Fuku-ing Fabulous Drag Ball!

7/1/17
This weekend everyone was was studying in preparation of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).  So one of my friends had the amazing/awful idea to schedule his "Fuku-ing Fabulous Drag Ball" the day before the test. I was super excited to go and do this, but I did have to take a break in my studies to attend the event. While I was in Fukushima City that weekend, our "I heart/akabeko Fukushima tshirts that we ordered came in. I love it so much! Cormac ordered a green shirt and mine was purple. And Cormac made his "Tip Jar" for the Drag Show.

A lot of people made it and I think were both frustrated and relieved at the same time for the timing of this event. We were all happy to take a break in our studies and attend an amazing Drag event, but we were all a little frustrated because again, we had to take a break in our studies. And because of our relation to the person hosting the drag ball, there was an added sense of obligation to attend. It was his baby and his dream for at least six months previous to do a drag ball, and we all wanted to support him.

The purpose of the Drag Ball was to raise money for a Japanese charity called ReBit, an LGBT+ youth help group in Japan.

Cormac and I arrived a few hours early so we could help set up, get ourselves ready and help others get ready. But we mostly were messing around.

Trying to make myself look taller, I looked even girlier!

Here, you may now see my own original character: Juan Adik! My Spicy-Latino-Dancer-Man! All he needs to do is dance in your general direction and you become pregnant!

Juan Adik

Cormac went as his own creation "Penny Tration"!

Some of the acts  and events. I was able to take video of a few of the acts. The best act of the night was by my friend Olga. I took video of it, but I had some trouble while uploading it to my Google Drive and in the process I lost it. She sang a song in Russian about how she was praying to God about wanting to be a fabulous Drag Queen and Diva! The music style was aria/religious sounding and solemn and beautiful. Olga has a wonderful voice. Then the music changes and she did a dance and song number with Felipe, Whose drag persona is "Shelita Booty!"

Shelita Booty: Singing a compilation of Lady Gaga

It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the other acts that performed that night for our fun charity event!

Madeline as "Ms. Mayhem: Singing "Violent Pornography" by System of a Down

Penny Tration: Singing "I'm Mad About the Boy" by Dinah Washington

Liang: Singing "Attention" by Charlie Puth

Iris also did a song performance as "Irish Whisky", but I didn't capture that one. However, it was really nice.

In the background of many of the photos, one of our friends dressed up as a Japanese celebrity Bruzon Chiemi. He asked that I don't use his real name, but you can see him in his outfit in the background of many photos. He's mostly in the background because he helped out by being the media organizer and DJ.

Bruzon Chiemi

There he is in the back.

In addition to the performances, there were other entertainments. There were a few contests and games. One was a contest to attach the most trash to a person. It was me vs Cormac, and I won by 2 items (one of the items that were taped to us was a person!)

Olga also gave a lovely presentation on the "Herstory" of Drag and LGBTQ+ struggles. It was very informative.

Along with some closeup of her costume.

Group photo of all the participants, the award winners, and those who attended.

When the night ended we helped clean up and put the space back into the condition we originally found it. We also counted up all the money the event made over ¥50,000 (~$500) for the ReBit!

7/2/17
The next day was the day for our JLPT testing in Koriyama. I was going to the same place, the same testing room even, as my friend Gabe. So I picked him up that morning and we drove together to Koriyama. We were taking the N3 test. Cormac took the N5, but he didn't go with us because the N5 test was being held in Fukushima City. Lucky duck!

We arrived, registered with the front desk and went upstairs to a large classroom with 100 + people in it, and there were multiple rooms. I was surprised to see that most of the people who were taking the test were of Southeast Asian descent. There were hundreds of them taking the test. I would never have guessed that in a million years. But it was pretty cool.

I didn't do very well. As I was taking the test I realized that I had been studying the wrong kanji. lol. I certainly dropped the ball. I hadn't expected to pass this test the first time, but I was surprised at just how unprepared I was. But that's ok. That is the reason I took it this year, to fully understand what was on this test and be better prepared for it next time.

Even going into this test not expecting to pass, I still left the testing center frustrated. I think Gabe was pretty frustrated too. We walked to a bookstore nearby to meet up with some other people who were spending the day in Koriyama.

We met up with them for about an hour, but I wanted to go back to Fukushima City and unwind. I was still frustrated and I just wanted to go relax and watch a movie with Cormac. So I gathered Gabe and we drove back to Fukushima City.

That night when I met back up with Cormac, we downloaded "It Follows", a horror movie. I was so impressed with this movie. It is a slow, but still terrifying horror. I totally recommend it! I crashed that night and I woke up extra early the next morning and drove back to Minamisoma and made it juuuust in time for work the next day.

Tokyo Trick Art Museum and more!

6/25/17
We woke up late the next morning took our time getting ready.
When we did make it out of the hotel, we stopped at a little cafe that boasted italian coffee, but it was nothing special, and it tasted like all other coffee found in Japan.

After that we made our way to Shimbashi Station in Minato-Ku, Tokyo. This is the starting  station for the Self-Driving Train that takes you to Odaiba. The driver-less train we took was the Yurikamome Line. It usually has a line of people waiting to take the "driver's spot" in the train with the big windows out front. We did wait an extra fifteen minutes so we could get the front seat on the next train.

I took video of nearly the entire train ride! My camera overheated near the end of the trip and stopped filming, and I had to ask Cormac to take video of the remaining few minutes. So of the entire ride I'm only missing 30 seconds to 1 minute of ride time!

Once we got to Odaiba we started walking around outside. It was overcast and it threatened to rain, but it made it much cooler than it had been the previous day, so we weren't complaining. It looks like it had rained that morning but it didn't rain for the rest of the day, so that was a nice bit of luck.

We went into the Tokyo Trick-Art Museum inside one of the buildings in the shopping centers, and there was quite the line to get in.

We waited in line for maybe twenty minutes, and when we got in it was quite a free-for-all to get pictures taken. There wasn't a lot of room to walk around. But because it is Japan everyone was nice and patient with each other. People made lines to take the pictures with the scenes they wanted. Strangers took pictures for each other. Even though it was crowded and you had to wait long times in some cases to take pictures, it was overall a fun experience.

For most of the time we were in such a rush to take a photo and get out of the way for the next person, we were unable to really monitor how the pictures were turning out. As a result a lot of them don't look great, but it was fun to take them anyways.

There was also a piece of art that was 3D and shifted as you moved. I was able to take some video of it.

After we finished with the Trick-Art Museum we walked around the Shopping Center in Odaiba for a while. While we were in the Venus Fort I showed him the creepy odds-and-ends shop called Strange Love that I had last been to the previous August (check out that blog post for more information). It was just as creepy as ever and still ridiculously expensive, but still one of my favorite shops in Tokyo.

We got some food and walked around for a bit longer, knowing we would have to get back to the car and drive back to Fukushima soon.

On the ground floor of one of the shopping centers there is a series of large rooms that act as a museum. At this time there was an exhibit of old Japanese cars, as well as a Delorian. I didn't think to take pictures of this exhibit, which I completely regret.

As we were leaving Odaiba and headed back to the train, we happened upon a street performer and his trained monkey! I filmed them, and paid some money for their performance. It was pretty funny, and I enjoyed it very much.  Once again my camera was overheating, so I had to break the performance up into multiple videos and put them together after the fact.

From here we got back on the train and hopped lines for around an hour until we made it back to the rugby stadium, and back to my car.

When we got back to the car and the parking lot, I checked the paying machine so I could pay my bill and drive home. Now, the prices posted in the lot were reasonable. I expected to pay about ¥2,400 for parking in this lot overnight.

When I put in my parking spot, I saw that the amount I owed was over ¥16,300! Whaaaaaaat?! Holy SHIT! How could this happen? What the actual FUCK?!

I found that there was a small sign posted at the back of the parking lot. It said that on this particular weekend (rugby game weekend) they were increasing the price of the spots in this lot nearly 7 times it's normal cost!

I was freaking livid!

I think they should have posted this cost change somewhere where people would see it, not hidden in the back of the lot where nearly nobody would see it! It is the most dishonest thing I have ever seen in this country.

I made my way to the nearest combini and withdrew the nearly $150 to pay this fucking parking fee!
Cormac could see I was in no mood. I had previously told him that parking was on me, and that he didn't need to help. After this he felt bad and did help me with half the cost of parking. I felt bad and grateful at the same time. We left Tokyo is a much fouler mood than when we'd had an hour before.

Cormac, bless his heart, did his best to get it all off my mind. We turned our thoughts to more fun things as we got on the freeway to make our way back to Fukushima. Soon after we got on the freeway, we got stopped to a standstill. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and moving at a snail's pace. We had gotten stuck in Tokyo traffic.  We spent more than an hour in this traffic and made it about a 1/2 mile. We realized that the reason for the stopped traffic is because there was some construction going on and the construction crew was letting one car past at a time. It seemed like an extra-retarded way to do things, especially in a city as busy as Tokyo.

You would think that the events of the night, dishonest parking prices, and being stuck in Tokyo traffic for an hour + would be the end of my good mood, but really it was the opposite. Cormac had done a good job about talking to me and keeping my mind off the obscene amount of money we'd lost. We had fun talking about the rest of our fun trip, and talking about brighter things in general. I'm really glad he was there to share that experience with me

And I learned a lesson about being extra-careful about reading ALL the signs in a parking lot, especially if it's an event weekend. But even today (exactly one full year later) this memory makes my blood boil.

We finally made it back to Fukushima City in the wee hours of the morning and I stayed at Cormac's place so I could get a few hours of sleep before having to drive back to Minamisoma. It would not have been safe for me to drive alone at that time of night and after the long drive from Tokyo.

Overall, a good weekend with a bitter ending.