ミシガンの紅葉が灰色なら

Tags

紅葉, Komyozenji, Koumyouzenji, 光明禅寺

This post full of pictures of 紅葉 (kouyou = fall colors; though this same compound can be read as “momiji” which is more specifically the maple tree) goes out to a certain 先生. ^o^

This past Sunday I was feeling restless and decided to go down to 光明禅寺 (Koumyouzenji), a zen temple close to Dazaifu Tenmanguu, to enjoy the fall colors there.  Unfortunately, the place was packed, so I didn’t even try going into the inner courtyard.  That said, what gives momiji their fire, I realized, isn’t the leaves themselves, but the sun shining on them; since the trees in the inner courtyard are low and in shade, from what glimpses I did get the color there actually wasn’t that impressive.

So, before we get on to the photos, if you don’t already have some tunes taking you to another level, may I suggest this track by DJ Nozawa, which heavily samples the My Neighbor Totoro track “Tsukamori no Taiju,” or this track from Star Ocean: First Departure, which plays in a town that is perpetually flooded by autumn leaves, for your listening pleasure?

Well, here we go~

 

Breeeeathe

Up closer

Another poem I wrote for an assignment: 暖かい　秋の木漏れ日　大きいね

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Infitinity = 0

The last persimmons. At least, I think that's what they are.

The magic of direct sunlight

Many people came out to enjoy the fall colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People may have thought I was weird when I was taking this shot.

Hm, that last caption pretty much does away with any Aesthetic Emotions you may have been feeling eh?  ^_^;

Well, that’s pretty much it.  You can’t tell how ridiculously crowded it was from the photos I posted, though Koumyouzenji wasn’t as bad as Tenmanguu.  Around this time there’s also 七五三 (shichigosan) celebrations going on, so I saw several little kids decked out in their kimono on the path leading to the shrine.  Given the crowds, I had to tell my homie Sugawara-no-Michizane that I couldn’t go visit his crib that day.  ^o^;

A Mock School Concert

Tags

Camui Gakuen, Camui Gakuen de Fukinasai, GACKT, Gakuensai, Kobe

I’d been debating whether I should post about this concert over on this blog, and two weeks later decided to go ahead say how it went considering I’d mentioned it briefly before going.

So, Saturday November 6th two friends and I got to get up at some unholy time in the AM (7 or so) to catch a shinkansen to Kobe for the GACKT concert I’d won tickets to.  It’s a relatively short ride at just under 3 hours.

Now, this concert, besides having had ticket sales limited to fanclub members, was special in that you had to go dressed in something that resembled a school uniform (or an actual uniform, of course, if you had one and wanted to wear it).  But the mock school thing didn’t end there!  People who’d won tickets were called “gakuensei” (but in one of the many puns, this was written 楽園性 which says “rakuensei” but the “sei” is written…oh, let’s just say it’s written with a different kanji than usual! ^_^;) and had to take a 3 x 4 cm ID style photo so that a “student ID” could be made for them!  The ID had slots for “credits,” and one credit could be earned by going to a concert.  Only someone who went to every single one of these Gakuensai concerts could accumulate enough credits to “pass” to the next grade. We were informed at the concert that everyone had “failed” the grade last year. ^o^;  People who were going as guests of someone who’d won tickets didn’t get a Student ID, but they still had to wear mock uniforms and were called 他校性 (takousei) meaning “student of another school.”

So, we’d arrived in Kobe around 11:15, but after queuing to reserve our seats for the shinkansen back home that same night, and taking a few photos with the cardboard cutouts of “Student Council President” (meaning, GACKT himself) and crew at the concert venue, it was time to line up for 入楽手続き (continuing with the pun, this is read as “nyuugaku tetsuzuki”) meaning “Admissions.”  After that, we all tried the YOU Curry at the ショック堂 (get it?), bought some goods, and by then, the doors opened so we lined up to go in.

Now, this whole concert lasted a good 4 hours, though there was about a 30 minute break between the first half which was more like a “culture festival” and then the concert proper.  The event started up with, appropriately enough, a 始業式 (shigyoushiki), meaning Opening Ceremony.  First, the “kyoutou-sensei” of the Camui Gakuen (that’s the name of the mock school BTW) literally hopped and skipped up on stage and gave a speech that included instruction on “proper speech.”  Basically, we had to use old Japanese as responses.  Instead of various greetings such as “konnichi wa,” we had to say “gokigen yo” (ご機嫌よ); instead of “hai!” we had to say “kashikomari!”; and instead of “sumimasen,” “goburee” (ごぶれぇ).

Then the bald-save-for-a-single-braid-with-a-big-red-bow “kouchou-sensei” came up on stage and gave a speech.  I don’t remember much of it now.

Then, the man himself, seito kaichou (Student Council President), sloooooowly sauntered up on stage to give a speech.  ^o^;  Four audience members were picked to be fukuiinchou (副委員長 meaning “vice-chairman,” in this case, of the Student Council).  Along with the name of the concert (“Fukinasai” written as フキナ祭), “fukuiinchou” was another word that for reasons I don’t really understand, was always pronounced as if with a stutter. That is to say, GACKT always stressed the two i’s as being separate sounds.

Hm, well, the rest might not be of much interest to those who read this blog out of interest in someday doing JET, since the mock school stuff pretty much ends here.  After this point, one could say the part before the concert proper was like a bunkasai.  There was a skit that was sorta making fun of the play Nemuri Kyoushirou, then a dance-off, and then…I think that was it before the break.  After that was the concert itself, which was all covers.  Despite only being familiar with 3 of the songs, I really enjoyed the concert. I hope I get to go to another Gakuensai someday! My plaid skirt will be waiting. ^O^♡

I couldn’t take photos inside the venue of course, but here’s an article on a Japanese page about the show with some high resolution photos! 「GACKTが本気で遊びの楽園祭（学園祭）を開催！」: http://www.news2u.net/releases/78122?ref=rss

Okay, you’ve read this far eh?  You deserve some amusing photo to look at.

In real life, I don’t think I even knew who my student council president was.

That photo was taken before I bought the official school tie. ^o^;;;

Speaking of that tie, last Wednesday was the first day of Mid-Year Seminar, a meeting of ALTs and JTEs.  Since we have to dress super-formally, I put on my formal blazer (not the one in the photo), and when I looked in the mirror, the outfit felt empty.  It needed something. And the red & pinkish gold tie of the Camui Gakuen matched my light pink shirt too perfectly not to wear it!  So, I had a few Japanese people (mostly men) staring at me with WTF?! looks on their faces, which I found thoroughly amusing.  The best one had to be this one guy on the train platform.  I was going home, and as the train pulled in to some station or other, I see this grown man wearing bright yellow leggings and a bright yellow skirt.  And when I say bright, I mean BRIGHT.  The train pulls in, I see him…and he glares at me like few have glared at me before!  I don’t know if it was because I was dressed “like a man,” or because I was looking at him in his “girls'” outfit.

You’d think two people cross-dressing on a crowded train would’ve had more empathy between them.

XDDD Okay, there’s enough in this post to give you, O Reader, your Daily Recommended Dose of Wonk.  Don’t you just feel the life energy pulsing through you with unprecedented zest?!

Huis Ten Bosch

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Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki Prefecture

This past Wednesday was the national holiday 文化の日 (Culture Day).  I spent the day with some friends at the theme park Huis Ten Bosch in Sasebou, Nagasaki Prefecture. (I don’t know how Huis Ten Bosch is pronounced in Dutch, but the katakana is ハウステンボス.)

When Tokugawa Iemitsu decided to close Japan off to most of the rest of the world in the 1600s, the only Europeans allowed to maintain trade were the Dutch, who were restricted to Dejima in Nagasaki.  So, the amusement park Huis Ten Bosch, which is named after one of the residences of the Dutch Royal Family, reflects this history of cultural and mercantile exchange.  The park is meant to resemble a Dutch town, and indeed, most (if not all) of the buildings in the park are replicas of buildings in the Netherlands.  The Dutch Royals even gave permission for  a replica of the house Huis Ten Bosch itself to be built.

The park is currently hosting the Gardening World Cup.  This was the reason the friend of a friend, a landscaper, wanted to go there.  He drove us down and we all had a blast!  Below are some of my favorite photos from this trip.

Going in.

A canal looking towards...I forgot the name of the bridge. ^_^;

Teddy Bear Kingdom!

There were many windmills, each of which had what I think was a name on it. I only remember "Slaper" and "Waker." I assume that's Dutch.

A replica of the Dom Tower in Utrecht. It was lucky those frilly clouds appeared, they go well with the frilly building.

I don't know if this is supposed to be a replica of the De Liefde.

The De Liefde was the first Dutch ship to arrive in Japan.  I didn’t know this when at the park so I didn’t think to go to the back of the ship to see its name.  In any case, I was too busy imagining Captain Jack Sparrow stealing this ship to chase after whoever has the Black Pearl at the moment.

Actually, there was a somewhat amusing moment near this ship.  As I was photographing it, 5 middle school girls were trying to figure out who would take their picture.  I wasn’t really listening to them, but I heard the general sounds of people struggling to make a decision that needs to be made in a matter of seconds.  When I turned to leave and heard one of them say 「行っちゃった．．．」(“icchatta” which in this case means “[she] left”) I realized that the need to ask me to take their picture was the source of their panic, so I asked them if they wanted me to take their picture.  At which point 3 of them handed me their cameras. ^o^;

When I found my friends again, we entered the Gardening World Cup area.  I won’t put up pictures of all of the 10 entries, just the ones that I liked and photographed well.  I also don’t have photos of the replica of Huis Ten Bosch (the house) because I thought it was actually kinda drab, at least from the side that we were at.  ^_^;  The theme in all of these is Peace.

Of course there was a bigger gate with the name of the event and sponsors, etc., but we've seen such photos 10 trillion times before so I took this instead.

First up, the American entry “Pax et Bonum” by John Cullen.  It represents the story of St. Francis of Assisi, particularly, his restoration of the Porziuncola.  I’ve always liked Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Monastery Graveyard in the Snow, and this garden reminded me of it. Of course, St. Francis restored the Porziuncola, whereas the monastery in the painting is beyond repair, and the painting itself was destroyed during WWII, so the atmosphere at the garden is much more filled with hope.

There's more to this garden but I couldn't really get a good shot of the whole thing.

Next, we have an entry from the U.K. by John Towillis.  When I first approached it, it had the most impact because I could tell what the theme was without reading the explanation, and its design is simple and bold.  I thought the explanation was a bit convoluted, something about humans feeling disconnected from nature but by allowing ourselves to get sucked in by it we would realize we’re a part of it.

This one is called "Resurgence Garden."

Another one I liked was “Australian Style Garden” by Jim Fogarty.  This one won Best Construction.  I thought it looked like something out of Star Trek. ^o^  The explanation was that by getting to know each other, for example, by sharing meals, people from different parts of the world could work for peace.

This would've looked cooler if the trees directly behind the structure had already turned red, then I could've taken the photo from a better angle while still getting the red-black-white contrast.

The last garden I want to share is by New Zealander Ben Hoyle.  It’s called “A Moment in Time.”  This one won the show’s Peace Prize:

The back of the banners are in Japanese.

The clock on the left marks the date and time of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.  The one on the right has question marks, representing the uncertainty we live in as countries continue to hold nuclear weapons.  In between these two clocks were a bunch of pictures on spinning cogs, that at a set time, would align to produce a picture of a white dove.  Out of order it looked a bit creepy so I didn’t take a picture of it from that angle.

That’s mostly it.  As they were playing a waltz over the loudspeakers at the entrance to the gardening exhibit, one of my friends and I literally waltzed in and out of there.  ^o^  On the way out, I picked up some cheeses I’d had samples of earlier.

 

May Gouda imported from Holland and Cream Cheese from Denmark. The sauce seems to have been made in Japan.

I’ve already eaten all the gouda. ^o^;  It was soooooo good melted!

Now, we had been planning to go to the onsen town Unzen (which was created in 2005 through the merger of several smaller towns, including the town of Obama, that is, 小浜) but we dallied longer than expected at Huis Ten Bosch, so instead we just looked across the street, saw the onsen symbol ♨ on a hotel, and went there instead.  This time, there were other people in the onsen, unlike when I tried onsen for the first time in Hitoyoshi, so…it was a bit weird for me.   I definitely prefer having the onsen to myself.  ^_^;

Well, I wanted to get this post up so that when I get back from the GACKT concert in Kobe tomorrow, I won’t have any to-do’s on this blog.