Tokyo International Film Festival & Friendship

Playing in the nearby theaters at Roppongi Hills as well as Shibuya, the Tokyo International Film Festival took place during the middle of October. As a movie enthusiast, I was excited at the chance to see some top foreign films (which all had English subtitles) during my time abroad.
As you can see, the main theme for the event was the environment and to emphasize this they used a green carpet made from recyclables instead of the traditional red carpet in the opening ceremony. The main focus for the festival was the "Competition" - where 14 films from all over the world (from USA to Hong Kong to Iran) were up for consideration to win the Grand Prix Award as the best picture. Unfortunately Japan's theaters aren't quite as big as US counterparts, so for many of the shows tickets were sold out.

After looking through the brochure, there were about 2 or 3 films that I really wanted to see, but my number 1 by far was "Red Cliff." Red Cliff is an epic 3 hour action/drama about the battle of the Red Cliffs between 3 kingdoms in ancient China. It was also directed by John Woo, the genius behind Mission Impossible 2 and Face/Off. Despite tickets being sold out through all the major distributors, I went to the theatre with a friend of mine, Kevin, in the hopes of scalping a pair of seats.
Throughout the Roppongi Hills mall complex, they put up many different decorations and promotional posters for the film festival. Even going so far as to convert some restaurants into special lounge bars for film executives & staffers.

I was wearing my faux glasses for the event in the hopes of looking more like a critic, but unfortunately it wasn't to be our night. Both theaters showing Red Cliff were booked up and asking people if they wanted to sell theirs wasn't exactly working either.

So Kevin and I decided to kill some time by walking around Roppongi until later in the night when we planned to meet up with a bunch of different friends later in the night. All of us got together around 10:00 at a British-style pub called Hub. Along with the TUJ guys (Kevin, Nick, and Harry), Hisashi and Takuro (2 Japanese college students from Keio University who I met at the baseball game) joined us for some drinking. To add further international flavor, I invited my Dutch buddy Sjors (not pictured), who I had met during the Dream.6 event.

nick harry & takuro
takuro, kevin, me, and hisashi

We spent an hour or so chatting and getting to know each other better while enjoying some of the cheapest cocktails and drinks offered in Tokyo. Hisashi & Takuro were really funny and talked about girls a lot while Sjors detailed some of his experiences in Tokyo and favorite places to party. But the night was just beginning; we had all planned to spend the night a nearby club and after getting turned away by a bouncer who didn't want 5 foreign guys coming in with no girls, Sjors recommended we check out a place called 'the Warehouse'. Located near TUJ, the Warehouse was having a special guest DJ in from Germany called Extrawelt playing his neo-trance style of electronic music.

We stayed out until 5:30 AM at Warehouse, and I have to say that the music was awesome. I don't really like the hip hop stuff you usually hear in clubs, but Extrawelt's techno was great and he put out some good beats.

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To tie up some loose ends related to this story we're going to fast forward a bit.

I ended up trying two other times to catch a film at the festival and at first I was denied yet again, but on a Friday afternoon following my classes I ran over to Shibuya and managed to get one of the last seats for "Claustrophobia". A movie filmed in Chinese and produced in Hong Kong, Claustrophobia detailed the story of a tender love affair between Tom - a good natured family man and marketing director; and Pearl - a young smart girl working in the same office. The movie was cut up into 5 scenes showing important events between the two for during the past year. These 5 scenes were shown in reverse order with the pivotal break-up coming within the first 10 minutes, while the rest of the movie you were left with all of the awkward moments and subtle conversations that took place while trying to keep their affair secret.

I really enjoyed the movie and although it didn't win the Competition I've read online that it received mostly positive reviews from critics. My only regret was not being able to understand the movie in its language, since I was reading subtitles the whole time, I felt like I was missing out on the more hidden meanings behind what was being said.

After the movie they did a Q&A session with the main actor and actress, as well as the writer/director. Luckily they had an English translator who allowed me and about 3 other people in the theatre to understand everything. Another interesting tidbit: they were translating questions 3 ways from Japanese - Chinese - English so that the viewers as well as the actors could comprehend what was being asked.
After the Q&A, the actors held a special greeting with the audience where they shook hands with the movie goers and took a quick photo with the earliest group. These hand-shake sessions seem to be very popular in Japan as I've seen a few in the different events I've been to during my time abroad.

...

In regards to my buddies Hisashi & Takuro, just last week we got together during the afternoon to have a baseball catch. Both of them play on a club team similar to what I did at Georgetown back last fall and they enjoyed the opportunity to play with an American. In addition to throwing the ball around we talked about different baseball lingo used in Japan & the US.

Sjors has been mentioning various clubs & things to do during the weekends but we haven't been able to match schedules since.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get the group together again soon!

Exploring Tokyo: Part I – Tokyo Station & Korakuen

About a week ago, one of my teachers was away on a business trip which gave me some extra time to look around Tokyo. I took this opportunity to look around two of the better known spots in Tokyo: Tokyo Station - famous for its location among powerful financial institutions, Tokyo’s stock market, and luxury shopping arcades; and Korakuen – home to the Tokyo Dome and a number of Amusement Park-like attractions.

Downtown near Tokyo Station

So, starting at Tokyo station on a beautiful mid-October day (the weather has been very mild with temperatures still hovering in the upper 60s today) I did some exploring near the station and in two popular shopping buildings known as the Marunouchi buildings.

Backside of Marunouchi Building

The majority of stores were women’s clothing boutiques, but there were also many small curiosity shops selling small souvenirs and stationary. I managed to find a hybrid shop (which was half Sharper Image half men’s hygiene products) and bought a new cologne entitled “Tokyo: by Kenzo” which I’ve been using almost daily since!

Before leaving, I managed to snap some photos of Tokyo station, one of Japan’s first western-style buildings, which was based off a Dutch design.

A quick ride on the subway and before I knew it, I had arrived in Korakuen, best known for its Tokyo Dome City – a collection of popular western stores and restaurants, the Tokyo Dome baseball stadium, theme park attractions, and popular hot springs spa – LaQua. See for yourself

I started things off by walking over to the “Virtual Sports Plaza” which is basically a simulation sports arcade where you can test your skill & aim in soccer, pitching, tennis, golf, and more. Or maybe hitting a few in the batting cages is more your style? – not for me, I hadn’t swung a bat in about a year and couldn’t hit at all in the 70 mph cage! I had more encouraging results with the pitching games but after trying a few of the different games I came to the simple conclusion that it’s more fun to do the real thing…

By far the most enjoyable part was my visit to the LaQua Spa.

After paying the one-day entrance fee I was given a locker and access to different temperature hot spring baths and 3 saunas of varying degrees. Out of the 60 or so people in the men’s only section I was one of 3 foreigners enjoying the day at LaQua. Overall, the hot springs were incredibly refreshing and I felt like I really got my money’s worth.

To finish off my day of adventure I stopped off at the CPK for a familiar taste of home. The pizza was exactly the same as they make them back in the US at CPK and it was the perfect way to cap off a day of self-indulgence.

Kyoto Trip: Part 3

For two straight days we were walking all day long and it was really hard waking up early the last day in Kyoto, but we knew that we had to make the most of it.

The first order of business was a visit to the Kinkakuji Temple or as its better known in English, the Golden Pavilion. Again, this would be the 2nd time for me since I had also seen the Golden Pavilion over New Years. The Golden Pavilion was by far the most crowded of all the temples we visited during our time there, for good reason - it's very picturesque. Let's do a little retrospective...

Tree designed to look like a ship

Next stop: Ryoanji Temple - one of Kyoto's notable Zen temples, notable for its rock garden. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder. (Wikipedia) Which is true, I remember counting only 14 rocks when I was looking at it.


At this point my camera's battery died, so I used a mixture of Chris, Harry, and Nick's photos to fill the gap. While we were still at Ryoanji we all took some time to ourselves and separated off. It was a great time to sit quietly and think while enjoying the peaceful landscape around me.

Not pausing to rest or eat, we jumped on the bus to Nijo Castle which had been built by the order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's 1st shogun. They used a special design in the floorboards which create a chirping noise similar to a nightingale, used as a security measure to alert against intruders.

Nijo from the Outside (no pictures allowed inside)

After looking around the living quarters and interior of the castle, we explored the outer gardens and climbed up one of the guard towers.

Approaching the exit we encountered a small string quartet playing some beautiful classical music. Harry, Craig, and I sat down and enjoyed 3 songs or so before leaving; they had a beautiful vibrato throughout!

Running out of time, we made a quick stop off at the Nishiki food market in downtown Kyoto as we made our way south to Sanjusangendo, the temple we missed out on the first evening. Nishiki was packed with people and there were countless stands selling various prepared and unprepared food. We grabbed a quick bite and caught the bus over to Sanjusangendo.

Nishiki Food Market

At this point we were really cutting things close with time, but we made it to the temple with just enough time to look through it before getting over to Kyoto station in time for our train home. The inside was amazing considering that there were over 1000 nearly identical wooden carvings made by different artisans in a short period of time. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside but here's one I grabbed off the web.

They're all wood-based covered in gold leaf.

Well that was it, quite a surreal ending to a wonderful trip. Thanks for all the memories and planning guys!

Kyoto Trip: Part 2 (Nara)

The next morning, our group decided to split up a little bit for the day. Harry & Craig wanted to stay back in Kyoto and walk around on their own for awhile while Nick, Chris and I chose to jump on a 45 minute train to nearby Nara: the original capital of Japan. Nara is well known for its famous temples, large park area, and huge population of deer.

On our walk over the the temples we stopped at the local "Mos Burger" (think MacDonald's - slightly better, slightly smaller burgers) for some sustenance. Also nearby was a small Phiten store where I caved in and bought another necklace!

We eventually made it over to the Kofukuji temple complex, a Buddhist religious site with 2 pagodas, one major temple, and 3 sub temples.
3 story pagoda
sub temple
1 story for each elements: fire, water, air, earth, and sun

As we continued on our walk we came across a large group of people looking at a big tour bus. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that there was a filming going on for a commercial - most likely for a luggage company. The star was a famous Korean actor known for his roles in Japanese day-time dramas.


Next on our list was the Isuien Gardens, well respected for its beauty and tranquility. While it certainly was beautiful, there was a local rock band competition going on in Nara for the weekend so there wasn't too much tranquility!

Various spots inside the Isuien Garden grounds.

Following the gardens was the main event: Todaji Temple. Todaji Temple is another Buddhist site home to one of the largest Buddha statues in the world (this one made from bronze, mercury and vegetable wax). It holds the record as the largest wooden building in the world. The path leading up to it was unlike Kyoto - there were almost no souvenir stands and the road was full of deer. There were almost as many deer as people walking around and they had all become tame since people would commonly feed them.

The architecture was very impressive and the sheer size of the Buddha statue was amazing - they say up to 6 monks sometimes stand in his hand while cleaning it!

After that we had a leisurely paced walk through Nara Park on the way to the Kasuga Grand Shrine. Nearing the main shrine grounds we walked by over 3000 stone and bronze lanterns - which the Grand Shrine has become known for.

Following our visit to the Kasuga Grand shrine we started to work our way back to the train station where we planned to stop off in southern Kyoto before heading back to the ryokan. On the way there, we past by the Sagi Pond full of families rowing slowly in rental boats for the evening.

The sunset comes beautifully as we prepared to jump on the train.

Nara's Train Station.

Our next target was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, dedicated to a Shinto Fox god. The locale is famous for its hundreds and hundreds of tori (gates) mostly donated by businessmen.

It was pitch black when we began following the trail of tori up through Kyoto's southern hillside. Luckily, the Shrine is open 24 hours and is well lit throughout the two hour long circuit it takes to get to the top and back down.

Our walk that night really had a magical feeling to it. Dead silent and slightly cool outside walking through the seemingly endless stream of tori was a mystical experience and I hope that I'll be able to make it back once more in my lifetime. For me it was the highlight of the entire trip and I know Nick and Chris really enjoyed it as well. Close to the top of the trail they had some beautiful overlooks which gave you a panoramic view of Kyoto, we made sure to get some photos and savor the moment.


Get ready for the trip finale...