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.
This is the day of the great cleanup. Campus is like a battlefield (bodies, trash everywhere). I went to work in the morning after sleeping 3 hours or so in the cold tent and thus had the perfect excuse to leave.
But I got back. Geisai isn’t something that one can run away from. The Yumi Kaoru team headed for mention sobering up trip. And off we went. Yamanakako was the goal. That place close to mister Fuji.
(Btw. Willie is a freaking badass driver! Awesome driving. Really the mountain curves. Too bad the rest of the passengers protested)While driving the steep hills and narrow roads of that mountain area there’s someone racing by, crossing the roads yellow line. Yoshiko, in our car, says in a low voice “ouh, Amerikaâ€.
This is the kind of cute humour I appreciate to the level where I can’t help to burst out a crazy laugh. And I don’t think anyone in the car understands why I laugh.
Yoshiko is teh funniest. A few days later we are all rolling down a grass-slope (not in a car. Really tumbling down a real slope). She yells out “Waah, adobentchua! (re: wow, adventure).
The funniest.
(Arrived at the lodge late. Games until 6am or so)All right, back to the trip. Booze, games and whatever. I wasn’t really into it that night.
Mood-killer, babeeeee. No matter how much tension were raised.
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)
(…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?
(There are about…40(?) or so small shops like this around campus. We, the kids, make them)
(I got there a bit late after work. They’ve just started the ‘Miss Tamabi’ contest. And…)
(…our favorite, Yoshiko, just had her…performance. Those edible undies were a present for me. Glad they came to use)
(I think she won. She were doing it for real)
(Remember Heidi? From the alps? She swung by…)
(Lights out on campus at 8. And…)
(…debauchery began)
