ATREEEEEYUUUUUUU!!!...

... or The Moment I Lost the Respect of My Readers
My dear, loyal, faithful readers, sweet lovers, and trusted friends... I feel the need to clear the air and admit that I've really no idea what I'm doing with this whole blog thing. I've never even read a blog before, and I've only been on Tumblr in the sense that I've looked over a friend's shoulder as HE was on Tumblr. To make matters worse, this whole "attempting to recap a month's worth of experiences based on a few Facebook photos and my admittedly rock solid memory" thing has really almost run its course. I knew you would persevere through the lack of a truly stable chronology so long as I kept something of a narrative together (shabbily though it was done), and I figured the occasional reference to Mick Jagger or Wookies would help you all forget the horror of watching me stumble through my barely coherent accounts of life abroad like a bracing shot of Firewater. I suppose all I can do is promise that while my Indiana Jone's like adventures will not be spun out of flaxen gold as they were before, I will do my utmost to impart to you what random pieces of beauty or confusion I am confronted with throughout my day. May He-who-must-not-be-named have mercy on us all. (Below is a photo [and no officer, it doesn't belong to me, I'm just posting it for a friend] that plays with the Never-Ending Story reference in the title of this post and the fact that, much like the Never-Ending Story, I expect this post will be awful in hindsight).

Having come to accept my narrative failure, I feel oddly relieved and ready to be random. It's what I'm good at anyway, arguably. To kick things off, I want to talk a tiny little bit about an event that happened recently which a large number of my friends attended and which actually has cultural significance to Japan. There is a festival day in Japan which is called Hina Matsuri (or Girl's Day), and it happened to fall on Friday last. Many of my good Nihonjin buddies (Nihonjin meaning... Japanese, yes, A+) were in charge of this particular event, and I knew a few people that were going, so I decided to throw in my lot (and about 400 円) and EXPERIENCE JAPAN (which I later found out was the name of the group, so, shout out). We ended up heading over to an adjacent building of the college and setting up shop in a nice little area with a dining room, a full kitchen, and a PIANO! Heaven. Here I am with my dear friend Erika (who was in charge of the event, so I called her Joshi-san [which means boss]), looking cute.

I had wondered into the kitchen to help with the preparations of the cakes they were making (which were scrumptious, let me just tell you), but I quickly found that I was just getting in the way (despite being a Master Chef), and so availed myself piano-wards (and below is my copyrighted tongue-pose).

It was actually a lovely piano, it had a very rich timbre. As beautiful as my playing was, Joshi-san came bustling up and whisked me away to help with the food preparation. Apparently one of the traditional foodstuffs of Hina Matsuri is Zushi, which is rice with flecks of salmon and a generous helping of vinegar, all mixed together. Here I am doing my best muscle-flexing-rice-stirring magic.

And now for a little cast introduction. We've already met Dina dearest of Majide?! fame (who today lengthened my name to Creepy Sanda Pooh-ojiisan, the ojiisan meaning Grandpa/Old Guy), but to reiterate I have her at another meal entirely with a certain celebrity everyone should recognize...

Who knew Audrey went to Kansai? (Coincidentally, this accounts for the second title of this blog, Hirakatan Holiday = Roman Holiday, except much less exciting). Another of my recently acquired and dear friends is a one Erick Miller, a strapping young American boy hailing from Texas who can be seen here admiring my visage, just as I admire his back.

For any of you who have been worried about the testosterone level of this blog...

MEN. Anyhoo, I also made friends with a couple of Korean students whom I had yet to meet, and Connie (seen with the rainbow of forks to her mouth... which we ate with, I just realized...) and I had a little let's-play-piano-together sharing time.

Overall it was a fun time. Afterwards I walked with Erick and my dear dear dear friend Melody (shown sitting next to me on my right)  to Hirakatashi Eki (Train Station)... AND THEN I WENT TO KARAOKE.

But first some more group photos...

And who could forget...

That last one might not have been very flattering. Anyhoo, I have gone five posts now without talking about my karaoke joint of choice, and I think that is just criminal. There is a shop right behind Hirakatashi Eki called Ring that after 7 o'clock cannot be beaten in terms of prices for miles around. Once one has purchased a membership card (at a measly fee of 200 円) one can enjoy up to eight hours of karaoke from the moment you arrive, including unlimited soda and fruit juice for just 600 円!!! That is something like a buck an hour, maybe a bit less than that (I ain't no math major). Seeing as how Hirakatashi Eki is about a ten minute walk from my house if I go at a leisurely pace, and I'm a Karaoke freak, I go there pretty much as often as I can, generally twice a weekend if I can help it (and usually after a full day of sightseeing, for those of you tut tutting me right now). To date the longest I have done Karaoke at Ring is six and a half hours, and that happened to be on the Friday in question. After Melody left the karaoke room (Tony had wondered into the room at some point), I made friends with another room of folks, and we made an evening of it. May I introduce Erick (who you already know, sooooo....), Ariel, and Yuji!

I forgot to mention that I am pretty much ADDICTED to a lovely beverage produced by the Fanta company called Melon Soda that is not available in the states as far as I am aware. This ambrosia of the Gods is included in the list of drinks that comes with the eight hours of Karaoke, so I generally see no need to buy booze, but Ring does have an extensive list of Alcoholic Beverages, all of which cost 250 円 a pop. There is another concept here in Japan called the nomihodai (which essentially means all you can drink for a set price), and I believe Ring's is around two thousand yen, give or take, which amounts to between 25 and 30 Dolares. For some that would be pretty cost effective, but I'm afraid I ain't some of none some. So came the end of a very fun night, where I made some good friends. And now for something completely different (unlike a picture which I don't own... the one below, for instance)...

Another exciting thing that has happened recently involved arguably the most pertinent class I'm taking here to what I'm studying back at my dear old Alma Mater, which is my Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki class. In keeping with the title of the class, we have been studying the ancient Japanese art of Noh drama, which involves three types of drums, a high, reedy flute, usually a chorus of singers, and a performer wearing a mask who also sings, but whose main role is movement related. (Below is the poster for the production we saw.)

It would take far too long to properly explain every aspect of Noh, but in a nutshell it is an art form that moves very slowly and emphasizes not plots and action, but the Zen Buddhist ideals of intransigence and sparsity, and the art of capturing and distilling a particular emotional state. i have a hard time finding the right word to describe it, but the one I hear bandied around most often is "boring". It's true that from a purely Western standpoint (and frankly, also from an Esatern standpoint) there is a lot to be bored with in Noh, but when one fully appreciates the Buddhist principles and the universal, gut-wrenching emotions Noh tries to capture then it becomes a much more engaging and moving thing. I saw two Noh plays and one Kyogen (which is a shorter, spoken comedy play in between Noh plays) with my class (we actually made a field trip of it this past Sunday), and I can honestly say that the first play that was put on was truly and deeply moving... though the rest of it was a bit hit or miss. Overall the plays lasted about four and a half hours, and I was left feeling like I had just sat through a Wagner opera... though I understood a lot less of the Noh play than I would a Wagner opera. Below is a shot of the stage I snapped before the performance started, and I must apologize for my truly awful vantage point.

By far the best part of the whole deal was the fact that the play itself cost us 2000 円 to see, but because we purchased it through Kansai Gaidai, we got refunded 200 円 at the performance and will soon be refunded another 2000 円... which somehow means we profited by going to see the Noh. Go figure. Very soon we are going to be seeing Kabuki and Bunraku as well, both of which will have an element of the refunding mentioned above... so in a way this is perhaps the best class  I could have possibly chosen as someone studying performance art. After the performance a small group of folks (who had paid beforehand) went to a rather traditional Soba restaurant and had ourselves a gorgeous meal, some of which is depicted below.

Here we have what was a very delectable bit of Soba tofu, with soy sauce underneath and wasabi on top. Then of course we had Soba Noodles...

The breaded things on top were two preposterously long Ebi (shrimp), and the entire thing was delicious (a special thanks to Maura for these photos via Facebook). For dessert we had an oddly savory sweet Macha (powdered green tea) jello concoction that was mind-numbingly tasty.

Overall, a delicious meal with good friends (including Erick, oddly enough... potential stalker?) and a gorgeous atmosphere. 

Here are a few trappings in that room...

A kabuki doll, I believe. Also...

And so concluded a pretty heavily cultural evening and a fun time. I wish I could on forever, but I don't have the Energizer Bunny's stamina, even if I do have the ears.

Oh, wait, it's Dina who has the ears. My bad. And now, you're brief unit of time that may or may not contain some zen. (It's me in Japan 7 years ago!)

My how things have changed.

ご親切にありがとうございます、

Alex -..-