Alia Luria

Well, I’m sorry that it’s been weeks since I’ve updated this site. I’ve had a one visitor after another, and the semester is winding down, which means a lot more projects and preparation for finals. As well, I’m also in the midst of preparing to depart Japan, as well.

I should write a few tidbits about the last month, however, so that you get some idea of what it’s been like.

Spring Break
For spring break, Amey and I traveled around Japan, visiting Kyoto, Nara, Himeji and Osaka. The trip was a blast, and I particularly loved Kyoto. I could have spent much more time there, and I’m really glad that I’ll have a chance to go back with David in May (even though it will be Golden Week, so travel will be very expensive). I ended up taking over 1,000 photos in March, so I have a ton up on Flickr. The temples in Kyoto were amazing, and the Japanese gardens were stunning. I think they were borderline my favorite part of the trip. It was like standing in a fairy land. Here are just a very few of the salient sights…

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)

Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion), was under renovation

Eiken-do Temple – View of Kyoto

Todaiji Temple in Nara

Maiko Geisha Spotting!

Nijo Castle’s Garden

Imperial Palace Garden

Gion Corner Maiko Dance

Himeji Castle

And that’s kind of a shortcut to that…

Pacific Culture Workshop

The highlight of this workshop sponsored through the school was definitely getting to wear a kimono. The lady really had to rush to get me into it, and I was wearing a sweater and jeans, so it’s amazing how much bulk the kimonos will hide! I really loved the kimono and wanted to take it home with me!

Tokyo International Anime Convention 2008

Amey and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the anime convention, but I did manage to get a photo with Al from Fullmetal Alchemist!

I will have to do a whole entry on the sakura trees and plum blossoms, which were both gorgeous. Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) season in Japan is truly a great experience, and it is probably the most beautiful that Japan ever looks… with flowering trees everywhere. The weather has been so bad the last couple days that it’s possible that the trees are no longer blooming, but I managed to get a lot of photos of Ueno park and other trees. I will put some photographs up when I have some more time!

So, I made it back to Tokyo safe and sound. And my apartment hasn’t been leveled by a fire or earthquake, so all is good. I have a lot of photos and videos to share about my adventures in Kyoto. It was an amazing place, and I’m super looking forward to going back there with David in May. :) I took almost 1000 photos while I was in Western Honshu this week, and the vast majority of them are up on Flickr already, although they mostly need tags and descriptions. I will, as usual, post some of the highlights here, as well as links to videos.

As far as video, this video of me feeding a baby deer should tide you over until I get my links added and described! :)

This guy was really cute. He had two pet cats on leashes that he was walking around the temple complex. After attempting to walk his white cat for a while, he gave up and picked it up and bounced it around for our entertainment. I think the leash was more to keep the cat from leaving than to actually walk it, although I did see him walking it later in the day! The brown cat just seemed to want to sit on his back the whole time though. It was pretty funny!

Cat photo – kawaii desu!

Tug tug on the leash

Cat video – it bounces!

Well, I finally got around to editing my video footage of Toshogu. It’s pretty terrible, but the conditions were hard, as the walking was rocky and there was snow (caused some overexposure and camera shake). So, here it is…

I think my motivation came from the fact that I have a ton of photos and video from Hakone that I need to get onto my computer, so I wanted to free up some space. :) Anyway, whatever the motivations, at least I’m only behind by some days. I might put up some video from the train ride to Nikko as well, since it might be interesting to some to see the Japanese “countryside.”

Well, that’s all for now…. Ja, mata!

Well, I did take photos and video at karaoke, and maybe I’ll post a few of the photos at some point. I’ll probably keep most of the video to myself, because if I record my friends singing and slap it on the web, they will record ME singing, and that would be truly tragic. However, I do have one video to share. The video below is the screen of the karaoke machine as Hide (the random Japanese salary man that joined our group) sang his Japanese rap song. If you speak Japanese, and this song is dirty, I apologize in advance. I could barely recognize the words, let alone their meaning at the speed he was rapping. Anyway, I thought it was interesting because you can see on the screen how it’s a mix of kanji, katakana, hiragana, furigana(the little kana over the kanji), and English. So, the screen is basically a mess. Hide must have had it memorized, because he barely even looked at the screen when he sang.

Even the English songs had katakana over the words so that Japanese people could sing them even if they couldn’t read English.

Also, near the end of the video, you can see the door open and a waitress come in. She and her counterparts were the only ones witness to our antics. Although, you could apparently hear us down the hallway. Those silly foreigners are always so loud!

Well, anyway…

Hide’s Rap Song

The weather was quite horrible today (rather yesterday) in Tokyo, so I ended up not going to the Setsubun festivals. I created a video highlighting the lovely snowy weather. Just when I praised Viddler, they seemed to have a problem getting my snow video to encode, so I had to resort to uploading it to YouTube. Anyway, here is a longish video of me in the snow, attempting to get to a place to eat. It’s the first opportunity for those back home to see my neighborhood, albeit this weather doesn’t really highlight the beauty of the area. Anyway, enjoy!

Snow in Tokyo

My Robot Movie

So… about what I learned about. Yesterday, on my way home, I got on the train going in the wrong direction, because sometimes I’m just stupid. Anyway, I was playing with my iPhone while I was waiting for the train in the right direction, and I stumbled across an open wifi network. It wasn’t really open though. It would only take me to a specific portal. I gather that I would have to somehow pay to use the general Internet, but was a super cool site nonetheless. It knew which train station I was at and hitting various buttons revealed train schedules, a map if the various exits, and the map of the line. I ran out of time to fully explore the various links because my train arrived and the wifi is only in the stations themselves and not in transit. Anyway, like I said, you learn something new every day. If I’m ever completely not sure where I should be going, I can always consult my iPhone at the station.

In other news, I finally got ma gaijin card today. I ended up walking all around Shinagawa, but I finally made it there. Ahhh, I’m not lost in translation, I’m just always lost. :P

P.S. Why Viddler Rocks – it doesn’t limit my video length to 10 minutes like YouTube does. Thanks Viddler!

P.P.S. Engrish of the day!

So, it apparently really snowed today in Tokyo. I wouldn’t know, because I was not feeling well, so I was in bed until I absolutely had to leave and go to class. I did see some ice left over on the ground while I was out and about, which was really nuts. Apparently, it was quite pretty until it turned into a cold, rainy evening, which is what I saw when I left the house. Nothing worse than rain except cold rain! So, I missed the “winter wonderland experience.”

About me not feeling well, I mentioned that my side was hurting me again after the Supreme Court tour. That seems to finally be feeling a bit better, which is a relief. I’ve been taking it easy the last couple days. I’ve also had something of a cold developing that I’ve been trying to fight off with sleep and water. I couldn’t keep anything down last night, and I had a little bit of nausea earlier, so I was starting to get worried. However, I was able to have a really good meal this evening. Normally, I wouldn’t have been out of class until 9:30 PM, but International Finance was cancelled because my professor was sick (everyone is sick here right now). So, I got out of class at 6:20 and had a quiet dinner with some of the other students. We went to a place that served curry, and I had an omudon (omelet bowl) with curry. The curry was REALLY good. It had mushrooms and meat in it. The meal also came with a cabbage salad that was good and a really good bowl of miso soup. The whole thing was only 640 yen. I love that about Japan. :P

Anyway, I think I’m going to stick with the tried and true egg/rice bowls. The eggs are always easy to eat and the rice is usually pretty easy as long as there is no nori. The noodles are frequently harder to deal with because they are gummier and they are usually much saltier dishes, although sometimes you just want some hot soup.

On Saturday, some of us are going to go to the ancient city of Kamakura, so hopefully I will have some really pretty photos of the temples and the giant buddha. We’ll see. It is supposed to be overcast, so it might not be optimal picture-taking weather.

As for other stuff, here is the video I promised of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It wasn’t really a good video because of the glare, but it is all I have for now!

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observation Deck

So, I went (with about 70 of my classmates) to the Grand Sumo Tournament today. It was a lot of fun. I’m too tired to explain the details of Sumo tonight, but I have created this video of images and clips from the tournament. The tournament lasts 14 days, and this was only day 6. I neglected to put the date into the video, but it took place on January 19th, 2008. Also, the video quality is a little low, because I uploaded a compressed version (the full one was 1.2 gigs, and it would have taken forever to upload). Instead, I uploaded my iphone quality version, so hopefully you can still read the text.

I’m very proud of myself. Even though this is a noob video, it was my very first iMovie compilation involving any more than just still images. Those of you who know me know that my technological expertise does not reside in videography. Anyway, I hope it is not too offensive to those of you who are video aficionados. :) I tried my best in the hour or so that it took me. There is one really nasty cut where my camera accidentally took a still photo in the middle. I forgot to cut it out, but maybe I’ll go back and edit it later.

Anyway, I will post more information on Sumo at a later point, but here is a quick link to the Grand Tournament Homepage and the Wikipedia Wiki for those of you who are interested in reading up on the traditional Japanese sport of Sumo.

Grand Sumo Tournament Video Compilation

This was really cute. Thanks to Shane for finding it! I will have to have my camera with me at all moments in Tokyo…