A is for.. Art and Animation

A is for....

Welcome to my new feature, Clare Sensei's A to Z of Japan. I hope to give you an insight into various elements of Japanland via this feature that I wouldn't otherwise include in my blog.

You can always view any Letters that have been covered on the left hand side dashboard.

If you have any requests for topics to be covered, please leave a comment below!
  

Announcement- I've extended my contract
with AEON until March 26th, 2011 :)

Roppongi Art Night
A special "Sunset until Sunrise" event of arty action in Roppongi.

My friends Ryuta, Jen and Xor spelling ART!

Famous landmark Roppongi Hills and a T Rex made of toys

Posing on a giant fork in front of a giant strawberry sponge!!

Tokyo International Anime Fair

Held at Tokyo Big Sight, the equivalent of the Birmingham NEC Centre, the Fair is the world's largest anime event. Anime is short for "animation". The exhibition centre was PACKED!! Jen and I were given endless flyers, posed with some characters, watched a show, saw some Japanese Celebrities and got some nice freebies, including my Mameshiba balloon!! We had an amazing time being massive geeks!!

 

Two immensely popular anime characters- Anpanman and Gundam

 Being a badass- posing with Yu Gi Oh and as Afro Samuri (voiced by Samuel L Jackson)

 

Keroro (Sgt. Frog) and a mini Gundam

  Posing with Goku from Dragonball Z

..And thus concludes my first installment of Clare Sensei's A to Z of Japan ^^

Spring has come!

Please enjoy this photo of early Spring, taken across the road from my apartment block. The ume blossoms were pretty, but short-lived, and the mikan oranges can be seen growing in many gardens in my neighbourhood.

Edit: The fruit has begun to fall from the tree, and since taking one home, I have realised they are in fact huge grapefruit ^^

Soon will be the hanami, or Cherry Blossom viewing festival, scheduled at the end of the month. My AEON students are getting very anxious, hoping the peak of the festival will fall on a weekend, so everyone can enjoy the blossoms together.

Memories are Maid of This

Maid Cafes are a popular subculture in Japan, where young, cute Japanese maids serve lonely, stressed out businessmen calling them 'master', and acting as servents. The first Maid Cafe opened in Akihabara in 2001, but they have become so popular that you cannot escape the maids on every streetcorner handing out flyers for their cafes.

 A maid advertising our cafe, PoPoPure

Akihabara is known as 'Electric Town', and is where I bought my foreign laptop a couple of months ago. It is home to endless electronic, costume roleplay and figurine stores.

So of course where else than Akihabara to visit a Maid Cafe!!? Some cafes can be rather grim and dodgy, as my coworker Xor will tell you! But fortunately the Cafe, PoPoPure we randomly chose turned out to be light, comfortable and cute :D The maids welcomed us in extremely formal language saying Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama 'welcome home Masters and Mistresses' and sat us at a tables.

Many normal-looking customers could be seen having dessert at this cafe, as well as a couple of strange  men who were enjoying watching the maids a little too much..

Photos of the maids and interior are forbidden, but here's a photo of my food:

Melon soda and green tea cake

We were served the food, but before we could eat it, we were taught a magic incantation to make our food 200% tastier:

"Oishikunare... moe, moe kyun!"

"To become more tasty... moe, moe kyun!"

This was performed while making heart shapes with our hands!

Moe is an Otaku (Japanese anime geek) word that means to have a love for cute, innocent girls.

I paid an additional fee to have a polaroid taken with the Maid, Karyo-chan who served us!

 

Some addidtional weird and wonderful sights from Akihabara:

A man dressed as a urinal with an interesting hat..

A woman scared of an inflatable beer bottle and a bunny boy. Fair enough.

A Most Japanese Weekend

hours in Japan: Food, Drink and Culture.

"Right now, I'm living abroad in Japan. My energy and money are spent... and people that I work with were involved in both. I'm Clare Dery, and today was the most Japanese day of my life."

Disclaimer: The following blog entry contains many images and videos filled with amazing contrasting traditional and modern Japanese elements. 

Click to proceed with caution.

6 month Japanniversary!!! Thank you to my friends, family and students' for your support!!

Hina Matsuri 雛祭り

Girls' Day falls on March 3rd each year and is a day to celebrate girls' health. An equivalent event for boys is held each May. 

Parents put up a platform hina dan with dolls in their homes for their daughers. The dolls are believed to harbour bad spirits, and they represent the Emperor and Empress along with their attendees on the lower levels. The Emperor, holding a ritual baton is always seated on the top left, and the Empress holding a fan sits on the top right.

A giant hina dan at my local fire station with real ume blossons either side of the platform.

 

The dolls on the third level traditionally hold musical instruments, but in this case cute emergency service civil servants adorned the platform!!

                                            It wouldn't be a true festival without businesses cashing in!!

It is important to take down the dolls before the end of the night. If the dolls remain overnight and thereafter, the celebrated daughter's future marriage will be delayed! 
This is similar to the Christmas tradition of taking down the decorations after the 12 Days of Christmas to not get bad luck. 

Unashamedly, I first heard about this festival via an early episode of Pokemon (over 10 years ago!), where Misty wins a set of 'Pokedolls' on 'Girl's Festival Day'. One of many Japanese traditions I learned via the show!!

A Spot of Sightseeing

The Imperial Gardens Sunday morning was heaving it down, but in keeping with the incomprehensible and unpredictable Japanese weather, the afternoon became inexplicably clear and warm. As not to waste the day, I decided on a whim to visit the Imperial Palace at the heart of Tokyo (the Japanese equivalent of Buckingham palace), and residence of Emperor Akihito:

Tatsumi Turret

Nijubashi Bridge and the Palace

I admired the contrast of modern and traditional in this area of the metropolis.

(Left) The southern-eastern skyline including Tokyo Tower.

The Imperial gardens are enclosed by a 5km loop (about 1.5 of which I walked before giving up to do some shopping in Shinjuku), which is a popular jogging route, particularly for businessmen and women at night to let off steam after a hard day's graft. The route takes joggers past religious, cultural (the theature district), business and political landmarks.
I noticed the joggers all ran anti-clockwise. See "Why do we run counterclockwise?" for an interesting article on the topic.

Another noteworthy thing of the day was that I had two Subways. I had been craving them for some time! Wasabi and soy sauce really make for a memorable sandwich ^^

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus
-"Gnewch y pethau bychain."

Today is St Davids Day, so as I forgot Pancake Day recently, I thought I would cook a stir fry with leek to make up for it.