It was that time of year again, the Art Festival spectacle that is Geisai at Tama Art University.
This year, such as 6 years ago, I were the outsider (i.e. not student) and were left to my own faith after closing hours. Alas, managed to get away in one piece.

Been a while with the BySpice-guys. Brought the belated can of surstromming and ruined the evening for a lot of bystanders. All in the name of fun, of course.

My namecards, ALL my namecards, were gone in a few hours. I suspect the kids took em. It’s always fun to have a foreigners card. Which is ok, but can’t seem to shake my notion on foreign friendliness:
After 4 years I were hoping I’ldve been upgraded from “foreigner friend^*1” to “friend^*2“.

Maybe in a few more 4-years.

Place was big enough to house 30-something kids stuff.

…And Yuumins awesome fashion

^*1, not really friend, more hugable animal with human qualities
^*2, plain. real.

Last. Ever. At least last where I’m part of the people making it.

Without further ado…pictures:

…that’s what you want from this blog, right?

(On the way to the festival area you might find…)
(…people like Toshi who never made it back to his tent at night. Still sleeping…)
(…or some Hula gyals…)
(…or a bunch of nude guys…)
(…and Clara (in blue. ok, ok, in blue on top of the thing)
(Finally find one of the tent I belonged to (Not the maid tent))
(Notice teacan + hairdo. Sure sign of fun last night. Beercan and awake eyes on the right)
(Ikuya had his band playing in TAU-…sort of hall. I have new respect for Ikkun. His a badass drummer. I’m buying the cd)
(Honestly…no, you can’t see all the way up to the brain. Stop it)
(Sales going great)
(Arrrrh Jam)
(What would Geisai be without Fireworks? However…)
(…Hoshino was the real shining star. From the 80ies though)

(Alright, time for the Banzai run. All staff gather – Geisai is over – time to catch up. They’ll run togheter, maybe hundreds of ’em, from tent to tent, demanding booze. And demanding speeches from the staffleaders. The reason they’re taped and somewhat waterproof is that the tradition is to throw whatever liquid you have at your disposal at them. So…)
(…He had to come out, and join in on the run. Plastic taped raincoats? That’s for wimps)(Last chance for a pic before I joined the run. Sadly, Swedes weren’t that welcome in groups that screams Japanese fighting words. Nevertheless, cheered up some people. Good enough)
(Remember this place from earlier blogentries?…)
(…fill it with people…)
(…add speakers and dj…)
(…and finally, add Gyama)
(Fun fun fun. But sadly, over. It’s 7 or 8 in the morning & I’m heading for work)

Stayed over on campus downed yesterday (technically Saturday morning) in one of the tents, went back home around 1 or 2 and picked up whatever I needed for the coming few days. Including meatballs, lingonberry-jam and a modest Swedish tracksuit. All top notch. That’s when I wrote/uploaded the previous entry, btw.

Back to campus…

(Ego Wrappin came by)

(A Samba passed by…)

Noted some new scars, torn up skin and dried reds. It’s said it’s a sign of a proper geisai. I think it was from Gyama piggybackriding me. Had a smoke on the ground after falling down, all tangled up and faces down in the payment glancing upwards to a steady moon. Seemed so quiet for a minute even though thousands of messed up artsy people were just a halfemptybeercan-throw away.

(So did Yasu, Naopi, Shinpei…)

From here things took a turn for the worse: my ex showed up with her buddies. Mood went down, ruined a big part of the remaining evening. Before today I’d told myself it would be ok if she came – I reasoned that we’d be even since I wrecked your graduation-thing this spring. But screw that: I only dropped in my face for 15 minutes speaking to friends graduating. Screw her.

(Back at the home base (the tent) people were doing Geisaiy things)

Back to the fun parts. Later that evening some good old friends came by, students who graduated years ago. Yes, I’ve dropped by Geisai years before I were in at Tamabi.
Anyhow, we talked about things like dirty hearts and how they’d (we’d) never get cleaned no matter how much you’d shower. It was the greatest. Hell even just seeing them is the greatest – I only get to do that about once for 30 minutes every year. Tension rise and hugs are absolutes. Regret I didn’t get to snap a picture. It’ll be a good excuse to come to Geisai again next year.

(Actually everywhere people were doing Geisaiy things)

(Wish I had a less feminine pose/shot of my make. Sadly, no)

(Cold. So cold…)

Down around…5?

“No more Fridays?” -not a “Scheduling” term of mine, yet, but I’m referring to our fine softball team “Fridays” and the loss today. We are out of the tournament despite two (spectacular, I might add) homeruns by yours truly.

Have to hang up the uniform for an undecided amount of time. Suckage.

Yet all is not bad in the house of Fridays – if we were to make a bowling team we could sport the same uniform. Something tells me we…just might.

Let me tell all of you reading this blog something very important, so read carefully. Both of you.

Geisai, the single most important event of the year…

is pretty great.

Also, it’s happening next month.

Preparations have been underway for a year,
money has been paid,
t-shirts been printed and
Yurayura Teikoku booked.

Hoshinos cockroach suit is being sewn,
Yoshikos edible underwear are ready and sort of waiting,
I’m preparing meatballs.

Days have been schedueled off (rare),
posters urging people to call the staff in case someone falls have been posted,
and I believe someone in our little group arranged a getaway trip afterwards to get us back to the sober reality.

It’s an art festival if you’re wondering.
Can’t wait.

update 2007/10/16:
Yurayura won’t be coming this year.
Ego wrappin replacing. Also good.
Here’s a video.

Nice weather = b.b.q..
Rain, also, = b.b.q..

Served some sill for the universitykids. Not a hit. Damn you, Ikepon! You said it’d be a hit!

The highlight of that day, though, was after Ikuya had but a few drops of Aquavit and his face, once again, nostalgically turned more red then crayfishes around August in Swedish . He’s lacking those enzymes or whatever it is that causes the redness. Enzymes should come on bottle.

Those are eels.

Charcoal leftovers from last week equals another grilling session. Yesterday in pictures:

Update:
After some (a few of them hillarious) inquires about the backdrop, let me explain:
we’re not urban explorers. This is simply the club/activity-rooms on campus.
There’s tons of them, and the general tone is that of a festival. Except without the cleaners. And you know what that means to these young hooligans (that includes me)? Yes, that’s right, the occasional Woodstock 99-styled fires accompanied with screaming leaps over them.

Back to the room talk:
From one room there’s a punk-rock group playing, the other houses bongo-drums. Then there’s movies, games and sports, such as the first one below which is for rugby.

I really love this place. It’s dirty, a bit cramped and damp, but you’re always welcome and there’s always something happening.

(Out strolling with everyone)

Yamanakako is a peaceful place almost by the foot of Mount Fuji. About a 3 hour ride from Tokyo. Turns out that the University owns a lodge there and most kids go at least once during the time at Tamabi.

This weekend it was mine and about 15 of the undergrad, masters- and soon-to-be doctors turn to go. The session was on the design and psychology of everyday things. “Norman-doors”, “The nature of human cognition”, that sort of high-caliber kind of studies.

And then there was beer.

Drinking with ones professor is common here. Have heard of no such thing in Sweden. Maybe Swedes fear a loss of respect for a teacher seeing him/her in the midst of some debauchery. But it makes sense. It’s good for relations.
This hazy but lovely way of communicating is something have absolutely no problems with since day one; I dig.

What I have had second thoughts off was the hotsprings.

See, the lodge at Yamanakako is about a 5 minute ride from the local “onsen” (hotspring). It was a terribly beautiful one out in the open, with the mighty Fuji on display right there from the tub. Of course we had to go.

Before Japan I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown man naked. More less a professor. My professor. I had my doubts about the onsen. 2nd thoughts. Maybe 3rd too.
But I was wrong. It was pretty great sitting in a 41 degrees warm hotspring with him and the others, talking about how great it would be to sip sake while studying design right there in the tub, with Fuji on display. There were discussion on everybody chipping in on a “tamabi-runned minibus” so we could have all our classes in the hotspring. We talked about waterproof laptops and the correct temperature of the bath for us to spend a whole day in without getting overcooked.

All in all a good weekend of studies, with much uncovered and learned.

…Did I just pun?

Coming attractions
Coming Friday I’m throwing a b.b.q. on campus. If you read this, and happen to be in Tokyo, feel free to come over.
Last time I held something it was Mexican-themed. This time it will be in American fashion: hamburgers, hotdogs, Budweiser & Coors. Also Twister.
Speaking of which: after some uncarefull consideration (went to a Karaoke until 6 this morning) a pretty funny idea was born – Outdoor Twister 20 player game. What we will do is print up 5 more sets of Twister mats and spread it all out outside. It’ll be a heap of fun.

…I did it again didn’t I?

Update (24/5):
Rain tomorrow. B.B.Q. next friday instead.

Friday, before hitting the town 12 at night with my former boss for some serious nommunication, there was some less serious such being done at Tamabi. Another “Shinkan”.

Beer showers don’t go about that often at Tamabi. But by that time Shinkan was ongoing some of the guys ‘d just got the word out that they’d been accepted to the biggest ad-agency around. Gyama, doing the thing he does, made sure the celebration was felt. There was much rejoice.

(Casper, with his replacement)

What’s with all the goodbyes lately? Caspers bye-bye party. Karaoke afterwards of course. Until 6 am, once again.

Gizmo, the guy taking over Caspers spot at Tamabi, will have a hard time filling his spot. But yesterdays (todays) testdrive vouched for a pretty swell summer-term.

Casper, we all will miss you. Come visit soon.

Update (05/09):
Sorry, “Kimo” and not “Gizmo”. But I will hold on to “Gizmo”. More great.