This week held more adventures in store for me than I had anticipated. Work threw two days at me which involved teaching kids for 90 minutes. Day one was all about the Ocean, which was really fun. Day two was all about the Solar System, which was still fun, but the topic isn’t quite as easy to make as palatable for kids.
One student, a five-year-old girl, has spent four years living in Boston. She attended both days. On the second day I asked her how she was. She paused for a moment, looked up and said “Today I am happy!” and then began literally bouncing around the room. If there was a optimal level for “ridiculously cute”, she obliterated it.
Right. I’ll give you all five seconds to let the “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, how cute!” out of your systems.
Back to regular programming.
Last week I posted a bunch of pictures about a light festival I attended. There were actually two running concurrently in Kyoto. This is not unusual. If one part of town is doing something, you can damn well put money on the fact that another part of town will be having some variety of festival in the same ilk.
Here’s some pictures from the other light festival.
These things are wicker orbs that you write wishes or prayers on and then stick them inside, hoping that your wishes or prayers will come true. I can’t vouch for the outcomes and how often they’re fulfilled, but it does make for an aesthetically pleasing waltz along the riverbank.
I headed there as the sun was going down, because there was another part of the festival that was due to kick off when it got dark. My experience so far with festivals in Japan is, people get to places early. Like, ridiculously early.
The highlight of the night took place when it got dark. People had been there at least two hours. AT LEAST. The animation event lasted for no more than five minutes. So, they projected a lot of animated images onto the riverbank of the largest river running through Kyoto. The riverbank became – in no particular order – an old steam train, a bunch of kid’s faces, and more animated trains. And other things. It’s kind of hard to describe, but while people were riding past on their bicycles, it kind of looked like they were riding a bike across a train.
The next day, Nakamura-san and I headed out towards Kyoto University. There, we walked up the side of a mountain to a particular cafe named Moan. It’s pronounced Mo-an, in case you dirty-minded English speaking folk thought it was something else. Cheeky lot.
HERE ARE PICTURES. ALSO, I AM WRITING THIS SLIGHTLY TIPSY.
Wait, these are more pictures from the actual light festival because I forgot to upload them before.
NOW, HERE ARE THE PICTURES FROM THE CAFE THAT SITS ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN NEAR KYOTO UNIVERSITY.
Moar pictures of Mo-an to follow. So Japan is in the midst of its summer right now. How summer, you ask? The lowest any day this week gets is 26. That’s overnight. During the day, no day is lower than 36 degrees Celcius. BUT! Kyoto is humid as all heck. There was one day last week that was 96% humidity.
And here’s the view of Kyoto from Mo-an, nestled in the basin that makes these summers so ridiculously hot and humid.
Another night this week involved me consuming some instant ramen that claims to be 1400 on the scoville meter. As someone that loves consuming anything and or all things spicy, this instant ramen did not disappoint.
And my week closed out with my 31st birthday. This exact time last year I had no clue and/or plan to be where I am now. But that’s the way life works sometimes. Everything in life has a beat, a flow, a motion. And while it may seem that the pattern remains largely the same, the slightest ripple can produce the largest impetus for change. My surroundings may not be familiar territory, but I’m surrounded by a great group of people here, much the same as I was in Melbourne.
A coworker of mine purchased me a small cake for my birthday, which was very kind of her. A brief Skype conversation with my folks on the train ride home, which is something I probably shouldn’t have done on the train, but it was the only spare time I really had.
Arrived home a touch after 8pm. Started cooking carbonara. Greg and Uwa-chan arrive with some truly awesome gifts for me, including some alcohol I will talk about later in this post. We eat and head to the bar.
Three hours. All-you-can-drink. $30AUD approximately. I lost count after the 7th beer or so. But a fun night was had by all. At one point I decided I should guard my man boobs (or moobs) from potential groping, but I also decided I really wanted a drink. So I lean over, pick up the beer cup in my mouth and then take a large sip. Only to try and place the cup on the bar and have a bunch of beer splash up and all over my face. Oh, casual alcoholism, how I heart thee.
There’s an album worth of photos that Greg has of me in awkward poses or strange expressions. Here’s one that was captured on my birthday.
Ah, yes. A great celebration. An epic hangover the next day.
And now to finish this entry off, the aforementioned alcohol.
<INSERT FIGHTING COCK PUNS HERE>
“Behold my fighting cock!”
“Would you like to taste my fighting cock?”
“When’s the last time you put fighting cock in your mouth?”
“Nothing better than a mouth full of fighting cock.”
OK I could write way too many puns for this, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead. I wouldn’t want to upset a fighting cock, after all.