Sunday, 4 November 2007
Wasedasai, ie Waseda Festival, is a very big thing here. Almost from day one in WU, we've been hearing about this festival, and it seems that anything to do with WU is of great import to the people in the area. I saw signs, banners, and posters everywhere, as though the shop owners don't mind all the notices plastered on their shutters. Despite all the publicity, I actually didn't know what it was about, apart from it being on 3 and 4 November. So... I went to check it out.
The day started off like this: me taking pictures of myself in the toilet while waiting for my friend to finish changing.
Then we headed to school, where the walkways were just a huuuuge crush of people. It was essentially a food fair, but it was interesting because the different stalls were uniquely decorated. I like food, so it should have been a good thing, but it was annoying that instead of walking, we were shuffling.
There were some performances too, in more obscure corners, and this group was doing the robot dance. They were pretty good!
Trying to take artistic and pretty shots, as always:
Publicity was rampant; There were people wearing cardboard thingies to promote their goods, otherwise they stuck posters on badminton rackets and waved them about, endlessly paddling their wares. Here's an example:
Those that dressed up in costumes were even cuter!
A makan queen at a food fest - obviously I would eat, right? There were green tea taiyaki, fried ice cream etc. They were SO GOOD. If I had lots of time, energy, and money, I would've bought loads of food! But it was tiring to squeeze through the crowd, and not just that, it's disorienting and I'll feel out of sorts.
There was a popular comedian (who prances around in his underwear, showing off his hot body but not-so-hot face, yelling "opapi!" in his cartoon voice, and doing silly pumping actions while chanting "sonnano kankene!") who attracted a huge crowd, but I was quite bored (I find him rather ridiculous), so I started taking pictures of other stuff instead of him:
I also thought that playing with a cute doggy was way more interesting than craning my neck trying to catch a glimpse of him and his antics:
Rather weird that what we would think of as shit, ie sai, would mean festival in Japanese. And there were so many people wearing tops that proclaimed "SAI". I can't help it, I keep thinking of shit. Wasedasai --> Waseda Shit? =| That's so horrible, but... Yeah, I understand it's a festival.
I see more trees with leaves turning red! That makes me so happy, and when I make comments in a happy voice, my friends look at me weirdly. Apparently to them, it's very normal to see such sights. Okay, so I'm the country bumpkin from Singapore, but whatever! It makes me happy~~~
The festival continued till today, but I didn't really want to be jostled in the crowd even for food, so I only went at certain times to catch the cheerleaders (Falcons and Shockers) in action. I was so happy to be able to watch so many performances! I thought they would have one routine each, so it was a pleasant surprise to have more. I took more than ten videos! Shockers, the all-male cheerleading team, were really impressive - I gawked at their flexibility and their tosses. Maybe it's because they're all males, which is rather unusual, but I think their performances were more interesting than the all-girls team. Ahh you've got to admire cheerleaders for lots of reasons. :)
Labels: cheerleading, Japan, pics
- supergirl soul-saved @ 2:55 pm :)
