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 Now online (2)Hyperflake w M w ...and 215 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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A very weird thing happened me and my mates in japan a few weeks ago. We were training with a master teacher one night, visiting him at his family dojo. It turns out it was his first class of the year so he brought out some real nice sake and trad new-years food for afters and we got stuck in. He passed around some pretty cool 400 year old sword fittings and had some cool stories to tell. Near the end, he said "You know i am a fireman, right? Well tomorrow there will be a big demonstration at 9am as part of an anniversery celebration. You are invited." We agreed of course, not wishing to refuse a master teacher and decided it'd be an unusual way to spend the morning before our training at 11. We weren't wrong. We got up early, had breaky and borrowed some bikes from the inn we were staying at to cycle to the local fire station. Sure enough there were about 300 firemen crowded in a carpark across the road, obviously waiting for soemthing to happen. A few firebrigades had their ladders saluting the sky with banner and baloons flying. There were no other civilians around though, which was a bit odd for a demo. After a while we were ushered into an auditorium adjacent to the carpark and it soon filled up with the jostling firemen. a brass band was set up on the far side and a huge stage was in front of us with a podium at the center and one at the side with 2 rows of 10 seats facing the crowd. We were the only westerners there. We speculated that we would see some sort of dramatised play on the story of Noda City fire department but alas, it was not meant to be.... contd... |
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ohh the drama...when do we get the rest of the story?? |
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::waits and does "the potty dance":: |
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Instead, the speaches started. A man came to the podium at the side an recited a all sorts of formal japanese which we couldn't understand. White gloved uniformed men with military style precision took up the rows of seats and the japanese flag dropped down from the roof. We all stood up and the national anthem started playing. This was weird! After the noise died down and we re-took our seats, already sweating from the over-hot aircon, the announcer proceeded to speak again. One of the seated general types stood up, saluted his buddies, the flag, the far side row of men and the audience and approached the podium. He then expertly reached into his jacket, pulled out a crisp piece of paper, unfolded it and cleared his throath. He began reading loudly from his carefully prepared statement about christ knwos what for the next 5 mins. when finished he made his way back to his seat, saluting, shuffling army-style and pulling his jacket tight down at the hips. His enighbour then stodd up and did the same..... Oh christ, i thought 19 more tiems this is gonna happena nd then what? The whole thing was a sureal, alien performance in burocratic speech making and even some of the japane firemen around me were nodding off. There was no sign of our teacher and absolutely no way to leave the knife-edge stillness of it all with practically shouting "what the fuck is this shit about, why am i hear... good luck!" and extining stage left. We did exactly that after 30 more mins of mind-numbing arse-freezeing ultra nationalistic boredom (without the verbal outburst) The next day we went ot the teachers secnd class of the year and he hardly spoke to us. Turns out, after speaking to some westerners who lived in japan for years and knew the social do's and don't's that we were invited out of respect but not expected to turn up at all! The teacher was moody cos we TURNED UP not cos we left abruptly!! NUTS!!!!!! |
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dammit, that's why those 2 girls looked at me funny when I came to the threesome....... or maybe it was because I shaved my backhair into a picture of Diana Ross... |
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hahaha i'll save all this stuff about japan experiences for the time i(if) visit :D |
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We also went in to buy some brollys one day and handed over the chap the cash, aving worked out how much it was for 5 umbrellas from the price tag on the stand. The man insisted that we take them and even exchanged one crappy little one for the one he obviously was using that was behind the counter. Brollys japan are free. As are bikes (We were told that if a bike is unlocked you can take it ... all the unlocked bikes are 1 gear dinasaurs so its ok!) Now that is fucking cool... |
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wow, that custom seems pretty strange to me. why would he get mad about it? very odd. |
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