alcatraz m.d. and mvps

wow what a busy couple of days. after a pretty mundane friday I spent most of saturday on campus studying and hanging out with Jake, then met up with Mark and his friend Blair to go to the tokyo metropolitan symphony. now I don't usually listen to classical music, but there's something about seeing it in person. it's something I can go see and let my mind wander. this means that sometimes I don't pay attention to the music as much as I should, but it's good for thinking. Jake's dad is one of the producers for the show so we got the tickets for free, major thanks to them both. unfortunately jake couldn't make it to the concert, he was supposed to go with his host mom but something happened and she couldn't go and he had given us the map so he didn't know how to make it to the concert hall. oops. the concert was good tho, our seats were actually stored in a closet until we got there. but they were free so we couldn't complain. the second set was the right of spring, from fantasia. yes, from fantasia, it's pretty good in concert. on the way back mark and his lady friend has some sort of issues, she had decided that morning that she wanted to stay the night at mark's host family's house and wasn't gonna let any sort of logic, reason, or mark saying no, that's not okay get in her way. blah.

sunday! sunday we went out to chichibu, which is a small mountain town in western saitama, actually the same place my host family last summer took me to get out of the city. the plan was to got o a small pottery workshop, ride an old river boat, and take a gondola to the top of a mountain and look around a bit. the pottery lesson was really fun. the sensei was really funny and had some awesome jokes that he's probably told over a hundred times each. lots of time to practice. unfortunately most of us had no idea how to do the whole pottery thing and most of them turned out terrible. the teacher really liked what I made tho, just a simple vase, but probably just because so many people were having such a hard time. after he glazes and bakes everything he'll ship it to TIU so we can all either show to or hide it from our host family.

unfortunately we spent way too much time there and didn't have enough time for the boat ride, but it was lunch time anyway so we just went to a soumen shop. soumen is this weird type of restaurant the japanese invented to make dinnertime more fun. you have a long chute, traditionally made from split bamboo, a basket at one end, and people with noodles at the other. the people running the show put noodles in the tubes and wash them down towards the hungry customers with a splash of water, and your job is to try to catch as many noodles as you can when they reach you. you dunk them in broth and eat them and laugh at your silly friends trying to catch noodles with chopsticks. the basket is there to catch the noodles that you miss, and you're allowed to eat them when you're done with the ones you caught. but you must do so in the utmost shame. mmmmm, delicious shame. afterwards we took a gondola up to the top of a mountain and walked around the forest a little bit. we saw huge mountains between the clouds in the distance, bigger spiders hanging out near the trail, and a pretty nifty shrine on top of the mountain.

monday was a japanese holiday so me and risa went to a museum in ueno and saw a show on mayans, incas, and aztecs and hung out in the park for a while. tuesday me jake and courtney were drinking beer outside the game center and 2 high school girls came up and asked to take pictures with us. pretty random, none of us had been approached by random locals before. so we talked to them for a bit then went and took purikura with them. pretty random but hopefully they'll walk up to other random foreigners and be friendly now.

so another busy busy wednesday this week, this time it was sports day at TIU. a bunch of the TIU and JSP kids came out and had our choice of basketball or volleyball for the day. after making a few friends I played volleyball for a few hours. the levels of play between people were pretty spread out but it averaged out to pretty much even. lots of laughing, lots of silly mistakes, lots of fun. after an hour or so we took a break and people started breaking out of the mold of the days activities. some of the guys decided to play some weird soccer/volleyball variant that I decided to take part in. the special rule of the game was that if you screwed up 3 times you had to go stand on the baseline underneath the basketball net bend over, and hope everyone else misses your ass with the volleyball. this is what happens when guys come up with new games. after that we played volleyball a bit more, but threw in the whole getting balls thrown at your butt when you lose, but on a team level. we played one game to 5 then 2 games to ten before we all had had enough of that.

after this the PA's gathered everyone together and named the 5 MVP's of the day so they could award us with free TIU t-shirts, and I was one of them! after a bit of childish running around the gymnasium we all decided it was time for a few games of dodgeball. japanese dodgeball is a bit different from american dodgeball I guess. i've played probably ten or so different dodgeball variations in america tho, so I don't know what we were basing the comparison on. but in japan you play on the volleyball court and you only ever use one ball. when you get out you go to the other team's side of the court and you get to keep playing outside the court. if you get someone out from the outside you get to go back in and try to survive a bit longer. me being the long armed beast that I am was always getting passed the ball from my teammates when I was on the outside and was a major target when I was on the inside. but I tried to pass the ball around a lot so the tiny japanese girls on the team had to try their arm at throwing.

after a towelless shower (i didn't quite prepare well enough) I went out and got my handy dandy super duper keitai! (japanese for cellphone) so now I can start making real friends and getting a hold of them to go do things. after that a bunch of us from the sports thing went out to karaoke and got a little tipsy. i'm finally starting to come around to karaoke and i'm pretty sure all the drunken yelling is slowly training my vocal cords to be more musically adept. hopefully. the only problem is finding songs that I actually know. american songs are few and far between, especially if you want to sing something actually good.

yesterday I met satoe, david, chika, and chika's new boyfriend in shibuya for dinner and drinks. we went to this theme restaurant called alcatraz m.d. yeah it was themed like a psycho insane hospital complete with hot nurses in full costume, dead bodies in the walls and floors, prison cells for booths, pretty disgusting themed food and drinks that were actually pretty damn tasty, and since we were lucky enough to go on someone's birthday there was a ten minute skit with an escaped inmate running around scaring the patrons while the nurses randomly fired cap guns into people's booths. the mood was complete with flashing lights and creepy sound effects and all.

music

somethings happening to me musically. the bands and artists i thought defined me are taking well mapped parallels. either theyre washing out and ending a good thing when they know it needs to be. or theyre aging with me. im still a fan of the good ole fashion in your face "rock".
but i find myself leaning towards intricate musicianship and oddities. not to mention unique acoustic gods.
pop has long since been slated to be abandoned.
if we think about it our music shapes our lives. what do you listen to when you need to cheer up? everyone has a song that reminds them of that someone that became ingrained in the music. what about when youre in a shitty situation? you go straight for that brooding band that shares your fuck the world view.
we need our music to survive. were not reliant. music is just another element that creates life. it sets the mood. when do you not have music playing? when is it not useful?
generally we become hooked on one note. its like finding a small coin in the dirt. youre intrigued. so you dig deeper. youre finding different levels, new coins, pots, drawings. remnants of people treading that ground before you. youre just there to appreciate the landscape like they did, and to leave a mark for others to dig up. this is very much a parallel for music. we start with one band, but we learn that a member of that band has a side project. so we listen. the other members of this side project have bands as well. these bands have friends in other bands. these other bands are creating the building blocks for what youre listening to. another civilization of music crawling around in the subculture waiting to be listened to. to be appreciated. none of it bad, just different. not all is meant to be an option for aural enlightenment. but its there none the less.
do this, take a look at who you are. and create a soundtrack for you. make sure to note certain people and experiences that shaped you. craft them into a list of the songs that match them.
what youll find is that this list of songs, is your genre, your style. regardless of what you say you listen to. the songs that have meant the most to you are where youre tastes lie. now, dont scoff at it or deny it. just roll with it.
music is a philosophy, and a way of life.

if my mouth werent open i wouldnt be able to put my foot in it

i will extort you to any extent. pulling apart the things crept up in your head. a weakness is an irony in every sense i need it to be. you create the give and i take it all the same.
there was only one glass. its a carefully measured formula. our only aim is to capsize you long enough to break away.
youre just ingesting being upset with the way they light the way. you find flaws in every step they make. they cry wolf and you become jaded.
its the same if you squint from close, or far away. undistinguishable lines bursting with malice. yet, we seem laid back as they dance for us.
oh god the art. every piece dusted with your favorite quotes disguised as scowls. claiming to be people, your muses.
no longer broadcasting, this station has long since be drowning in the frequency.
it tastes bitter in here. something hard about the air.
this commune has spread its arms for more funding, at the cost of toil. its only made of softer woods ignoring space and time.
as industrial as you fancy yourself, you must accept its passing time. without the end you sketched it doesnt seem to full.
its fitting that were tied down. im a recluse and youre a widow our web could open eyes. but im not ready for that.
in regards, they are, the focus. dumbing down wouldnt give me the same result.
numbing confuses but helps to step along your back.
im sure theres another term waiting close by. but ill stick with what im branded. its more fitting for easy minds.

friendship party

so wednesday we had a friendship party at TIU. this means a bunch of japanese kids coming out and meeting the new exchange students and playing games. first of all we broke into groups and introduced ourselves, then we joined groups and played the shoe game and got to know each other a bit better and fondle each other's shoes a bit. then game time started. after a couple of ice breakers we started the competitive games. game 1 was the “pass the paper ribbon around the group using only your head” game. you know the one i'm talking about. I was worried that my gianormous head wasn't gonna fit, but coupled with the smaller than average japanese head we were fine. we got I think third or fourth place or so.
next we (the blue team) dominated at telephone. you know, where you whisper a funny saying into another person's ear and then pass it on and try to keep it the same all the way through. first saying was “kin no tomago”, 金野と孫, golden egg. 1st place for us. second was “i eat apples and bananas in the morning” by the time it got to me I had already heard the entire thing a few times from the people around us, so I fixed the grammar and passed it on. first place. for the third saying we were only allowed to use gestures. made it kinda hard. we were supposed to pass on “riding a crowded train”, I don't remember the fancy japanese word for it. we got the train riding part across even though it started looking like a densha rock concert (densha 電車=train) and we ended up in 7th place.
after that we played a japanese version of cops and robbers where the robbers start out encircled by the cops, who are holding hands in a circle, and have to escape. the purple team (our robbers) mostly escaped pretty quickly, but we held onto takeshi for a pretty long time and eventually just let him go. we got fourth place I think. since most of the team got out pretty easily the purple kids were talkin a lot of shit as they circled up around us. luckily for us I had a secret plan. as soon as they said “Go!” I just picked up Krista, another of the JSP kids, so that everyone else could escape under her. worked perfectly. as soon as everyone was out I put her back down and escaped in the confusion. pretty much my philosophy on everything. why break through obstacles when you can pick them up and throw them out of the way. unfortunately she was a bit butthurt about being manhandled to her team's detriment, we got another first, but oh well she gave me a kick in the ankle when I wasn't looking and felt better.
in the end we tied the pink team for first place so we had a janken (japanese for paper rock scissors) tie breaker. and lost. fortunately the second place prize was a sarong that jun, the guy who organized the entire thing, had brought back from india a few days earlier and first place was a bunch of candy. so I think we won out in the end. only problem is who gets to keep the sarong?

first week down

so the first week of japan is over and i am so far no worse for wear. i'm starting to get my bearings in kawagoe, i haven't missed any trains yet (but i finally found out what the blinking lights mean), and i'm connecting with people/host family/teachers.

but now where to begin.

my host family lives about 40 minutes from school by feet, bus, train, and then feet again. the normal TIU school year hasn't started yet so there's only a handful of students around campus. once the year starts there'll be people everywhere so we'll be able to randomly bump into locals between classes. the food at the cafeteria is cheap and goooood, and surprisingly plentiful. a big plate of rice, curry, and various veggies is about 4 bucks. and the hot mouth ramen is indeed one of the hottest things i've eaten in a long time.

tuesday our japanese teachers took us into tokyo to give us hands on train riding experience in japanese. so we did the tourist thing and ran around the city for a bit, crammed 20 people in a ramen shop, and then ran out to akihabara and of course i bought a toy robot. it's a good addition to the collection tho, one i've only seen a few times. i also bought a little blue person thingy that sits on my desk and happily rocks his head back and forth when exposed to sunlight. it also doubles as a business card holder.

wednesday we went to the kawagoe city hall to fill out the applications for our alien registration cards, with which we can obtain our handy dandy cellphones. while we were waiting we went to the kawagoe city museum and the remains of the kawagoe castle, which was more fancy building than an actual castle. after that we went on a tour of the historic district of kawagoe with our peer assistants (tiu students helping out with the exchange program) and once again filed 20 or so people into a restaurant, this time an eel restaurant. after that i ran into tokyo and had dinner with risa's family, who i hadn't seen in about a year.

and then there was friday. first friday of the school year so of course we all had to go out and get a bit drunk. some of us a bit more than others. they have these things called nomihodai and tabehodai in japan, where you pay a certain amount of money and you have all you can eat or all you can drink for a certain amount of time. the trick is making sure you eat and drink enough in the allotted time, usually an hour and a half to two hours for about 20 bucks, to make it worth it.

i gotta say, i think we made it. we didn't do the tabehodai because they didn't really have enough food for us all (once again about 20 people) but we all still ate our fair portion of yakisoba and okanomiyaki (pancake of happiness), asahi super dry beer, and various mixed drinks. and then, because we hadn't been loud or drunk enough yet, about half of us decided to go across the street and do nomihodai (all you can drink) karaoke for 2 hours until the last trains left. and then we all had to find our ways home. courtney, another of the sou kids, had a bit too much to drink so me and matt, another of the jsp kids who lives close to both of us, got to half carry half walk her home. her host parents were pretty surprised to see the three of us come in the back door, but i explained the situation away and no one was too put off. i'll see all of them tonight at the bbq the local host family association is putting on tonight and smooth things over if they need it.

on a final note, pictures of most of the afore mentioned happenings can be found at my flicker account, or just click on the picture tab on the right and browse around.