noteworthy things. maybe.
You know, Nara certainly has an unhealty obsession with fire for a city full of ANCIENT WOODEN BUILDINGS. There was the whole "let's burn down a mountain, yay!" thing in January, and the first two weeks of March are spent waving flaming torches from the balcony of Toudaiji's Nigatsudo, to the delight of the thousands of people watching below.
So yeah, Omizutori. Every night for two weeks the monks of Toudaiji carry GIANT BALLS OF FLAME ON LONG POLES up the steep steep stairs to the Nigatsudo and then shake them over the balcony so the sparks and ashes fall on the people crowded below. And last night, they did it in the snow. SO COLD. I was too far back to catch any of the sparks (and why I would want to, I'm not sure, 'cause I sure as hell don't believe that getting burned is lucky), but I still had a really good view of the whole ceremony. Including watching all the people frantically sweeping the sparks off the wooden balcony so it wouldn't, you know, BURN DOWN. Even though they attempted several times, as large chunks of the torches occasionally fell off and started burning bigger. My personal favorite, though, was the girl who managed to get all the thousands of people to laugh at her by going AAAAAAAAAAAH ATSUI! when she went after a particularly large spark. Well, what did you expect, idiot?
My camera's pretty well dead, so no pictures from me. Elaine might have some, though.
Did you hear me mention the snow? That's right, the first snow since December 31st in Nara came yesterday. In the middle of March. AND IT WAS COLD. What happened to my nice warm weather that we had last week? There is something to be said, though, for going to see Toudaiji with the snow falling all over the place. And it amuses me that I've seen Wakakusayama covered in both flames and snow.
There's this old lady who comes to Gakuenmae Voice pretty much to show off about how much money she has. She's always travelling and talking about where she's been - "I just came back South America. Very boring. Don't go." Well, today she waltzed into Voice and announced that it was the 60th (or 60some-odd) anniversary of the bombing of Osaka by the Americans. And she was 12 and a bomb fell near (on? no idea, wasn't there) her house, and the Americans were bad and why did they do that it was horrible of them blahblahblah. Cleito was really uncomfortable, as the voice teacher, 'cause she couldn't get the conversation turned, and the other students were uncomfortable 'cause they couldn't deter this lady, either. THIS IS WHY WWII IS A FORBIDDEN SUBJECT IN VOICE, BITCH. All in all, a train wreck of a class.
And I had the class immediately after. Cleito warned me beforehand to go in with a game prepared, in hopes of turning the conversation preemptively. So I was ready. Luckily I managed to avoid any problems until halfway through. When this INSANE lady announced that she had travelled all over the world, but she had never gone to Korea. And that she REFUSED to go to Korea. Because once, after WWII, she and her schoolmates were on a school trip and there were Koreans on the train and ONE OF THEM SPIT AND IT LANDED IN THEIR DIRECTION OH NO and because of this she hates ALL KOREANS and WILL NEVER EVER EVER NO NO YOU CAN'T MAKE ME go to Korea. One of the other students pointed out that it was pretty bad of her to blame all Koreans for this (and it's a good thing the student said something, 'cause my example was going to be, "well, lots of old Japanese ladies elbow me and hurt me when I'm trying to get on the trains, but I'm still talking to you") and she pretty much said she didn't care. GOODBYE FRYING PAN, HELLO FIRE.
So I'm frantically trying to think of something to say that can save this class, and one of the other girls says something along the lines of "that's a sad story." Racist-lady says "I have lots of sad stories in my life." And oooooh, I can see where this is going and I want off now. So I said "I don't want to hear sad stories. It's a nice day outside. I want to hear happy stories." Racist-lady smiles and says "of course you do. You're young. But I don't have any." O_o THANKFULLY one of the other girls has had enough of this shit (she was there for the previous class, too, poor thing) and announces "It's White Day! Are you doing anything?"
THANK YOU JAPANESE CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY.
In other news, there was no Hey!3 tonight. But whatever special that was on instead that I watched informed me that I know the words to Orange Range's single 花 better than a bunch of old Japanese people. Go me.
So yeah, Omizutori. Every night for two weeks the monks of Toudaiji carry GIANT BALLS OF FLAME ON LONG POLES up the steep steep stairs to the Nigatsudo and then shake them over the balcony so the sparks and ashes fall on the people crowded below. And last night, they did it in the snow. SO COLD. I was too far back to catch any of the sparks (and why I would want to, I'm not sure, 'cause I sure as hell don't believe that getting burned is lucky), but I still had a really good view of the whole ceremony. Including watching all the people frantically sweeping the sparks off the wooden balcony so it wouldn't, you know, BURN DOWN. Even though they attempted several times, as large chunks of the torches occasionally fell off and started burning bigger. My personal favorite, though, was the girl who managed to get all the thousands of people to laugh at her by going AAAAAAAAAAAH ATSUI! when she went after a particularly large spark. Well, what did you expect, idiot?
My camera's pretty well dead, so no pictures from me. Elaine might have some, though.
Did you hear me mention the snow? That's right, the first snow since December 31st in Nara came yesterday. In the middle of March. AND IT WAS COLD. What happened to my nice warm weather that we had last week? There is something to be said, though, for going to see Toudaiji with the snow falling all over the place. And it amuses me that I've seen Wakakusayama covered in both flames and snow.
There's this old lady who comes to Gakuenmae Voice pretty much to show off about how much money she has. She's always travelling and talking about where she's been - "I just came back South America. Very boring. Don't go." Well, today she waltzed into Voice and announced that it was the 60th (or 60some-odd) anniversary of the bombing of Osaka by the Americans. And she was 12 and a bomb fell near (on? no idea, wasn't there) her house, and the Americans were bad and why did they do that it was horrible of them blahblahblah. Cleito was really uncomfortable, as the voice teacher, 'cause she couldn't get the conversation turned, and the other students were uncomfortable 'cause they couldn't deter this lady, either. THIS IS WHY WWII IS A FORBIDDEN SUBJECT IN VOICE, BITCH. All in all, a train wreck of a class.
And I had the class immediately after. Cleito warned me beforehand to go in with a game prepared, in hopes of turning the conversation preemptively. So I was ready. Luckily I managed to avoid any problems until halfway through. When this INSANE lady announced that she had travelled all over the world, but she had never gone to Korea. And that she REFUSED to go to Korea. Because once, after WWII, she and her schoolmates were on a school trip and there were Koreans on the train and ONE OF THEM SPIT AND IT LANDED IN THEIR DIRECTION OH NO and because of this she hates ALL KOREANS and WILL NEVER EVER EVER NO NO YOU CAN'T MAKE ME go to Korea. One of the other students pointed out that it was pretty bad of her to blame all Koreans for this (and it's a good thing the student said something, 'cause my example was going to be, "well, lots of old Japanese ladies elbow me and hurt me when I'm trying to get on the trains, but I'm still talking to you") and she pretty much said she didn't care. GOODBYE FRYING PAN, HELLO FIRE.
So I'm frantically trying to think of something to say that can save this class, and one of the other girls says something along the lines of "that's a sad story." Racist-lady says "I have lots of sad stories in my life." And oooooh, I can see where this is going and I want off now. So I said "I don't want to hear sad stories. It's a nice day outside. I want to hear happy stories." Racist-lady smiles and says "of course you do. You're young. But I don't have any." O_o THANKFULLY one of the other girls has had enough of this shit (she was there for the previous class, too, poor thing) and announces "It's White Day! Are you doing anything?"
THANK YOU JAPANESE CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY.
In other news, there was no Hey!3 tonight. But whatever special that was on instead that I watched informed me that I know the words to Orange Range's single 花 better than a bunch of old Japanese people. Go me.