Friday 13th October - Sunday 15th October
Karaoke Marathon - after having spent all afternoon with my newly installed internet, I was invited to join various Mukaijima residents (studying at Doshisha and beyond) for a spot of karaoke at the local Shidax centre, just a brief walk from halls. Upon entry, the faux-grandeur was overwhelming, with 'gold', 'marble' and a winding staircase in the lobby. We booked a room with the decor of a Spanish restaurant and so began the singing session. Bowie, Beastie Boys, Blur and Beck were my artists of choice (though I did dabble in a bit of Polysics and YMO for Nihongo's sake), but Tarvi and Ritso (the Finnish Jay and Silent Bob in appearance, but anything but in reality) kept things varied with spirited anime themes and angry rock anthems respectively. We soon turned off the score system that would cause cartoon cracks to appear on the screen for woeful renditions (it seems it wanted Anarchy in the UK to be sung by a Celine Dion-alike), and let rip. As the tunes went on and the 'all you can drink' booze flowed, members of our party called it a night, until it was just me, Tarvi and Ritso. At 4.45am. Having started at 9.45pm. Yes, I made up for my lack of recent karaoke by doing it for seven hours straight. Good stuff.
Thai Dinner - Having finished watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith as part of Mukaijima Gakusei Centre 'Movie Night', we went for a big Thai meal at the restaurant handily located just next to Doshisha's Imadegawa campus, as Parn's mum was in town. As Thai food barely extended beyond fishcakes and red/green curry, it was an eye-opening and eye-watering experience. Some items were super-spicy for my tastebuds, but it was mostly delicious and a very enjoyable evening all round. Araoi! (Apologies to Thai people everywhere for my attempt at writing "Delicious" in your native tongue).
Class 5A Daytrip - our appointed class figurehead, Chan from Korea, decided to organise a little outing on a sunny Sunday for those class members who could make it. Little did we realise just how in-depth and interesting it would be. And how many free samples we'd nibble on. We went around Sanjo and Shijo, down familiar streets and the not so familiar, before arriving at an anonymous block of flats. Little did we know lunch was to be a free meal at a Korean Protestant chapel! With the greatest hospitality, we had big bowls of spicy vegetable and rice soup (though I passed on the kimchee) and engaged in conversation with the regulars. This was followed by a trip down Nishiki Food Market for donuts and tofu ice-cream, before a walk through Gion, through Yasaka Shrine, up to Kiyomizu-dera, via many local sweet stores, offering countless samples (accompanied by scary little Geisha bots, that nodded a little like the wind-up razor-toothed dolls from Barbarella).
I had visited Kiyomizu on my previous trip with Harry, but it was lovely to go again, and I did few things I didn't do last time. For instance, I attempted to walk with my eyes closed from one love stone to another at Jishu-jinja, but missed my goal, therefore dooming my relationships forever...or something. Plus, I drank from the Otowa-no-taki waterfall, which is said to have therapeutic qualities and improve school results (which I guess compensates for buggering up my love life). A return visit at night in the autumn is a must. It wasn't all good though - I left my sunglasses somewhere up the hill (a habit which is continuing rather worringly, having left my file in class, and then leaving a recently purchased storage folder at the supermarket). And an octopus ball covered in horrible Japanese mayonnaise (to my mind, the foullest condiment known to man) left a taste in my mouth that lasted a day. I'm similarly afflicted as I type. Last night, I was all set to cook some bacon with my new frying pan, but what I thought was cooking oil turned out...well...not to be. I decided I'd cook it anyway, but the bacon just burnt horribly. Desperate for a bacon butty, I chowed down on it anyway, and while I liked it at the time, I now have a horrible burnt metallic taste in my mouth over 24 hours later, like I've swigged battery acid and am turning into some kind of ManTank a la Testuo II
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...the manager has a duty to clarify what are you going to use the money for, probably to prevent an illegal trade or money supply to a terrorist. (But can you imagine a terrorist saying "Yah, I' m going to buy a nice launcher with this money." ???) Anyway, please contact...And instead of pics, here're two short little mobile phone videos of Japanese technology in action. First, the aforementioned Geisha Bot:
And, having previously seen animatronic road worker signalmen in Tokyo two years ago, here's the next generation - little digital men on orange screens waving a flag. What's great is how it's not a cartoon of a man, but an actual image of a road worker scanned in. Unnecessary but genius:
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