Garish Galavanting in Gifu

Now venturing into October, the oppressive summer heat has finally given way to comfortable fall temperatures (and for Ogaki, fall temps are generally highs in the mid 60s-mid 70s). I didn’t have much planned for this weekend, as the rest of my October was booked up already, but I got a last minute invite from Naomi to hang out on Saturday in Gifu for the Nobunaga festival. We had plans to go to a Kimono show, but both Naomi and I showed up late, so we only caught the second half, but it was still cool. I particularly enjoyed one lady’s kimono that was a red base featuring black clouds with gold lining. There was also an impressive performance where a dozen or so ladies came out in their white under-robes and then did choreographed movements as they simultaneously and methodically put on their kimonos…by themselves. Dang ladies, kudos to you. After that we met up with Regina and her friend Eirik (from Norway) who happens to be traveling the world after graduating from university. We wandered around before finally settling on a place for lunch that Naomi used to frequent. They had a really solid “house bento” with little bits of everything: meat, fish, jellyfish, potatoes, salad, rice, miso soup, egg, konnyaku, and a few other things as well. We then strolled one of the main side streets (yes, I realize that phrasing sounds odd) and stumbled upon a trio getting ready to play some Brazilian music, so we grabbed some beers from a nearby street vendor and watched the performance.



For the last song, they brought in a singer. I assumed she was singing in Portuguese (it was supposed to be Brazilian music after all), but I couldn’t pick out any words and it didn’t “sound” like Portuguese. So I asked Regina, who is Brazilian, if it was Portuguese. She replied with “Isn’t it English?” Umm…no. WTF? What mystery language was she singing in? Despite Naomi’s insistence that it would be “rude” to ask, I decided to go up and get an answer. I made sure to butter her up with compliments before politely inquiring as to what language that last song was in. “Oh, it was Portuguese, couldn’t you tell?” I played it real stupid saying I’d never studied European languages and have no idea. Then I went back and told Regina the news. Needless to say, she was surprised. It can’t be a good sign when native speaker can’t recognize your pronunciation. This is also why, although I enjoying studying languages, I hate starting a new one up because I know I must sound absolutely god-awful to a native speaker, and I feel bad making them listen to me.

Eirik and I posed with this random old truck


We meandered further and ran into a shop that sells donuts with a potato based batter. Naomi recommended them, so we all tried one. Not bad, but there was no sweetening, and the batter itself didn’t have much natural sweetness to begin with, so in my mind, it was struggling to be a donut. At the same time, it perfectly fits the traditional (read: old people) Japanese palette, which tends to prefer a very subtle sweetness, rather than knock your socks off sweet as hell frosting and filling. At the same time, I see plenty of old ladies at Mister Donut. I just know I often hear people complain of things being to sweet, which is somewhat rare in the States I think. We made our way over to Yanagase, the struggling, one-foot-in-the-grave shopping district near Gifu station and I was surprised to see that, thanks to the festival, it was actually pretty packed with people. Apparently that was one of three or so days out of the year where it doesn’t look like a ghost town.

Naomi had mentioned a place that does handmade pork dumplings, and I have passed the place many a time (it has always been closed, or has a ridiculously long line), so I was eager to try it. None of us were too terribly hungry when we got in line, which was fine, because we waited over an hour to get in. And we had arrived right when they opened. With the initial rush in, the line shortened a bit, but then you have to actually wait for people to eat their meal. And with only 2 tables of 4 and maybe 8 counter seats, it was slow going. Like ramen shops, though, the rule of “the smaller the seating capacity, the better the food” applied here. We got to watch one girl making the dumplings through the window, although she seemed less than pleased to be at work. I imagine that has to get pretty dull and monotonous after a while.

I find her facial expression in this shot rather poignant.



When we got close enough to see into the entrance way, I noticed one table of 4 was taken up by a group of 3 ladies who had been there since the place opened. It seemed to them it may as well have been an episode of Sex and the City-chatting, giggling, sipping leisurely from their beers.

Now, nothing wrong with them having a good time, but they were completely oblivious/inconsiderate of the fact that there was a huge line of people waiting outside. Again, with so little seating, it’s like a ramen shop-you get in, you enjoy your food at a reasonable pace, and you get out. I was staring daggers into them as they ordered more food and we were still waiting just outside. Anywho, we finally got in, and yeah, those were some freakin’ awesome dumplings. The things squirted with yummy meat broth/grease when bitten into, and tasted wonderful. Worth the hour long wait? Close. Seeing as I wasn’t hungry when I started waiting in line, and the weather was nice and I could chat with friends, it wasn’t so bad. But I wouldn’t be braving the line myself or in winter anytime soon. The real kicker is that when we got up and left, that table of ladies was still chatting it up. They had even ordered dessert while we were eating. I remember seeing the single dessert item on the menu and thinking, “who the hell orders dessert at a place like this?” Looks like I have my answer.

We ventured out for a few drinks after that, and due to the other three people in the group, we decided to go this wine bar, which looked a bit fancy to me from the outside, but there was a sign outside for glasses of wine at only slightly exorbitant prices. We entered the place and I immediately knew we were in way over our heads. Thankfully nobody else was in the bar, and they surely would’ve been offended at having to breathe the same air as us riff-raff, especially me in my “Cake is Awesome!” T=shirt.

I'm pretty sure this is the epitome of being classy:


The dude working the place was super classy, and was very patient with our boorish behavior. We ended up sharing a bottle of the cheapest stuff they had (which still was not anywhere near what I consider “cheap”) and then were informed that there was a table charge on top of that. So much for the sign outside, geez. Now, to be fair, the table charge did include a couple snacks. Two paper thin slices of some fancy salami, and crackers with three pieces of cheese. Now, the cheese was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but totally not worth the table charge.

Okay, getting a little more classy...

When he brought out the cork for us to sniff, we all just looked at each other, deer in headlights, before starting to laugh at the absurdity of the situation we had gotten ourselves into. And again, the guy at the store was a total pro about it. We made a running gag about how we had to act “sophisticated”, with Eirik and I having a mock conversation about “the riveting polo game at Liverpool the other day” etc etc. In other words, we were failing miserably at our goal. Again, my T-shirt, and Regina’s baseball cap weren’t helping matters. I’m not sure I could ever be filthy rich. I hate uppity places like that. The awesomely delicious food I can get behind, but the atmosphere is suffocatingly stiff. We made it work, though.



We moved onto a more relaxed bar for a much cheaper drink and then hopped to one of Naomi’s favorite bar/cafes. I made the mistake of assuming the fact that I ordered “draft Guiness” from their menu to mean it’d be coming from a tap. Eirik’s eagle eye, however, caught the guy behind the bar pouring our glasses from a can and then using some tap-looking machine to top off the foamy head. Really? You’ve got to kidding me. I was a bit miffed, but Eirik was outraged. If he knew more Japanese, he probably would’ve given the bartender a piece of his mind. I, however, decided I didn’t really feel like making a scene in this otherwise chill bar. And then I had one of those “you’ve been in Japan for too long” moments. If some bar in America tried to pull that crap, I wouldn't this twice about "disturbing the harmony" to complain about the fact that I'm getting ripped off. That doesn’t quite work over here, sadly, and I don’t think those are the kind of international relations or cultural exchanges that the JET program has in mind. After that, we finally called it a night. I made sure to take a lazy Sunday since the rest of my October weekends were already booked.

Artsy Fartsy

The last weekend in September I didn’t bother planning any travel since two big art/technology exhibitions being planned by my school took place. I figured I’d have to work a ton, but it turns out they hired outside translators for it, so I ended up only having to go in a couple hours on Saturday. I’m not complaining, but if Gifu Prefecture is wondering why it has so little money, here’s a prime example. You’re already paying me, here’s a grand opportunity to use me, and yet you hire outside people. Now, I couldn’t have been everywhere at once, so some outside help was necessary, but I barely did anything during the five days of the exhibition. It worked out well, since my friend Erica was crashing at my place that Wednesday, and was now free to hang out a bit. She got to Ogaki in the evening, and we immediately grabbed a late dinner. While listing off possible places to eat, I mentioned the 50s Diner in Ogaki that has burgers, fries, shakes, etc. The minute I said shakes her eyes went wide “Shakes?! We’re going!” Okay, done and done. She seemed lost in another world when her Choco-banana shake came, and that point I realized how much I take for granted the fact that there is an old-school 50s burger joint right here in Ogaki. Although she is in a considerably larger city, no place serves shakes. An in general, for its size, Ogaki has a lot of Western creature comforts available. I can get taco spice and tortillas, along with Cherry Coke and A&W Root Beer at Kaldi’s (an import food store), there’s a Subway in the mall south of town. Not to mention the giant mall complex Loc City right by my apartment. So, in a word, I’m glad I got the placement I did. Ogaki is a easy town to live in, and when I need a shot of something nostalgic from home, there are methods available. Some, I realize, aren’t so lucky. That being said, there is still plenty I can’t get over here, Glass Nickel’s Fetalicious pizza being one of them, that I am looking forward to eating while back home.

After indulging in some Americana, we decided to hit up the game center, which, to be honest, despite being a 3 minute walk away, I hadn’t really played many of the games there. Sure, I’ve been dragged in for purikura (photo booth), and we hit it up back at the beginning before Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 came out on PS3, but this time Erica and I hit up a bunch of classics, including air hockey, hoop shoot, a couple light gun games (Time Crisis 4, anyone?), Taiko Drum Master, plus a crazy game where your throw plastic playpen balls at moving targets on the touch sensitive screen. The game has you competing against each other, so it wasn’t long before Erica and I just started throwing the balls at each other. You don’t get points that way, though, you just get weird stares from people.

Despite my decidedly intense game face, Erica whooped me in the Buzz Lightyear(!) themed air hockey.



Erica, gangsta as always. "Yo chief, can I hold my gun like this? It looks so cool!"



The weird yet fun playpen ball touch screen game. Have at thee!!



The next morning I took Erica back to the station and stupidly didn’t bring an umbrella. As luck would have it, the skies opened up halfway to the station and we got thoroughly soaked. Sad panda.



Due to my now soaking clothes and, more importantly, shoes, I decided to stay in most of the day instead of heading to the art exhibition (had the day off for Autumn Equinox). So it was a lazy day, I watched a good chunk of the sumo tourney coverage, and once that was finished, headed out for some special performances occurring downtown as part of the exhibition. Now I’ve never been the most artistically inclined person, and my ability/willingness to “appreciate” art is modest at best. Now, I’ve certainly enjoyed plenty of art in the past, but most of the time that is because it is visually interesting, or I can recognize the talent needed to create the work. One thing I have a hard time getting behind, and maybe I just haven’t seen the right performer, is interpretive dance. There was a trio of interpretive dancers accompanied by a violinist performance on/around the main stage. They were trying to be “modern” or “edgy” or something, as the violinist merely drew the bow once, and the note was fed into some electronic repeater. So the background music just consisted of a few cycled, shrill violin notes. One of the dancers especially I couldn’t figure out, as she just seemed to be writhing around like a fish out of water on stage at times. That was interspersed with other random spastic movements as she moved to and fro. If that’s all it takes, I could be a freaking interpretive dancer.



Anywho, I wasn’t exactly impressed with that, but I should have waited, as the next performance, by some of the students at the school, made less sense, and required even less skill. A dozen or so of them took the stage in some half-baked costumes probably designed by throwing crap from the closet at a wall and seeing what sticks.

Wow.



I wouldn’t be so critical, but this is quite possibly the school’s biggest event, and this is a big performance event within that larger event. In other words, a time to put the school’s best foot forward. The school was/is in a battle to stay in existence. It needs to justify its importance to a cash-strapped prefecture and this exhibition was supposed be an important part of that justification. Instead, I saw costumes that would be laughed out of most Halloween parties, with each of the students in this group simply banging on random objects posing as instruments, and then screaming unintelligibly with no rhyme or reason. Guess what? If I was a prefectural bureaucrat, I would have just found some wiggle room in the budget. Harsh? Probably. Realistic? Absolutely.

To its credit, after this there was a taiko drum performance on the sidewalk by a local group, which was entertaining.



Then there was some little troupe of hippie performers that make music with bamboo instruments. It was a little mini-workshop where kids could participate and bang on the bamboo. A really solid idea, except for the fact that I couldn’t hear a thing thanks to the construction guys tearing down the metal stage. With pipes clanging against the ground constantly, and guys whacking at them to loosen them from the stage frame, I couldn’t help but concentrate on the noise and my impending headache rather than the neat workshop. Someone couldn’t have had them hold off? I imagine, though, that the stage builders didn’t give a crap and just wanted to get done and home. Yeah, I’d put money on that.

That Saturday I was supposed to help interpret for one of the foreign artists at the technology exhibition, so I headed out a little early and stopped by the art exhibition downtown to check it out. The school has a group that does TV programming for the local cable channel, and some of that was surprisingly funny/interesting. I didn’t get to see everything before I had to head to the tech exhibition. One of the foreign artist pairs had a table on the exhibition floor, and was supposed to be doing a workshop from 4-5pm. There was no actual workshop, so I just ended up standing around the table for 2 hours, occasionally helping people engage with the project, but mostly doing nothing, especially since there was another guy on duty, essentially doing the same thing.

The tech exhibition, though, had some cool stuff, so I returned (off –duty) on Sunday to just check out all the other tables. There was a bike that had LEDs built into the spoke area of the wheel, and when the wheel rotated, the LEDs formed an image or simple animation. Neat! There was also a series of live musical performances and workshops with unconventional self made musical set-ups. I checked out one such performance, and although walking in halfway through, I immediately got into the music. It was some solid techno, only made better (worse?) by the amount of Pikachu paraphernalia on stage.



I also stumbled upon a neat project where a pong game system is hooked up to a pair of jeans, and you move the zipper up and down to move your paddle on the screen up and down. It was definitely more difficult to control using the zipper, but my natural video game ability came through and I became the first person to actually win my match against the computer paddle. Woot!



There was some cool liquid art as well as a group of knitters with some impressively complex-looking creations. And I thought this thing was just plain neat.


One guy had built an Othello-playing machine comprised mainly of LEGOs.



Then I came upon a table with a project that is distinctly, and damningly, Japanese in nature. There was a waist and pair of legs (stuffed, I imagine) sitting in seiza sytle (knees together and bent) on the table. The legs were wearing a standard skirt from a school girl outfit. Then there was an iPhone with the picture of an animated school girl from the waist up. They had designed an app/system so that the iPhone is wirelessly connected with a fan/air burster hidden underneath the skirt. The harder one blows into the mic of the iPhone the more air gets shot up. Blow hard enough, and the skirt flips up, revealing the panties of these stuffed legs. Only in Japan.



I couldn’t help but think how much further ahead they’d be on the woman front if they had taken all that time they used to design this pointless system and actually used it to interact with the opposite gender. They tried to get some 10-12 year old looking kid to do it, but the kid was understandably wierded out and refused to. Good choice, kid.

I ended up getting roped into helping one of the foreign artists around the show floor, but I eventually got out of there and back home. Hakuho racked up a 4th straight undefeated sumo championship, and is on course to break the all-time win streak record come next tourney in November (starts in just over a week!). That should be exciting!