A Modern Art Festival – no, I’m not talking about lots of people coming to look at my messy room. October 5, 2008

Although that statement is not too far from the truth; I understood about as much as if I had just stared at my clothespile.

So, update- I finally found a church, and as of today have gone to three meetings. I’m settling in, and have met alot alot alot of new friends. Friday night I went to Yoyogi park with Tyler, Saki, Motoko, Momoko, Arnaud, and Chris. It is a really big park, and it was very dark. But we talked very loudly so it wasn’t very scary lol, just fun!

On saturday I went with a bunch of my church friends to Yokohama Trienale, a modern art festival in, you guessed it, Yokohama. Present were me, David (from Hong Kong), Yuka (my host sister), Takako, Sen, Yasu, Sam, and yes Jon, I finally met an Akira, who was also there. Although not the type of Akira you would expect. This Akira plays electric guitar on the worship team. And when I asked him what kind of music he loves, he said ‘Jazz.’ And when I asked him what his favorite band was, he said ‘Radiohead.’ Like, I’m serious. I’m not joking. I asked him some of the most important character defining questions that there are, and he answered all of them the same that I would have. It was ridiculous. So apparently me and him and this other guy are going to go to a studio in Shinjuku and record some jams. Or something. Anyhow, on to the pictures.

This is TBC (Tokyo Baptist Church)~ that is a guest band, not the normal band. Which is why so many of them are white.

This is David from Hong Kong when we went to ‘Monsoon’ for dinner after church one day.

This is just a random pic of Ben that I took while we were video chatting across the pacific. I thought it would be the best for everyone if I included it.

We had lunch before going to art festival. Takako is cut off on the left, Akira is center, David from hongkong on the right.

here is one of the buildings that had art inside

This was one of the exhibits. Two microphones that swayed slowly up and down while a voice from inside sang an address to the Kazakhstan government in randomly generated tones. I'm serious.

This was another exhibit, this one is kinda difficult to explain… There was basically a hallway, a REALLY REALLY long, narrow hallway. And there were signs on the left wall, right wall, left wall, right wall, alternating like that so you had to go back and forth like a skier. Each sign had some kind of postmodern poetry on it. Basically the poem is complete free style, and it comments on your inner thoughts as you walk through the hall. It speaks about your fears that the hallway might go on forever, your cramped feeling as the hallway is narrow. Then there is a crude picture of people having sex and there is a purple cup on a small outcropping and a sticky note on the ceiling that says ‘joy’ on it. And the poem considers your feeling as these are so random and you HAVE to look at them since there isn’t anything else in the hallway. then the same picture and cup and note come back like four more times, and the poem describes how they become like familiar friends to you when there is nothing else in the hall but that. This picture above was the one sign that hung in the middle of the hall, the text gives you two options, right or left. the poem suggests that you shouldn’t think about your decision, just according to your gut reaction choose right or left. both sides are the same. Then afterwords, the poem describes your worry that you may have picked the wrong direction even though both are the same. Then towards the end of the hallway, the poem begins reminiscing about things you miss, such as trees and stars and grass. The poem suggests that you may make a vow to yourself to eat less and workout more, tell important things to the people you love, and finally you exit the hallway. It was pretty trippy, i have to say. Especially because english is printed on the BACK of the signs so to view it in english you have to wait another hour and they let guests go through from the opposite side of the hall. That means the WHOLE poem was backwards for me, and i had to remember each sign and then reverse them when I got to the exit. Lol.

This is Yasu. All day he would only talk about two things: hot springs, and billiards.

I asked him “Yasu, onsen to biriaado ha sekai ni ichiban ii koto?” (Are hot springs and billiards the best things in this world?) To which he said “definitely.”

Lol, it turns out Oktoberfest was going on on the same day and in the same place. So we saw a guy passed out in front of the art building. lol.

Everyone brought their camera’s that day (except me noone told me… ) So David was getting all artsy…

SO many people have this EXACT dog here... nande?!?!

I don’t know why she was so mad at me……………….. lol gomennasai!!! *bows* m(._. )m

We went on this really awesome pier type thing, inside was this huge box that people go in and sit for about an hour. It was supposed to be some type of art, I don’t know what the crap it was, so we decided to skip that exhibit. The next exhibit wasn’t much better though, just loads of boards strewn around a white room with sloppy paint on the walls saying things like “LOVE IS OVER”

We decided to go to the famous Yokohama China Town, the biggest one in Japan. It was big, and there was a man and a cart.

And a gate.

and a dog

Akira and Takako trying to be artists with their cameras lol, you can see me and even a little of Yuka in the background.

Finally, densha de kaette, minna ga choutsukareta… (We went home by train, everyone was tired)

Sam is on the left, he is half Japanese half Scottish. lol. Then Sen, then Akira, then Takako. I was sitting on the other side with Yuka, David, and Yasu.

nechatta ne…

Yuka seemed really happy to have gone with us, and my Japanese friends and I even had a chance to talk to her about God some which was really cool. It was a good experience to get a little closer to Yuka, we have been kinda distant at the house lately, partly because I don’t feel like I can relate to her kind of glittery lifestyle. So this was good for that aspect.

Also, something happened with my Japanese this last week… I think I am way way better than the week before for some reason. Suddenly I am more comfortable expressing myself. This morning I met a young Japanese woman named Nori on the steps of the church, who couldn’t speak any english. Still, for some reason my Japanese impressed her and she told me her whole testimony in Japanese, which I think I actually understood! It felt really good to finally begin having success in Japanese after a while of feeling like I was the worst ever.

Anyways, after we took the train back to Shibuya, we went out to eat Yakiniku, which is delish. Some people had to go home, so it was just me and yuka and takako and david and yasu. Then afterwards Yasu SOMEHOW convinced us all to go play Billiards with him… lol…

David wanted his leg to be on the table like that; he felt it seemed more ‘pro.’ whatever that means, i never use the word ‘pro’ in the SPU vernacular so i wouldn’t know…

FYI all the BIG pictures are taken from my cellphone and the small ones from davids REALLY expensive Nikon. Don’t ask me why. I don’t control the internet. Al Gore does.

~~Ok update, I actually DID fix the picture size. I guess I DO control the internet after all.