Life in Japan : 慶早戦、日光、そして日本での色々

Sorry that it's been a while since my last posting - but it's been an interesting few couple of weeks and I'd like to share my experiences with you!

慶早戦　(Keio vs. Waseda ) http://picasaweb.google.com/janice.in.japan/102009KeioVsWaseda##

Two Saturdays ago, I went to my first college baseball game here in Japan with all my friends from my dorm. In Japan, there's what's called the Tokyo Big6 Baseball league. According to our trustworthy, handy-dandy Wikipedia, the six universities are Hosei, Keio, Meiji, Rikkyo, University of Tokyo, and Waseda, and before the establishment of Nippon Professional Bseball, the Big6 League was largely considered the highest level of baseball in Japan. Okay, that's enough wiki for today! :)

The ongoing rivalry between Keio and Waseda is highlighted by what's more commonly known as "早慶戦” (Soukeisen), but given that I'm a Keio student, we call it "慶早戦" (Keisousen). However, we all went to the game that day assuming Keio would probably lose because Waseda's known for the strength of their baseball team (not sure what Keio's known for?...apparently Keio's known for rich and hot boys. there's actually the term "keio boys" haha! have yet to discover whether that's true though :P) Anyways, got carried away. The reason being Waseda would admit students based on their athletic abilities, whereas Keio does not - i.e. you need to be smart to get in, and if you happen to like sports as well, go play sports. Apparently. Either way it sounded like an excuse to me because Keio was the chronic loser, but regardless, it was quite a spectacle for sure!

According to the ojisan that sat beside me (yes, I have a tendency to start talking to anyone within 2 metre radius around me), in Japan, there's a very special "応援の文化”aka "The Art of Cheering" that one needs to adhere to. The pride exhibited by both schools in each respective section was truly spectacular. I mean, I've been to yankees game (and yes, not a Mets game), Canucks games, and what else...maybe that's it - and of course, you feel the passion of the crowd cheering for either team. But the passion and energy demonstrated that day far surpassed anything that I've experienced to date!

To kick of the games, each school had to sing their own anthem. And what's truly honorable (or so I think), in the beginning, I heard towards the end of Keio's song and dance, we chanted "Waseda gambattekudasai". So I asked the ojisan beside me - cause I thought I heard it wrong - and apparently, in Japan, in addition to cheering for your own team, you need to cheer for your competitor as well. I guess you could call that being honorable?

Furthermore, in addition to having a little band equipped with drums, trumpets, and trombones, etc, there were cheerleaders doing their little song and dance, and boys dressed in uniforms running around (all over the place) directing the crowd on how to cheer at each particular moment. Notable practices included the need to stand for the duration of the time that your team was batting, and cheer for each batter using the directed chants. Things like "Fight Fight, Hit Hit, Waseda wo taose". Some of the English chants didn't really make a lot of sense to me - but whatever!

Also, everytime our university scored, we had to put our arms over the shoulders of our neighbors, and sing our Keio song together. It was the first time since I've been here that I've felt Keio pride. Keio scored 11 points that day, so I sang the (bloody) Keio song 11 times. Keio literally crushed Waseda that day, and won an impressive victory (11 to 2). Throughout the game, we kept on singing " 早稲田を倒せ” or "Waseda wo taose" meaning "Let's beat Waseda" and Keio did it! Woohoo to Keio!

日本 is 日光 http://picasaweb.google.com/janice.in.japan/112009Nikko#

It was "Culture Day" last Tuesday, so I took a trip to Nikko with my dormmate, Christina, and we stayed overnight at a neighboring hot spring town called Kinugawa.

Both of us didn't want to stress out over visiting every possible scenic attraction possible, and wanted to take a leisurely approach to our first trip out of Tokyo, and as such we left for Nikko Tuesday morning by heading over to Asakusa station to take the direct train to Nikko.

The temperature (out of the blue) fell to about 0 degrees celsius that day (I think) so it was surprisingly cold when we got to Nikko. As such, even though I thought I was equipped with my hat and scarf and big puffy jacket that I brought with me from New York, I was definitely freezing my butt off that day!

Our first stop that day was Lake Chusenji and Kegon Waterfalls. These scenic points are situated in "Oku-nikko", about 50 minutes by bus from Nikko. The bus had to travel through what's called the "iroha-zaka winding road" whereby there's 48 sharp curves to get to Lake Chusenji. Coincidentally, according to one of the touristy books that I read, there's 48 sounds in the Japanese language, and as such iroha-zaka has special meaning to the Japanese.

When we finally made to Lake Chusenji, it was mid afternoon already, and when we stepped out of the bus, it started snowing! Holy smokes. The natural scenery of the Kegon waterfalls, and Lake Chusenji was really serene. It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. And of course, one cannot forget 紅葉 (kouyou), but seriously, I've gotten my fair share of beautiful leaves in Vancouver during the fall (and of course, the fun task of clearing the drive way) so really wasn't feeling too warm and fuzzy towards the leaves.

We stayed at 鬼怒川 (Kinugawa), a famous hot spring destination a few stations away from Nikko that evening. In the past, whenever I stayed at a hot spring ryokan, there's usually a little vibrant town around it, with many little souvenir shops lined up around all over the place, with pockets of restaurants and cafes all over the place. But not so at Kinugawa! It was literally dead quiet at night, with hardly any stores open and even though we searched high and low in the surrounding area, we were only able to find one ramen place that was open at like (freaking) 8 p.m. at night! So I had this saying, that the city "Kinugawa" is so boring that even the ghosts there would get mad! (If you break out the chinese characters of Kinugawa, you'll get what I mean! ;))

The following day, we visited world heritage, Toshogu - this shrine / palace? (i dunno) - anyway this building that is glittering with gold on the outside. Apparently, it's what the Tokugawa Shogunate built for himself...I don't know my history so I'm going to leave this at that!

It was a fantastic trip, but I think I caught a (very) nasty cold from being out and about. And as many of you have told me in the past, I've always believed that "sickness is the weakness of the mind", so I tend to not deal with early symptoms of a flu / cold...and now here I am coughing my lungs out while blogging. :P My dormmates have been taking good care of me so I'm not having one of those "I want to be a baby and somebody please take care of because I'm sick" moments...

Looking forward to making more friends, experiencing more of Japan. Feeling very blessed and lucky to be here - and looking forward to watching a kabuki this Saturday! woohoo. Have to get better before then! Cheers!