halloween paraphernalia have been everywhere in japan since september i think, and no one knows the reason for the japanese obsession with halloween products. imagine walking around and seeing tonnes of orange and black decorations and items around.. it's so weird! and most japanese dont do anything for halloween actually. my students dont know much about what halloween is about.
and actually i didnt know much about it considering halloween doesnt mean a thing to the average singaporean. basically, it's the day before All Saints Day, and hence the boundary between the living and the dead is blurred, allowing the latter to mingle around with us. halloween originated from Ireland and Scotland, and was only brought over to america in the 19th century via migration. and believe it or not, the custom of Trick or Treating and dressing up only began in america from the 1930s! so it's a very recent event.
but the reason behind dressing up as scary spirits, ghosts, etc was originally so that humans can blend in with the dead and hence go through the night undisturbed. halloween is also a harvest festival, which accounts for the giving out of treats, and the carrying of the Jack-o-lantern - with the scary face carved into it - is to scare away spirits that may mean harm. there's also a tale behind the name of the lantern involving a guy named Jack - it's basically Jack's lantern - that i shant recount here cos it's too long.
but did you know that before halloween went to america, the lanterns were carved out of turnips? the americans switched to pumpkins cos they're more plentiful and easier (softer) to carve.
* * *
anyway, now with the history lesson out of the way, almost everyone i know went for the halloween party on friday. i was intending to go actually - even though bar hopping isnt quite my thing - cos it's been a while since i've seen everyone, but was sooo tired - the result of having only slept 6hrs everyday for the past week - i had to opt out and ended up spending 12 hours in bed instead. haha. that was great though.
yesterday was another matter. this club was having a bhangra night to celebrate diwali, and a few of us went there after a pre-party consisting of 1 russian vodka - a delicious concoction of kahlua, milk and vodka - a shot of gross sake, a few sips of really yummy Cocktail Partner chu-hi and 2 sips of beer at my friend's place.
bhangra is crazy. hahaa. there werent that many people at that club actually, but there was a real load of dancing. the indian girl among us is a crazy bhangra lover, and basically she was dancing the whole night, almost. there was another indian guy whom she calls "a crazy motherfucker" cos he danced non-stop the entire night! he was there before us and was still dancing when we left... and he's really really good too, and can easily be in a bollywood movie with all his dance moves.
that club was interesting i think... crazy indian music, and it was nice that there wasnt that much smoking - could hardly smell cigarette smoke - nor was it that crowded. none of the people there were hot unfortunately - there other people besides indians there as well - though there was this guy whom i think was trying to hit on me. haha. and there was also this crazy indian uncle who was trying to get everyone to dance, but before we realised that he's just crazy, the bunch of us kinda felt a bit uneasy with the attention we were getting from him..
the night wasnt quite over though, cos we meet up with a few other friends of ours after this bhangra thing at another club. and wah.. that place was really insane, and not quite in a good way. when i walked into that club, i was thinking to myself that if any of you saw it, you would have serious doubts as to what i'm up to in osaka.. firstly it was full of people in halloween outfits (i really dont understand how anyone can put in so much effort into a costume). there were A LOT of japanese, surprisingly.. more japanese than angmohs in fact. and the place was really crowded, had really loud and headache-inducing music, FULL of cigarette smoke and basically a place i would never ever dare - or want to - walk into on my own.
it was an experience i guess. we stayed there for like 10 or 15min max cos the 2 of us (the indian girl and i) didnt like the music, smoke and crowd plus we had achy feet, but i suppose i can now say that i've stepped into a hardcore club, assuming that that's actually even a hardcore one. haha. i didnt see anyone making out though, so i think it isnt quite hardcore. oh.. the really weird thing was that the people there werent really dancing.. they all looked like they were in a sort of trance and were moving in this vague, disconnected manner to the music in a more or less similar manner.. they looked rather zombified we thought.
* * *
today was yet another experience.. one of my friends was performing in this koto concert, so a bunch of us went there to support her. koto is basically the japanese guzhen, but it sounds a bit different. i think the chinese one sounds nicer, plus the notes flow better on the chinese one.. but anyway. wah. the thing was 3 hours long, and 1 hour consisted of this guy - from the osaka university of music - talking about the mixture of western and eastern (ie japanese) music. i was so super tired - slept at 5am and woke up at 10am - and he was mumbling and the mike was muffled, so i didnt pay attention at all.
besides that, the musical pieces were all so long! i mean classical japanese music is nice, just like chinese orchestra and classical western music is nice and all, but i'm so not the type that's interested in stuff like that. my eyes were closed for almost the entire performance - we didnt even stay for the last piece cos we were too tired and bored - and i actually dozed on and off during that time. i can watch ballet, but i really cant handle classical music. i think the rest were rather amused at me sleeping though. haha.
meanwhile, i'm very happy to be back in my room sitting comfortably in front of my computer :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment