tamabi
26 postsIt 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
…But not enough for my extra stuff (I snucked my ads in there). Had to improvise something taking up half the hallway and the lounge.
*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?
Home to pick up meatballs and take a shower.
Little update:
Little update:
(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)
Excuse me, I’ll head back to Campus now.
“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..
(“Vad blir det for vader idag” + “Vadret ska bli battre”)
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.