The days are getting colder and shorter and the time until my departure back home is drawing ever so quickly. As always I've been stuck with tons of school work to keep me occupied but I HAVE been out - of course I'm here to make the best use of my time - and unfortunately blogging does takes a lot of time especially when you let things build up, so priority wise it kinda falls under the radar. Sorry. Grovelling aside, I present highlights of the past month:
Bowling with the Sophia Communication club
Bowling in Japan seems to be a similar fanfare compared with back home, so opposed to being a wacky experience it was just a lot of fun.
Ok, I lied. Wacky Japanese spin on bowling: bowling shoe vending machine!
Pun above absolutely intended.
Afterwards we got free chips (medals) to play in the arcade downstairs. Unfortunately they weren't usable on the Pachinko machines however. The games were pretty fun, but kinda futile I felt - considering the most you could win were piddly little toys. However, Brumy got sucked in. I think he stayed there pretty late and missed the last train.
Climbing Mount Takao
Beginning the ascent
Shinto devotees training for something. They were doing some sort of endurance training thing by standing under a running waterfall and screaming really loud. Or they were just having fun, maybe.
Making fresh soba noodles
The summit of Mt. Takao - definitely not what I was expecting. We took a harder trail so only saw a few people on our way up. A bit of a shame really.
View of Tokyo from the summit. It was a somewhat overcast day.
This kid was pretending to be a lion. It's cuteness could not be omitted.
A pretty cool temple on the way up (down).
We made it back down through the darkness. The path isn't actually lit, so having left from the top quite late, we as a collective mass, filtered through the darkness. It was an incredibly unique feeling - not being able to see anything around you, but knowing that there were people all around you walking the same path as you.
Asakusa
I joined the Sophia Communication club for their Tokyo Tour which started with Asakusa in the morning.
Omiyage (souvenir) stores galore
Devotees
It's pretty amazing how they get these paintings up on the ceiling.
It was quite crowded but of course being in Tokyo, it can't be avoided really. I couldn't join my club for the rest of the day because of the next thing:
The 62nd Prince Takamado Trophy All-Japan Inter-Middle School English Oratorical Contest
This section doesn't have any photos because photography was strictly forbidden at the event. And this was exactly the type of fuss you would expect when royalty is present. Before I get too ahead of myself, I'd better start from the beginning.
The JUSCO club that I'm a part of helps to run the national English speaking contest; many of their members are past contestants. (This was also the same club that organised the tea ceremony event I posted about earlier). We were invited to the after-party (not that kind of after-party though), at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya, where Princess Takamado and other dignitaries would be present.
A few weeks earlier I was also asked if I could deliver a speech on the day. Of course I obliged. (I mean, what an opportunity right?) We all were asked to wear "semi-formal" attire, which by Japanese standards seems to mean suit-and-tie, so I guessed this would be a pretty big important thing. I didn't have a suit, but managed to pull off a winter coat, shirt and tie.
The room was massive. I was told it was the most expensive room to hire out for weddings and other events and there were about 800 guests. Befitting this occasion and on fine china we were served... sandwiches. Eight very small bite sized, decrusted (of course) sandwiches with the exotic fillings like ham, cheese, tuna+mayo. Jokes aside, we did have pretty classy drinks. Coca-Cola, juice and tea. So many choices! (Coca-Cola was one of the sponsors of the competition). Ok, jokes aside for real, I was only just surprised. It was not what I was expecting, but it was good food. We even got cake and ice-cream mochi for dessert.
The night was long and it stuck rigidly to a very organised schedule beginning with the Princess and entourage entering with much fanfare - anthem playing and all while all stood. Speeches filled the night, including one from the Princess, ambassadors from the UK and USA and the top three speech winners. The stereotype of overworked high school Japanese students stuck firmly in my mind with the winners presenting perfect speeches - perfect grammar, perfect pronunciation and speech-winning content. I thought it was a bit unsportsmanlike though to talk about a sad story involving dead grandparents, but it won her the competition. They got all sorts of cool prizes and scholarships, but befitting of the occasion they seemed to force a very neutral expression. It was funny to see some of them forget for a second and then quickly stifle their smiles.
The speech I delivered was a proxy message from the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge - about a minute long. Before the speech day I met with Mr. Kotani, the president of the JNSA fund (which funds JUSCO) and his request for me to deliver the speech with "a slight British accent" took me by surprise. It turns out I was asked to do the speech because being from New Zealand, my accent most closely matched a British one. "Me? Not likely!" I thought, because I've only got very slight accent that's been watered down by being around so many Americans. Anyway I delivered the speech, with a 'slight accent' and stumbled a little in the middle, but nobody seemed to notice.
At the end we had photos taken - firstly as an entire group, then in smaller groups. When it was the foreign JUSCO members' turn, Princess Takamado asked us all (individually) which university we were from, apparently trying to find someone from Waseda (where she studied). As soon as I answered "Sophia" she pretty much turned away and tried someone else. But it's okay. I can say I've talked with a princess. The photos we took may possibly be given to us at some point in the distant future. I swear this actually happened ;)
Oh wait, I do have two photos - the lobby and outside of the hotel.
Kamakura
A Japanese girl, Nanao, in our literature class who lives in Kamakura offered to show us around.
Tokyo Disney Sea with Sophia Communication club
This day was almost not going to happen actually. A few days earlier, a typhoon was forecasted to hit the day we went - a special holiday that Sophia students only had (Xavier Day). However the night before a rushed message was sent around rallying the troops as it seemed the weather was meant to clear up by lunch time. I woke up Friday morning and indeed typhoon-like weather was beating down and I half didn't want to get out of bed, in disbelief of a sunny day occurring. But I got up, and exactly at 9am, as the gates of Disney Sea opened, the sun just SHOT out. It was magic. Disney magic.
I walked into Disney Sea believing that I was too old for Disney magic. Within five minutes I was captivated. I had so much fun, which was made especially awesome by the fact that it wasn't crowded as it normally would be.
Suidobashi
I went out with my friend Aimee to check out Suidobashi. There was a light show thing for the Christmas period. There's also a pretty cool looking theme park, but we didn't ride anything. The coolest looking ride - a rollercoaster which ducks inside and around the Aqua City buildings - was not running the day we went.
There's a baseball restaurant and the waiters and waitresses jump up on the tables and dance along to "Surfin the USA". I had video, but it somehow got corrupted :(
The beginning ascent of the Thunder Dolphin ride
A large arena for concerts and stuff
Trip to Nikko with JUSCO club
Visit to Toshugu shrine and afterwards lacquerware carving.
Fresh water from the mountain flows out of this rock located right outside the Tobu-Nikko station. It was refreshingly cool.
These incredibly detailed ornaments adorned the temples. Definitely the most beautiful temples I've seen.
Entrance fees for the temple area are incredibly expensive (a bit over 1100Y), probably because of all the gold they have to use on the buildings.
This sleeping cat is famous somehow.
The Three Wise Monkeys 聞かざる、言わざる、見ざる
We have about two weeks off school over the Christmas/New Years break. (Three more school days, yea!) I will be in Osaka for the first week or so, doing day trips out to places like Nara and Kobe. So see you all next year!
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