Cruel Summer

Webster's dictionary defines summer as "The season between spring and autumn comprising in the northern hemisphere usually the months of June, July, and August or as reckoned astronomically extending from the June solstice to the September equinox"

or more simply "the warmer half of the year".

Those are the actual definitions from the website. It also has
the meaning of a 'year', as in the phrase "A girl of seventeen summers" and the final use is that of "a period of maturing powers". Language classes with Kris. You are just like my students.

As the first definition so eloquently explained I am now in the midst of my second summer in Japan. Last summer I had visits from Sally and David so I was thankfully kept fairly busy. This year however I have no visitors and about 5 weeks spanning out ahead of me. For those of you playing at home I will not be returning to see you this vacation as much as I want to. I decided that the cost was bit too much, but more importantly I thought that this might be my last summer in Japan so I want to experience it properly.

Also let's face it, Melbourne's weather is undesirable right now.

Summer in Japan is humid due to a rainy season towards the beginning of summer. This means it's gross and sticky and very difficult to actually cool down. It's like the sweat is on the skin but the air around you doesn't want it because it's already got enough of it's own. Fortunately I don't have to go to school which means I can sit in front of a fan or something. This kind of heat just saps the energy from my bones. It's hard to ride my bike, walk, or even get in my car.

(This is what rainy season does to fun. Note the man on the float and his amazing hairstyle.)

Regardless of my lack of energy I have managed to keep myself fairly busy so far. I hope to maintain a consistent balance of relaxing and activities so as to avoid boredom creeping in. I may have to keep you updated about how I actually do going about this but...
I thought I'd fill y'all in with what one would normally do in summer in Japan. I'd like to do them if I already haven't so consider this a checklist.

- Beach
- Going to the beach is a little tricky when the prefecture I live in doesn't have a coast line. We have to high tail it to the next prefecture and abuse their beaches. I actually went last week. It took about 2 hours but it was so worth it. Japanese people go all out when it comes to having things like sun tents, parasols, floaty things, chairs to sit in, coolers of stuff and other fun things to play with. It's very Japanese to take a watermelon and smash it with a baseball bat (pinata style... minus pinata). I'm sure it would be more prevalent if watermelons weren't so expensive here but what can ya do.

- Festivals
- Japanese festivals are always lots of fun. I've been to plenty in my time here but I still love them. It's mostly the food I think. Delicious, delicious festival food. I went to a festival last weekend that had outdoor kabuki performances. Kabuki is a kind of traditional Japanese theatre (lots of twanging and strange voices). In two weeks the big festival in Otawara will be happening. It's gonna be awesome. It rained last year which sucked so here's hoping it comes good this year!

- Garden
- The small garden (if you can call it that) has mutated into a forest of weeds. I did a bangin' job and weeded but then the rainy season came and pretty much destroyed all of my hard work. I have a pine tree to trim, a new path to reinforce, spider webs to ... walk into, and obviously weeds to pull out. Lot's to do. This isn't very high on my list but I'll keep it in reserve for when I get bored.

- Travel
- I've got a few ideas for what I want to do regarding travel around Japan. I want to keep it cheap so I might just go for one decent sized journey and hang around here for the most part. I can't decide whether I want to go north or south though. I've got a friend to the south (Osaka) which would be heaps of fun to visit but I've been there before. Alternatively, When I was in a semi-local bar recently there was an Australian guy who actually owns a house on the northern-most island of Japan (Hokkaido) and has offered that up. I want to keep things cheap so I'm thinking camping.

- Onsen
- A.K.A. hot springs. Personally I'm not too keen on the concept of going from hot weather into very hot pools of water. Some people are keen though so... great?

- Barbeques
- Grab a bunch of people and have a Japanese style barbeque. Why not? Before you all start thinking of snags in bread and sauce then THINK AGAIN! Instead there is thinly sliced meat on a grill that is then dipped into a special barbeque sauce. It's good but you gotta hold chopsticks and the dipping bowl so it's really a whole hand affair. I'd buy some sausages to recreate home but they're just so embarrassingly awful here.

(A Japanese man made us stand here for photos with these miniature Kabuki peeps)

There are more things but then my list could go on for a long time and I can't be bothered! Blame the heat! I want to do at least one of all of these and hopefully much, much more. So don't get angry that I won't be visiting you all, it'll be all the sweeter when I do eventually return. Which is looking to be around February....... Don't get angry about that either.

Until next time!!

kris.

On Dancefloors

The other night I was invited by some friends to go down to Tokyo to visit a nightclub. How's that for foreshadowing?

I wanted to go because I haven't really experienced a Japanese night club in the traditional sense of the word so later that night I was on the bullet train with some pals drinking next to a 6 year old strange American girl playing her DS. It seems the only people that will sit next to foreigners on the bullet train is other foreigners. I don't think the girl could read the Japanese on my can so I maintained it was soft drink.

The nightclub in question was a nightspot called 'Ageha' and a brief perusal of the website prior to arrival for the dress code (can I wear shorts? Yes I can!) revealed that the night was some kind of special event with a DJ I had never heard of playing songs I had never heard of. This 'special event' carried the hefty price tag of 4000yen entry which translates to ... wait for it ... no I can't even tell you how much that is in Australian dollars. It disgusts me.

Ageha is one of Tokyo's biggest nightclubs with a 3,000 person capacity and is separated out into a main hall and various other spaces around the place. Upon getting inside it seemed that despite the amount of people it still seemed quite spacious, almost like a warehouse, and the main hall was being DJ'd my an astronaut. The astronaut was playing the Japanese version of dance music described as 'candy trance'. I'll give you a key example soon.

Japanese people can't dance. They either break it down with ridiculous over the top performances or awkwardly sway from side to side. This is why the astronaut was playing music that never had a stable point and instead was always constantly leading up to some point to cause everyone to jump around. Jumping, it seems, is a valid form of dance for Japanese people.
Not being satisfied 'dancing' with the douchebags at the back some of us forced our way as close to the front as possible. We got about 5 metres from the front but from then on there was some kind of people-lattice to stop any kind of free movement beyond that point. We were happy enough dancing away to sickeningly poppy music until the astronaut was finished and all of sudden we were crushed to about 2 metres from the stage.

Cue Meg.

Meg was some lady who came on stage that suddenly caused the predominantly male crowd to surge forward in order to see her. Meg appeared to be somewhat famous. Meg was the reason my entry was 4000yen. Dancing to Meg was difficult with no room to move. Meg Meg Meg.
This is Meg and this is the sound she was producing.



For the rest of the night we mostly spent outside around the pool area. The pool was more for show and wasn't really meant to be swum in... and it wasn't! Because this is Japan and in Japan people do the right thing (that's why they can have beer vending machines). The DJ outside was playing some good music too. We mulled around the venue losing each other, finding each other and then losing each other again until the sky had turned a light grey colour and from there we each made our way homes on the first train.

All in all I would say it was a lot of fun but it was also quite expensive - not something I could do very often. I would also say that nightclubs in Australia are a lot better in terms of music and prices. On the other hand, the people in Melbourne nightclubs are often just awful so I'm afraid Tokyo trumps Melbourne in that respect.

So that was my night in Tokyo.