WEEKEND OF INTEREST: It’s the dawg bollocks!

Wow, what a crazy weekend! And it’s not quite over yet... yes, I know it’s Tuesday. I told you it was crazy.

On Saturday, Kitakawabe Jr. High had their Sports Day. We were dreading that it would get rained out, but the weather was actually pretty decent. And by decent, I mean hot. Here I was thinking that going to Japan would actually be cooler… nope. It’s not quite as hot as Georgia, but it’s just as muggy. It’s usually overcast, but when the sun comes out it is just about as hot as Georgia can get. Doh.

Sports Day was kind of a more structured field day with parents attending. They had been practicing pretty much all week – Thursday and Friday they hardly had any classes at all! There were several events, including

Several relays…

Tug of war…

And jump rope competitions! I actually had a favorite team going into this – the green team. They asked me to sit with them during practice. It takes very little to earn my loyalty. ;)

It is an army bred for a single purpose… the destruction of the world of man. Wait, no. This is just the whole school lined up in their classes.

I wanted to get pictures of the boys’ gymnastic routines, but as I was recruited to be a spotter and make sure none of them broke their neck when they were making pyramids or anything like that, I couldn’t get any pictures. The boys did several gymnastic routines, and the girls did this dance routine that was actually kind of cool to some Indian kind of music.

One of the best things about that day was that the ALT who had been there for 2 years before me showed up! He was a very chill and relaxed dude, and it turns out he lives a few miles away, so I can probably get a lot of info from him! I’m not the only English speaker within five miles! Woo!

After the Sports Day was over, there was a teachers’ party afterwards at a nice restaurant. Now, I’m not sure what you assume about Japanese parties, but rest assured they are off the hook. The food is good (even if it’s raw fish and raw cuttlefish) and everyone has a good time. One of the most interesting parts is that most everyone goes around to everyone else with a bottle in hand (usually of beer or Coca-Cola or whatever the drink of choice is) and offers to refill partygoers’ glasses. I won’t lie, there was a bit of beer going around the tables at this party – large bottles of Asahi, actually. Matsumoto, one of the gym teachers, had a bit much to drink. When I tried to refill his glass, he took the beer from me and poured himself some, and then me some. He sang a song that went along the lines of “one beer, two beers, three little Indians…” That guy is totally hilarious.

I was especially glad that the Sports Day wasn’t rained out. Why? Because I, and some of my friends from the Heart School, had planned a visit to Tokyo on Sunday. If the Sports Day had been rained out, it would have been rescheduled to Sunday. Since the weather was good, Sunday was Tokyo day! And what a day it was.

I took a journey on the trains to Tokyo. At one point, the train car was so crowded that it seemed like I was on MARTA in Atlanta in 1996. (For those who don’t make the connection, the public transport trains in Atlanta were particularly crowded on the year that Atlanta hosted the Olympics.) However, the process of getting from Kitakawabe to the decided meeting place – Harajuku – was actually fairly painless and easy.

While our plans were to meet up at around 12:40, I went a little early and arrived around 11am. I made a bee-line for McDonald’s; yes, I know. I know. I couldn’t help it, though. You can only have so much food you’re not used to until you crave something from home, bad as it might be. Plus, while there are McDonald’s every two blocks in Tokyo, there was no such thing in Kitakawabe. However, if I was given a chance to eat a serious hamburger… man, I would destroy that thing.

Leaving McDonald’s, I ran into Marc, one of the ALTs I’d made friends with at the orientation. We wandered around Harajuku for the better part of an hour, waiting for the others to arrive. Harajuku is a pretty busy place, especially this main street with shops:

Back to the train station, where our friends were arriving. It was actually a little harder than “just look for the white people,” actually – there are actually other white people in Tokyo. After spending two weeks without seeing a single other whitey besides Clint, it was kind of weird seeing other non-Asians, white and black. I kind of wanted to talk to them, but that would be all sorts of weird.

So, we met up, and our first stop was a shrine (mostly for the reason that the road going there was nice and shady and cool.)

There was the shrine…

A prayer tree…

And a wedding procession! At least, that’s what we assumed was happening.

Leaving the shrine, we all sort of split up, some of us to eat, some of us to shop/laugh at awesome Engrish shirts. Finally, we came back to the bridge near the train station. Now, this spot is fairly infamous. Why, you ask? Well, it’s where Japanese teenagers come dressed up as their favorite anime characters on Sunday. Well, that, or they just dress up as “gothic lolitas,” which is basically “I’m in really fancy clothes, but they’re all black, and I have black eyeliner, look at me pout.” They were really pouting that day, because it was stupid hot out and they somehow didn’t realize that fancy black clothes and standing around outside didn’t mix. However, there were some interesting costumes, like

Pikachu, and

…whoever these folks are. But the people who dressed up were only half the show. There were some real crazies on the bridge, as well. There was, for one, Japanese Bono, who wore his hair slicked back, his shirt unbuttoned, and stood around on the bridge howling along to his copy of “Achtung Baby.” There was also iPod Jazzercise man, who was basically just listening to music and dancing around in his own little world. There was also The Rainbow-Hair Screamer… who was exactly what he sounds like.

The crowd really liked him. There was also some girl playing guitar and singing, and she sounded really nice… but she was right next to the Screamer, so you could hardly hear her. There was also Jungle Boy…

He was really something. He would do interpretive dances in his boxers, sometimes blowing on his little piano-flute, sometimes crawling around on his hands and knees. At one point, this big black guy started dancing with him and everyone was filled with glee. Finally, there was this dude…

About whom I have no words whatsoever.

So, after Harajuku, we decided to go to Akihabara, because Danielle needed a new laptop and Hylton needed a prepaid cell phone. Neither of them ended up getting what they wanted, but I did get a Nintendo DS game, so the trip wasn’t a huge waste! Akihabara is the “electric district,” where they sell all sorts of electronics and have lots of neon signs. Here it is near dusk:

And, just to show that the weirdness doesn’t end when you leave Harajuku…

So, a sports day and a trip to Tokyo! An unnecessarily long and picture-ful blog! Not sure if there’ll be as much to report next time, but I do plan on going to Tokyo this Friday to see Neil Gaiman. (Thanks for the heads up, Alison!) Oh, and thanks to Erinn, Danielle, and Marc for the pictures I shamelessly stole from them.