Rewind and Restart---Halloween and the Daigakusai
**don't miss the entry before this one. They were done in the same day. Thanks!
So... Halloween. Not a popular holiday in Japan, which is a bit surprising with how much they seem to like dressing up. But, I suppose if you dress up for all these other ocassions, Halloween really isn't that exciting of a thing, is it? Anyway... my Halloween here wasn't much different than Halloween back home. I've never really been good at putting together a costume, so I usually pass on dressing up or just go with whatever I can find. C.U.P.S., a student organization here that works with the study abroad students, threw a party for us all. It was interesting seeing them all in their costumes and talking with a few of them. The party wasn't all that exciting. Just music, food, and standing around. Though there was a magic show, and it had fire in it--always a win. Some of the OU students costumes were interesting. J.T. dressed up as Hard Gay and spent the whole day (even before the party) walking around and dry humping people. Awkward, but funny. And, it helped that Hard Gay is/was popular in Japan so the Japanese teachers and students knew he was immitating a character and not just being a creeper.
My costume was a sari (sp?)--a formal indian dress-- that one of the girls in the hall lent and dressed me up in. I've got some picutures of the party somewhere... I'll have to find them and put them in a gallery on here at some point... After the party, we headed back to the dorm and a few of us just hung out in the 2nd floor lounge. But yeah... that was pretty much it for my Halloween. Nothing special, but not boring either.
The much more exciting event was the Daigakusai. This was a school festival that went on for three days (Friday-Sunday, Nov. 2nd-4th). There was no class on Friday and the booths started setting up on Thursday evening. Most of the stands were just students and clubs selling food, but there were some with games, and there were a lot of clubs putting on presentations in classrooms or outside in an open space. The food was delicious and the people were awesome. Everyone wanted you to come to their stand so they were very welcoming. Jen and I went out Friday afternoon for the first time and it wasn't long before we were encircled by a group of Japanese boys with signs begging us to come to their stand. They were so cute, we couldn't turn them down and I have to admit, their stand's food was one of my favorites. It was fried ice-cream (dough on the outside, some kind of custardy cream and then the ice-cream in the middle). Not long after that, we came across a guy holding a sign reading "Free Hugs" in english. Thinking this was hilarious, Jen decided to take a picture. They guy thought it was hilarious that she wanted his picture, but quickly agreed. I stoof off the the side and a guy passing through asked me if I knew what the sign meant. I'm still not sure what he meant... being that I can obviously understand english. But whatever. *laugh* I think it's something that weird people do at popular trainstations, but no one ever takes them seriously. Jen and I thought it was funny because we've seen this done at conventions before. After taking the picture, we set about leaving, but a group of Japanese guys had noticed Jen taking the picture and started chanting for her to hug him. "Hugu, hugu, hugu, hugu!" After she hugged him they teasingly chanted for he to kiss him, "kisu, kisu, kisu, kisu!", but laughing we quickly left to explore the rest of the festival.
One of my favorite things about the festival, after that first encounter, was all the college student bands that we got to see. There was a stage with bands and dancers performing, a live-house club that set up a room to look like a livehouse (actually really convincingly), and the english club even put on a live following the movie they made. I think that english club was my favorite part of the festival. The movie the made was hilarious. It was about a girl that ran into a boy on a bike and instantly fell in love and then went about stalking him. It was a little hard to understand the english because the movie's background music was so loud, but what we could hear was pretty good and always entertaining. The girl did fun things like dress up in costumes to disguise herself, and they even pretended like she could warp into places (one of those places being the boys bathroom by mistake). Anyway... as the story continued, you learned that the boy she bumped into wasn't interested because he was actually gay. She, not knowing this joined his singing club and did a performance with the club. After the club's performance, they went to a nomihodai (bar-restaurant), where she finally became aware of him being gay. This part of the movie was the most hilarious I think. The boy she liked became aware of her affections and expressed his uncomfortableness to his boyfriend. After expressing this the boyfriend said: "You can cry on my muscles", after which, the two boys clung to each other and the girl got the point. After this, the movie suddenly ended. The actors of the movie had been sitting behind us OU students during the show. After everyone stopped clapping, they headed up to the front of the room to do their thank you speeches (all of them being entirely in Japanese). The only one to say anything in English was the male main character's supposed boyfriend. The first words to come out of his mouth were: "I'm not gay. This boy and I are JUST good friends. I like girls". I hope he wasn't sincerely worried that we actually thought he was gay, but either way, it was hilarious for him to so directly tell us.
Then... there were all the boys dressed up as girls. There were maids, school girls, sexy(?) ladies, and more. Some of the guys looked horrible in dresses, but a lot of them looked absolutely adorable. I think there might have been a few that looked better in a dress than me. lol There were also a lot of people dressed up as disney characters. I took a few pictures, but none of them came out that well.
Friday's main event was the 8 hour bike race. That's right, 8 hours. Don't worry, it's a team of people on one bike, not just one person going the whole time. On top of the 8 hours, the bike race is also a showcase of how interesting the student teams can make their bikes. There was a Black Pearl from The Pirates of the Carribbean, a golden dragon fish like the ones found on top of Nagoya castle (and inside was a boy in a Chinese girls dress), a plane, a ramen shop, a black blob, a racecar, and many more. There were also some more serious riders in actual racing gear. It's possible that they may have ridden the whole time, I'm not sure... Anyway, I and the other ryuugakusei had fun wandering around and then dropping by every once in awhile to watch the race for awhile. Around 8, we went back to the dorm for a rest, but came back at 11:00 to catch the end of the race (it ended at 12:00). I'm not sure who won, but we got to see the teams cheer on their members and celebrate at the end.
The only bad thing to happen during the daigakusai was that right after the bike race, during the celebration, one of the racers was dropped after being thrown up in the air in celebration. An ambulance had to come, but he was conscious the whole time, so I'd like to think that it worked out for him alright in the end. Tai Wei also hurt her foot during the festival. She had to wear a brace for a week or so, but I think she's all healed now.
After that... I'm not quite sure what I did with the day. Most likely the hw I had been putting off all weekend. I wish it could have lasted forever though. Everyone was so friendly, and it's a nice contrast to the usually silent campus.