06/07 - Rainy Day Activities

Don't cry and boohoo,

don't get mad and say 'screw you',

just smile, it's Tsuyu!



Scarlett Johansson

and Bill Murray star in this 

quest to find one's self



As I've mentioned in my last couple of posts, it's the rainy season here in Japan. In Japanese it is called "Tsuyu". It doesn't really just rain, the heavens seem to open in order to make the people feel the watery wrath of some sort of Poseidon who has been misplaced in the sky and has woken up on the wrong side of the cloud. Or as my lovely 62-year-old student likes to yell as he comes in, "IT RAINING...CAT...AND...DOG!"

As a result of the rainy season, I've taught some students at the University the concept of "Rainy Day Activities" and used it as a discussion topic. Some of them really grasped the idea and had some good suggestions for things to do during inclement weather. Others not so much, but since some of my students consider eating and sleeping to be their main hobbies, what can you do?

Today, after the big Friday night out, and considering Air Poseidon was cranky again, I spent the day inside doing some rainy day activities. The farthest I ventured was to the grocery with my friend Tim, before we settled in to watch his home nation's All Blacks play their first test match against England. We wanted to order pizza but both of the places we looked at had super expensive pizzas and charged about the full price of a pizza for a delivery fee. Instead, we settled for pizzas from the local grocery to make at home. Boy, did we settle! Possibly the worst excuses for pizzas I've ever had in my life. We got a good chuckle out of how sorry these 'zas were.

The All Blacks game was fairly entertaining, in that it was close. It was not a great performance for New Zealand, but anytime England loses it's enjoyable to watch. After the game, my rainy day activity was to watch Lost In Translation. It's one of my favourite movies, but deserved a reviewing even more than it usually does considering I'm now in Tokyo, the city in which the movie is set. The movie's director, Sofia Coppola, has even referred to the movie as a "Valentine to Tokyo".

It was very interesting watching the movie this time around, as places I had seen in scenes many times before I now recognized from having visited in person. The scene of the gigantic crossing in Shibuya now made me think about what has changed, how some of the signs and stores are different, instead of making me want to go see it in real life. Many of the experiences the two main characters have in the film, the awe they feel looking at or the difficulty they have navigating Tokyo, I now share with them. I still believe the film's biggest strength is how it makes very tangible the feeling of malaise that can go with traveling long distances, suffering jet lag and being away from loved ones. However, staying in Tokyo for three months I feel that the impact of those first two issues has been negated, and while I certainly do miss many people, having family and close friends living very far away is not a new thing for me.

Pictured: Scarjo and I in front of the same building at the Shibuya crossing, just beyond the famous Hachiko Gate. I could have done a more similar pose to her but I don't own an umbrella here. Many of you may know I don't generally don't carry an umbrella in Vancouver. I'm not a big fan of them for many reasons that people often make me list. I've been close to picking one up because of the crazy rain, but so far I've made do sharing with friends, wearing my light rain jacket or just getting wet.