3rd Annual

Rainbow Parade! Traditional Taiko drummers (gay men's association), the usual camp and drag, me and Jess, my hilarious professor with a towel on his head (he was video taping), Top Star (the cute girl, that is some how associated with the LGBTQ culture and is recognizable), gay men from America are the same even in Japan, but Japanese gay men often dress like gansters (I am completely serious, they were flamingly gay), the gaijin (foreign) crew from Gaidai, final celebration of letting all the balloons go, more camp and a beautiful back tattoo (yes thats a men, at least originally in the biological sense).

Mainichi - Everyday

This is my house. I life on the top, the area attached to the roof, which makes me very happy.

To update on how my life has been going... I am ridiculously busy. The past two weeks have been midterms in regular classes and Japanese classes. There may be nothing more terrifying than having to speak Japanese and be graded on it. Along with midterms, I also volunteered to participate in the dancing portion of our International Festival (because schools in Japan like to have lots of festivals, actually Japan in general likes having festivals). What this has turned into is me teaching two Japanese girls how to belly dance... not an easy task by any length seeing as they have never danced before, at all. This has, however, spurred me in the good direction of dancing for at least an hour everyday for practice, although I only meet with them about twice a week. Add this to having to travel home and back, and really I have very little time for, oh, anything. I did find time to take some photos of my surroundings on a pretty day though. It is still really warm here, whereas I have heard that Asheville is quite cold. It is both warm and humid here, for some reason the season has been more wet than usual. I got to experience that first hand the other night at a fire festival, but I'll talk about that incredible experience another time.

No, Really

A few years ago a large black man came to Japan to teach English, an absolutely infamous blog was created called Gaijin Smash. Below is the link to the archive of said blog. I will admit, although I am sitting here cracking up hysterically in a public computer lab (getting stared at as usual no doubt), it may be less funny for people who haven't experienced Japan. Regardless, I would request that you go towards the bottom of the archives and read the entry titled "Gaijin Smash" because if you read that you will truly understand what my daily life is like in Japanese society.

I think I might need a anime super hero name.

http://www.gaijinsmash.net/archives.phtml

Shinsaibashi

I have been super busy at school with midterms! Watashi wa isogashii desu. Hence why I haven't been blogging recently. I wanted to blog today about my absolute favorite place in Osaka, Shinsaibashi. Shinsaibashi is a district filled with J-fashion, J-music, and generally alternative people. I like it there because I feel the least uncomfortable, there are other people that look like me (and far more extreme than me too)! It has some of the biggest designer stores I have ever seen, an Louis Vitton tons of stories tall for example, and two Dolce & Gabbana stores on one street. As interesting as all that is, I like Shinsaibashi because of the back streets. The back streets have parks, J-fashion stores, second hand stores, funky people, skateboarders, live music on the street, like home in Asheville, only Japanese. My other favorite part of Shinsaibashi is the highly touristy part, but that is only because of the water and the bridge surrounded by neon signs reaching to the sky. The first time I went there I felt like such a country girl, because I was standing there staring up with my mouth hanging wide open. Now I am used to the giant buildings and signs, used to the high fashion boutiques, used to the massive groups of people walking down the street (very slowly I might add).

These are all photos of Shinsaibashi, some night, some day, some in the back streets, some in the big city part. Also, some random anthropological photos of people walking around, because I enjoy looking at them. And my food obsession continues, with Caitlin and I sharing a plate of Takoyaki (octopus balls) in the park, and a photo of lychee fruit, which I love. Here is a video of a band that was playing on the street, they were actually really good. love that live music can just happen here, you don't have to have a permit, or anything. Well then, off to study! Jaa, benkyooshimasu! Sayonara!

Model

http://ameblo.jp/trois-yoshiko/

This is my sister's bog about their new boutique!

I have appeared twice thus far (which is hilarious)

Also, it is good to look at if you want see what current high fashion for stylish youth is.

Woohoo!

Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari, part of Kyoto, and the shrine to the god Inari.
Inari is a fox god that has many specialties, but the one called on most often is good luck in business. Inari holds the key to our heart's hopes and wishes, and as you can see, Inari is often portrayed holding a key, and you could also purchase the equivalent of a good luck charm shaped like a key at the temple. Fushimi Inari is famous for its rows and rows of tori gates. Tori gates are a shinto symbol and always appear at the entrance to shrines. You can purchase a tori gate to have placed in the rows at Fushimi Inari. The name of your buisness, most often, is carved into the tori gate, then painted, and as long as the gate lasts (generally about 20 years) you will have good fortune. When one gate rots and falls apart it is taken away and its space will eventually be taken by a gate purchased by someone else (they are very expensive). The picture where I am holding a stone symbolizes me holding all of my future hopes in my hands. If the stone is too heavy for you, if it is heavier than you expected, then your hopes and wishes will not come true. It was heavy, but as you can see I could handle the weight of my future... or something like that. I also want to explain the photo near the bottom with all the tiny statues with white faces in the room with lots of gold, this was a shrine for aborted fetuses, each statue represents a fetus that the mother did not decide to keep, in a country where the abortion rate is so high it is good for the women to have a shrine to go to if they are feeling any sort of unrest about their decision. In this way they can remember the child's spirit. The frog is a god of good fortune as well, specifically financial I believe. The proverb goes something like, "what you give shall be returned to you", so give the shrine a lot of money and you will get lots of good fortune in return. I like Kyoto because you can pretend Japan was never modernized, there are always women in kimonos. I could say soooo much more, but I need to go to class.