tiny fragile shells drifting
Sakura Matsuri day! aflightoffancy and I went to DC to check out the Japanese street festival that's part of the annual cherry blossom festival. To be frank, I pretty much go there for the food stands. The have a whole bunch of stands dedicated to Japanese food, beer gardens, sake tasting, etc. I waded in for a bowl of sansai udon (noodle soup with vegetables) first off, since that's my favorite food. I love sansai udon. I wish I knew where I could buy me some damn sansai so I could make it for myself EVERY DAY. I also had daifuku with ice cream-flavored filling, (not ice cream, but ice cream-flavored paste), taiyaki (fish-shaped pancake with red bean paste,) and oden (sort of a stew- mine had daikon, chikuwa, potato, egg, and bundles of kelp.) And lots of beverages. Loooots of beverages. And then ice cream, when we left the festival. Mmm, ice cream. I'm clearly a pig.
They had stands out for all sorts of things: mini Shinto shrine, tradition Japanese dolls, one entire stand of tea and tea paraphernalia, and of course, the ubiquitous anime/manga stands. And pocky. And ramune. And cosplayers running rampant along with people in kimono. So, yes. I have a bright pink t-shirt with a 'sakura' character on it, and a Japanese tea cup I bought from the tea stand that says 'you will prosper, but only through laziness', in Japanese. Someone working in the stall translated for me.
After that, the Metro had reached sardine overload, so we walked over to the Museum of Natural history and checked out a few exhibits, lingering over the human evolution one. Very interesting, and the replicas of what the early humans would have looked like were brilliantly done.
I liked the description of skeletal changes, which is what made me want to buy a book for a more detailed explanation. As I looked at displays of how the hip structure in hominids changed as they began to walk upright, I heard angry Creationists bicker about the implications. What they were doing in there to begin with, I have no idea. Still, it was quite interesting and I learned from the experience.
My favorite part of the exhibit was the wall of replica early human paintings, where I kept thinking I was looking at the first human artists. Those are the first examples of people expressing themselves creatively through visual media- well, it probably has more of an impact for an artist. I kept trying to imagine what it was like, or why they would have done it. I also enjoyed the running count of Earth's population. Since I'm a horrible person, my mind immediately leapt to what that would look like after a humongous tragedy. And then we went to the museum gift shop and I purchased a book about the life of Egyptian women and a book about translated-to-text oral myths about women in power.
It was a great day. And when I got back home, I passed out on my bed forever.
They had stands out for all sorts of things: mini Shinto shrine, tradition Japanese dolls, one entire stand of tea and tea paraphernalia, and of course, the ubiquitous anime/manga stands. And pocky. And ramune. And cosplayers running rampant along with people in kimono. So, yes. I have a bright pink t-shirt with a 'sakura' character on it, and a Japanese tea cup I bought from the tea stand that says 'you will prosper, but only through laziness', in Japanese. Someone working in the stall translated for me.
After that, the Metro had reached sardine overload, so we walked over to the Museum of Natural history and checked out a few exhibits, lingering over the human evolution one. Very interesting, and the replicas of what the early humans would have looked like were brilliantly done.
I liked the description of skeletal changes, which is what made me want to buy a book for a more detailed explanation. As I looked at displays of how the hip structure in hominids changed as they began to walk upright, I heard angry Creationists bicker about the implications. What they were doing in there to begin with, I have no idea. Still, it was quite interesting and I learned from the experience.
My favorite part of the exhibit was the wall of replica early human paintings, where I kept thinking I was looking at the first human artists. Those are the first examples of people expressing themselves creatively through visual media- well, it probably has more of an impact for an artist. I kept trying to imagine what it was like, or why they would have done it. I also enjoyed the running count of Earth's population. Since I'm a horrible person, my mind immediately leapt to what that would look like after a humongous tragedy. And then we went to the museum gift shop and I purchased a book about the life of Egyptian women and a book about translated-to-text oral myths about women in power.
It was a great day. And when I got back home, I passed out on my bed forever.