Tokyo Rainbow Pride!

Today I went to the first-ever Tokyo Rainbow Pride festival and parade. I found out from some the the Edo 8s that this wasn't actually the first-ever gay pride event, but it used to be held in August, and this year it got moved to Golden Week and renamed. So it is the first...but only in a literal sort of way.

The festival was small, but fun. There were vendors and of course food stalls. I didn't try the Cat's Hand Bread but I did get a green tea bagel from them and it was pretty good.

The event mascot was Toby the Rainbow Flying Squirrel (name taken from 飛ぶ ("tobu" to fly) and "to be" as in, being what we were meant to be.

And of course, a variety of festively-dressed and over-dressed people...

Gloomy Bear was there!!!!

And of course....Pokemon!!!!

The parade itself was fun...we took up one lane of traffic and made a big loop through Shibuya and Harajuku, two of the biggest shopping districts in Tokyo. There were a couple of decked-out trucks and cars playing music, but mostly just people walking. Every time we'd come to a pedestrian bridge, I'd climb up, take a couple pictures, and then rejoin the group. There weren't really clubs or contingents, although there was one group of just women, and one group surrounded by people holding up "No photos or videos" signs.

It was a lot of fun. I had hoped to run into some people from Edo 8s but I didn't end up seeing any of them.

高円寺びっくり大道芸 (Koenji Street Performance Festival)

This weekend was the Koenji Bikkuri Daidougei (Koenji Amazing Street Performance) festival. A couple of large public areas and about a dozen small spots off the sides of the street held performances all weekend. Groups came from all over the word to perform. I went for a while on Saturday.

There was an art fair that unfortunately wasn't very interesting...mostly amateur crafts.

Japanese belly dancers:

This guy had an interesting act...he had a Chinese opera mask that kept instantly changing color.

 

A Chinese juggler (or, at least, a juggler in Chinese monkey make-up). He was pretty good.

More Takadanobaba

Takadanobaba is an interesting place. Here's a picture of the main street, Waseda Ave, which looks pretty much like any other business district in Tokyo. You can see the elevated train crossing in front of the big black building in the background.

 

There are a few narrow side streets off the main street that are just full of small restaurants.

Here's the aptly-named Big Box, a vertical mall next to the train station. It has the 100 Yen Store, where everything does in fact cost 100 yen (about $1.25).

It even has a Mexican restaurant. No, I haven't tried it...the whole idea is kind of scary.

Of course, as in anywhere in Japan, you find inexplicable use of English. The left one is a banner outside a high-end watch shop (the kanji means "watch").

None of the Japanese people I've asked have any idea what to make of this next place. The Japanese reads, "New Raccoon Mahjong" but no one knows why a mahjong place would feature a creepy man in an raccoon costume and a little girl dressed like a chicken.

But just one block away from all this business, you find yourself in a quiet residential neighborhood.

If you follow that street down a little way, you come to my apartment, Weekly Mansion Takadanobaba. Weekly Mansion is a Japanese chain of extended stay hotels/short term apartments. 「マンション」("Manshon") in Japanese doesn't mean what it does in English, it just means an apartment building. ("You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.") There is no cleaning service, but you can (for a fee) exchange your sheets for fresh ones.

Here's my room. Having a balcony is rather nice. To the right of the balcony is the television, and the little piece of furniture between the bed and the chairs has a side that folds up to make a table.

 

Just behind the micro-kitchen (one burner, a sink, and a refrigerator) is the ユニートバス ("unit bath"), which is a marvel of compactness. The tub is short but deep. Especially interesting is that there is only one set of faucets...you can swing it over the tub to fill the bath, or turn the little knob in the middle to direct the water up to the shower head.

It's small, but it's ok. And it's very inexpensive for Tokyo...only 3500 yen ($45) a night. The only annoying thing is that there is only about a foot between the foot of the bed and the wall, which is not enough to really walk...I have to kind of edge my way across.

The floor in the room is pretty interesting. It looks exactly like wood and for the first couple of days I thought it was wood. But it's actually a slightly soft spongy material; you can push your thumb into it and make a little dent.

Here's the view out of my balcony, of an elementary school just behind the building. It gets kind of noisy when the kids are outside for recess, and on weekend mornings, they have baseball practice for hours and hours.

Last day of classes

Today was my last day of classes. It was a bittersweet moment. I really had a good time at the school. The teachers and students were all very nice and it was great to get to know the students from all over the world.

One of today's lessons was superlatives. The teacher would say,「日本」(Japan) and「高い」(high, tall) and the student would say, 「日本でどこが一番高いですか。」(What is the highest place in Japan?) and then someone would reply, 「富士山です。」(It's Mount Fuji.) At one point, the teacher said, 「クラス」(class) and 「しんせつ」(nice) and the whole class answered, 「ポールさんです！」(It's Paul-san!). It brought a tear to my eye; all of these students are young enough to be my children! Although I think it had most to do with the fact that I brought cookies or other snacks to class every day to share during the breaks.

Here's a picture of the whole class, taken a few days ago.

Here are pictures of me with some of the teachers...in order, 関根真奈美先生（月）、石倉先生 （木）、石井先生（火、金）、福田先生。(Ms. Nekine Manami (Monday), Ms. Ishikura (Thursday), Ms. Ishii (Tuesday, Friday), and Mr. Fukuda.) Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with my Wednesday teacher, 戸田先生 (Mr. Toda) but he is visible way on the left in the upper picture. 福田先生 (Mr. Fukuda) wasn't one of my class teachers, but he did the orientation for English-speaking students back when I entered, and was very helpful throughout.

 クリスティーナさん (Christina-san) is a student from Italy; today was also her last day. Here we are getting our completion certificates.

Here are some of the students in the class.

Special call outs to じょさん, on the left, who sat next to me the two weeks, スリアナさん, in front, who is a great artist and fellow cat-lover, and キムさん, on the right, who was always especially friendly!!!

Here's a video of me getting my certificate, some graded homework, answer books to the text so I can continue my studies, and copies of the class picture with everyone having added little notes. Then we made little speeches...unfortunately I bobbled a little bit.

My speech:
みんなさん、ありがとうございました。仕事をする時に、学校は休みです。
とても楽しかったです。いつも覚えます。ご幸運をお祈りします。
Everyone, thank you. When you have a job, school is a vacation. It was a lot of fun. I will never forget it. I wish you good luck.

Busy week coming up...it's Golden Week, a whole week of holidays in Japan. Going to go to some festivals, to Tokyo's first ever Gay Pride Parade, on a couple of day trips with some students, and of course to some amusement parks!