Halloween Part 1 of 2: Glitterball 2010

Metropolis Magazine is an English magazine published in Japan. A few days before Halloween, they hosted the Glitterball (an annual event, if I'm not mistaken) at two clubs in Tokyo. Our Halloween plans are:

1. Fool our head colds into thinking we are someone else for a few days so we can go out and enjoy ourselves
2. Go to the Glitterball on Thursday night
3. Go to Kawasaki City on Sunday to see the parade, costume contest, and a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show

At time of writing, we are between #2 and #3.


For the Glitterball, we had a small group of people, pictures of whom I neglected to get. So I did some Internetting and got some approximation images. Other than me, we were dressed as a Japanese construction worker, complete with exceedingly comfortable pants and footwear;


Baron Samedi, a Voodoo dude in tux and skull face;

Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's, we made a last-minute cigarette holder with a black chopstick and some rolled paper;

And a survivor of the plane crash that was the premise for LOST. She had labels for her drinks to match the ones used on the show.

The inspiration for my costume, maneki neko:

Step 1: wig cap and clean face.

Step 2: white base (thank you college makeup class), shadow under cheekbones, highlight cheekbones and upper lip, absurdly heavy eye makeup and ridiculously large and sparkly fake eyelashes.

Step 3: cover up most of that work with the bangs from the wig, clip on ears. Add white clothing, ribbon for collar, golf-ball-sized bell, and scarf for bib.

I also traced the characters on the coin the maneki neko is holding and printed them out big enough to cover a handbag. This figures heavily in photos taken later. Not necessarily photos that I took, but photos that were taken of me.

Husband O'Mine, always spreading the Halloween spirit, left the house carrying a bucket almost overflowing with candy to give out to strangers. I had some misgivings, figuring that even if we got to the club without getting dirty looks the whole way, there's no way it would be allowed inside. I was wrong on all counts...we didn't even get to the train station before a group of college-age kids wished us a Happy Halloween and gladly took the candy he offered. Then some moms and small children came by and took some more, although some of the kids didn't really understand why the man with the skull face was holding a bucket of candy at arm's length, but the moms were approving. Some random old woman ran over to grab a handful, too.

Apparently "never take candy from strangers" is completely unknown in these parts. He seriously had a queue of people at the train station waiting for candy! It was a little unreal.

One older woman on the train accepted some candy, then gave him two hard candies from her purse in exchange. Evidently the "little old lady with hard candy in her purse" is more universal than I thought.

He gave away candy to anybody he could make eye contact with at every train station between home and the club, then gave some to the security guys at said club and waltzed right in with a bucket three quarters full. (Security guy doing ID checks said he couldn't completely confirm that I was the girl in the photo of my ID card, but he took my word for it. Apparently cat girls look trustworthy.)

It didn't take long for Japanese girls to start gasping and exclaiming that my costume was kawaii (cute) and sugoi (awesome or superb), and I felt like a little bit like a celebrity. It was pretty cool.

Culture note on The Same But Different: When Americans take pictures of someone's neat costume, they back up a step and take the picture. In Japan, everybody hands the camera to a friend and gets their picture taken with the person. It's like everybody is their own traveling lawn gnome (Amelie reference, anyone?).

Because the host of the event was an English-speaking magazine, almost everyone spoke fluent English. A couple times I was asked questions in Japanese, didn't understand, was asked again in English, and could reply in Japanese. Progress, right?

I wanted to enter the costume contest, but I didn't know how, and it turned out that judges picked ten people out of the crowd ahead of time, so I might not have been able to enter anyway. These guys don't mess around with prizes, though - the winner at one venue got air fare to Paris, the winner at the other venue got air fare to anywhere they wanted in the US.

The costume contest took place on the central dance floor, after a dance performance to Thriller. This is the first part of the performance. I recorded the whole thing, but this is the only video file small enough to upload.




I was a little bummed out that we picked the wrong side of the dance floor, we could only see the contestants' backs and a bright light. Boo. So I crouched down so the people behind me could see and took the photos I could.


Three cowgirls anxiously waiting to hear if they won something cool (two are from England and one is from Australia).

I made it a point to find Gonzo the Great and Captain America after the contest to get their photo.

They are evidently friends with Clark Kent, too.


This creepy little tableau was set up, I think as a raffle for costumes. Cheaper than mannequins, but still a touch bizarre.

Belle and Cinderella were some of the first Japanese girls to exclaim over my costume and ask for a picture.

Random pictures!



Most ambitious costume of the evening, and the winner of the trip to the US (she's going to Vegas), Joan of Arc.

Black cat & white cat...it was bound to happen.

I love this girl's costume, too.

I geeked out a little when I saw her.

The cowgirls. The hobby horses were kicked off the dance floor when the costume contest wasn't going on.

Me with an Irish Popeye. I think he was there with the cowgirls.

By the end of the costume contest, two hours into the club, the bucket was mostly empty. By the time we left and headed for home, there was one piece left, which was given to a French guy waiting to cross the street outside.

Overall, this evening was a resounding success. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Eating What We Have Never Eaten Before...and some other stuff

This post is brought to you by Japanese Food and the letters K, F, and C.


Does anybody know what "choconeri" is? I don't, but I got marshmallows flavored like it...it was between this and 'mallows with Calpis-flavored goo in the middle. This won, but not by much.

Also, green tea chocolates seem like they'd be worth trying.



I'm not going to lie, I got this because of the angry chicken on the front and I'm going to make my husband eat it. I'm not sure what the scheming chef and safari expeditioner are up to, but I bet they are why the chicken is angry.

These are sugoi (awesome). Peanut butter outside, possibly mochi on the inside.

Hershey balls...not sure if they have them in the states or not, but it's more or less your typical cookie covered in chocolate. They made me smile.

On my way to the train station I passed a classy shoe store with a table selling these. I think they're cakes made of Japanese crepes, rolled into a tube about the size of a roll of toilet paper and weighing approximately a thousand pounds. I'm exaggerating about the weight, of course, but it is really dense. But it tastes more or less like regular cake, so I can't be terribly upset about it. On the left is coffee flavored, on the right is melon flavored.

Qoo!
This is apple juice, but they have other flavors. This company also makes pouches of fruit gelatin you drink with a straw. It's good juice, but I like the name just as much as I appreciate a refreshing fruit beverage.

Sweet potato cookies! I was pretty excited about these.


Smoked cheddar in sausage casing...not as excited about this. More trouble than it was worth to remove the casing, but the Husband seemed to like them all right.

These...these had the taste of strawberry Fruit Loops with the consistency of a Rice Krispy treat soaked in frosting. These should come with a warning not to distribute them to minors, or rename them "sugar rush in a pouch."

Group dinner! I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, because I tried a lot of new things that night that were delicious, but we did have some sake served in bamboo.

And the appetizer was octopus tentacles and Japanese radish with a side of boiled potato. Not my favorite dish of the night, a touch slimy for my tastes, but it was worth trying.

It was somebody's birthday, and cake was brought in. This one was all chocolate and strawberries.

This one was sparkly!


Another night, we finally met up with another foreign couple that lives in our neighborhood (both university professors in their 60s that have lived here for about 20 or 30 years, lovely people). We'd been meaning to get together since we met the woman when we first moved in, but didn't get a chance for a while.

We were going to go to our local izakaya (mom and pop bar/restaurant, seating about 12 people), but they were closed, so we went to a great Korean place a block further. I can't remember the style of food this is, but it's ingredients served in a stone bowl so hot that it fries the rice as you stir everything together. Taking the time to snap this photo made the bottom layer of rice burn to the bottom of the bowl and I couldn't get it off, but man, this stuff was good. Don't ask me what's on top, because I haven't the faintest idea, but it wasn't meat because I didn't feel ill afterward. That's all I know. (Edit: It's called bibimbop, thank you Soon!)


Side bar for The Same But Different:
For all of October, Halloween merchandise is all over the place. Store displays, candy, pastries, the sidewalk windows are filled with orange and black, smiling pumpkins and black cats, witches in purple stripes.

But even before Halloween, just like in the US, retailers start thinking about Christmas. How do I know? Because the five foot tall Colonel standing outside the local KFC is dressed like Santa.


I found a new vending machine!
This one is filled entirely with juice boxes...rather, boxes filled with juice, coffee, or whatever else can be packaged in a carton and consumed via cheap plastic straw.


I was tempted by the butterscotch carton, but got this one (cafe au lait) instead:


Next up: Halloween! Stay tuned.

Nikko: Part 2 of 2

Link to Part 1

For lunch, we picked a place that had an interesting ambiance. It was low key and not very fancy, but it had some Cheesy Tourist Trap qualities and some Quaint Japanese Izakaya qualities. The ceramic tea mugs (which we could have purchased at the gift shop across the street, but that doesn't make me like them less) have illustrations on them of some local landmarks. On the left is a sleeping neko, which is a carving in a shrine that we could have gone to see, but we didn't feel like paying admission to that on top of all the other shrines. On the right is the sear/hear/speak no evil monkeys.

Nikko is apparently known for its tofu skin, so our friend ordered some and shared with me. It was impressively delicious, I didn't expect it to have as much flavor as it did. It didn't have much, mind you, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure what kind of leaf they used as a garnish.

I ordered udon (mmmm, udon...thick, chewy white noodles. Yum.) with itty bitty mushrooms. There was something unpleasantly cold and gelatinous on top, I think it was what the mushrooms had been stored in, but other than that, the dish was delicious. The broth was fish stock, so it didn't upset my stomach as much as beef or chicken broth, but I guess I don't eat enough fish for my system to take it entirely in stride. Three cheers for ubiquitous vending machines and Royal Milk Tea!


After lunch we decided to take a city bus out to see the other major tourist attraction, one of the handful of waterfalls in the area. Here's another Same But Different...the seats are nice and plush, but on the side of the seat is an extra fold-out seat.
It adds a fifth seat that completely blocks the aisle.
Both to and from the waterfall, the bus trip involved going up (and down on the return trip) a pretty steep slope. On the outbound journey, there was an announcement in Japanese, English, and Chinese stating that we were about to go through (insert name of slope here, I don't remember it) and that the passengers may wish to buckle their safety belts or hold onto the handle on the back of the seat in front of them, and also not to be alarmed if the bus begins to sway. The TV monitor at the front of the bus switched from filler announcements to soothing pictures of happy people and beautiful landscapes.

It really wasn't that bad, but when I sat in the center of the very back seat I realized how unreal it was that the bus, at just about every turn, rotated almost a complete 360˚. This looks totally fake, but it's the video taken with the camera on my lap.



It had been raining all day. Cold, soggy, and overcast. And here's the waterfall observation deck:
Breathtaking.

I took a few more pictures around the deck, but there just wasn't much we could see.


There was an elevator that went down the hundred meters to the bottom of the waterfall. Sort of...there were more stairs involved to reach the lower observation deck, and the whole cement tunnel experience might have been creepy if it weren't so cheerfully lit and well maintained.

Woo, observation point! Behold, the majesty of the Bottom of the Stairs in a Cement Tunnel!

Outside, though, it was significantly less misty and opaque.

While we couldn't see where the waterfall was coming from, we could see where it went.

Outside the requisite gift shop, Husband O'Mine noticed one of the vending machines had Hello Kitty Eggs! Obviously other people had noticed, too, because that one was nearly empty while the other three were close to full.

It had a Hello Kitty button inside.


On the walk back to the bus stop, we passed by a small natural history museum. I have no idea why the wooden bear would be positioned this way. Like it's hiding from you...

...or shouting at the sign.

I was much more in the mood for a hot drink, but I'm curious about the "Herb & Relax Lemorea."

What I did get was a hot can of cocoa.

We stopped in Utsunomiya for food, about halfway back to Tokyo. This is where the monkey tavern is, but we decided not to go through the hassle of trying to make a reservation, get a taxi (or walk 45 minutes), and rush to eat before the friend with us had to leave to catch the last train back home, and just hope the monkeys were there...so we walked around the train station area for some food. Preferably gyoza (Chinese dumplings, or pot stickers) because this city is known for them. We were referred to one or two by some helpful store employees, but the first one had a 2-hour wait (with a line at least a block long), the other was about an hour. The search continued.


While we were waiting to cross the street, I saw a New and Interesting Beverage.
Lifeguard. According to the can, full of 7 vitamins, 7 amino acids, and Royal Jelly. I was a little disappointed to find out that it tastes like an energy drink, with no bizarre texture.

Waffle Sand! With Happy Ice Cream Mascot! We went back here for dessert, but they had closed early. No waffle sand for Kim. (Sad face! Next time...)

After tromping around in the rain for a while, we ultimately went to this gyoza place with a charming little statue out front.

The meat-eaters had gyoza (even the vegetable ones had some pork inside), and I got a sort of rice pudding meal set. The big dish is rice topped with some sort of bland vegetable, something that might have been raisins made from red grapes, chivey things, and pine nuts. The dish on the top right is salt and seeds, bottom right was some sort of dumpling thing I gave to the carnivores, and bottom left is pickled vegetables. Not the most amazing meal I've ever had, but I'm just glad I found something that didn't contain pork.

Pachinko parlor sign...we walked by this a couple times, and all I can see is the penguin flying out of that woman's nether region.

Helpful sign in the train station pointing us to the right line. One arm is animated...it's a little absurd, but definitely photo worthy.

All in all, not bad for a day trip.