2004-11-19

And time
Goes by
So slowly
(oh wait, no it doesn't)

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I posted on here. A lot of stuff has happened and I haven't even had time to chronicle it. I blame it on Japanese technology. They've been working so hard to make things like The Toilet That Fits In An Altoids Tin or The Minivan Only Trained Fleas Can Drive and now one of their experiments has gone wild and shrunk the day down to 35 minutes or something.

Or maybe I'm just getting senile, because some of the cool things that happened here actually took place BEFORE my last updates. I blame the election and the results. That's it. Blame everything, even completely preposterous things, except MYSELF. That's the ticket, kids. Blame everyone else, and if that doesn't work, hit them over the head with a chair and steal their pet bird. Then punch your boss in the mouth and watch everyone love you. (Note: Results not guaranteed outside the strict confines of a professional wrestling storyline.)

Well, where to begin. The last weekend of October was the San-iku Festival, a big four-day shindig organized by the student association here. The fun and games started on Thursday night, when everyone packed into the gym and participated in these completely bizarre games. Some of them were reminiscent of the Kofudai Elementary sports day, minus the freaky communal warm-up exercises. They had the "throw rolled up socks into baskets" game, the "do crazy things and break your glasses" relay race, and a big ol' tug-of-war at the end. Also included in this one were some other bad-acid-trip games like this one where all the girls lined up against each other, ran to the center of the gym and tried to drag bamboo sticks of various sizes back across their own line. It was a Perfect Storm of tug-of-war, Dog and the Bone and angry, aggressive estrogen. The object seemed to be to run and grab sticks that no one else went for, and then at the end to clump up on the five or so sticks left and drag the stick and any members of the opposite team over your own line. They didn't do this game with the boys, for some reason, probably because someone would have ended up with their eyeball on the floor or something. Another insane game had two people hooked up to each other with this stretchy harness thing, and when the gun went off they ran in opposite directions and tried to pop balloons. Last year one guy hurt his back real bad, and this year we had TWO injuries--one guy dislocated his shoulder and the guy running opposite him sprained his ankle. I'm thinking this is like the 3 legged race in America (aka "The Heinous Leg Injury Race") and they should just mothball the idea. But maybe it's their way of moving natural selection along.

Then on Friday it was "Costume Day", and it wasn't like SDA institutions in America where dressing up like a witch or goblin is frowned on. This was the DRESS UP FREE-FOR-ALL, DADDY. Some costumes seen: Witch, Evil Korean Ghost, She-Devil, Frog Princess, Geisha, Statue Of A Big Fat Guy, Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, Shotgun-Toting Commando, Spider-Man, Nepali Businessman, Canine Clown, and others. It was wacky. And awesome. And I am so not kidding about the KKK member. I'll post pictures on the website. I had no access to cool costume stuff but I threw a white sheet over my head and cut a scary mask out of a paper plate and called myself a ghost. Amanda and I had to be judges of the thing...and NONE of our choices for prizes won! I bet they just asked us to make us feel important and then froze us out 'cause we're dumb gaijins. Anyway, Frog Princess Girl and the Statue of A Big Fat Guy won.

Sunday was the day of the actual festival. The English department had to get up and sing a song, and we did "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" which upon further review is the most saccharine song ever written in the Indo-European language group. I felt like I needed insulin shots after singing that. They had a bunch of other stuff too--food, games, free blood pressure screenings, wheelchair races, etc. One of Amanda's students who's a total sweetie won a PlayStation 2, and I went and sulked in the back, seething with jealousy. The last thing was an auction. I hope they made lots of money, but I didn't buy anything.

There's more to update, but I'm ready to head back home. It's the weekend and it's been a long week. Plus this evening will be no time to rest, because it's the end of the Week of Prayer here and I'm playing in the praise band with my NEW BASS GUITAR. But that's another story.