Online Videos by Veoh.com



Last month for Japanese Labor day weekend I made a little trip to Tokyo. I took the nigh bus at 10 pm and arrived in Shinjuku the next day. I then proceeded to head to Harajuku which is a unique but recently famous part of Tokyo. It's described as the place to be for young people, mostly teenagers and young adults. It is well known for "street fashion" which is a unique phenomenon perpetuated by people who go to Harajuku , especially on Sundays. They dress in all sorts of unique ensembles. Many combine gothic and punk elements . Some use alot of bright neon colors with lolita dresses and trinkets. It's a unique way of expression in a society that seems to celebrate sameness. The stuff is a bit costly tho. I just got a shirt and a pair of loose socks which are quite warm btw. Loose socks are like socks that are also leg warmers.
They had a viviene westwood shop that had some nice skirts but they looked kind of dime a dozen skirts not skrts that are worth 50 plus dollars. There were alot of Nigerians that set up all these hiphop themed stores there. So of course they saw me as there are few black ppl in Japan..period. But I didn't really like them. If I wanted to buy hiphop type fashion I could do it in my own country. Those stores are for Japanese kids who think black culture is cool. There's one guy on campus who has his hair cornrowed regularly albeit with extensions because his hair isn't long enough. So I didn't really like being around the Nigerian guys cuz they were a bit too pushy. And their Japanese was pretty bad too. It's funny how now of the actual representatives of American hiphop culture were selling this stuff. I think I saw one America black guy and he looked like a suited business man. The Japanese perception of other cultures is far more limited than people claim Americans are. Japanese know very little about slavery or race relations in the United States.

The closest thing that Japanese have is the issue of Ainu Japanese being descriminated against. Ainu are the original native people og Northern Japan. They're darker, hairier and have large deep set eyes. At some point the Japanese Invaded Northern Japan uprooting a civilization. Many Ainu experience the same treatment that Black people do in the states. They are ashamed of their color and differing appearance. Many Parents will not tell their mixed children that their kids are part Ainu because of teasing.
To some Ainu is not the desired term but address themselves as Utari instead because the name can be used to sound like "Ah Inu" which mean s Ah! a dog!
I've met a few japanese people who differ in skin tone, hair texture, and eye shape. Some of these kids came from Okinawa which was not always a part of Japan. They have their own dialect.

I almost got left in Tokyo evrnight for a tsupid reason. I paid 95 dollars for a round trip ticket but the ticket lady made a mistake as She only gave me one ticket. I didn't know it at the time since I thought they put you on a list so that each bus would remember you're name and seat number. That didn't happen but some girl who spoke English explained the situation and they let me on the bus..after all I DID PAY for a round trip. When I got back it was all snowy and much colder in Akita. It's snowing now. It just keeps on snowing.

YUKI FUBUKI!

It's finally starting to SNOW!. First it was cold winter rain(fuyo no ame) and then it got colder and colder and now it's snowing. YAAAY but I doubt there are any snow days. There are a bunch of different words for snow depending on the type. This is the first snow so it's Hatsuyuki.

But then again we've been having sleet which is mizore.

frost is shimo

and snow pellets are arare.

Ashita wa yuki ni asokimasu!

Buddhas and Wedding Bells and Barbershops

Sunday we went on a trip around Akita. We went to a few temples including one with the "living buddhas" that is to say, buddhist holy men who, after several years of preperation mummify themselves from the inside out. Basically they under go a regiment that is drawn out at about 7 years starting with riggorous exercise everyday for three years accompanied by extreme dietary restrictions. the next couple years they consume less food and poisonous plant substances like excretions from lacquer trees as well as drinking arsenic laden water. basically this combination of chemicals would preserve the person from the inside. The intense exercise was to decrease the amount of fat as fat is highly subject to decay after death. When the Man was finally ready to become a "living buddha" he was placed in a hole and cut off from all food or water and given a bell to ring a few times a day to let the ppl know above that he was still alive. when the Bell stopped ringing they would estimate the time of death (albeit inaccurate). They would leave the man down there for about one thousand days to let the chemical reaction take its corse. If after one thousand days, the body is recogniably intact meaning not decomposed, then the attempt was succesful. Attempts aren't always succesful and there are hundreds of cases of self mummification attempts. As of now there are only 16 "living Buddhas" in Japan althought that is the largest concentration of selfmade mummies anywhere in the world. There are some in China too.

I didn't take any photographs of the living Buddhas in the temple because I thought it would be disrespectful but I took photos of things outside the temple and in the other room where you buy souvinirs and fortunes.

There was another place we briefly stopped before that that was on the ocean. The giant rocks were actually carved into Buddhist statues of saints. It had a beautiful view. It would have been nicer if the sun had been out.

After that we went for lunch. I went to this place where you take off your shoes and sit at a table with a grill and mix different ingrediants together that you pick. It was really rainy. It still is. It's just been raining almost everyday for few weeks now. Later we went to a sake museum where we got to try some sake for free....Sake is gross. Tastes like sugar and hatred. I didn't have enough to get drunk. It tasted too awful. Almost all the other girls drank on the bus which is why they all simulatanrously had to get out of the bus and pee on the side of the highway in the dark. Also, the all you can drink at the restaurant they went to had a hand in that.

we briefly stopped at a lake where there were TONS of water fowl. There were more ducks than swans. yet the lake was called swan lake.

Also...Ko finally got around to doing my hair. I think it came out pretty well for his first time twisting hair.

And..last but not Least, my collegue Jillian is going to Marry her Boyfriend this winter. He's in the military and lives on a base in Japan not to far from Akita. She says it will be great financially since married soldiers get extra pay. Then once she's back in the states they're gonna have a big traditional wedding. They've been together for like 5 years so..I'm all for it. It's not like she's rushing into it or anything.

AIU sai

The festival was very fun. The first Day wasn't so great tho. It rained..no POURED all day. But I went out anyway. But I came in early because I didn't want to get soked. The Following day was alot more fun and we got to listen to the bands play and watched the dance teams perform. The most hilarious thing was an odd perfrormance by the Hiphop club..that was bizzare. I only filmed the Japanese stuff tho. Watching Born and bred Japanese girls attempt to "get down" hip hop style was too painful. The food stalls were great. I had some Kimchi pancake. That was delicious..Kimchee is the best flavor. Although Kimchi is korean not Japanese..it's very popular. They also had "curry" (if you can call it that) and Naan. I don't really mess with the Japanese rendition of curry, it leaves SO much to be desired. Of all the different countries' versions of curry I've tried, Japanese "Kuri raisu" is at the bottom of the list. I also went back to Akita-shi. You know you can find some of the coolest (and cheapest) stuff at second hand shops. I got this cool shirt for 1000 en (roughly $9.50). They had some other cool stuff but my huge Amazonian shoulders couldn't fit into any of it. This shirt HAS no shoulders so that fixes things altogether. Today I had an oral exam in Japanese. I think I did well. I got there early and finished early. Tomorrow I'm gonna see if I can get Ko to do my hair. He already did Oluyimi's hair and it looks really good. Yumi can do hair too although her designs aren't as creative as Ko's.

"Ippen shinde miru?"

No but seriously folks. October time! which means Halloween! I've been sooo busy. Tomorrow is the AIU festival so I'm going to be Uber occupied. The other day I rented a bike and went riding. I happened to stumble upon a garden which is actually right next to the Bike rental shop. How did I miss that?

Plus last Sunday Max took myself and some of my other friends on a trip...somewhere. We were looking for one place and ended up somewhere else but It was cool cuz where ever we ended up was nice too. He was crazy tho. We ended up driving on some trail which I think was probably not appropriate to drive on. I mean there were other ppl driving on it too but it was the kind of path that was more SUV appropriate, know what I mean? I mean it had rocks and sticks and stuff. And Max's car was worth the equivalent of 200 USD (seriously). BUT we all got out safe and sound and back in time for dinner. Today we went on a trip with our Teacher to the City and popped into this awesome Manga/anime shop. It was filled top to bottom with manga, anime, and paraphernalia.I didn't buy anything. I couldn't make up my mind. I'm thinking I'll go back to the shop later since in the bottom floor they have some awesome unique clothes. I DID buy a hat from this guy under the Train station. He had this area set up where he was selling all this pseudo African type stuff. Then we chilled at McDo until it was time to take the train back. After Dinner which was barely memorable, we kicked back and watched Mulan and sang with all the songs. I've gott turn in now on account of the fact that I have an UBER busy schedule tomorrow. Ja Ne!

Because Japanese Television is terrible

In My stay in Japan I've come to realize that even though Americans have so much vacuous drivel blasting through the boob tube, there are still some gooduns out there that make TV great. Sorry to say the same cannot be said for Japanese television. They don't have many channels and from what they do have on tv is absolute garbage. They have some of the dumbest reality television I've ever seen. But what about the Anime? you ask? Anime goes straight to DVD and rarely is it on television and what they do show is that godawful stuff that no selfrespecting anime fan would watch

Makes you appreciate the millions of dollars that go into the American entertainment business doesn't it?

I'm reffering of course to the Avatar Season 3! Whoever posted the new episodes. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can't wait to find out what happens with Azula.

Doyobi trip

We went on another trip this saturday. This time it was a bus trip sponsored by the school so we didn't have to go through all the extra plamming like last time. We stopped at various different places including a Sake Brewery, A temple/shrine park, a dairy farm, A mountain and the Arctic explorer museum. I made my own bento lunch even tho they bought us bento boxes, the food was attrocious as expected. Even the Japanese kids couldn't stomach the stuff. The Temple park was interesting. I saw no monks(probably busy praying) but plenty of cats. I call them the Kame Neko( the spirit cats). The farm was also nice save for the smell of cooked meat and the dairy they were selling in the store which was uncharacteristically dirty for a store owned by Nihonjinn. They had bunnies and dogs and a few sheep (like 3). I actually saw no cows. The Arctic museum itself was dull BUT the outdoors was grand. There was this cool life sized boat you could play on with slides and everything. There were also lots of these little penguin and husky statues as long as a giant whale statue that everyone was trying to climb on. The Sake house was informative but I mean..the only thing they said that was interesting was this one funfact:If you fall into the big tank of sake the cultures will pull you down to the bottom and you will die. No one can come rescue you beacause the wouldn't be able to see you, and the tank is over 10 feet deep and they probaly wouldn't be able to hear you either. The only thing I got from that experience was an allergic reaction(the place had serious mildew issues) and a fear of Breweries. All in all I had fun. The Bus ride was the one oart that drove me crazy. Oh I forgot to mention the mountain. We were only there for 20 minutes so there isn't much to say. The view was beautiful and the Tea in the Jihanki was too expensive.