Hanami

花見 (Hanami) means litterally "flower viewing". It's the party that is really popular in Japan during spring when the sakura are blossoming. You are supposed to sit underneath the cherry blossoms and have a picnic or whatnot. But last night the international students were invited to come to a hanami party for the international club at Hosei and there was no flower viewing let me tell you. Hanami is just another excuse to drink a lot. This time, outside underneath the trees. When we first got there I was surrounded by 5 or 6 screaming first year girls wanting to know everything about me. It was kind of scary none the less. Everything I said they would either clap at or scream again. Between girls screaming at the top of their lungs and drunk japanese guys telling me "what's up", there was only one time when someone said "oh look at the sakura, they are so pretty".

Since it was hanami season, the park near Hosei was filled with Hosei students having hanami. It's the beginning of the academic year here, so many clubs were having hanami as a way to meet first year students to join their clubs. But between all of these hanami there was one wasroom and who knows how many sick first year students who after two beers were crawling to the toilet. Not a pretty sight.

Hanami is a good time none the less; with the free beer, screaming girls and guys who ask you really weird things. But Hanami is not about the flowers, don't believe that lie. Probably about as big as the lie, "I'm not interested in looks, I just want someone with a good personality".

Some pics from the day:


This is from the International Centre welcome party. That was yesterday before the Hanami madness. I look like the un-dead.


The line of Hanami parties by the river by Hosei.


Some of the screaming girls I was talking to.

Shake and Bake

A couple days ago, there was this drama on TV about what would happen with a 7 point earthquake would happen in Tokyo. In the commercials they would show more disaster prevention tips. I watched about an hour of it and only really learned 2 things.

1. If there is an earthquake of a sizeable measure centred in Tokyo, we are all dead.

All this disaster prevention stuff will maybe save one or two people. Seriously, Toykyo is like a house of cards on top of a sleeping giant everyone knows will wake up sometime. Along with the grande idea of building New Orleans under sea-level, Tokyo is another bad city planning idea. But I'd love to be proven wrong on this. I just can't trust Japanese arcitechture (besides the ultra-hip modern ones). Half of these houses looks like they are built with toothpicks and discarded wrapping paper.

2. Japanese television actors can't act. Period.

This is kind of surprising since Japanese movies are always pretty high quality I think. But the television dramas are substandard to Mexican Novelas. Especially when buildings are falling down and fires are catching. The Japanese movie industry needs to lend some talent to the TV stations.

In other non-earthquake related news. Last night I bought some allergy (side note: it took me a few minutes to figure out how to spell "allergy". In Japanese it's Arugii, close but not close at all) medicine and it closely resembles mints. It even comes in a case with the words "COOLUP" on the transparent blue side. With no Japanese, it could easily be mistaken for a mint. Not something that makes you pretty drowsy and shouldn't be mixed with other drugs or alcohol.

Yeah, it's another useless post coming at you.

Kanamara Matsuri

WARNING:Yesterday I went to a festival in Kawasaki originally created for "ladies of the night" to bless their buisness in the coming year. Over the years it has bascially become a fertility festival and a fundraiser for AIDS/HIV awareness. So if you are offended by...let's just say..."suggestively shaped paraphenelia" and discussion that comes with it, it's probably best you skip this one.
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Here's one picture just to test. It's the least brashing of the phallic imagery.
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It says "Kanamara Matsuri". With the cherry blossoms in the background. Not offended? Unsure? You probably will be. Just skip it.
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No I'm serious. Not all of them will be this phallic-less. This is in front of the shrine with the sakura in blossom. But just skip it. Don't keep scrolling down.
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Another phallic-less pic. The last. Torii gates by the shrine. By after this no more freebies.
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Sorry about that. I just thought it was fair to warn people of the onslaught of giant steel penises. Anyway, the name "Kanamara" means "steel phallus". Which is the main attraction at this festival of fun. I heard about this festival a long time ago from some random "visit Japan" website and knew I couldn't miss out on this one. The handout they gave us when we first got their said that this festival was started in the Edo period. The ladies of the night (prostitutes, for the euphematically inclined) of Kawasaki would gather under the cherry blossoms and have spring foods and pray to the god of fertility for a good year and to not get syphillis. They would make all sorts of phallic imagery and parade it down the streets to end in a big meal. (a "merry banquet" on the phamphlet) And by time it came to mean more of a fertility festival with prayers for healthy "progeny", fertile marriage or an easy delivery. In more current times, the festival raises money for AIDS and HIV prevention and research. Which is pretty notable because I get the message a lot of times that Japan is in complete denial about anything AIDS related. Almost worse than the "abstinence" education in Texas that so far has raised birth rates and std transmission rates. Go ignorance.

Right off from the station it was pretty easy to spot. You just had to follow the group of Gaijin (foreigners). I think this festival was probably the highest concentration of gaijin I've seen outside of the british pub experiences.


Here's Atilla at the opening shrine. It's cherry blossom season, so it looked all pretty. A bit cloudy though.


They had this wooden beauty in the middle of the grounds for photo oppurtunities. Mostly for drunk white girls to ride it like a horse and get whistles from the crowd.


Like this one.


This is the actual temple.


Yep. It's a giant pink penis.


I wasn't kidding. This bad boy is about a metre I'm guessing. In the words of Jerri Blank, "Solid. Brass."


Along with "Pinky" and "Steele Jackson", these were the 3 "mikoshi" (means something like "small moveable shrine") that were to be paraded on the shoulders of short shorted men. I thought this mikoshi was kind of out of place...


...but luckily someone attached a steel dong to this one to make it legit.


This is one of the little banners flying proud.


These were two of the organizers I'm guessing. The guy on the left handed out pamphlets about the festival with cryptic english messages that made me think he was on some "pep-me-ups". And the guy on the right...well he's to be commended, not everyone can pull off a maid's outfit with giant cat paws.


I can't believe I just uploaded a picture with a man displaying a freshly carved daikon (Japanese radish) in the shape of a penis. Where am i?


This one you could put on your front end and pretend it's your own! How novel.


It's parade time. The people carrying Pink were all tranvestites. But I couldn't get a great picture among the crowd. But you can see a girl enjoying her lollipop, conveniently shaped phallicly.


About to start the parade.


Steele Jackson is in 1st place.


The trannies about to carry Pink into glory.


Lifting the final mikoshi into the parade.


You certainly can't lose that in a crowd.


High school boy possibly suggesting a new marching band uniform.


The thing about steel dongs, is that they travel in pairs.


The crowd at about mid day. Quite a popular event.

I didn't get pictures of all the participants. But there were all sorts of people there. And a lot of little kids. I was kind of surprised, in most of the western world this would be considered an "adult" event and kids would not be allowed. But there was really nothing perverted or "adult" about this whole festival. No one was taking off their tops for beads or licking alcohol of crevises of the human body. I think most interestingly of all, was this was a genuine religious ceremony. They had a whole blessing ceremony and monks and all that. I think Shinto didn't get the whole "shame your followers of their sexual matters" memo that most religions got. This is a big difference in Japanese and Western thought. While in the western world we are taught that although God has made our body and our thoughts, the Devil was granted control of both and neither should be trusted. Maybe it's just baptist theology...although I'm pretty sure the catholics do a pretty good job about imbuing guilt into all sexual matters. But thanks to a lot of western influence, a lot about Japan is like the West 100 years ago. So who knows. The world's a funny place.