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Monday - 07.24.06
Three hours of class and three hours of workshop all in a
row with only one real break makes for a crappy day. Workshop today was pretty boring – we
basically discussed in groups what we found from our interviews, except we went
one by one and said “My first question was…. X many people said this, Y many
people said this, etc.” until everyone had covered all of their questions and
all 10 people they had interviewed. It
was painful. Tomorrow is the trip to the
disaster center and Asakusa, so hopefully that’ll be fun.
Tuesday - 07.25.06
Today we went to the Honjyo Bousaikan (disaster prevention
center) to learn what to do in the event of a disaster in Japan. We experienced a simulated earthquake, navigated
a smoke-filled maze, put out a fire, and got blasted by a torrential
downpour. In all reality, it was a bit
boring, and now I have to write a two-page report on what I learned from it for
class on Friday. Yay. Later on, we went to Asakusa, which was a lot
of fun. I had agemanju for the first
time and now I think it might be my favorite Japanese food. It’s certainly my favorite sweet – it’s too
bad you can’t get it anywhere but Asakusa.
Wednesday - 07.26.06
I had the absolute most amazing workshop class today. Our assignment? Go out to somewhere in Tokyo and take
pictures of Japanese words. Sweet. Lloyd, May, Sarah, another Eric and I went to
Shibuya and just kind of walked around and shopped for 4 hours with two of the
Japanese volunteers. I only ended up
getting a gift for a friend because the majority of Shibuya was way too
expensive. Since the area was basically
a high-class shopping district, it was interesting seeing everyone walk around
sporting different styles. A lot of the
guys looked like girls (very effeminate clothing, tight to the body, materials
that are worn on girls in the US normally) and the girls styles ranged from
what would be normal in America to a crazy style called “yamanba”. Basically, the word “yamanba” means “mountain
witch” and that word is pretty fitting.
The girls who wear that particular style coat themselves in makeup so
that their skin is darker (a dark tan that looks too orange to be real) with the
exception of their eyes, which are surrounded by a white circle. Its so crazy looking and I did a double-take
the first time I saw it. But, there are
so many people here that it’d be hard to imagine there not being some insane
styles.
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