Big Buddhaaaa

Dear all,

Today was a hot, humid, sweaty, and sticky day. The class had a field trip to Kamakura, about an hour’s train ride from Tokyo. Tomorrow we are going to Nikko for a 2 day trip and we’re staying at a hot springs hotel!!! WOOOOO. I’m excited. It means we’re all going to get naked (boys and girls separate, of course). You know, it’s actually funny. In America, technically people are more open about the bodayyy and people definitely show more skin compared to people in Asia (and Japan in particular — people are wearing layers and boots in the summer). BUT, when it comes to actually getting naked in front of people, the Japanese have no problem in the hot springs, just takin’ it all off. And stepping into a hot spring pool with all these other people. Old, young, it’s all the same. And it’s fun. But I think this whole naked concept (going into a public hot spring without a swimsuit on) is actually pretty foreign and shocking to da west.

We visited some Zen temples, which were very Zen indeed. Unfortunately, it was also all pretty tourist-y and commercial. We also saw from the other side of the valley the divorce temple that Taylour did research at last summer. I ate so much ice today. I had strawberry shaved ice, and then I had a Calpis popsicle. OOhhhh mmaiii goooodenasss. It was so cold inside my mouth.

One of the most famous attractions in Kamakura is the Daibutsu, or Big Buddha!

I don’t really like it when people make Buddha jokes at temples, especially because such “jokes” usually only reveal their ignorance regarding Buddhism. But all is well.

We also visited filmmakers Ozu Yasujiro and Kinoshita Keisuke’s graves today, which were inside the temple grounds (the first temple we visited). But I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t think it would be respectful. Haha. We cleaned the graves and everything (swept and washed) and then put flowers (and whisky for Ozu).

Bon Odori Festival!

Yesterday, I missed the most exciting fireworks festival of the year by the Sumida River because I was too exhausted from my Mt. Fuji hike.

Today, I was going to go shoppingu at either Harajuku, Shibuya, or both. I even bought a Vivi magazine (which I recently characterized to more than one person as repulsive and excessive) because I wanted to be a superficial consumer (and I wanted more clothes).

What I really did today was go to a small local Bon Odori (Japanese dance) festival with my host family. My host mother dressed me in a yukata (her one and only — handmade by her husband’s grandmother when they got engaged. how cute is that.), thereby rectifying my missed opportunity of yesterday. I love wearing traditional dresses! It must have something to do with that girlish fantasy about wedding dresses — except I really have no fantasies at all about my wedding dress and would not care if there was none. But it must be an irrational desire of the same vein (pun intended, grammatically dysfunctional as it is).

It was actually really fun. First we had dinner at a “Chinese” noodle shop. The owner was Shanghainese! I spoke to him in Chinese a tiny bit, mainly to express my vegetarianism. It was cool. The noodles were yummy, but my yukata obi was WAY constricting in the way traditional women’s dress from all over the world seem to be, so I ate very little.

The festival was way fun. I thought it would just be performers dancing, but apparently they dance in the center and people are supposed to circle up and dance along. It was funny because as the day grew dimmer, more people joined in. At the beginning people were all shy, but they got past it — though to my host mother’s credit: she jumped right in! It was fun. Good exercise after a meal.

Wee!

There were so many cute children in yukatas! I wish I was more capable of taking good pictures. Sowwee.

I climbed Mt. Fuji at night in the dark and saw the sunrise while being thrown around by huge gusts of northern wind and am now tired like dabian

And now Yuna is angry with me the way kids get angry — because I went mountain climbing instead of spending time playing with her. To add on to that offense, I took a shower and nap once I got home and almost slept through dinner time (Apparently the mother tried to wake me up, but there was no response. Let me guarantee you that I heard and felt nothing. I was knocked out.) When I tried to talk to her, she would jerk her head 90 degrees away and pout. It was hilarious. And when asked what was wrong, she said, Joie helps Mom out so much (I was still doing the dishes after I finished dinner) when Joie could have spent that time playing with Yuna. Sigh. Haha. Children. Will be children.

I really like that my host family has children and I enjoy playing with them, but it can be really hard sometimes when I’m tired, not in the mood for playing, or have lots of work to do. The other peeps staying in homestays definitely have more freedom than I do (can take naps throughout the day, do what they like when at home) whereas I really only have completely free time after 8:30 pm everyday, after the girls go to sleep. Oh well, it’s the price to be paid to homestay with a cute, happy family, I guess.

I am butt tired from climbing Fuji (climbing it is a big deal in Japan, seeing as it is their tallest, most famous, and favorite-est mountain). Am so sore. Maybe I will tell all of you about the climb in person someday. You can ask me about it. I don’t feel like talking about it. Let’s just say it was “memorably miserable”. Ohohoho. Volcanoes are so rocky. But at least some of the rocks are shiny. I got really close to the summit crater (but didn’t quite make it there).

The team

An inkling of a sunrise

Above the clouds

LAAAAA (Big orchestral musak)

Hello. Shed some warmth, dammit.

Good morning.

Ray, a drop of golden suuuun

View from the descending trail.

I ate a shitton of chocolate

Toho Studios, NHK Studio Park, lalala

Hi peeeps.

So on Tuesday, our class went to Toho Studios (the largest movie production studio in Japan — they account for like 60% of the movie market and were the company that produced classics such as Godzilla, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, among many many others — although they have largely stopped making their own movies and have since switched to being a distributor and renting out their studio spaces to other production companies) for an exclusive visit.

Tada!

They were doing some filming there at the moment for the movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami‘s novel Norwegian Wood, but we weren’t allowed to go in and see it, which was sad (last year’s class got to see actual filming of a movie that came out in theaters a month ago! of a submarine scene too!). But alas, that was not to be for us. But still, we briefly saw the director run to the bathroom. Haha.

We did, however, get to go inside a lot of the studios, which was cool, especially because they were building some pretty awesome movie sets. We were not allowed to take pictures inside most of them because of copyright reasons, but some of the sets we got to see included the sets for the new Nodame movie that’s coming out and also a set for Norwegian Wood that they weren’t using just yet. It was really cool! From the outside, it’s all like wood and fake looking, but when you look inside, they really look like the real thing! Like for the Nodame movie, they are currently filming on location in France, but they are coming back to Japan to finish filming and will be using the studio sets of Nodame’s French apartment. So they look just like rooms would look in France, except it’s ALL FAAAKE. ARTIFICEEEE. (Now I really want to read the Nodame manga and watch the TV series and the movies… It looks good and like something I would get addicted to… baaaad.) The Norwegian Wood set was actually the awesome-est. Like Damn. On the outside, they made this fake forest, which look fake. But for the set for a dormitory, there’s a window and you can see the forest right outside the window. And with the lighting and everything, damn — it looks real and really beautiful. Also, the studio for the Norwegian Wood set that we got to see was the studio where they shot the American version of The Grudge (scary shit. although apparently much less scary than the Japanese one. still. scary. ugh.). It’s a huge studio, large enough to build two-story houses — and that’s what they did for The Grudge.

The last set we got to see was also awesome. It was a traditional Japanese home and it was just amazing how much detail was put into the rooms to make it look lived in. Incredible. That set apparently cost about $650,000 to build!!! A lot of the times you see something on the set that looks like stone or cement or whatever and actually it’s just made from wood or styrofoam. The art director and the artistic team just do a kickass job of aging and texturizing everything.

The only set we were allowed to take pictures of was a movie that they had not yet announced to the press and where there was not enough of the set built yet for people to guess what film it’s being made for. Here are the pics.

Barber shop? Hospital? It was unclear.

Train!

We also got to see the prop warehouse, which has a shitload of stuff, but I have to say I wasn’t that impressed by that just because I’ve been to Yale School of Drama’s costume and prop warehouse, which is even larger.

Little Shrine Props

Entrance

Clocks! Underneath the staircase you can see miniature models of skyscrapers. You think you're seeing actually building on the big screen, but you got punk'd is all.

One of the studio's many posh modern-looking meeting rooms that movie production crews rent out -- usually 3, one for director's team, one for producer's team, one for... I forgot the other one.

I should've taken more pictures of the studios from the outside. But you can vaguely see on behind this pretty tree. Large and square is the idea.

So the Toho visit was fun, though we all want what we can have (to see actual filming!). It still BLOWS MY MIND (truly the correct expression for this occasion, Levandoski) how complicated making a movie is… Seriously. It is so hard to visualize something out of nothing and to fool people into believing that this room made from wood situated inside what is essential a large cement warehouse is actually someone’s house in a certain country. And you have to think about where to insert the camera, how to light things properly, how to do this, how to do that. Sometimes they have to make removable walls so that the camera can fit in. Last year’s class saw the filming of a submarine scene (the submarine looked like it was made from steel, but it was just wood) that was apparently this super crammed space, so they had these large fans on in between takes to cool off the actors and crew. But once the cameras started rolling, they would shut off the fans because they made a lot of noise and shoot, and then turn the fans on again. I have so much respect for directors and art directors. WE HAVE ALL BEEN FOOLED, MY FRIENDS. WE ARE BEING LIED TO. IT’S ALLLL FAKE. I don’t think I will ever get to the stage where I can make a movie. It’s too complicated. Can you even begin to imagine how complicated it would be to build a set for something like Harry Potter? Like holy shit man.

Anyway.

Today we went to see live filming of an NHK TV talk show, featuring a celebrity guest, Saito Yuki (former idol when she was young, now still an actress). There was a museum about NHK and TV production, too, which was interesting. We got to do this mock news anchor thing. It was funny. And then I bought this ADORABLE pillow of the NHK mascot, Domo-kun.

Here's Domo-kun.

And here's the Domo-kun pillow.

Here is what you're supposed to do with it.

NHK HQ!

And I bought a yellow umbrella (ella ella ey ey) at Harajuku. And that's caramel corn that you see in the background! Two different flavors! I can't wait! CARAAAAMELLL CORRRRN WHY ARE YOU SO SWEET AND DELICIOUS???!!!

I was at Harajuku in the afternoon, but it was raining and so I definitely wanna go back again. There was this store called “Kiddy Land,” which was 5 floors of REALLY CUTE THINGS. THERE WAS ONE FLOOR WITH SO MUCH HELLO KITTY STUFF THAT I WANTED TO DIE. It was so cute. Hello Kitty, you are so cute. And you have such funny English. On any random Hello Kitty merchandise, you’ll probably find some phrase like, “I like apples!” or “Happy to meet you!” or “Let’s have a happy time!” or “Let’s have fun together!” or “Cake” or something. Hahaha. But how is she so cute? She doesn’t even have a mouth. Her head is just oversized enough and her head angled just so. Awwww. :).

Ok that’s it. I’m tired. I turned in my first paper on Wednesday.

Hanabi (fireworks)

Another post within half an hour of the other one. Shocku.

Quoi? Is this dark magic, you ask?

Tonight after dinner, my family went outside to light up some fireworks (those wand/stick thingies, nothing hardcore) because the older girl saw some last night and wanted to do it too. The wands came in Hello Kitty packaging, of course.

I like this picture. It was hard taking pictures in the dark.

The beh-beh is way too cute.

This is a rather nice picture. If I may say so myself.

There is going to be a huge-ass fireworks festival by the Sumida River this Friday. I would love to go (and be amongst the stampede of yukata-clad people), but I have a feeling it is going to be so crowded that I will want to die.

Twenty-Four Eyes

I just watched a 1954 Japanese movie for class called Twenty-Four Eyes, and it is incredibly poignant and moving. Really, the tears just keep coming again and again towards the end of the 2 and half hours. Directed by Kinoshita Keisuke, this is a much-loved classic in Japan and a true anti-war film depicting the sufferings endured by a group of ordinary children (who turn into teenagers and then adults — those who survive, that is) and their teacher during and after WWII. I didn’t expect this to be such a tear-jerker, but it is. One particular sob moment was at the very end, when the teacher receives a bicycle from her students and when the blind student recalls all the details of a first-grade class photo. If you watch the film, you will understand why those moments are so heart-wrenching.

So I am supposed to be writing my film paper. I will get back to that now.

OMG GUNDAM

Picture courtesy of someone other than me.

Friends friends friends

Okay let’s just calm down

Despite the fact that

I just spent the afternoon

Gazing upon

A FULL-SIZED MODEL OF GUNDAM

Y’all may not understand the significance of this

And to be honest, it shouldn’t be that significant for me

Because I am a girl and I did not grow up watching/making models of Gundams

But my brother did

And thus that I vicariously LIVED THIS OTHER LIFE

So you all can just click on the wikipedia link above to find out what Gundam is

But basically

They are, like, robots (better looking than transformers), but they are “mobile suits” because they are operated by people who sit in the cockpit. And of course their pilots fight for justice. The good ones do, at least. There are bad ones too.

So my brother spent much of his boyhood making models of Gundams that were usually around 1/114 or the cute versions of what a real-sized Gundam would be

But in Odaiba, Tokyo, they just built a model that is 100/100!!!!!

Okay enough talking. Let the pics speak for themselves. I know that probably one or two pictures are enough, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t practice discretion.

You probably can’t see it, but on the Gundam’s left shoulder blade is the acronym EFSF — Earth Federation Space Force!!!! Oh yea, Gundams fight in outer space a lot.

Hello, sexy

That's right.

Angles only emphasize my hotness.

People were, like, making a pilgrimage.

THE FIRST PROTOTYPE IS STILL THE HOTTEST

He's taking a picture of my crotch

Now she's taken a picture of my crotch.

I have a cute butt.

The devotees

And then after we left the place (SO CROWDED), we saw double rainbows! It was awesome.

Look:

You could see the full arch.

DOUBLE!

My cute host family

And sunset was beautiful, too.

Golden Cloud Bridge (it's actually called Rainbow Bridge -- how apt)

Kirei

GHIBLI MUSEUM

I JUST WENT TO THE BEST MUSEUM IN THE WORLD TODAY!!!! THE GHIBLI MUSEUM! Ghibli is the name of Miyazaki Hayao‘s animation studio (you know, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc. etc.). His museum is simply MAGICAL. Seriously. I can’t describe it in words. Wish you guys were here. Ariana! You would love it! And everyone else too! But Ariana! You would seriously love it!

And then of course… I splurged at the gift shop. But that means good news… FOR ALL OF YOU. Hahaha.

PRESENTS!

Sadly, pictures were not allowed inside the museum. But the museum was awesome because of so many reasons — it looked just fantastical and whimsical and retro, and sooo much attention was paid to detail — down to every little piece of glass on the window (like tiny Totoros on stained glass!). Inside the museum, you also get to see an exclusive short film made by Ghibli, which was simply delightful, much in the way Pixar shorts are also delightful (though of course the aesthetics were very different). Also, the museum was very much about filmmaking and animation in particular. It showed you how Miyazaki’s films are made — the sketches, storyboards, watercolors, methods of animation etc. etc. There were several exhibits that showed you how different animation techniques actually work. Um, COOL! And the whole museum felt more like a really, really cool mahogany house/castle that some really really cool person would live in.

The entrance ticket looked like this (Isn’t it adorable? It’s a 3-frame film strip! Everyone gets a different segment!):

Yay! It was really worth it. Yesterday, the class spent 3 of the most excruciating(ly boring) hours in the Edo Tokyo Museum on a field trip, looking at exhibits of recreations/simulations of old Tokyo that could have been effectively browsed in 45 minutes (this super cute/nice/adorable 84-year old lady was our volunteer guide, but she just knew too much and had to stop to explain every SINGLE thing). Today, a group of us decided to go to the Ghibli Museum, and I spent three hours there too, but I LOVED IT! 🙂

The entrance

The gate (HIDING THE BIG TOTORO!)

Weeeeeeee!

Rooftop garden

EPIC!

I don't know which film he's from.

From the roof

Aaaah

Today was Lily’s last day here :(! She went to Ghibli with me though, which was super fun, and then we had a nice dinnnnah at a cute cafe. IT WAS FUN HANGING OUT WITH YOU, LILLLLLLELEEEEEEEEEEE.

Okay, and you know this post would not be complete without some mention of food. I bought a green tea pudding at a small stand at the subway station and took it home to eat. I only realized when I got home that the pudding had not only been put into a paper bag, there was a mini ice pack that went in with it! Only in Japan! They are so considerate! I was worried on the train that my pudding would melt/go bad.

Pudding + ice pack

And, I also bought snacks today, right after I declared to Lily that I was being super healthy here and only eating three meals a day without sugar-loaded snacking in between. So much for that.

Strawberry Pocky, Apple Yogurt Pocky, Jasmine Kit Kat, Dark Choco Pocky, and MORE

As a last note: I HAVE A MIDTERM PAPER TO WRITE! Bah.

HAAAALLLLEEEE POOOOTAAAH

I WATCHED HARRY POTTER YESTERDAY, THE FIRST DAAAAY, WITH LILY. IN A THEATER IN TOKYOOO. AND IT WAS A TWO FLOOR THEATER AND I WAS ON THE SECOND FLOOR, LAST ROW. THE SEATS WERE LIKE PPPERRRRFECT. CENTER AND THE SCREEN JUST THE RIGHT SIZE IN FRONT OF US. THANKS TO LILY, WHO MANAGED TO GET US TICKETS.

I liked the movie a lot. There’s so much great attention to detail and the movie looks nice.

Did you know that in Japan they have “Lady’s Day” at the movie theaters every Wednesday? So just by virtue of being of the female kind, I can get tickets every Wed. for 1000 yen (about $10) instead of the normal 1800 yen (yeaaa movies are expensive in Japan).

Harry Potter Harry Potter.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine as a class:

We also went into its very biased museum (i.e. the Nanking “Incident,” glorifying Japan in WWII, making Japan the victim, etc.). Actually, most funny/shocking of all is that there is a plaque/monument thing dedicated to this Indian judge guy who was the only judge at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East after WWI who insisted that all the defendants were innocent… ????!!!!!! And so, this is to honor this man who basically said that Japan had done nothing wrong in the war… Interesting. Anyway, we read some interesting articles, like this one, which really analyze the issue, instead of just hating on the Japanese.

But my host mother was very afraid that I would come under the impression that all Japanese people like the Yasukuni Shrine, so she made it a point to tell me that most people, especially of the younger generation, don’t support the institution.

Kaiseki! FOOOD GLORIOUS FOOOD!

I forgot to mention yesterday that my host parents went voting yesterday! I feel like this would interest you guys, especially Abby and KT! So it was election day for city government and it was a pretty important election. Political campaigning in Japan in very different from the US — you can only campaign for a very limited period of time leading up to the election, and you are only allowed to put up posters on designated boards around the city, which have candidate posters (all the same size) neatly posted side by side. And the other thing you are allowed is a certain number of vans for each candidate — they go around the city all through the day with loud speakers saying things like, “This is blah blah blah, and please vote for me blah blah blah!!” It’s pretty noisy haha. But anyway, it was Sunday, so I went with the family to go to the polls at the gym of the local elementary school. It was completely no hassle. They got in and got out. No line, really, and super quick. You have to write the full name of the person you are voting for on the blank space on the ballot. Anyway, it was interesting.

So it seems that my blog is destined to become a chronicle of food… OHOHOHOHO. I am so superficial. But seriously, my parent’s friend took me out for the Japanese equivalent of haute cuisine today. So I gotta post up pictures of my 13-course meal. I am sorry.

In Japanese, this type of multi-course meal is called kaigeki. The kaigeki that I had was (believe it or not) made almost completely from tofu (the aunty who took me there ordered it before hand because she thought it was completely vegetarian — turns out it wasn’t completely, but it was okay because they restaurant managed to come up with delicious things to substitute for the meat-containing dishes, which were only a few). I am telling you, it was delicious — YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MANY WAYS TOFU CAN BE COOOOKED!!! Y’all would’ve liked it. KT, you know how I turned to you at Tandoor Kitchen and proclaimed vehemently that “AMERICA HAS NO SPICY FOOD”?? Well, now I say to you, “AMERICA HAS NO GOOD TOFU!” HAHAHA. No offense intended, my good doodies.

Here goes.

The restaurant sign (not "Passage" -- the thing underneath it)

Entrance

Menu at the entrance -- most Japanese restaurants have their menu on display outside of the entrance

Mah table setting

Tea and my first three cold dishes

Steamed egg with mushrooms etc. in a cup

One type of cold tofu with a yummily sour/sweet mixture of miso and grapefruit sauce

Tofu soup with green beans -- that flower shaped pink piece is tofu too!

The beautiful ceramic box that held...

...something I could not eat (had sashimi inside)

Some sort of ball thing made from lotus roots and tofu, with two seasoned/sweet pickled roots on the side (the sauce was delish)

Fried tofu with a pinch of ginger and wasabi on top, in some sort of delicious sauce soup

Two delicious mochi/sticky rice cake-like things with miso on top

Disappearing

Tofu salad with crunchy stuff and vegetables on top

Something I could not eat

Tofu on a hot stone

Sticky rice with Japanese style pickled vegetables and barley tea

Final tofu-skin soup

Name of restaurant + Joie's best (and sad) shot at photographic artsiness

DESSERT!! (or as the japanese would say, deh-zahh-to) Some sort of jelly with plum juice and vanilla ice cream with peanut powder on top.

The dessert... was not so Japanese

The out of focus tea pot

The top list is the complete listing of the courses I had.. the brochure underneath is of all the meals they offer this season... Next to my meal it says it's 1140 calories, I believe... If I'm not misreading... Holy fahhk...

I hope you all are leading more meaningful lives than me!

Oh, here is a picture of the building my class is inside at Waseda University: