Festivals, Takarazuka and other things

07 August 2012

Hey everyone!

Let's continue where we stopped last time ^_^

On July 1 we had Koi Koi Matsumoto, a festival in which people from various countries do something, like cook, give a show, etc. We, the Dutch people, also contributed this year. Some of us did as stamp rally, in which you have to collect stamps from people representing different countries. If you collect them all you get a little present.
Our little group did something that has actually nothing to do with the Dutch culture whatsoever. We made our own Takarazuka musical XD we took a lot of well know characters such as Dracula, Romeo & Juliet and Oscar & André and made our own story: Dracula and der Tod spotted Juliet while she was having a picnick with Romeo in the park. They both fell in love and der Tod agreed to help Dracula kidnap her. After that they had Oscar and André set up a rescue party to save Juliet from Dracula's castle. In the end everyone but der Tod and Juliet die XD
We also performed a Takarazuka musical in Holland once, with English text and Japanese songs, but this time everything had to be in Japanese or else no one would get it. So the most difficult part was writing the script, but thanks to Manon and the help of our tutors we managed to make a decent Japanese script for our play ^_^ In the end it was a great success and I had a lot of fun :D

On July 8 and 9 we had a mandatory trip to Tokyo with school (how awful XD) for which they also paid. We went to the Tsukiji fish market, the anime museum in Suginami, the Tokyo Sky Tree, the Edo museum and the temple in Asakusa. We also went to a tempura restaurant (I love tempura <3)

Of course I can't forget to write about the second Takarazuka musical I went to <3 This time we went to Romeo & Juliet, performed by Tsukigumi (Moon Troupe), in the original theater were it all began back in 1914.
We had tickets for the show on Thursday July 19, and we had the 7 AM bus to Osaka, where we arrived around 2:30 PM on Wednesday. The afternoon was spent shopping and in the evening we went to the Umeda Sky Building. On the top floor they have an open deck from which you have an amazing view of Osaka.
The day after was the musical. We went to Takarazuka (the city) on time so that we could see the irimachi. It finished around 10 AM after which we went searching for the Taka-an. We know where to find it in Tokyo, but since we'd never been to Takarazuka before we had no idea where to find it. We asked a fellow fan and she walked with us to the shop, even though it was very hot. She even told us that Ouki Kaname (the next top star of Soragumi/Cosmos) had a day off that day. once we found the shop we enthusiastically started searching for postcards, DVDs, program books etc. In the end I bought a few plastic flyers, the program book from the musical "The legend of the four gods", a mini calender of Otozuki Kei and a normal sized calender of Ouki Kaname. After that we went to the Quatre Rêves where I bought a number of postcards and the Romeo & Juliet edition of the Le Cinq.

Around lunchtime we were sitting on one of the benches opposite the theater, and we saw little groups of actresses coming out of the building, most likely to eat lunch. Because we are pretty noticeable  being foreigners and stuff, it didn't take long for them to spot us and stare at us (of course trying their best not to seem too obvious XD). So we decided to smile and wave at them, and one group smiled and waved back ^_^
Manon and I also had a pretty interesting encounter. We were sitting on that same bench when two older men came up to us and made some small talk. Like most Japanese they were pretty impressed that we as foreigners spoke Japanese, and one of them wanted to take a picture with us. Then he asked for our email addresses so he could send us the photo. We agreed because apparently he was from the "Takarazuka Friendship Association". At the end he added that if we ever came back to Japan and needed a job we should definitely give him a call. How awesome is that? :D He also asked me if I was an actress, which I think is a rather nice compliment <3
The musical started at 3 PM and it was awesome <3 From the beginning until the end I sat in my chair with a huge smile (except for the sad parts of course). Around 2 years ago I myself also played a role in Romeo & Juliet (as Benvolio), so to see this musical in real life is really awesome (our musical was also based off of the Takarazuka version of Romeo & Juliet). Our places were really good, front row on the balcony. The musical we saw had Ryuu Masaki play Tybalt and Asumi Rio play Romeo. On other days they would switch roles so then Romeo is played by Ryuu Masaki and Tybalt by Asumi Rio. It was a day to never forget.

The next day we went to Kyoto, met up with Renate, and went shopping together. Unfortunately it was raining and I had to continue bare foot since my slippers made me slip and slide all the time XD that evening we went out for dinner at a place called Ninja Sweets, an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a lot of cake and other sweet stuff. They also have pizza, french fries, curry and other non-sweet food. The staff is dressed up as ninjas, hence the name "Ninja Sweets" ^_^
The day after was Renate's graduation ceremony, meaning that she successfully completed the intensive Japanese language course at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. We Shinshu University students will not get a ceremony, however :( (though we do get a certificate)
We also got to meet up with some other classmates also studying there, so it was fun ^_^
The day after we went back to Osaka because our bus would be leaving from there. We dropped off our luggage in one of the many lockers of Umeda Station and then went to Tennoji Zoo. I made a lot of photos there, and bought myself a very fluffy red panda stuffed toy <3 the only downside is that I got bitten by mosquitoes around 26 time on my legs -_- and that all in one day...

About 1 1/2 week ago we held a small party for the senpai of the club we joined, because we finished our last training before we ended school. Our club is called Wasshoi, and it's a Yosakoi club. Ten of our senpai responded to our invitation and we cooked for them and made sure they had enough to drink. As a great ending we went to shoot some fireworks that 2 of our senpai had bought. In Japan it's very normal to shoot fireworks in the summer.

Four days ago was the last time we saw our club before we went back to the Netherlands. We joined them in doing a festival called Matsumoto Bon Bon, which is basically dancing for 20 minutes, a roughly 10 minute break, more dancing for 20 minutes, another break and the loop goes on for 3 hours. Most of the groups wore yukata, but we wore our club clothing (a Wasshoi shirt and sports pants . The dance itself is pretty easy, but it still tires you after 3 hours of dancing. I was sad when it ended because we would (most likely) never see our crazy senpai again. They're even more crazy than us, I swear XD

Next to that I'm already preparing for my return home. School has finished now with my last test results being a 69/100 for grammar and a 85.5/100 for oral. I packed up most of the manga I bought in boxes, I have 2 boxes at the moment of roughly 10 kg, but I still need to add around 7 manga to that. I also bought a second suitcase ('cause I really bought too much stuff here XD), and it's bright pink, and I decorated it with panda, cat and Pokémon stickers 8D

Sorry for the extremely long entry and all the (unfamiliar) names, hopefully it makes some sense XD

またね！

~Marlies / マーリス