i leave on the overnight bus tonight after work to head to fujirock! words cannot express my excitement! expect an extremely detailed recap of my weekend’s adventures upon my return. love you all!
take me out to the ballgame! July 18, 2008
music: amy winehouse- will you still love me tomorrow
one of the most fun days i have had in japan was spent at nagoya dome watching a baseball game between the nagoya dragons and the tokyo giants.
A very big group of us went together, pushing 30+ amity/aeon teachers and students. We had the cheap seats near the top, which cost about 1500 Yen, which is like 15 bucks, and allowed us to be as rowdy and ridiculous as possible. The beer and sake was everflowing, despite the game’s 2 pm start time and noisemaking is a crucial part of japanese baseball games, and so, we were the perfect crowd for such an event.
It’s interesting, when it is a team’s turn up to bat, the fans of the other team are generally quiet while the fans of the batting team perform choreographed song and dance. Noisemaking is a necessity. Two small bats attached by a piece of string, sporting the team of choice’s name and mascot, are banged together through the songs and chants. Each player has his own song and everyone knows the words (other than us gaijin’s who are just happy to make lots of noise and bang things together). Anyways, its completely hilarious and so well organized in japanese-fashion and its pretty much the most fun i’ve ever experienced at a baseball game. I love baseball games, ive always loved going to baseball games, but this took it to a whole other level. I couldnt stop smiling the whole game. The energy was contagious. Fans all around you turned around to high five you after a good play, snacks were passed around. That was one of my most favourite days ive spent here.
on a side note, the dragons lost, but that’s besides the point.
baseball, frizzy hair and sake? CHECK
the dome of awesomeness.
these days and… July 11, 2008
music: owen- one of these days
One of the things I’m most thankful for, in my relocation in a strange land, is the rekindling of my relationship with my first love, books. For four years i spent hour after hour pouring through book after book, reading upwards of 5 books a week for classes (the perils of an english literature student) but only those books I was told to read, nothing of my own preference. Reading became a chore, a job, a necessity, but not a necessity like breathing or water, but one that you know you have to do but don’t really want to, like exercising and eating vegetables. I was not longer reading for the love of reading, or even reading things i loved, but reading because i had to, because my professors told me to. After reading thousands and thousands of pages during the week, my summers were no longer spent reading, like i did when i was young- going to the library with stacks and stacks of books, my heart exploding with excitement to pour over each and every one of them as quickly as i could, anxious to fill my brain with wonderful words and stories and move on to the next. No, that stopped.
When i moved here, i started to crave the english word. And thus i re-started my love affair with books. Its a completely different experience, reading things you want to read, things you’ve always wanted to read but never had the time to. I can’t get enough of books. I spend my entire lunch hour pent up in my classroom with the door closed mindlessly munching on my lunch and completely engrossed in whatever book is my boyfriend for the week. I spend my free time between classes hiding my novels underneath textbooks like kids did with their comic books inside textbooks.
I just finished pride and prejudice. Me, a literature major, has never ever read jane austen. As a lover of classic literature i absolutely ate it up. I have made a vow to myself to read all of austen’s work. I’ve developed an obsession with coupland and hornby and i even read harry potter for the first time. I am presently reading kerouac’s on the road, which, again, shockingly i’ve never read. For someone who spent her entire academic career reading, i’m not well read at all. So one of the many reasons i’m thankful for my experience in japan, here’s another one. I’m very greatful for this opportunity to rekindle one of the most important relationships ive ever had in my life. That of myself and literature.
gravity, it’s keepin me down. July 3, 2008
About a month ago i climbed a mountain. a real japanese mountain named Gozaisho. all 1212 m of it. It was the worst experience of my life. I somehow thought a hiking trip would be a good idea when i was invited along with a group of friends, unaware that hiking meant hiking up a gigantic mountain. It was extremely difficult. torturous. it took me over 4 hours. Susannah and i were separated from the rest of the group, and then I told Susannah to head on without me. I wanted to go at my own pace. I wanted to stop when i wanted to stop, to go as slow or fast as i wished, and its a lot of pressure when you’re climbing with someone. And i mean literally climbing. Ok we werent harnessed in or anything to that extent of rock climbing but you were climbing up huge rock steps, pulling yourself up, with tree branches and gripping onto rocks and walking through streams and huge steep dirt hills. it was intense. when you’re by yourself doing something like that, you reflect. you reflect on what a stupid idea hiking was and how much you hate that decision. Every clearing you see ahead makes your heart do a little jump, only to have it sink back down to the bottom of the mountain when you realize that clearing was just a little spot where the trees dont cover the sky and you still cant see the top of the mountain.
You start thinking about the worst possible things that could happen, like what if you got stung by a bee, and who knows if you’re allergic to bees because you’ve never been stung before, how long would it take for another hiker to come along and find you puffed up on the ground hyperventilating, or what if you twisted your ankle on one of the rocks that became slipperier and slipperier the higher you got, the mistier it got and then you had to hike the rest of the mountain in excruciating pain. or what if something even worse happened, like you broke your leg and a bone was protruding through the skin, would someone be able to call an ambulance to have you airlifted out of there, or what? Or what if i saw a snake??? i would have to run, but i could barely walk up the goddamn thing, let alone run….
these are all the things that cross your mind while climbing a gigantic mountain, alone in japan. so my advice to you is this: DONT DO IT. it is a mistake.
once i got to the top, finally, not only was i a) sick from overworking myself and b) i couldnt see anything in front of me because we were so high up we were IN A CLOUD so i could not bask in what i’d just accomplished by checking out the beautiful view over the edge because i couldnt even see my hand in front of my face through all the mist. So it wasnt even worth it.
i’m proud of myself, i mean, its an accomplishment, and i’m shocked i finished it, but god, it was terrible. But at least i can pat me on the back and call myself a champ.
