What Are These Even Called?

Looking through my pictures, I realize I've gathered quite a number of these (thanks mostly to Ken.) See if you can recognize where they're from.

Well this one's given.

The Blooming of the Plums

It's a start!

It's a month until the cherry blossoms erupt into full bloom again. Before long, buds will turn into flowers and the streets will be pink for a few short weeks before going grown. For those who can't wait, though, it's a well-known fact that around here that plum blossoms come around a little earlier, and are set to be in full bloom by now. In theory.
 Actually, they aren't. It got a little colder this year. But hey, they've started blooming and should be perfect by next week or so? I would know because I went and had a look myself, just this Sunday.

A few minutes' walk away from the prestigious Tokyo University (or Todai, short for Tokyo Daigaku) is a shrine called Yushima Tenjin, known for two things: the first is its affiliation with luck when it comes to studies. Hundreds of students who attempt to enter Todai pass by and purchase a wooden tag to inscribe their prayers of success on, and leave them at Yushima Tenjin, so that the awesome Shinto God of Entrance Exams at Tokyo University can read thousands of the same prayer day after day and flip coins on whether to let them enter the college or not. (Kidding, lest I be smitten. There is no such God in Shinto.)

Yushima Tenjin, at a glance.

The second thing the shrine is known for is its grove of plum trees. The "ume-matsuri" plum festival is held between February 7th and March 7th, and is accompanied with many performances of every kind (most of them traditional Japanese) on a small stage in the center of the temple grounds. I was on the site in time to catch a lovely dance performance traditionally from the island of Sado in Niigata, accompanied by the distinctive sound of olden flute and string. It's the kind of thing I like catching, if only because it reminds me of where I am.
It was a nice visit, even though it was brief. I can only imagine what the place would've been like if the plum blossoms were actually full. If you like, though, here's a video of the aforementioned dance. Enjoy!

2014 Banners!

 I'm happy to announce that I got a couple of submissions this year! Actually, more than I did last year, and almost from a completely new crowd! Many of these banners even have me in them. Neat!

Here they are! A great big thanks to:

Caitlin Hall!

Ken Tanaka!

Sophie "The Dane" Monrad!

My cousin-in-law, Tony DiPietro!

Danick Benoit!

I'll shortly be asking for your addresses so that I can compensate you as promised! You guys rock! If anyone still wants to submit banners, feel free to, but you won't get a prize!

Battle Trophies

These are a few things I've received from kids over the last year, which was my second year at the same job at My Gym.
Not pictured:
- A heap of candy and chocolate, almost enough to make me diabetic.
- A handsome origami hippo, very difficult to make show up on camera.
- Five special requests asking that I be the host of a very expensive birthday party.

Thanks kids! You give me strength!

NHK World - A Look Behind the Scenes

Hail, hail. I'm a Government-Sponsored Cultural Ambassador for Co-Festa now, at least in title (I realize I'm making that sound like something huge. It isn't, but it's certainly something pleasant.) That entitles me to certain cool things, like yesterday's visit to NHK's headquarters in Shibuya! Ever heard of NHK? They're Japan's national public broadcasting organization. Their NHK World channel is broadcasted worldwide, and that was the main focus of our visit.

And so it was that I met up with the other CoFesta ambassadors, who happen to almost all be students in their 20's. They're a nice bunch, and, although I didn't join CoFesta in hopes of making friends, I did find myself walking out with quite a few. They're quite an international bunch, but I quite was proud to be Canada's sole representative (at least amongst the few that were gathered yesterday.)

Awh yeah, center left.

 All that aside though, our visit began with a tour of the NHK Newsline studio, where International News is recorded and broadcasted from. We arrived smack in the middle of a recording, and got to see the staff full on at work for a weather report. Once done, the weatherman greeted us on his way out, and the studio was ours to have a look at and play around in. We promptly did.

Why aren't I a radio host?

Next on schedule was a tour of their radio booth. We had a quick look at the facility, and were guided through the Radio Japan office, where it was explained to us that Radio Japan broadcasts in 18 different languages.
 As we walked through the office space, we stopped at every language and some of the ambassadors got to exchange a few words with the hardworking staffers of their respective language. We must've been quite a sight, because a few people got up and started taking pictures of us. All is well!
 When we got to French, I happened to be the only French-speaking person in the group. "Hello," I said, in French. "Hi. Sorry, I'm really busy," said the only man working in that department at that time. He was actually a French-speaking Japanese. "Oh. Please go on," I replied. And that was that. Oh well.

We were soon escorted to a meeting room and given a briefing about NHK World. As it happens, one of their
shows, called Journeys in Japan, is looking for foreigners to bring to different sides of the country for five days, all expenses paid, while a camera crew follows them around. I took note of that, although they do hope for better Japanese speakers than I. Who knows, maybe some day.

It looked something like this.

 After a break, our visit culminated with a visit to a recording of the music-oriented television show, J-Melo, where we had an opportunity to take a peak at the host, May J (who you should look up) recording. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures or record here, seeing as the show had not yet aired. We were treated to a short live presentation of the Japanese rock band, Flow, who broke big through anime and are known mostly for having sang one of the opening themes for the very famous anime, Naruto. Fighting Dreamers, anyone?

 And that was it! From there we were given 1000¥ to cover transportation expenses, and broke up into the night. It had been a very enjoyable experience, and, though I didn't know what to expect at first, I ended up leaving quite satisfied at having met the others and being treated to the nice visit and live show. Hurray, ambassadorship!

A Snowstorm in Tokyo

That umbrella won't help you, bro.

Well it does happen once or twice in a year, but apparently, this one beat a few records. I wouldn't say the snowfall was particularly heavy, but it did go on throughout the whole day, so the snow had lots of time to pile up.
 Looking at people's social network feed, you would have thought it was a miracle. Looking at the televised news, the apocalypse. "Don't go out," they warned, "you would be putting yourself in danger! Snowfall like this has not been seen in Tokyo in 16 years!"
 Well, the wind kind of sucked. But all the while I'm hearing this and thinking, piece of cake. This kind of weather is the bread and butter of Montreal. Your run of the mill morning.
 But it's amazing how circumstances affect everything. Here in Tokyo, trains were stopped, with thousands of commuters stranded helpless. People bumbling down the streets with umbrellas, not knowing how to handle the snow coming sideways. The guys with the shovels on the street corners, doing in two hours the work a snowplow would do in twelve minutes.
 I went out to eat and the Indian restaurant owner smiled at my loyalty.
 I know where I'm from, folks.

Canadian Style Poutine?

Nope. It would've been too good to be true.

A Late Hatsumode

There'd be quite a few more heads on the 1st.

Hatsumode is technically the first shrine visit of the New Year. What most people imply by it is the visiting of a shrine during the first three days of the year, so by that standard I'm really pretty damn late. Not that I hadn't tried! There was a damnably long line on the 2nd of January. So long in fact that they had to get people to direct the flow of traffic so that the streets weren't blocked by people waiting for a turn to get into the shrine. It was a little despairing to look at. Besides, I ended up getting sidetracked that day by the news that Lo's and Haruka's child was born.
 But here I am waiting in a far shorter line at the Tokyo Daijingu shrine in Iidabashi. It actually goes by pretty quick when there aren't several thousand people! The traditional Japanese prayer is fairly speedy. Bow twice, clap twice, pray in silence for a 3-5 seconds, bow once more, leave. Cue in the next guy. I can't say I regret not being in the four hour line.

Wooden wish tags!

If we wanna get technical, 2014 is the Year of the Horse - basically if you're turning 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, or 96, it's your year, so God owes you a lollipop and a tax refund.
 I've been told I would have pretty shit luck this year, but so far so good, I guess! Everyone around me seems to be a little worst off than I am, with one of my coworkers starting the year off with torn menisci, and two others with devastating family emergencies.
I wonder if any of them were turning 24?