Monday, May 25, 2009

The flight of time

MAN Vassar class of 2009 graduated just now. Meaning it's officially been a year since I've been out. I would make some kind of melodramatic statement like "ohhh nooo what have I done with myself?" but the answer is clearly "a lot" and I have a decent job and a lot of friends and loads of interesting travel experiences.

Phew!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Jinkosai!


This weekend was JINKOSAI, the biggest festival of the year in Tagawa, and I was awfully happy to be able to experience it. Tagawa isn't famous for much other than yakuza and Jinkosai, and you can't have the latter without the former running it. In short, the entire city comes alive for a weekend. The streets fill up with vendors and interesting people, students shed their uniforms and compete to see who best passes as a cheap hooker, and teams of intoxicated men in yukatas representing their neighborhoods push massive pirate ship-like floats called yamakasa through the streets, banging drums and blowing whistles. I had a bunch of friends come down for the event and I was proud as hell to show off my town in the height of its excitement. Fuck, Tagawa is awesome.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Tokyo!



I had a wonderful time this weekend with good people, good beer, good food, and tall buildings. I even defecated in the hotel where our JET Program orientation was held during summer.