hello people, meant to do an update earlier this week but got sick and felt lousy and missed school wednesday plus it was a holiday yesterday too. so now i'm doing my updates that i meant to do a few days ago. about 2 weeks ago, my host family brought me to this kimono convention where vendors show their kimonos and people start picking their kimonos to prepare for their coming of age ceremony next january. the kimonos i saw were incredibly overpriced. they were starting at least for 8 thousand to around 30,000$$$!!! man, and the kimono i picked up for new years i thought was expensive but the stuff they had were insane. it was only for the kimono, that doesn't include the fancy stuff like the belts, other layers, accessories, shoes, handbag etc etc. anyhoo, they picked out this fabric and the lady who had extremely bad breath i mite add, helped draped it around me so it became very close to being a kimono. u can pick the fabric u like and they custom make it for u in about 40 days. so here's mine, a pink fabric with a very simple design of the cherry blossom. in fact, i think it's too simple. i like more flashy kimonos but then the bad breath lady and everyone else did agree that it suited me.
some shots of the kimonos other vendors were selling. this section were more for the young people, they're starting to look at kimonos for their ceremony to celebrate when they turn 20, 20 is the legal age for being an adult.
here's the kimono they picked out for their oldest daughter who'll be turning 20 soon. she was in a different province for school so i was there to help model out. i think the kimono is butt ugly, the colors don't stand out enuf, plus the fabric felt like a kitchen rag cuz it was bumpy. and the price tag just for the kimono was over 30,000$!! very expensive for a kitchen dish rag.
after the show, they fed us lunch. my first traditional jap boxed lunch
then off to see a show of the geisha and maikos. in front of the dance theather , all of these events took place in kyoto. kimonos, geishas all in kyoto. and here's my host parents. the youngest daughter took the pic
b4 the show started, we got seated in the guest room and outside u could see a jap garden. i saw those red tables where people sit to drink tea and i ran over to get a shot of it.
then they brought us to another room to eat a sweet and drink some disgusting thick green bitter tea for awhile. in front of us were a geisha. geisha is the older entertainer, usually recognizable with the black kimono, her hair all put up.
later, a younger maiko came. a maiko is an apprentice, who usually wears more colorful kimonos. i have picks of those but i decided to update up to here. next time, i'll have pics of the maiko as well as the dancing. but that'll be after the long long weekend in may :)
april 22, 2004
damn, some pics mite not show up cuz i've been exceeding my limit on those pics from a diff free geocities account. if some picstures dont' show, plus be patient and check again later. it takes like an hr for those pics to be restored if i do exceed the limit. next week is golden week! there are 4 national holidays ina row, plus weekend so i'm free! thursday is off, then bloody school on friday, then from sat-wed are all holidays! :) this week's been tough cuz cramming in tests and all this week. by the end of this friday, it'll be 4 tests done and this coming monday, a bloody presentation that i'm so sick of preparing for, it's not even funny. anyhoo, sakura's all gone. they were all gone last week. but i did take some last pictures of them. now those trees are already have a full coat of green leaves and unfortuantely, i'm smack middle of hay fever. >:(
here's kyobashi, it's the edge of osaka and close to my homestay, just a few train stops away. by the kyobashi river, on the other side there were some sort of a festival setup, but i was too lazy to move over there.
peopel getting in 1 more weekend to look at the blossoms b4 they're all gone
when biking back home, my house is by a river filled with trash, but there's lots of sakura trees lining it by all the petals were all already dropping.
b4, i started sneezing a lot and thought that i was catching a cold cuz i wasn't feeling too good. but when the wind starting blowing ,all the flower can flying at my face and i started to have a sneezing attack. time to bring out my medicine for hay fever, but the pills have been sooo ineffective >:( usually i wake up in the middle of the nite with my nose all stuffed up and eyes dried out. i can't wait til this hay favor goes by.
all the petals dropping into the river
and on a different note, went to those purikura sticky pics places. they're found all over the place, especially in game centers. this game center, which i got a membership card for free, lets u rent costumes! well, i was always interested in wearing one of those high school girl uniforms, sooo i rented one! and i even rolled the skirt up more just like those jap high school girls to attract the pervs!
april 13, 2004
u know, i just checked the pics of the cherry blossoms. don't know if it's the school's shitty monitors that's making the cherry blossoms this disgusting white washed out colors instead of the light pink tress that i'm seeing on my website. hope you guys can let me know what color of the blossoms u see on your computer.
well i hope you enjoyed the sick pictures. come to think about it, i do have some other shots of the seedy prostitute area that my friend took pics of . will upload that too. but for now, i'm gonna put pics of the nice normal side of japan that we also know about, this time, more pics of kimonos! and no, i didn't spend a grand like i did like the purple kimono that i got for new years. this kimono , i borrowed from the host family. see, the plan was to take a family pic of us all wearing kimonos and i planned to pick up my purple one from my old host family. i left it there cuz i had a lot of crap to take with me to the new house. but since the family was away on the weekend, i couldn't get it. so we were short of a set of white undergarments for underneath the kimono. plus my host sisters didn't wake up early enuf b4 i had to go to see the cherry blossoms in kyoto. so it was only me and the youngest host sister, rei.
this kimono's a bit diff, the sleeves aren't nearly as long so it's not a pain in the ass to worry about getting the sleeves dirty. this was taken inside the living room. god, i look at this and think i look sooo un-debbie! there's no trace of my energy radiating from me...but i still like this pic anyways. brings out a diff side of me.
my host sister chika and mother helping the youngest kid into her kimono, she was so fidgety :)
ha ha, so un-japanese.
yeah, decide to take a modern shot of today's society along with traditional side. japanese kimonos and kids toy guns.
i wish they took a shot on my digi cam of us kneeling down with our hands on the floor, looking like we're apologizing. even though i got a copy of it on film, i don't have my scanner with me :(
a normal shot
and then, changed into another kind of kimono. this one is so easy to put on that u can wear in the house.
april 12, 2004
alright, it's time that i fulfill more of my promises for the guys that wants me to take pics of seedy japan. near my house, just a 2 minute walk away, i was out 1 nite for a walk and i came across this little shack. no, it was 2 shacks, and it was selling PORNO! there was no shopkeeper, just a sign asking u how old are u and if u're 18 yet. any good that will do cuz there's no one there. but yes, i found 8 of those vending machines that sells stuff for every guy's dreams. well, i 'm assuming ABNORMAL guys here. selling dvd's to books to even USED undies! i found some of those in the electronic town shops, but i didn't think of taking my camera out cuz i was in a store and i was scared they mite get pissed. so here's some of those vending machines that makes japan such a great country!
well, look at this! u can have fun for 3 hrs watching the dvd of your choice. actually, i think u're supposed to buy it and then go to your house for 3 hours worth of fun.
i mean, look at how sick these people are. RAPE dvd's, of HIGH SCHOOL KIDS. ok, maybe they're not high school kiddies ,but young adults who dresses up as high school kids and acting that they're getting all raped and shit. what does this tells us about their society?!
and this vending machine, sells used undies, school girl uniforms and bathing suits.
to make it even more sick, the 2nd row, 3rd item from the left, is a kiddie selling her bathing suit. her pic shows that she has no boobs, still a CHILD! i'm guessing, like 12, 13 years old. maybe it's her sick father that 's selling the stuff for his own profit making business.
and finally , those undies that u've been all waiting for since we all know about them.like i said , i did find them at the electronic shop area and u can pick up the packaged , uh, good and see the stains. besides the usual female stains, a few of them had a few other stains from our butt cracks if u know what i'm talking about! >_<
yes, japan is a great country. i like the cherry blossoms but there is a very seedy side of japan that that's hidden underneath all of its charm. i can never imagine canada doing this without causing people to be pissed and demanding regulations on porno and child porno issues.
i think the next update will be better, i have a different theme in mind.
april 8,2004
alright , more pics of sakura where i went to kyoto on sunday, just a day after the bbq. the place where i went , is translated as philospher's walk, very close to the silver pavillion that i went to in october. i think the pics are in the october updates. the silver pavillion that i thought was silver but there was no silver, only wood. anyhoo, the whole philospher's walk had about 300 trees lined along a river and there were lots of bridges and old large japanese houses. very traditional feel.
usually cherry blossoms are light pink, but i saw a few trees that had white blossoms. don't know if that's unusual or not, but i took a close up of it to remember.
i see a lot of these little shrines popping up all over japan, well not all over the place. but a lot in kyoto. it's a little shrine for the guardians. though i'm not too sure why but they often put clothes on the rocks. maybe to give the gods some clothes??
ha ha, i'm such a poser! :P
my fav shot of philospher's walk. sorry jennifer, don't think it's legal for me to go cutting the trees down for u. i expect the people would get quite upset!
and finally, i FINALLY found a little shop selling those rice balls. yeah i found them all over the place, but they weren't the 3 colored ones that i was after. usually i found the soy sauce covered one. actually, they all had the same flavor even though it was colored differently. i thought the green would be the green tea flavor, pink for strawberry and white for rice flavored, but they all tasted the same. but it was still good!
april 6,2004
back from a weekend where bbq and drinking was involved. i thought that i would get drunk under the trees but that didn't happen. nor did i see any drunken salarymen with their ties around the head dancing around. that's cuz i went on a saturday and that's a family day. a bunch of us foreigners and jap people came along. we were debating btw this park with 800 trees that's very famous, or by the river with 250 trees. but the park with the 800 trees forbids any bbq parties in fear of us burning down the trees when we get piss drunk. so, the river it was! we met at 10:30 and had to go to buy the meat, grub and alchohol b4 getting onto the train. so it was about 12ish that we got there.
check all the trees out! i need to bring home a few of them and plant them in my yard! they were all in full bloom and pink everywhere.living up to my homepage's name as sakura land!
and some pics of the people that i went with, a couple of swedes and jap people b4 we got drunk.
drink chu-hi! it's good for you, a sissy drink of only 4% but it tastes good.
some of the stuff we threw onto the grill
another shot of a swede and aussie and a canadian, me. those aussies! always late! the damn guy in the middle was late for 2 hrs. just in time to start eating >_< no, i'm not drunk in this picture. i only had 3 bottles to drink and i was still functioning, unlike my birthday party where i got trashed.
ha ha, the coordinator of this bbq, tatsuro. he was the guy who had the honor of getting me empty beer mugs for me to fill up when i was throwing up during my b-day party.
modelling with the blossoms
the whole pathway lined up with tree after tree after tree for a good 2 km.
close up
when the guys got pretty tipsy, they started having sumo matches! the guy in the middle, some stranger who was probably laughing at us stupid foreigners, referred the match.
what the hell is this? burnt popcorn! yeah, guess we left it sitting on the grill too long
by 3 pm or so, it was quite windy and cherry blossoms were falling off. don't know if u can see the white petals flying around
the aussie was drunk enuf, so was the jap. me and 2 gay good guy friends, showing how short i am to everyone else >:/
next update, more cherry blossoms in another area from kyoto! i went cherry blossom viewing again but it was rainy so the blossoms were already falling :(
april 2
the start to another weekeend! and this weekend will be cherry blossom, sakura, season, it's about time that i fullfiled my homepage's name as jp sakura land! this month's page will have a flowery theme as u can tell from the sakura background and the girl in kimono with sakura flowers around her. i do have some pics of sakura trees that i took in kyoto last tuesday where me and my host family were when we stayed overnite at a traditional japanese house with gardens. and right across from the street was the kamo river and lots of pink sakura trees were lined up. they weren't in full bloom but very close. that's why i'm so excited this weekend cuz it will be or very close to full bloom
there was a huge sakura tree close to the bank and i was able to get a close up with me and the blossoms. dont' worry jennifer! i'll find somehow to take some of the flowers home!
close up of some of the prettiest flowers i've seen in japan
and finally, a shot b4 i had to leave for school >:/ if i knew that we were staying in a japanese house and close ot the sakura trees, i would have come earlier from school! it took like 45 min by the fastest train to get to the last stop.the pic is a bit dark, prob cuz the sky was cloudy plus i didn't put the flash on.
after the weekend, will have lots of shots of the sakura trees and people getting drunk, which will probably be me!
