the fair isn't NEXT week. It's THIS WEEK. Actually, the last three days the fair was going on.
BUT DON'T WORRY! I found out soon enough to spend all of sunday at the fair, and since during both friday and saturday the world was being drowned by the second flood I didn't miss all that much anyways.
it was fairly awesome and HUUUGE.
I really didn't get a chance to go into all of the rooms in all of the buildings, but really, I'm not too bummed out about that because I pretty much burned myself out walking around all day as it was.
Out in the main areas there were multiple stands for buying food, beer, used clothing, and lots of musabi student made art, and the whole area was just bustling with traffic, both from students and teachers, but also from many people that obviously did not go to the school.
Inside the buildings the rooms were filled with musabi student art, which ranged quite a bit in style and media.
Haha, yeah, If I had taken pictures of everything It would be more than all the pictures I've taken since I got here.
BUT, although this was an art festival, the art *really* wasn't the only source of entertainment.
There were two other big things that I found fairly awesome/bizarre.
The first one, the more normal one, was a FANTASTIC fashion show.
Now, this wasn't like the ones at Pratt. The ones at Pratt usually showcase clothing that can be actually worn. Some times some fantastical stuff comes out, but alot of the things seem to be designed with actual usage in mind. Also there usually isn't an over arching theme, usually each person has their own thing going on, which is completely different to what the next person is going to do.
The fashion show here however? To be honest, if they had put in a few words of dialogue and made it a half an hour longer it wouldn't seem so out of place as some off broadway musical.
Also... man. They were moving. And I don't mean just strutting forwards, half the time they were doing twirls and ducks and all sorts of crazy synchronized dance moves. I had to constrain myself to taking pictures only when the music was loud though because the shutter slap on my camera would probalby have caused a small mob to come and toss me out on my ass if I did it during the more delicate moments.
So yeah, the fashion show was awesome. I would have gone into it again and taken more pictures, but it cost about ten bucks and festival food isn't as cheap as the normal cafeteria food is.
*le sigh*.
So anyways, I was taking some pictures of a little buddy I found mosying about,
(d'aaaaaw), when all of a sudden I hear all these drums booming off in the distance. I go around the corner and what do I see?
A GIANT ENGORGED BLACK PENIS. BEING SUPPORTED BY ALMOST ENTIRELY NAKED MEN.
(huuurrrr artsy black and white).
(one of the drum beaters by the way. Notice what she beats the drum with)
So I'm laughing at this, taking pictures, and after a little bit they march on their merry way.
But then I hear MORE drums beating, with a bit of a different beat than before. So I turn around...
And it's the female version! However, they seem to be carrying a giant Oni (demon) head? Obviously I'm missing some piece of information on this ceremony, but I tag along.
after circling around for awhile the GIANT PHALLUS and the Oni head come head to head (haha).
The women make a human wall which the GIANT PHALLUS breaks through with only minor resistance.
The guys holding up the GP then proceed to spin this massive thing around in circles while chanting something, while the women bang upon big steel drums. The guys do this a few times until they are all completely exhausted, and then the women make them do it a few more times.
(I was actually expecting them to be crushed under the GP at a few points, but they make it out ok).
Apparently the guys did their part of the deal admirably, because the women all cluster around the giant Oni head, and then proceed to split it down the middle and mount a large, bright red, flowery looking thing inside of it on a large pedestal (TOO. MANY. SEX. METAPHORS.)
Then, obviously, the men get the GP into "the position".
The guys then jump around a bit and make a buch of (I can only assume) manly speeches, while looking appropriately threatening.
Then they proceeded to RAM IT IN!!!!!
well. Actually they had some "technical difficulties" first. haha, much to the amusement of the girls and the surrounding crowd. But after some work arounds and getting the ramp set up a bit better, they then proceeded to smash those two things together for the better part of a half an hour.
Hahaha... the thing that makes me the most amused is that THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY A NORMAL TRADITIONAL PART OF THE FESTIVAL.
There were little kids, older grandparents, teachers, pretty much everyone who would raise a ruckus if this was attempted back home.
They were obviously all enjoying themselves, and although everyone seemed to be in good spirits I'm pretty sure that *I* was the only one laughing at the more absurd parts.
We get the violence, Japan gets the sex.
And of course there were also quite a few bands and musicians playing, and all sorts of interesting characters frequenting the Musabi fair...
*phew*
yeah. I had to take a trip home to empty my camera's memory card into my computer and switch my lenses.
I am *VERY* glad I did not miss this fair. That's all I'm going to say. It was awesome. I would have been a sad sad little boy if I had.
And tomorrow I'm going to KYOTO!!
So although I won't update for a few days, I should definately have a few pictures to show off when I get back.
GPLOLOLOL!!!
