Places

Okay, time to fill everyone in on what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks. Or was it 3 weeks? I'm losing, my sense of time as you can tell. Also been a bit low on time

During exam week (Began 1st of June Monday). Ms Sakurai took us to Kabuki and Ghibli on Wednesday 3rd June. Both were fantastic!

I stated earlier, Kabuki is Japanese traditional theatre. The entire cast is male and the opposite of Kabuki is Takarazuka where the entire cast is female. The Kabuki theatre we went to was in Ginza (same one Hannah went to last year). However, it will be demolished next year and rebuilt as it's old. Approximately, building will take 2 years which, is a shame since it'll be harder for a lot of people to see Kabuki in those 2 years. Kabuki has it's own season like sport. It's not an all year thing. 3rd of June was the opening date so the waiting line for tickets shot right up to the 4th floor when we got there to get our tickets.

The traditional theatre was beautiful but were unfortunately we were prohibited from taking photos. Off to the sides of the packed theatre were old traditional balcony seats with tables for guests' (o)bentos (lunch boxes). One look at the stage and my brain was screaming "old" but it was decorated with amazing art while some old men plucked a stringed instrument.

I looked it up later. Instrument is called Shamisen which literally translates to "Three flavour strings". Another name for it is Sangen meaning "three strings". It's a 3-stringed lute played with a plectrum called a Bachi. Similar length to a guitar but has no frets. First became popular during the Edo Period (1600-1868) and has been used for Kabuki performances ever since.

Back to Kabuki. When the play began all the lights turned off and since there were no windows in the theatre (must've been a good 30°C(+) in there) we were sitting in a pitch-black room, with barely enough air. The play was called Cho no Michiyuki (Journey Through the Afterworld of the Butterflies). We had English translation on headphones so we could understand. It began with a barely lit stage with two people holding lights and moving their arms to imitate two butterflies. It looked unbelievably real. The play was about the belief, "When people die, it's said their spirits become butterflies." Two lovers who had committed a double suicide and now danced in their human forms in a world between life and death. They rein-acted the time they met up until their death. They were forced into the suicide by war since the side. In the end, both were sent to hell after their short dance in the world between.

After Kabuki we went around Ginza and had a brief look but it's shops consist most of brand shops and other merchandise shops with extremely expensive products.

We headed to Ghibli Museum afterwards. It was incredible there. Everything completely Ghibli and we recognized a lot of things which we had previously seen in Ghibli films. I uploaded the photos a long time ago so I hope you guys all have checked that. The staircases there were all spiral shaped and caged, the elevator was old fashioned and life size models of Studio Ghibli characters. We saw the neko bus, Laputa robot and a room full of claymation and film rolls on machines. They were all working and we saw some incredible things. The claymation was by far the best. All the characters from Totoro were made in perfect detail and at least 10 (or over) claymations of each character was made and put in a circle. The circle ceased movement from time to time but while moving sporadic lights accompanied it. Because of the brief intervals between when there was light and where there wasn't, while the circle spun, the claymation seemingly came to life. Every character looked as if it was moving in it's natural manner. A rabbit appeared to pop up from the ground, a girl jumped with her skirt actually adjusting to the movement, a skipping rope moved with precision, and totoro jumped with his entire body seemingly contracting downwards then springing upwards. Unbelievable. My brain couldn't even comprehend the knowledge that they were still just still claymation images.

We also saw tanks of painted glass where there were just layers and layers of glass. Each separate glass was painted with something eg. bubbles, lines representing where the water level was, insects, plants, leaves etc. From the top it looked ridiculous something like that could look real but when you kneeled down and looked at it head on, everything looked 3-D. There was also a tank with over 100,000 pieces of paper inside. It was all the drawings belonging to one movie. Not all the papers, all the sketches only.

On Friday, 5th June, we went to Chika's house (nickname: Ossan = Means old man). It was huge! Huge lounge, huge tatami room (Floor is tatami matting, made from rice straw) and 3 stories! Her mother made us the most delicious pastas, spaghetti, salad, sausages, and dessert. We ate it all =]

Saturday we went to Tokyo Dome Amusement park. The best ride by far was the 130m roller coaster, Thunder Dolphin. Super fast and went through a lot of rings plus the middle of the Big-O (World's first centre-less Ferris Wheel). A tad nervous at first along with Eiko who clung onto my arm screaming "Yada, Yada" (literally means hate but loosely holds the same meaning as "Don't/I don't like it/I don't hate it/Stop, I don't like it"). Unfortunately by the time she was screaming at the top of her lungs and actually meaning she wanted out she was already strapped in and the carriages were already moving. I just got more nervous from all her screaming. I was so fun though! In the end, I rode it about 5 times. Don't think a roller coaster can ever scare me again.

Some other small roller coasters were around and there were even electronic parachutes! There was also one of those rides which swing you back and forth at a ridiculous speed and height. Each end was completely vertical. Looks scary but while you're on the ride, there's really hardly any feeling. The speed's fantastic and a thrill but there's no feeling of falling. Maybe it was going too fast?

Also went on a water slide ride in a boat 3 times. One time, our boat managed to get stuck in the mechanism before the huge waterfall. Brilliant when 2 other boats are coming right up behind you and you're sitting thinking all three boats are going to end up flying down that waterfall at the same time and tip over. We received a pretty big shock when an unseen microphone turned on and told us not to worry. Of course at that time we were at the very top of the ride, the staff members were all at the bottom so we had no idea how they could see us. Turns out, there was a camera behind the boat that had been watching us all along.

There was also Tower Hacker (80m Tower climb in seats that just dropped downwards at the most horrific speed). Lastly, if you ate too much, there was a self operated roller coaster. You had to pedal it yourself like a bike in order to ride it. I found it tons of fun! Everyone else told me I was crazy and had sore legs after.

Oh! We also got to see Connie Talbot live at Tokyo Dome. She had 3 concerts there. Saw 2/3 concerts and Miyuki bought her CD. Amazing voice that little girl has.

http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/park/ <-- Take a look at that website for more information.

That's all I have time for today! I'll type more tomorrow night. Gotta sleep now since I need to get up at 6:20am tomorrow and get to school by 7:40am for singing practice and then stay till 12:30pm for Chorus competition. Yes, it will be 20th June, Saturday tomorrow. Saturday school! =O Holidays are rare here.

2 Months already!

It feels like time here has been going really slowly but really it's gone so fast. We've been here 2 months already... Another 2 weeks and we're going home.

Well LOTS has happened! I meant to write a bit earlier on but there's was no time and I really wanted to sleep.

Anyhow in my time here, I've noticed Japan is a country conscious of many things.

First of all, health. I'm sure you have all heard of the new Swine Flu and are probably being a bit more careful than normal but it's a very big thing here. Ever since it's started, I've heard it as the topic of many daily conversations. I also find that when I sneeze or cough (because sometimes you just do) someone will always look horrified and say "Are you okay?! It's not the influenza is it?". The school also has a yearly health check which takes an entire day. Also if someone is sick, they wear a face mask as to not sneeze and cough on others. Sometimes, you even see people who aren't sick wearing masks to guard against sickness. My host family has a habit of... I'm sure what you call it... gurgling water? It's like when some people brush their teeth, at the very end they take a mouthful of water, throw their head back and gurgle (that has got to be the most ridiculous word I've used in a description) then spit the water out (Great). My host family does that as soon as they get home. It apparently is a great way to prevent sickness.

Secondly, image. As I noted quite a while earlier, everyone here carries mirrors. Not only the females but also the males. Image seems to be very important here. A lot of people also carry a hair brush around and you see them brushing their hair again and again when the teacher is reporting the notices for the day. In the magazines here, there are pages and pages of how to do your make up and hair. I don't think I've seen so many different make up and hair styles in my life!

Thirdly, weight. The Japanese like to eat small portions and a bit of everything. Usually though, it's only 3 meals a day. There's some snacking in between meals but not very often. I've also noticed in restaurant menus, beside every selection, how much calories the dish contains is written on the menu. I asked my family why and they said it's because Japanese people like to be very careful bout their weight. =/ I must look like a pig here.

Fourthly (I've always found that a strange word), rain. I'm used to not caring very much about the rain unless it's absolutely pouring down. Here, even the slightest drizzle will result in everyone pulling out their umbrellas. I saw an incredible sight on the way to school one day. It was just a bridge of umbrellas. I don't mean to sound like I've been living under a rock my entire life but I've seriously never seen so many umbrellas before, and definitely not all in one place. Everyone makes sure to bring flannels too, especially during the rain. Usually everyone brings a flannel to dry their hands after the bathroom since they're always in a rush they don't always use the dryers and if they do, they literally slide their hands under it for 3 seconds and rush off. I see some people wiping their suitcases, phones, drink bottles..., watches (and other daily items you can name) with the flannels sometime. During rainy days, they'll wipe their faces, clothes, shoes and (bags plus everything else that got wet excluding umbrellas) after getting inside. My host mother's stressed many times over giving me a flannel during rainy days. It's very cute and sweet of her. There are also umbrella holders everywhere. Outside and inside stores, restaurants etc. If there aren't holders, there are bag machines which you shove your umbrella into and the machine releases a plastic bag for you to carry your umbrella around without it getting everything else wet.

Everything here is.... really mini. Really, everything's downsized. Though the insects are all super sized. Their bikes, fridges (The fridges wouldn't be able to fit half of the stuff shoved into my fridge at home!), cutlery (I swear the chopsticks in my house are longer...), plates, bowls (which I just stupidly spelt bowels haha), cups, cars, buses (Some buses here aren't much bigger than an average sized van), tissues, skirts, oreos, chips and other food products and items are half the size of what we're normally used to. Some of the bikes the teens and adults ride here are the same size as the bike I had at 7 years old. Their school bags are also ridiculously small. I wouldn't even fit half what I have in my bag in NZ in my current school bag, not to mention I've never had a lunch box ([o]Bento) so filling yet so small. Their meals are also downsized. You end up being really full after the meal but it's a very tiny portion of everything. Their streets are also impossibly narrow. There are mirrors above almost every street corner. They're slanted downwards slightly so you can see oncoming traffic on both sides of the road. It's so narrow around some corners so I've giving up looking sideways, I just look out for cars using the mirrors now.

Japan also loves hiding things and confusing you with escalators. Zoe and I were checking out Shibuya 109-2 one day and on every level, the next escalator leading up changes sides. I'm sure we spent an extra hour or two in that building than was necessary just because we kept getting the wrong side. We've also rarely run into rubbish bins here. I asked Ms Sakurai why and apparently Japan doesn't have a lot of public rubbish bins because they're scared someone will chuck a bomb inside it. Thus everyone's encouraged to take their own rubbish home with them. Unlike how we usually chuck what rubbish we create at school and outside into the bins provided, you take all your rubbish home with you. Their rubbish is very well divided though. It's not like how we chuck everything recyclable into the same bin. They separate their recyclable items so it's like paper only, plastic only, caps only, straws only, cans and cartons only etc.

We've also been a tad surprised that there are so many housewifes still and gender is very separated. Unlike how even at a one gender school in NZ everyone has a mix of friends from their school and other schools and friends of both genders, here, they don't mix if they're not at the same school. Barely anyone in my school knows anyone in another school. The ages are also divided. Everyone respects their elders so much, even at school but year groups don't mix. Nearly everywhere, girls are urged to wear skirts or dresses and avoid pants. A lot of females do where shorts and pants now but female students and all business women I've seen so far always wear skirts. Anything school related, pants are not allowed, skirts and dresses only, because we're not males. A lot of the co-educational schools here separate the genders once inside the school.

That's all I have time for tonight. I'll write some more in the weekends.