This last weekend I got a new opportunity passed my way. Actually it was a few weeks previous I got the offer, but this last weekend was the fruit of it. I've not done any movie work before, so even being a 'featured extra' was something of a new experience. I've done plays... even that shakespeare fellowship (performances for elementary schools) for a while... just not on screen.

So I suppose some background is in order. Back in December I answered a craigslist ad for movie auditions. As you may no doubt surmise, I was not selected for the part I auditioned for, actually didn't even hear back from them at all after the callback I made, so I'd dismissed the whole thing as nothing lost. All until a few weeks ago when I get an email asking if I'd like to come be an extra... sure, why not? It's a new experience and I entertained delusions of having a line or maybe even two all the way up until late in the day thereof.

Being myself, I showed up far too early. I was due at 2:30, the crew was to arrive at the hospital at noon, of course I was in the neighborhood at 11. a quick stop by Many Lands to browse and I headed in. By the directions, everyone was arriving at a south entrance, so that's where I waited.

Some while of waiting and wandering around later and the real truth was unveiled shortly after i found someone else waiting where I was. We were discovered and subsequently pointed out to where things actually were going. So... arriving when I was supposed to would've actually been a big problem.. I have doubts that I'd have actually found them where I was looking.

On to the actual shooting. or, actually not on to it. See, I got there, ate lunch with them, chatted with crew and actors some, even chatted with the director a little. No, actually, they shot a couple other scenes and some conflicts on the room came up, really I just sat around and shot the bull for a couple hours... then I put on some scrubs and sat around some more, until after 5:30 actually.

The movie, Cricketless, is about a kid with no conscience. Everything I've seen so far indicates a romantic comedy, but really, check the site and you'll probably be able to derive most of what it is.

The real treat on this was seeing the shoot in progress. I felt like a (person who likes to observe things) in a (new environment full of things to observe). I'd have used 'kid in a candy store' but really, what kid in a candy store is thinking about how they make the candy.

I got to walk through the shot a few times, and with the angles shot, I might be fully removed from the movie if they so desired. Don't expect much, no one will come to know Hrothgar through this, but it should be a fun watch.

All told, I was on site for about 12 hours. and then I went to train for my new job until 4am. that... was a long day.

Samurai Spirits

I'd been wanting to attend some festival activities here for a while now and I finally managed to take a little matsuri in. Not to say these were the festivals I've wanted to attend, but there are some similarities. There were food stands around, and people in traditional clothing... This is one reason I want to be around for the New Year. There will be a festival like I've seen in pictures and video then at the very least.
So on to the festivities. First was one around Halloween.. I should say something about Halloween in Japan. It's a little thing around here. No kids are going around for candy, at least not generally, there may be a few parties, a theme cafe here and there, and Disneyland Japan does a thing, but it's not the big production it is in America.
That big production is what confectioners here in Japan want it to be, but even then the displays at stores and such are small by comparison.
Heedless of any western holidays, there was a street festival held by a local shopping district that weekend, and so I went. It was really a small affair, no more than about a city block in length, but it was crowded and full of a fair degree of awesome and let me tell you why. Some of you may know about this little 'Power Ranger' thing. Well, it comes from 'Sentai' or hero team shows in Japan. And these aren't just tv shows, they come out and do live performance shows at malls and shopping districts and... It's something that must be seen. I took video of some of the performance, but it's so crowded I had to stand quite back to have a spot. Even then I had to move while taking it for the crowd and intervening pavilion. I'll get it posted.. it's a little large as is now. But it's an audience participation thing, the narrator, the villain, the heroes, they all call out to the audience, sometimes they even reach out to touch them.. I can't imagine that happening in America anymore!
But between seeing the last half of it at the first performance, and the first half at the second performance, I got to pound rice cakes, listen to some alternating fun and kinda weird music... Chatted it up with the guys from Gottsui (An okonomiyaki store I frequent) some too. All in all a fun time.. I took all video at it too.. I should've gotten some pictures, they're easier to post.
Oh yeah, there were world champion yoyo guys there too. *also* took some video of them in action.

So November 3rd is Culture Day, one of the National holidays of Japan. It also happens to be the Meiji Emperor's birthday. So at Meiji-jingu, where he is enshrined, there's bound to be something interesting. And indeed there is. Lots of people... ooooh, the people... This picture was a bunch of guys who were doing some sort of chant.. I'm not sure what it was really. There were beautiful flowers, what looked like some noh dance, adorable children in classic clothing... and did I mention horseback archery?

Yeah, that was really cool, and packed. There are martial arts displays going on all day long. I personally saw Aikido, Naginata-jutsu, Iaijutsu, displays of single katana vs katana and wakizashi, Judo, the combat simulations involving the classic armor was cool too... Seriously, you had to be there. and I've gotta go early next year... get a good seat.

Bolstering the Ranks

I mentioned to a lot of people last week that I'd had a very long Sunday, not to say it was a bad long, just a busy long, one much more strung from one event to the next than any Sunday I ever participated in anywhere else.
A lot of this is my fault for attending 6 hours of church that day.
It's quite normal to hear complaints about the length of even a 3 hour block of Sacrament meeting and then instruction. I've grumbled quietly to myself on the topic more than once. It was not one of those days.
It's a slightly odd building as church buildings go, but when you're dealing with property in Shibuya, really just about anything is amazing. 6 floors of it, from basement on up. Everything feels less spread out, there's a efficiency to the space that really lends itself to a comforting, familiarizing atmosphere. As a space where you cannot remain isolated for long. My first thoughts were of the building I grew up meeting in, but even that was spacious comparatively. Not that it fit more people, or had more square footage, no, It's more a matter of the hallways and walkways. In this building, two people cannot pass without interfacing, for to do so would result in a collision. I'll spare all of you the play by play of the layout.
It was a buoyant experience. From the moment I gave an introduction to myself and mentioned why I've come to Japan I was met with encouragement. I'm particularly fond of the comment an older gentleman made on the spot. Translates roughly to 'Somebody help this man get a job!' I'm sure it's mostly to do with my own predilection, but I felt very comfortable, like with this simple and honest phrase I'd come somewhere that could be so much more than just a stop along a way. And that's how my time from 9am until a little after 4pm continued. Very relaxing... refreshing. I received an invitation to a get together that night and thought momentarily about it. Normally I'm quite reserved over such matters, I would hesitate to intrude on nearly any invitation, but for some reason, and I'm not certain why, I went for it, as troublesome as making it there in time would be. The meetup was in 2 hours. Now normally, that amount of time would allow for a lot to be done in it, but this... oh no, this is japan, and I am pedestrian! Taking the trains home would eat up about 35 minutes including the walk from the station. With a quick change of clothes and checking a map for where the station is I'd be meeting people... but I digress.. the real clinch in the situation was I had not eaten yet. At all. I estimated I had about 20 minutes for food. And with no instant food at home from poor planning on that part... okay, i had some very bad tasting great value curry noodle cups... they taste somewhat like eating salted styrofoam, not that I know that flavor intimately.. I'm severely tempted to be rid of them without eating. I digress again. I popped off to a local nagasaki-style shop, they've got a very good tasting fried rice, some excellent donburi (meat and veggies over rice) and some noodle dishes too, and I get a gyoza meal. I cram it down as fast as I can manage without making an utter mess. Even speed walking at all this and I still didn't manage to make the meeting location in time. Thank goodness for pay phones.
One more thing. someone may remember I had a picture of shibuya crossing on my desktop for a while, well here's my parting image. I attempted to get something similar with a 1 second exposure. Wow things wash out quick. I've got to figure more out about this camera. By the by, this was taken around 11pm. This doesn't really capture how busy the place was even then. I'll try again soon.

Scouting out new territory.

These walks I've been going on have been getting more and more expansive. It's not that I'm walking to extraordinarily distant locations, no, no that's not it at all, in fact, if I compare my walks to those my father takes daily they're probably hardly anything to mention, although I haven't marked any sort of distance at all. I just walk and wander and see and stop and look... well, there is a process generally. I think I'll try to talk about that in context of my walk today. Because today was an extraordinarily typical walk for me.

I started out with a very clear goal of where I need to go and what I need to accomplish with this walk. But I hardly make a beeline to my goal. The normal Japanese person, in attemptingwhat I did, would have instead taken a train or two and a short walk. What I did instead was take a look at a map, looked at it in terms of larger locations, landmarks, etc that would aid in navigation, then set out. My first stop was a bread store I've stopped at a number of times now, they have delicious breads, and it makes a good walking breakfast. I eat one of them immediately and set out in the general direction of my destination, which today happened to be shimo-kitazawa. I need an alien registration card so I can get a cellphone among other things.

Oh, mosquito... it's so tiny... and trying to snack on my thumb. Squish. This reminds me of another topic I need to address sometime.. the japanese and spiders. Look forward to it.

So, back to topic, I actually took the first leg of my walking trip to Shibuya the other day. From there I started walking up a large road. It wasn't long before I came across an expansive Japanese wall surrounding a grounds containing a building with a traditional style roof. I immediately diverted from my path to investigate. It was a Buddhist temple, one undergoing some renovation, so I didn't take any pictures, I stood and read about a canal that had been developed and turned into an underground canal at the location and moved on. Perhaps a few times on any given walk I'll come across something like this that catches my eye, or I look down a tiny street cluttered with shops and suddenly divert down to take a look. Doing things like this has made my walks about Setagaya-ku and beyond quite entertaining. Now, another part of all this comes when I'm done in one particular diversion. About at the part where I get to the other side of that shopping district and take a guess as to which way it is to my destination. It's a fun way to find new routes. Today was especially so because of what I did after I reached kitazawa's town hall.

As it turns out, that's not the place I need to go to get my registration card initially. I really had to go to another place.. that's a couple blocks away from my apartment. One that now that it's been pointed out to me, I realize I've passed by it once or twice before. Heh heh.. he... hehhehhehheh...

But that's just the start! I walked out and went down a couple of the young people's shimo-kitazawa town. (that's literally what's marked on a map I saw.. I should've taken a picture)

There's.. too much to even start on. It's like a huge outdoor shopping zone. I passed by at least 8 bookstores, I stopped into a record shop where this guy behind the counter started djing a bit (have you seen the record shop in Faking it where the cellist becomes a dj? Amazing how the record store looked so similar. Or maybe I'm remembering a different televised record store. So much vinyl.)

The streets there are so random it's hard to keep a solid bead on direction in the middle of the day... I exited the street with a clear understanding of how to return the way I came, but my directions had been moved 90 degrees. I started walking in the direction of my next objective, and you can imagine my surprise when I started walking on a particular street... and recognized it from my walk to shibuya after about a block! I turned off it immediately after.

I found a very nice park in that wandering that I had to stop in, I read a chapter of a book on a bench and walked around, it's a nice park. But then we come to where I am now.

That's right. 東大 - TouDai. (Tokyo University, one of the most, if not the most prestigious university in Japan) And what's the first thing to happen on the campus of this prestigious and beautiful campus? I'm asked if I'm a teacher. Hold on a minute while I process this. In fact, the rest of this will just have to wait for the end of my walk.

I love my netbook. So convenient for just sitting and writing anywhere. I've gotten a suggestion from my good friend Jeff tonight that perhaps I should attempt to seek employ at TouDai. I hesitate, but perhaps if they had something available. There certainly was delicious peach drink at the co-op store... yum.

No more job responses today, but I feel confident that once I can get an interview, I can get a job.