At the Charity Show After-party last weekend, I was asked to sing a song (Bob Marley’s “Is This Love”) with the fantastic Toyama-based band Loose Kingdom, and I had a blast singing with them. I’m pleased to announce I’ll be joining them again as a guest singer for a few songs at the ‘Masqued’ event at Mau Fine Arts Studio this coming Saturday (June 19), and if all goes well I’ll join them as a co-lead singer for their final* show on June 18 at the Artist’s Cafe in Toyama! So if you’re in the area, come on out and support us!
*Unfortunately for us, two of the three band members will be leaving the country in August, but I’m grateful for the chance to share this last bit of glory with them.
Hanami. A time for friends...
... for funny faces ...
... and for music and merryment.
Hanami (花見）: Literally the characters for “flower” and “look” stuck together, hanami is, according to my Japanese-English dictionary, “a cherry blossom-viewing picnic.” That description, however, doesn’t quite properly explain the atmosphere of hanami. Really, it’s an enormous public party that gives Japanese people an excuse to drink a LOT, all day long. Hanami happens during this lovely time of year when the entire country of Japan, very briefly, turns pink from all the blooming sakura (桜), or cherry-blossoms. For a few weeks it seems like the whole country has sakura-mania: they discuss every day on the news when the flowers will bloom and where, it frequently becomes the topic of everyday conversation, and there are websites that list every hanami spot in the country and tell you what percentage of the flowers are currently in bloom at each location. It can get a little crazy, but it’s a lot of fun and the food (sold out of food stalls) is fantastic.
This year we went to the park around the old castle in Takaoka (a 40-minute-or-so train ride away), which I’m told is the most popular hanami spot in the prefecture. We were blessed with fantastic weather for that day. I took my ukulele, my partner-in-crime Chris brought his guitar, and we jammed the day away under the sakura.
It’s been a good while since I posted a picture of my school lunch, so here’s what I had today: a typical Japanese salad, some bite-size fried fish (the entire body), a bizarre miso-ramen concoction with corn and quail eggs, and, of course, rice.
The school that I teach at 3 days out of the week has not one single western-style toilet. They only have the old Japanese-style squatters like this one. I have not yet had to go number 2 while at school, though, and I pray I can make it the rest of the year.
I’m sick
and it’s bad, but not really bad enough to keep me home from work, which is annoying. Even if it were that bad, though, I might end up going to work anyways because taking sick leave is such a pain here. You have to get a doctor’s note to take sick leave, which means you have to pay to go see the doctor, then you have to pay extra to get an actual doctor’s note from him/her, and after spending all that money it’s just not even worth it unless you have, like, leukemia or something.
Long story short: I’m at work today, and I’m not happy about it.
Cleaning out my computer today I found this old cell phone camera pic from almost 4 years ago. Meeting and talking to Cheech was so awesome. He was far more intelligent and impassioned than I ever expected him to be.
Japan’s lack of daylight savings time
means the sun is down by the time I get home from work. That is a major downer.
About Me
My name is Lawrence Denes.After spending 5 years studying Japanese language, culture, literature, and history in St. Louis and Kyoto, I now live in Japan, in a town that most Japanese people have never even heard of, lost amid the rice fields and vending machines.
Please feel free to ask me anything, or send me an email.
