Last week, I went with my friends Kamelija and Nicolas to have sushi. This place is really good and it's right by my dorm even though I never knew about it!
I had been to a rotary bar, but this bar was a bit different. You're given a menu and have to order in a loud voice each sushi you want. You order one or two plates at a time and each plate comes with two pieces of sushi made right in front of you. It's also pretty cheap given the fact that a plate of 14 sushi in Japanese restaurants in the states tend to be about $14+ and I payed about $8-9 for 5 plates, which means 10 peices of sushi.
This is geso, which means baby squid tenticles. yummm
This is shirako, which means cod sperm. not so yum...(Nicolas ordered it, not me. He loves it.)
Kamelija (my Croatian friend who was in my class last semester. she's really sweet), Nicolas (he has like 7 nationalities but he was born in France and goes to school in England so he speaks perfect British English. apparently, his school made a mistake when signing him up for Keio and he has to spend his second semester in Kobe University. he left on Sunday and im really sad i didnt get to say goodbye directly :< he's really such a sweet guy), and Katharina (german).
I love Kamelija and Nicolas. They're such great people. Nicolas especially made a big impression on me when he told me how he really loves all the art I do and told me about how everyone in my class cherishes the keychains I made them for Christmas. He said, "Kenia, you really don't know how happy your art makes people." That simple comment really made me happy. Nicolas, I hope we can meet again!
How was it? Well, to put it short, it was disturbing, disgusting, and uncomfortable. TONS of foreigners as well. It was only tolerable because I was with friends. Ok, I understand how there may be a historic rationality behind this festival because the phallus represents human fertility and human life. But, really, I believe that in the end it's just a demonstration of human perversion.
There was even a portable shrine with a large metallic phallus. Apparently, a few of the people carrying it were 'new half'. In Japan, there exist the concept of 'halfs', in other words half Japanese, half another country. Although 'new half' may sound like some kind of interesting new concept, it has nothing to do with 'halfs'. 'New halfs' are usually males who have a sex change to look like females. In other words, half female half male. There are quite a few nowadays who have a prominent position in television and the entertainment world. I don't think that these people would be accepted in American society very well at all. Especially, since they would immediately be seen as gay. Not that Japan has tolerance for gay people, quite the contrary. From what I know, Japan refuses to believe that gay people exist. New halfs are on television shows, in advertisements, and in the music industry; 'gay like' behavior on tv etc. is seen as amusing rather than offensive; there are whole sections in the bookstores devoted to boyxboy (called shounen ai or yaoi) novels and manga. But that's just fiction of the literary, artistic, and entertainment worlds. Gay people don't really exist.
After that festival, we went to a larger temple where another festival was being held. Temples are so beautiful. This temple was so huge that it looked like a castle from the outside.
Buddies buddies~
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