TUNE IN TOKYO: Tsukiji Matsuri

Monday, June 15, 2009

Tsukiji Matsuri

We went to a festival (Matsuri) yesterday evening near Tsukiji Market. These are held at shrines all over Japan in the summer and usually the portable shrines are paraded by men through the streets to the shrine. In this case they carried a 1 ton Lion Head and this year was special because it celebrated 350 years of the Tsukiji fish market.

fish game

making takotaki- octopus balls

This was cool painting on a garage door of a downward view of the tuna auction.

drummers

Lion head going through the Tori gate

There was an unexpected amount of bare ass at this festival. Who knew that the appropriate dress for a participant is Tabi shoes ( I heart tabi shoes) the top of a yukata, no pants, and lots of alcohol...

1 comments:

acte gratuit said...: I know it's wrong, but sometimes other peoples swearing just makes me ridiculously happy. I've been giggling ever since you said "bare a$$".

Also: Similar Misawa festivals=no bare bottoms. That I've seen. You guys seriously have all the luck!!!; 6/15/2009 11:02 PM

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Quotes

"The wildflowers are awesome up in Albion Basin right now. I got about 100 pictures, all of the flowers, including the wildest flower of them all, your mother."

Dad

Have you even read Alice in Wonderland?

No, the only way I know the story is from that Tom Petty video.

Kevin

The true pros are like Chameleons - we blend based on need! I am a hamster while watching a movie at home - or a midnight treat in bed. My squirrel method is best used in a public indoor situation (store or work) while utilizing a slight of hand movement or discrete bottle or mug to remove from mouth. However, this technique is also good in the car if you want to spit one fail swoop out the window instead of wrestling the wind with every shell. The Chinchilla is good for when eating with guests - it is more polite and refined. No spitting and reserves of shells to be rid of...the teeth here are used to aid but the fingers do most of the work. My favorite is the traditional baseball player method. This one is acceptable at out door parties, in parks, beaches, and an uncrowded streets (spitting into a crowd is not well received) - a handful in and one out at a time. Crack and spit. And you guys call yourselves seed addicts... shameful!

Megs

Where are you going to tell our children that babies come from when they ask?

The moon

Kevin

The DJ will have to have a conservative mullet

Dad

If you don't play "don't stop" and "rock with you" I may have to leave your wedding.

Robert

I don't know if you've noticed but Japanese girls act younger than their British or American equivalent. I have 17 year old female students that would kill for a sticker.

Anonymous

I already have visions of AC360 doing an expose on tourist in Oz getting mauled to death by cassowaries and crocs because they thought the animals looked cute. I was on the tube and saw ANOTHER japanese tourist wearing an anatomically correct panda head as a hat/bike helmet. She was asleep (duh....she was on the train, what else was she supposed to do) and had no less than 15 pieces of flair hanging off her bag. It made me want to visit you again really bad. It also made me suspiciously hungry for tan katsu.

Matt Harris

JAPAN SUBCULTURES THAT I AM FIGURING OUT:

1. Cos Play (Harajuku-dress up and role play)
A. Sub group: Lolita (little girls)
a. Sub Sub Group: Goth Lolita ( darker makeup and colors)
b. maids
c. fake school girl outfits
d. guro Lolita- looks like a broken doll (eyepatches, fake blood- I have a picture on here forever ago with a maid in a wheelchair- that was fake...I saw her walking around the next week)
B. Oji Sama "prince" is the boy version of the Lolita
C. Sub Group: People who dress up like their favorite anime character
D. Cross Play: when your character is the opposite sex

2. "Gals" gyaru (rebelling from Japanese traditions)
A. Subgroup: "Ganguru" Extremely tan girls (sometimes orange skinned) with bleached blond or gray hair that hang out in Shibuya.
a. Kogals look like this too but they are more materialistic and have Luis Vuitton bags
B. Guys that also look like this are called Gyaruo

3. Bosozoku (motorcycle gangs- well the guys pretending they are)
A. Subgroup: the greasers
B. The girls in poodle skirts and the dudes that hang out with them

4. Para Para Dancers (dancers that do line dances in Yoygi park. All the same moves at the same time- kinda like cheerleading.

5. Herbivores (Japanese Men who wear make up and pretty much act like girls- they are straight but aren't interested in sex)

more to come!