Okay, everyone here knows Obon, right? Not really? Well learn it. Anyway, there's a festival at the end of Obon called "Awaodori". As far as I can tell it only happens in two places: Tokushima and Koenji. Fortunately for me, the latter location is an area of Tokyo less than 30 minutes from my doorstep.
Kuri had her way in bringing me to the festival (right after having her way in buying a smartphone, by the way). I'm glad she did because it was pretty awesome. (The smartphone is also awesome.) At the heart of it, the festival is a series of short, intense dance parades performed by almost 200 groups, totalling about 12,000 dancers, across 20 routes. Dancers are divided into men, women, and kids, and are accompanied by live music, including taiko drums, flutes, stringed instuments.
The beautiful thing about Awaodori is how chaotic it is. According to Wikipedia, the dance evolved from people being drunk (hence it's association with foolishness). I'm pretty sure this was the inspiration for the parade scene in Paparika, a movie which was in turn the inspiration for the movie Inception. It's coordinated but the sparatic movements and flailing body gestures stay true to the alcohol-induced origins. The music is equally as in-your-face, with old salarimen venting years of frustration from the office on tiny little clanging symbols.
It is, in other words, in every sense the epitome of a gong show. Check it out Youtube. See also the pictures I took from my mobile phone.
28 August 2011
21 August 2011
Up and atom!
I didn't really think many people read this blog until I went back to Canada and everyone started asking me why there have been no updates. Now I feel kind of bad. So here we go, starting up the blog again. Let's hope I remember to keep it up this time.
First off, like I mentioned on Facebook, it was really great seeing everyone! My trip to Vancouver, despite being incredibly short, was nothing short of incredible (just like Kuriko - snap!). Seeing old friends, doing brunch, attending home group... good stuff.
Also, it was all the differences from Tokyo that made it good, like humidity being under 90% and not travelling around in a sardine can. And the inconvenience of not being able to speak Cantonese in a restaurant was a welcome change from not being able to speak Japanese.
Now I'm back in Tokyo and back into the routine of work. Some big changes are coming up. Up until this point, the only thing I've been doing is trying to get candidates to come in, then hope they will like the jobs we are working on. Starting next week I'm actually going to start working clients. One issue: we're so established in pharmaceuticals as a company that it will be very difficult to go in as a generalist. I'll have to specialise right from the start.
Having been an English teacher taught me that specialising from the start can be a good thing and having worked in travel insurance taught me that being a big fish in a small pond isn't so bad. In pharmaceuticals, it could go either way. Around here, people like working at prestigious companies/jobs, and niches aren't always prestigious. I've got to choose carefully or I could waste a lot of time. More on this as it develops.
By the way, to anyone considering seeing Tree of Life: don't. For Kuri and I this was the first time we've been to a theatre in a long time and it was like watching a screensaver.
First off, like I mentioned on Facebook, it was really great seeing everyone! My trip to Vancouver, despite being incredibly short, was nothing short of incredible (just like Kuriko - snap!). Seeing old friends, doing brunch, attending home group... good stuff.
Also, it was all the differences from Tokyo that made it good, like humidity being under 90% and not travelling around in a sardine can. And the inconvenience of not being able to speak Cantonese in a restaurant was a welcome change from not being able to speak Japanese.
Now I'm back in Tokyo and back into the routine of work. Some big changes are coming up. Up until this point, the only thing I've been doing is trying to get candidates to come in, then hope they will like the jobs we are working on. Starting next week I'm actually going to start working clients. One issue: we're so established in pharmaceuticals as a company that it will be very difficult to go in as a generalist. I'll have to specialise right from the start.
Having been an English teacher taught me that specialising from the start can be a good thing and having worked in travel insurance taught me that being a big fish in a small pond isn't so bad. In pharmaceuticals, it could go either way. Around here, people like working at prestigious companies/jobs, and niches aren't always prestigious. I've got to choose carefully or I could waste a lot of time. More on this as it develops.
By the way, to anyone considering seeing Tree of Life: don't. For Kuri and I this was the first time we've been to a theatre in a long time and it was like watching a screensaver.
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