Hot Fun
It’s the official end of the Obon season in Japan. Every August 13th to 15th Japan celebrates the Buddhist “Festival of the Dead”. Deceased ancestors are welcomed home to visit their relatives and almost everyone returns to their hometowns to clean graves, visit with family, and attend festivals. I married into an unreligious family, however, so Isseki and I just have an extra day off to enjoy each other and for me to give you the scoop on what’s been happening lately…
Every day is stifling hot and the cicadas sing loud enough to wake you. Summer in Japan. As always, I donned the summer kimono (yukata) for a festival, but this year I put it on myself. My former English student became my teacher for a day in early July to walk me through it twice with the gorgeous hand sewn yukata her family had presented Isseki and me as our wedding gift. I was so emboldened by my lesson I offered to dress a new friend in last year’s yukata! Lucky me found myself with a fever the night before and day of, but since I had promised, it might be her only summer in Japan, and I had asked her to buy the undergarments to wear with it – I popped a lot of pills and toughed it out. Unfortunately, the part I predicted to be the most problematic – tying the obi – turned out to be not so difficult and the part that I didn’t take any notes on at all – making all of the extra cloth at your midsection fold neatly just below the obi – seemed impossible! We bumbled through somehow and though we weren’t flawless we managed to make it out to see the fireworks and for dinner without coming undone!
Summer is also the time of music festivals – which I had yet to attend since I had basically sworn off all but small venue shows about 5 years ago. Isseki talked me into Summer Sonic for a day and I was glad I did – the venues with the bands we were interested in weren’t so huge that you couldn’t get near the stage and we saw two of the greatest bands today (in my opinion): The Arcade Fire and TV on the Radio. Unfortunately we got right in front of the stage for TVOTR and the sound wasn’t so great but they were still fantastic. I wasn’t sure what to expect for The Arcade Fire as I knew their lush sound stemmed from a cast of seven musicians! There were actually eight on stage – three of who seemed to play musical chairs with the instruments they played at each song change! Violins, accordion, xylophone/vibraphone (?), pianica, guitar, bass, and drums all went into their amazing sound and performance. We also had a chance to see Hal, The Departure, and Ian Brown – none of who made much of an impression on me. At the end of it all we were able to indulge in a bit of nostalgia with Echo and the Bunnymen (coined “Echobunny” by the Japanese) and Duran Duran!! After, we had a chance encounter and a nice chat with the drummer of TVOTR about the bassist of Ultra Bide – who he was meeting later! Moral of the story – listen to TV on the Radio and The Arcade Fire…now.
Big political news in Japan: the PM has dissolved Parliament and called for snap elections within 40 days – landing on September 11th. I am not well versed in Japanese politics but I admire Koizumi’s guts in pushing hard for Japan to make big economic changes that the traditionalists are resisting. He couldn’t get the government (the majority being his own party) to put through a reform bill that would cut wasteful spending on public works projects so he put it on the people to decide with the election. He’s a rebel and Japan does need some changes…I just wish I knew more about the major opposition – Japan’s Democratic Party. As far as within the LDP goes – I’d vote for Koizumi’s bill. Can anyone enlighten me as to if I should push for Japan’s Democrats instead? Obviously I don’t have a vote…but my husband does!
The only other exciting news is one of my best friends just proposed to his girlfriend!! Gregory and Anchali will be married…uh…someday! YAY! I’ll give you more details when I know them – let’s just hope its next April or May when we plan to be back in the states again! Congratulations to them!
Movie to rent: Sideways (unfortunately I’m a little out of date being that movies are released in Japan LAST)
Book to read: Ted Chiang’s “Stories of your life and others”
Hairdo I love to rock now: pompadour
CD to buy: The Ravonettes “Pretty in Black”