Solo’s are the highlight for sure, quite funny as I have no idea what to do each time, I find it hard to break out of the rhythm of the group to do anything interesting, it doesn’t really matter though, so normally I just start belting the drum at high speed and eventually lapse into a drum rhythm I heard on a Café del Mar album once. Strangely its the only thing I can think of under pressure. Last session we tried a new song, (was only the four of us again, plus some nursery kids) although my hands were hurting so I ended up dancing around the room in what Craig called “The Whisky Dance”. It was that good.

Since this post is so very old some more information is needed. We’ve have a load more performances, which have all been great fun, our final performance being at a nearby campsite where the members of the band outnumbered the people watching. People at the camp were actually a group of foreigners from various countries around the world, here for plant trees, save the earth and all that jazz. Something to do with the summit. Turned out to be a really great night, BBQ and some drinks in the Hokkaido summer. My only regret was not wearing some sort of bug protection. I was eaten alive. Only one drumming related activity remains now, that of our goodbye party.

After a very long hiatus I finally make another post. I’ve become a bit of a book worm/Japanese language obsessive lately, trying to spend every moment of every day doing something to enrich my Japanese knowledge. Which I’ll be honest I am really enjoying, its really satisfying to really commit yourself to something and see the fruits of those labors realized. Something I wish I had realised during my school years. I had actually writen this next post 3 months ago, and even then it was 3 months old. But since I had already done it seemed a waste not to post it.

Yoyogi kouen (Yoyogi park). Yoyogi park is as the name might suggest – a park, a big park at that, very centrally located next to Haraujuku station. Contained within the park is Meiji Shrine, one of the larger and more famous Shrines within central Tokyo. I actually went there back in January shortly after New Year, which as I found out was the same time several thousand Japanese people go there. So, it er, didn’t quite have the peaceful temple feel. The park itself is really nice, and the sheer amount of people there actually served to amaze and impress me, rather than than irritation I felt when I was in Kyoto temple viewing (a future post). We did the traditional prayer when we finally made it up to the temple. Throwing my hundred coin about 6 metres over the people in front of me. Minami very narrowly missed the heads of those in front of her. Nothing else really to say about Yoyogi, not that I can remember anyway, was over three months ago…crikey that’s gone quickly. (Now 6, where is the strike through formatting option. PS. I’ve just given up trying to get the photos on the rest of the site working how they used to, I just can’t take the stress anymore.

Toya snow festival! Probably the most entertaining of the lot actually! Obviously on a much smaller scale though. Craig and I had to come in early to help set up the tents for the various stalls around the place, other than that, although we were officially staff of the event, we didn’t really have to do anything. I managed to get a free sample of everything on offer food wise, often by just standing nearby or going behind the stand (as staff members are allowed to do). The last meal came when the mayor spotted me and insisted I come and eat with him. Sweet as the mayor is I can rarely understand a word he is saying, so it’s a bit awkward after the first few minutes. Highlight of the day was our attempt to win the first prize in the Bingo. Craig and I had 40 Bingo cards between us – which we roped Kenzo and Yuko in the help do all at the same time. The reason we bought so many was because the first prize was a Nintendo Wii, which I’d quite like, although not enough to buy one. Our hopes were dashed however when someone won the Wii before we even had a Bingo, Craig went home with an Umbrella, and me with a can of Kerosine. Which surprisingly everyone was quite jealous of, even if I was less enthralled. Final part of the day was spent playing on the slide and throwing sweets at the children from the top of it. A tradition at any festival.

We didn’t actually do much viewing on the Saturday evening – we probably should have, every one I asked said the sculptures look far better lit up at night. We had more pressing concerns however, as Cori needed to find some allergy medicine, and I was hungry. The former problem was solved when a random woman saw that we couldn’t find something, so when we told her we needed a pharmacy she conveniently said she was going there herself at that very moment. A convenient if surprising coincidence! The latter problem – that of hunger was solved pretty easily as well, going to the trusty Potato Circus, which was far busier this time so the all you drink option wasn’t quite as hasty. After dinner we went and had a brief viewing of the smaller ice based sculptures in Susukino (as opposed to the snow ones in Odori park). I wasn’t really in the mood for appreciating blocks of ice though so decided to do all my viewing on Sunday with the crowds of people.

Up bright and early at the crack of noon on Sunday I headed out to Odori park. I walked the entire length of the exhibitions which took about 90mins, partly due to the distance, more so because of the hoards of people and slippery path. Only stopping to take photos and the occasional investigative trip to the food stalls. They had some pretty great stuff going actually, at any sort of public event like this in England you get the odd burger van, here you can buy freshly cooked crabs, as well as a great variety of fantastic looking meats. I only indulged once though, having eaten a curry about an hour before I felt a little guilty. In honesty though I didn’t think much of the Snow sculptures, they are very impressive don’ misunderstand me. But I couldn’t seem to get quite as excited about it as they rest of the people there. I just kept thinking to myself – it’s a carved pile of snow. One of the shows I saw on the Saturday was mildly entertaining, people in silly costumes and incredibly high voices dancing around on stage – but it gets old.

Decided this was too long for one post, so now I will present to you the exact same previous post - but in three parts!

Snow festival weekend! In the space of three short days I was privy to three separate snow festivals in various parts of Hokkaido, starting with Otaru on the far northern coast, moving south to the main event, the Sapporo snow festival, and finally home to Toya, for a a slightly smaller but still entertaining event. Otaru was a previously famous fishing centre, and is still famed for its Sushi and just generally being an interesting place to go. I didn’t actually know much about the festival itself before going - candles was the only explanation I had been given. The preceding Wednesday I had unfortunately made the error of eating a twice defrosted burger and then spend the next 24 hours being violently ill. Although by the Saturday I had fortunately all but recovered, my obvious good health was not enough evidence for the powers that be in Toya. Apparently there was a risk that I had a virus and would go around infecting children - whilst I can understand during the work week - where I actually do spend a lot of time with kids, I didn’t really have much intention of socializing with infants on my weekend away. So the logic behind their argument of why I had to come back to Toya on the Saturday evening didn’t fly well. The Sapporo snowfestival is world famous, hundreds of giant and often complex sculptures made from ice and snow line odori park. This year is probably the only opportunity I will ever get to see it, so in the end I was forced to argue back, and in the end, I was able to go fortunately. This also touched on perhaps the greater issue of should the Board of Education have any say in what I do in my free time. I don’t mind a certain amount of interference and mothering - its quite nice to be looked after at times! And they do admittedly give us a lot, but even so, my time should be my time in my opinion. But coming back to the snow festivals.

On the Saturday Craig & I actually went to Sapporo first, had a brief look at the snow sculptures whilst waiting for Cori to arrive who had come up on a different bus. Once Cori arrived we decided to go over to Saturn land first. An area of the festival a 30min bus journey out of town. The main attraction being a giant ice slide - which had sounded pretty cool. A cool it was, although we didn’t actually have time to slide down it. Seems plenty of Japanese people also thought the giant slide was pretty cool and were far more willing to wait in line than I was. We only had time to go through the ice maze in the end, would have been nice to try all the other activities on offer, but we were supposed to be meeting Yuko, Hiromi and Setsuko over in Otaru at 1pm.

We didn’t make it there for 1pm. The bus journey back to Sapporo station was slower than expected so we missed the train.It was at this point we thought up of an ingenious plan for me come back to Sapporo instead of going straight home. Basic idea was, leave my bag in a locker in Sapporo station, then only realize what I had done once arriving in Otaru, necessitating a return to Sapporo. The Toya crew agreed, but not on the timing issue, they thought it better to go straight back then and come back to Otaru - missing both festivals! Madness! So that didn’t happen and I had to force the issue, which I wasn’t proud about doing, but it was necessary.

Setsuko used to live in Otaru I believe so she gave us a whirlwind tour of the area. Starting off with a brief spot of sushi. I’ve been amazed by how little sushi I’ve eaten since I’ve been out here, only a handful of times so far. Stuff from the convenience store just ain’ that good and is expensive to boot. And anytime I am in the city with someone something else also takes precedent, like having an all you can eat and drink option, which sushi bars are not famed for. After lunch we wondered through the streets after Setsuko eating any free samples we came across, having a look in some glasswork shops (another thing Otaru is famous for), and finally ending up in music box shop. Which was pretty interesting. Haven’t actually mentioned the festival part yet so should probably do that. The local residents carve out hollows and generally reasonably basic shapes out of the snow lining the streets and roads and place candles inside, which all light up to beautiful and magical effect. Particularly nice was the canal, with many thousands of candles floating on it. It truly did look beautiful, though I’ve realized this post isn’t really conveying that too well so will try and put up a load of photos of it. About 7pm Craig headed back to Toya with the rest of the crew whilst Cori and I went back to Sapporo to actually have a proper look at the snow festival. (And only looking at the snow festival, no drinking allowed remember, even if this probably was the busiest – and potentially the most exciting, weekend Sapporo has in the year.)

Not remotely related to the snow festivals. Mainly just an explanation of why Setsuko used to live in Otaru. Her husband is a teacher. Teachers in Japan don’t get to choose where they work, they are told, at which point they need to up and move to a new place, often great distance apart. So Setsuko has seen a far bit of Hokkaido. I think you live in each place for only a few years. Was wondering if this would work in England – somehow I doubt it.

My blog has been a bit neglected of late, as has my Kanji study due to Spring holidays. But have made a promise to myself that I won’t start any new work until I have got the blog up to date, this is also going to mean finally upgrading to the new version of wordpress, as well as a reorganisation of the photos on the site. I think I am going to go the flickr route, as there are some cool plugins that fit my needs quite well. The current photography section will go, and be replaced by a “best of” for each month, which will be the photos included in each post plus any others I took that turned out well for the month. Will probably take me a good week until I get everything sorted though.