THE JAPAN PROJECT 2004.01.14

THE JAPAN PROJECT. 14/01/04 (Or in Japanese 16(The Year)/01/14)

Well my friends, I have now seen the Yakuza. And on top of that, no one can now say I’ve never watched the sunrise from an Onsen on the six-floor of a high-rise.

The weekend before Christmas was quite eventful and I thought I better document it before it dulls in my mind. Friday 19th, I look out my window early morning and it was snowing. SNOWING, the first snow of my life was falling from the sky. I can’t believe I had to come all the way to Japan to see my first snow. Lol. Leaving from the Yamaguchi Prefecture, Saturday morning amongst the snow, all 150 foreign students across the 2 Yamaguchi campuses made our way to the southernmost island of Japan, Kyushu. 5 hours in total was spent on the bus that day, which ultimately ended up very tiring due to our tour guide who talked without breath for over 4 hours until myself and Chris begged out Teacher to shut her up. (It was seriously that bad. After 3 hours it was worse than torture!! ><) But despite that, on that same day we visited a massive shrine established 1400 years ago, and a serious of famous hot springs, all amongst the heavy snow. The springs were quite awesome, but there was also a small zoo amongst the springs, where made me quite mad. There was an elephant in a ridiculously small cage, a hippopotamus living in a hole in the ground, and a series of other African animals, freezing in the snow. The Japanese truly disgrace me with their lack of respect for animals.

After moving on from the springs we went to the Onsen, which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It reminded me more than I expected of Sen to Chihiro. The building reached for the sky, and inside was a maze of corridors, full of song, food and servants busying themselves. There is no other explanation of the place required if you’ve Sen to Chihiro. If you haven’t seen it, WATCH IT NOW!!! After a traditional Japanese banquet, and some warm Japanese sake I went to bed early, so I could get up early and watch the sun rise from the Onsen. It was truly an amazing sight. The crescent moon hung amongst the stars for a long time as the sun rose. The most crisp moon I have ever seen. I felt very weird to get naked with so many other men, but the experience was worth it.

After a traditional breakfast we traveled to a nearby shrine that was the home to over 2000 monkeys. There were monkeys eeeeeeeeeevery, and thankfully, this time, not in a cage. They had a whole mountain to roam free. When feeding time came they all swarmed running through everyone’s legs, and I tell you, there is nothing quite like 2000 monkeys swarming for feed. WOW. After the monkeys we started to travel deep within the mountains and saw Buddhists statues over 1000 years old, and finally arrived at a rather large village set within a deep valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The village was called Yufuin, and it was so cool. So many specialty stores amongst a traditional style Japanese village. It is hard to explain the exact style of the place, but it was truly beautiful. After buying a few more Christmas presents for friends and family we continued on our journey and headed for home

After a few more hours we stopped at a truck stop to use the toilet, and that is where it happened, three black cars pulled up in a hurry, all the windows tinted. From every door, out poured suited men, except for the rear door of the first car. A man wearing nothing but black and with slicked back hair, jumped out swinging an empty water bottle in his hand. Straight away three of the suited men were at his side practically begging to take the water bottle from his hands. After casually tossing it into one of their hands, he continued into the toilet. Finally after they had all gone into the toilet, a final man exited the last car, who seriously looked like the god-father... only Japanese, and lighted up a cigarette. My teacher, who stood next to me at the time also commented on them being Yakuza, and said not to pay to much attention to them. It was scary to realize that it was just like all the rumors say, and the man I just saw, was probably very high in the scheme of things.

A week before the trip to Kyushu, on the 12^th, there was also a great little party in my room where a mixture of Japanese friends and Friends made in the International house all came to drink, be merry and play some PS games. It was a lot of fun despite the fact I got more drunk than I ever have in my life! >< But luckily, due to the fact I made a pig of myself with food, I didn’t have any hangover in the morning. I guess that’s a good thing, lol. It was a lot of fun.

Again a week after Kyushu it was time for another party. A Christmas party!!! This time, however, I drunk very little. Lol. We had had very little planned for Christmas, but luckily thanks to the determination of Belinda, my Friend from Melbourne, we ended up having one of the most Australian Christmas’s I’ve ever had. We had a huge roast that fed 16 of us. Amazingly, most of the Japanese people who came had never seen a whole chicken before!!! Many of the presents I have bought for friends and family are still sitting in my room as I’m still figuring out the postal system (and I’m alittle lazy), but I hope they all know my thoughts are with them. Just a few days before the New Year I also was luck enough to see my firsy Symphony preformed. It was truely awesome. I think I love classical music even more now! Some of the pieces were so powerful, moreso when the music is wrapped around you like that.

Unfortunately I didn’t have very much planned for New Years, and Marianna went on a trip to Tokyo, so I ended up staying with Chris in his room playing Project Zero 2. As many of you should know, Project Zero is based around scary rituals that are supposed to occur at a Japanese shrine. So we planned to play Project Zero 2 until midnight and then go to the local shrine to see how scary it was. Ingenious I know. However we turned on the TV just before midnight hoping to see some fire works to bring in the New Year, instead there was nothing of the sort. The best thing we could find was of a guy who was waiting to be hit by a tree. Seriously. A naked guy was standing in front of a 10 foot high drum, in the subzero weather, waiting for them to release a log the size of a tree into the drum which he stood in front of. It was Insane! He kept chanting and pouring cold water over himself until the tree was lit on fire and released. It swung down on wires and the guy literally just disappeared as the drum burst into flames. After that craziness, we finally decided to go to the shrine. The trip up there was quite nerve racking, especially with the game so fresh in our mind’s. However, when we arrived, there were quite a number of people there bringing in the New Year even in the small shrine behind the international house. We were invited into the shrine to drink our first sake of the year and afterwards to eat with others around a raging fire that was really nice. It ended up being quite a nice New Years over all. I don’t know why, but I’ve also been watching a lot of scary movies lately with friends. The Japanese really make some great horror movies and there is nothing more fun then getting scared with friends and telling ghost stories afterwards. Hehe.

One piece of REALLY good news, I just finished reading my first manga! As everyone should know, I have for awhile now, tried to read manga, but have always found it alittle difficult to understand all the words and sentence structures without spending twice the time in a dictionary as I would the actual manga. I did buy quite a few manga when I first arrived, hoping to learn a lot from them, but again was spending more time in a dictionary than in the manga. On the weekend however, I picked up a manga again, and found I could actually READ IT!!! HALALUYA!!! And within a couple of hours I had actually read the whole thing, and understood it all!!! Of course I still needed my Dictionary abit with words, but there was no grammar I didn’t understand, and a lot of the words I did actually know! I was so shocked and happy. The first real proof that I’m making progress with my Japanese. ^_^ I have also made a couple of good Japanese friends who I have been spending abit of time with lately. And surprisingly, with alot of mistakes, I can actually spend a day with them without many communication problems.

^ The pre-Kyushu party just getting started. > In our Karaoke Booth. Reading manga, singing, all you can drink for 7 hours every Friday. Does it get any better?!? ^_^
^ Ako, Hikari, Chris, Christopher, Marianna. > Outside the karaoke booth looking up abit of the hall. Been going at least once a week so Im starting to get good!!! hehe.
^ Everyone eating and being merry at the small party. It was held in my room. > The karaoke hall again,so awesome. So much good Japanese pop that needs to be sung there.
^ I borrowed Belinda's hat for this photo. Dont I look cute! Hikari, Ako and Chris in the photo with me. > Yufuin's main street! Loved that place.
^ That white cloud cloud is my first snow heading straight for me! > The Hippopotamus that was encaged in another water pit in the zoo. Waiting to be fed.
^ Its alittle hard to make out, but that white stuff in the photo is my first snow. It falls thicker and faster now, but I still love it! > Monkey looking at monkey! ^_^
^ Fields intertwine with suburbs throughout Yamaguchi. People are regularly working in them, but when then burn off I sometime think its to much. > In front of a bell at Mt. Takasaki.

Now onto the games.

BUJINGAI, or better know around here as the GACKT game. WOW! You would think for a shameless Plug, the game would be quite bad, but after finishing it, I give it 3 thumbs up. It is sooooo addictive. Gackt really did a good job with this game, its not only modeled on him, but he did all the vocals, and he also did all the motion-capture. There is so much extra Gackt related stuff on the game that I don’t think would ever make it to an international release, but I think the game play alone is good enough to earn it an Australia release. Lets see how it goes.

DRAG-ON DRAGOON, the first game to be released by Squaresoft after uniting with Enix. WOW, what a game, hack and slash RPG action with a dragon. Heavy magic and various weapon use with the option to freely ride your dragon in most levels. Truly awesome, as you should all know how much I love my dragons. This one will sorely make it to Australia, but maybe not for awhile as it is very new. Look out for it.

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION. I know how disappointed many of you probably are with me for buying something like Dance Dance, but Ive grown to really love it, and in this cold weather, it’s the best exercise I can get without freezing my ass off. I’ve gotten a lot of great music for it now and I look forward to challenging some of you when I get home!

PROJECT ZERO 2, it might be hard to believe, but I think this game might be scarier than the first. Me and Chris have been playing it a lot at night lately. Its so scary I cant stand to have the control in my hand for very long (I know, I’m a wimp). Its set in a whole village this time rather than just a mansion. Lots of great rituals and even more realistic looking ghosts to keep you entertained in the dark for hours. Haha.

Good games coming out in the next 4 months.

Dynasty Warriors 5 (two weeks)

Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission

Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy VII-2

Kingdom Hearts 2

There is so much more to be said about the great games here, but I will leave it there for now.

Well everyone, take care, sorry I don’t check my email much but I will reply everything when I do, so keep in touch ok? I hope your all enjoying these diary entries and they take a lot of work. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for all!

PS, look forward to going back to the JPOP Culture club as I’ve got some great stuff to send over for raffles!!! Kiwotsukete!!!

Your old Prez live in Japan,

ZAC!!!