キムぶろ、久しぶり！

Woah! I realise it's been quite a while since my last entry. I guess it's because I've been busier than usual. I suppose I could do a quick run-through of what has been going on...

11/3 (Thursday)
Day one of 明大際 (Meidai Festival). I plodded down to the station to meet Hiro before I jumped on stage to perform. I had my first ever ukulele solo, playing and singing Paramore's  "The Only Exception" whilst Hiro sat and recorded it. I was so nervous my legs were shaking and my hands were slippery with sweat so changing chords was rather difficult. It was the better of the two performances though. My second was Tokyo Jihen's "Killer Tune" where I provided the vocals to circle-mate Ryoma's guitar playing....the only problem was that his guitar was totally out of tune and that he seemed unaware of it...blegh.

明大際＠明治大学和泉キャンパス

Hiro and I wandered about the festival for a little while, exploring the stalls and watching the cheerleaders などなど。He hadn't brought his guitar so we just hung out and had to make do with my little uke. I cooked my 'nabe-ramen' thing, went to do some much looked-forward-to karaoke and got pretty damn drunk....(end of the day as far as my memory goes..*ahem*)

Karaoke with Hiro

11/4 (Friday)
We leapt out the door and headed down to Yokohama for a Musical Instrument Fair. Yokohama was a breath of fresh air. It felt so good to be out of Tokyo's suffocating streets and smellin' that ocean breeze....

Yokohama

The fair was indescribable. There were musical instruments of all shapes and sizes, some that I'd never encountered before and the event featured some very talented musicians on stage. I'm so grateful for Hiro for taking me along. It was MAGICAL.
After the event, we wandered around Yokohama's harbour area and eventually took a train to China Town for nosh and touristy fun.

Just one of the guitars...

A visit to China Town

11/5 (Saturday)
Back on the stage for me. Despite being really, really faint, I think I pulled it off. I provided the vocals for a rendition of Paramore's "Misery Business" and Tokyo Jihen's "Marunouchi Sadistic", both of which went down very nicely with the audience - mission accomplished. After the event finished, I went to my first 飲み会 in Japan (a sort of drinking party...). I left earlier than most as I was SUPER tired and ill. Fun though...

11/6 (Sunday)
Went to a Rock 'n' Roll gig with my housemate Miriam. Some of the music was to my taste...some not. NEVER in my life have I taken in so much cigarette smoke that my lungs ached. I got so used to the smoking ban in the UK, coming to a Japanese club was a total shock. Still, I like to experience new things so I agreed to go along. "The Bunny Tail" was the best act of the night and ultimately the one we went to see. Their bassist was so charismatic!

11/8 (Tuesday)
Crappy morning...and then BAM!!! My new uke arrives and it's the most beautiful thing in the world ever and kfgildbbfgawilufgcuhlwg!!!!

There she is...

11/15 (Tuesday)
EEEVEEEE!!!! I had the opportunity to meet one of my closest friends from senior school again and it truly made my day perfect. Eve, Alicia and I wandered around Harajuku, in toy shops, clothes shops and ate wonderful Harajuku crepes. Glorious. I had no idea Eve had missed me so much. I'm so gonna make it up to her and stay in close contact from now on. She's a true friend and I love her to bits! xxxxxx

Crepes at Harajuku

....So, that about brings us up to date...right?
Not too much happening until my birthday. I am planning, however to go and visit Mount Takao and take in some fresh air at last with my friend Todd. I really hope the weather is good!

"The Stick of Encouragement"...

Friday involved lectures as normal (which I forgot to bring half my completed homework to....durp!) followed by a trip to a temple..er..somewhere to partake in a 'Zazen' experience. (Wooo!)

Ahem, so a fairly large group of us piled onto the Marunouchi Subway Line and where whisked away to a rather random station (Hon-Komagome) where a certain temple (龍光禪寺）was to be located. It turns out the staff accompanying us had forgotten where the temple was too...

After a few wrong turns we finally arrived at the temple. It was fairly small and situated in the middle of a residential area. Walking inside and removing our shoes, we encountered a rather large tatami room with a couple dozen cushions laid out on the floor. Taking a cushion each, we were given a long complicated Japanese explanation of the practise of 'Zazen', a sort of meditation.

龍光禪寺

Cushions at the ready...

 After the Priest had sounded a pair of wooden clappers three times and struck a bell four times, we were to begin Zazen for twenty minutes. This involved sitting cross-legged (you know that uncomfortable way where your feet rest on top of each thigh), keeping our eyes open and fixed on a certain point on the floor in front and controlling our breathing - just counting our breaths in sets of ten and trying not to think of anything else....difficult when the Priest is patrolling the room, armed with a 'Keisaku' (encouragement stick). If one felt that one had not cleared their mind of all thought, they would place their palms together in 'gassho' and wait for the Priest to come and strike each of their shoulders twice with his Keisaku. It sounded SO painful but apparently wasn't....

We were given a quick break to recover our dead legs before another twenty minute session...

After a total of forty minutes absolute silence (and in my case, trying to force myself to stay awake - my eyes kept doing that flutter thing and my head kept nodding back and forth) we were allowed to uncurl our legs again and were given tea and some cake thing. If you want an honest description, it tasted of a mixture of egg yolk and sugar.

Strange cake

An hour of self introductions, our thoughts and the opportunity to ask questions, we finally left. I zoooooomed back to Meidaimae to throw on some fairly dark clothes, slap some dark makeup on my face and stick my hair up in all directions. Ten minutes is the fastest I've ever been getting ready for a party (I normally take three hours...). This little Hallowe'en party was something thrown together by the international department at Meiji University and lasted a grand total of two hours! It consisted of a room full of people dressed in silly costumes and various snacks and drinks laid out on tables. I didn't think it was worth 300円 to get in so I snuck in for free, took some photos and skipped off to a rather urgent meeting with my circle.

A scene from the Hallowe'en party

Hallowe'en costumes?

I practiced the songs that I'll be performing at the festival nyada nyada nyaaa and then wandered back to the international house to sneak into a second party (a Hallowe'en house party) again without paying. Glorious. It was a familiar sight to behold; a corridor and kitchen area packed with very drunken people playing loud music. I perched myself in the corner next to the speakers and took control of the music. I met Masashi, who shares the same love for Paramore that I do so I sang to him as he seemed to enjoy it.

A corridor full of drunken people

I went back to my room earlier than most after being nampa-ed by this drunken Korean bloke, to sort out some registration online and such.
Crazy Friday, crazy.

Other than seeing a baseball game on Saturday...I can't really remember what happened. I think it was baseball followed by more festival rehearsal and an early bedtime...meh.

Back at Meijijingu Stadium

かっとばせー！

~More antics soon....