Weekend Wrap-up Plus!

I realize that I owe you folks the end of that odd story I started, jeeze, a few weeks ago, and I imagine I'll get to it, but in the meantime, a couple of quick notes.

1. I did end up wearing the Yukata and going out to serve as spectacle in the audience at a fireworks show. The Yukata was really comfy, if a touch warm (but let's face it, Japanese summer is just too blasted hot no matter what I do or do not wear). The geta shoes however, were awful. Perhaps I wore them wrong or got a cheap pair or something, but holy ouch. I've got red welts on the tops of my feet even now. (for those that know my secret identity, there are photos of the yukata and myself in it on my non-flickr photo website for your chucklement)


2. After the fireworks, we went to the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari, and while I can't condone their use of the Papyrus font, they run a wonderful onsen. Some of the pools were so boiling hot that I got light-headed when getting out. Some were so chilled that I had to dunk in quickly to get the icy shock over with quickly before to wonderful cool sucked away the muggy Japanese summer. And some? Some were just so wonderfully perfect that I didn't want to get out at all. Why oh why oh why are there no such things in the US? I wonder that in might do a good service to the collective psychological freakshow that is the American body-image if we did have some of these. Then again, perhaps Japan isn't the place to be looking for ideals when it comes to such things. I shall definitely return before I go back to the US.

3. Speaking of things that are unique to these isles, I'm afraid that the hunt for the machine that vends, errr... odd pieces of clothing may be a snipe hunt. My sincere apologies to those who were hoping for photos.

4. Finally, I took a quick trip to Kamakura to visit with the huge bronze Buddha. As a side note, I had to make a choice between hiking a mountain trail to the temple or going through town and hitting a whole lot of other temples on the way. I chose the hiking trail, which was wonderful, but I think I will need to go back and visit the other temples too. As for Mr. Amitabha, he seemed like a genial bloke, but didn't say much. I imagine it takes the patience of a buddha to not get a little miffed when there are uncountable tourists crawling inside you and taking pictures of you all day long. Also, I'm not sure why this was a surprise to me but, when the sun shines down all day with temperatures around the mid 90s and humidity seemingly north of 150%, being inside a giant bronze buddha feels a bit like being inside an oven set on 'crispify.'

5. The internet service here has been upgraded from colossal pain in the tush to mildly inconvenient. I hope I will be able to finally visit some of your blogs that I have long neglected. I hope I shall find all well.

6. Addresses are still being collected for special delivery postcards. If anyone else is interested, feel free to email me at Overerad(at)gmail(dot)com

Fireworks and Karaoke Part the First

Karaoke will do strange things to people.

I guess I should start at the beginning. Japan has a lot of holidays. I’m absolutely sure that they are or were once very important for what they represented, but just like Labor Day or President’s Day, they’ve now simply all become an excuse to party or BBQ or get drunk. Preferably all three. My evidence here is twofold. A couple of weeks ago there was a major bank holiday. It was explained to me as “Sea Day.” I was quite sure that I had misunderstood until the fourth or fifth person confirmed it. Nothing would be open because of “Sea Day.”

“Well, what do you do on ‘Sea Day?’”

“You should go to the ocean.”

“Are you going to the ocean?”

“No one goes to the ocean. It’s too crowded.”

I’ll let that little paradox twittle around in the posting area without comment.

My second piece of evidence was uncovered when we got an email from one of the groups in charge of some of us. The email said that there would be a proper booze-up and group outing to watch the fireworks. A follow-up email apologized for not arranging for us to wear costumes. This sounded great! I eagerly asked a Japanese friend what the holiday was for. Then I asked another. Confused with the answers I was getting, I asked several more, never getting much more than, “It’s summer, right? Everyone needs to wear the summer kimono and we’ll watch fireworks.”

I was a bit confounded, and frankly, I’m sure a consultation with Dr. Google would fix me up in no time, but I’m kinda of warming to the idea that there should be a “Sea Day,” and that occasionally, you should just stop worrying about why, and put on your summer kimono (called a yukata – never say this blog ain’t educational) and go watch fireworks.

The first part of the plan went fairly well. Our fearless leader failed to show, but an underling was ok to take charge and lead us into the bowels of the subway to our goal. At first it was kind of exciting – Oooh! Look at that girl in that beautiful kimono! Isn’t it gorgeous? Damn… I’m sorry about this, but at the risk of turning this into another War and Peace of a blog post, I feel I need to digress for a moment.

Again, I’m no fashion plate, but here we go. The kimonos were almost uniformly beautiful – I even got a couple on film up on flickr. Some were subtle and clean, some were a riot of summer-y colors and patterns. I saw one that I particularly liked that was nearly completely solid in a creamy off-white with a flower curled around the hem – very classy. They were set off with elaborate hairpins in elaborately coiffed ‘dos and broaches, matching bags and sandals – just gorgeous. Then, there were the… others.

First off, full points to the guys accompanying the young ladies in kimonos who bothered to wear one themselves. The male version of the summer kimono looks great and can match well with the woman’s. They look masculine and very stylish – frankly they are a lot more aesthetically pleasing than anything that the poor corporate salarymen wear during the week. Well done gentlemen – you are doing your best to make the less-fair sex less pathetic. Also, a well done goes out to the gaggles of gals in kimono (kimonos?). Very often quite the lovely sight.

The standard guy-gal couple was however, let’s say, less aesthetically pleasing. Alas, most often the male of the species sported a t-shirted and blue-jeans. (You should all know that my little glass house has major structural damage due to, let us say, ‘velocitized geology’)

However, my full scorn is aimed toward those among the Japanese youth, men and women, who A) think that 80’s hair bands were really on to something and we need to give their stylings one more shot. B) think that tan-in-a-bottle should be applied like Tammy Faye’s mascara (too soon? Too soon.) C) Well, ok there’s really only those two, but they were usually combined in the same person. Go ahead – try googling gunguro – well, I think that’s how you spell it anyway… You’ll see what I mean.

Ok, digression over.

Oh, for crying out loud. I haven’t even gotten to the fireworks or the karaoke bit yet. Not even time to proofread. Hmmph. This’ll have to be a serial post. More later.