Marc’s Japan Adventure

First, CONTEST RESULTS:

The winner is…. (drum roll, please)

Michele. And her damn “God” picture. I curse you, O god-fearing people! Heathens, arise! The day of “cool escalators” shall be ours! Thanks to all of you who voted, and kept the contest interesting. It was really close, but we all know in our hearts who the better photographer is. *cough*marc*cough*

For posterity, here’s the winning photo again:

Also I had my first improv show in Japan last night! It was…okay. The show was run a little haphazardly, and Butch, the guy I’d been rehearsing with, seemed a bit off. By his own (on-stage) admission, he hadn’t done this for a while, so I guess it’s all right, but still… Just because I’m in a different country, I’m not going to lower my standards for a good comedy show. The show began with Butch doing some stand up, which wasn’t bad, and then there was a cool Japanese juggler/magician, and he was great. Then Butch, Stefano (an Italian guy who’s been practicing with us for the past 2 weeks), and I took the stage. I was expecting Butch to be the emcee for the improv section, but he didn’t really explain the rules to most of the improv games, so the audience was a bit in the dark as to what the heck we were doing half of the time! Anyway, we were only on stage for about 15 minutes, so it went okay. Fortunately, the theater was standing room only, with 50-60 people, so that’s always good. After us, there was a 15 minute break, and then there was a group of musical improvisors, who created songs from people’s suggestions, and they were fantastic. We managed to exchange emails after the show, so hopefully we’ll be playing together sometime soon.

I leave you with these two images to help you through a SARSy summer:

Japan had a major earthquake last night during rush hour in the northern part of the main island Honshu, an area called Tohoku. It measured 7 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was off the east coast so everyone in the area got a good rattle. About 70 people were injured, but for such a huge quake, this is actually pretty good, and no one was killed.

I didn’t feel anything, but Osaka’s pretty far away. I’ll find out about Ben tonight. As for the contest, you have one more day, Tuesday, to vote, and then we’re tallying things up to see who the winner is!

By the way, this is Bush taking Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a ride in Texas:

Finally, at long last, after much sweating and grunting, I have the pictures in hand for you, the people, to judge. Without further ado, let the judging BEGIN!

Y’all,

Sorry about the length of time between updates. Work has been extremely busy. I can’t reveal too much on the website since I know some students read this weblog (hi, Takeshi!) but it’s been really crazy for the past two weeks, and I’ve hardly been able to catch my breath. So, that’s why the long delay between entries. This weekend, if it’s not raining too heavily, should be the final round of the contest.

Anyone seen Matrix 2 yet? The reviews haven’t exactly been glowing. I’m a little worried… Movies here cost about $20, so I don’t want to pay 2000 Yen if I’m not going to enjoy it, although it’s hard to imagine NOT enjoying a Matrix film.

Also, I’ve been starting to perform improv again, here in Japan! When Ray, Shannon, and Ben came to visit, we met a performer in front of the aquarium. It turns out he’s an improv guy, along with a juggler and street performer, so we’re trying to get an improv group together here. So I’m teaching improv in Japan! How cool is that?

O.K. it’s a tie. Unless we are counting number of votes, then Marc kicked my butt. Marc won rounds 1 and 4 and I won rounds 2 and 3. Alex, the sweet, sweet lemon was in charge of all the vote tallying. Therefore, according to the rules, Marc and I now have to have a photo-off in Japan and New York, respectively.

PS – For those of you who weren’t aware, you are able to click on the thumbnail picture to enlarge.

Let the Contest Begin – Round 1

Marc Baizman took pictures 1, 3 and 5. He received 18 votes for #1, 1 vote for #3 and 6 votes for #5. Michele Medlin took pictures 2, 4 and 6. She received 1 for #2, 1 for #4 and 1 for #6.

Marc = 25, Michele = 3

– Tallied by Alex, the sweet, sweet lemon

Round 2 – FIGHT!

Marc Baizman took pictures 3, 4 and 6. He received no votes for # 3, 8 votes for #4 and 1 vote for #6. Michele Medlin took pictures 1, 2 and 5. She received 3 votes for #1, 2 votes for #2 and 5 votes for #5.

Marc = 9, Michele = 10

– Tallied by Alex, the sweet, sweet lemon

Round 3 – The Soul Still Burns

Marc Baizman took pictures 1, 4 and 6. He received 1 vote for #1, 1 vote for #4 and no votes for #5. Michele Medlin took pictures 2, 3 and 6. She received 6 votes for #2, 2 votes for #3 and no votes for #6.

Marc = 2, Michele = 8

– Tallied by Alex, the sweet, sweet lemon

Round 4 – The final round!

Marc Baizman took pictures 2, 5 and 6. He received 1 vote for #2, no votes for #5 and 5 votes for #6. Michele Medlin took pictures 1, 3 and 4. She received 3 votes for #1, no votes for #3 and no votes for #5.

Marc = 6, Michele = 3

– Tallied by Alex, the sweet, sweet lemon

Total totals:
Marc = 42 – Rounds 1 & 4
Michele = 24 – Rounds 2 & 3

Any suggestions from you the people regarding the “photo-off”?

I will tally the votes tonight and the contest results will be posted then. In the event of a tie, which is possible given that there were 4 rounds, we will have to have a tiebreaker round, with one set of pictures from NYC, and the second set from Osaka.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from my last day in Tokyo with Ben and Akane.
     

I almost forgot! Here are some pictures of Michele’s last night and day in Tokyo. Enjoy. Especially notice the sweatshirt of the man. It says, “Bah.”

Okay, so Michele’s gone and I’m heartbroken. Ben and I drowned my sorrows tonight at an Indian restaurant and an izakaya (Japanese bar/restaurant). So, without preface, here is the FINAL (add echo here) set of pictures. Choose wisely.

While posting, I was listening to Svefn-g-englar from the album “Agætis Byrjun” by Sigur Ros.

Yesterday, Marc and I were going to go and see some more of Japan, but it didn’t happen. So, we didn’t take any pictures. We’re going to Tokyo in about an hour and we will be taking the final photos for the contest then …

In the meantime, check out this picture. Tell me, doesn’t it look like Jo from “Facts of Life”? Here’s a website that has a picture of her for referral. Ray-Ray, I know that you’ll be able to tell.

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/julsie103/fan/

My weeks in Japan are coming to a close. It’s been so much fun and we’re planning on me coming back in perhaps August. I visited my favorite kitchen store lady (the one who pinched my arm with the bruise). She said “See you later” in the very casual Japanese way – which according to Marc is really cool ’cause it means she feels like I’m apart of the it that is Japan. Yeah, I made that last part up, but I’m gonna miss her. And my Eclair man. I found this AMAZING French pastry shop in Hanaten (Marc’s village) and the man who owns it with his family studied in Paris. Needless to say, his eclairs are great. And I went in a few times and the family was so wonderful as well. I know it doesn’t matter, but I made friends. Well, o.k. friends that I pay for services, but they work as friends as well.

This is the end of my nonsensical entry.

Wait – I’m also supposed to say that we’re going to be adding some pictures tonight around 11:00 am your time (Friday), so the contest will not be over until Monday, May 5th – 12:00 PM EST.

Everyone, thank you SO MUCH for your great feedback. Today was a really rainy day so we didn’t get to Himeji like we’d planned. Instead we met up with my friend Craig and grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant that Michele had discovered when she was wandering around! It was terrific. Okay, here’s the pictures for Round 3: