Alexander's

In my perpetual quest for fun on the weekend a few friends and I decided to go to summerland. Summerland is a huge indoor water--amusement--park just outside of Tokyo.[^1] A day ticket is 3500 Yen[^2] and this price not only includes entrance to the park, but also the fare for all the attractions in the attached amusement park, like ferries weel, merry go round, roller coaster and the free fall.

Upon entering it didn't seem so crowded. After all I could see my feet when looking down -- more than eight months in Tokyo have left traces and not only do I find my 15 square meter flat really roomy but I'm also used to elevators with more than the maximum allowed number of people in them.[^3]

Well anyway turns out the real fun is in the water and not on the land. The swimming pool was filled to the brim with people and all kinds of plastic monsters. And when I say filled to the brim I don't mean that it was hard to swim, no I'm talking about constant body contact while standing in the water filled to the brim. The plastic monsters where standing vertically out of the water, with the little kids and cute girls hanging desperately onto them, because there simply was no space in the water.

But the best part -- the wave machine -- was yet to come. At the end of every hour they start up a giant wave machine in the main pool. The people density gets even higher, reaches about 15 people in an elevator for 12 and then giant waves are unleashed on the solidly packed pool. I have no idea how the tall 1m65 japanese girls[^4] can survive a maximum wave height of clearly over 2m in a pool that packed, but apart from the occasionally stray rubber animal everyone seemed to be happy.

After the waves subside everyone leaves the pool, the body guards fish out the dead bodies and after 5 minutes in the dry the whole fun begins again.

Honestly I did it once and enjoyed the experience immensely for the strangeness factor, but considering that I don't like to be kicked that much and sort of cling to my life, I guess I'll refrain from going there again.

After the pool experience and one water-slide ride[^5] we went outside to the amusement park. By now it had started to rain, so apart from a group of japanese girls we had all the attractions for ourselves. Considering that the normal waiting time for one attraction is between thirty minutes and one hour I'll take the rain over the waiting in the humid heat anytime.[^6]

The best part about the whole park might have been my friend that came along with his girlfriend. While she wanted to ride all the wild attractions he was deathly scared of them. So let me finish this blog entry with a quote of him.

You come from a country of sadistic psychopaths! I rode that attraction once and when we were hanging head down he stopped the ride and asked if we wanted to have another go![^7]

[^1]: Maybe even inside, I can never tell where Tokyo ends and "the countryside" begins [^2]: a bit over 30 Euro [^3]: 14 people plus bags in an elevator for 12 was my maximum up until now [^4]: short ones clock in way under 1m55 [^5]: 30 minutes queue for 3 seconds ride [^6]: When I say humid heat I mean breathing liquid fire! On a "dry" day we have 60+% humidity in the lab with the airconditioning running on "dry" mode, but usually it rains once or twice per day, so it has a comfty 80-90% humidity with nice and summerly temperatures [^7]: Yes Superman in the Wiener Prater is not for everyone

I'm always very motivated when someone tells me of a seemingly fun and traditional japanese event. I've up until now never been disappointed by anything that is not in my travel guide. Anything that is in my travel guide on the other hand just reeks of tourists, masses of people, a lot of foreigners and not very friendly Japanese. So I try to avoid those like the pest they are and only go to events some of my japanese friends tell me about.

Probably the nicest things are small temple festivals or university festivals,[^1] with the best traditional festivals clearly organised by the 慶応(Keio) University. Those students have mastered the art of combining tradition, style and fun and I'm always highly motivated whenever I hear about something from them.

So this time it was the 七夕 (Tanabata), which is like so many things here imported from China. The best part about this festival is, that a lot of people dress up in the traditional japanese summer clothing -- the 浴衣 (Yukata) and there are lots of small shops where one can buy food and snacks.

So the day after I found out about this festival I ran to invite my friends, not knowing anything more than this will be a nice festival and there will be many girls clad in Yukata. What more is there to know about a traditional japanese festival? If there was anything important the guys in my lab would surely have told me!

Well turns out 七夕 is the Chinese Valentines day. To invite a girl out on that day seems to be like inviting her out on a quite serious Valentines date and of course as my luck would have it I found this out 15 minutes after I invited two chinese girls to come along!

I'm just glad that the Chinese guy in my lab was so very helpful:

What are you worried about? Just enjoy your dates.

In the end it was a very nice day. The students were very friendly, we ate a lot, chatted, had fun, took photos and there were some nice fireworks in the evening.

I'm just waiting for my professor to see the printout of me and my new girlfriend, that I put up in the lab. Since I hear about once a week, that I should stay away from schoolgirls (as girlfriends) he will be thrilled to see I spend 七夕 with this girl, but I guess it's ok, since I was approached by her parents.

PS: The girl in the photo above was really cute. I told her, that I like her strawberry yukata and asked if I could photograph it. After a few photos her friend remarked:

He is cute and probably hitting on you![^2]

I've yet to see a girl hit her friend that fast again. I wonder what kind of Budo she is practicing.

[^1]: University festivals that are not organised by my University the 東大 (Todai) that is. The 東大 is just too famous and everyone wants their children to enter, so these festivals tend to be a bit crowded and not as much fun as they could be. Also a lot of the students here are very competitive and not as much fun as the ones from other universities. [^2]: With a "go for it" undertone

We have quite a few fire and earthquake drills here at the Todai. These drills are always pre-announced and start with a clear statement, that this is a drill -- if you can understand Japanese that is, otherwise it might not be all that clear. Anyway we have designated evacuation areas, food ratios, little sheets of paper we are supposed to carry with us at all times and in case of an evacuation order give to the person in charge to make sure we made it out of the building.

So the other day we had one of these announced evacuations with all the annoyances that go with it. Half an hour wasted just to make sure everyone knows how to properly exit the building. One would imagine that people who made it into Todai can read enough Japanese to understand how to evacuate the building.[^1] Well anyway I went to eat something just before we had to evacuate and when I came back from lunch order was restored and I could continue my research.

The next day I come -- as always -- around 9:00 and am -- like normally -- alone in my room, but as so often after a few minutes my professor strolls in and we start talking about the things I did and what I should do today -- only to be rudely interrupted by a fire alarm.

Not again!

I roll my eyes, just to realize that there is no warning that this is just a test. Also my professor seems strangely agitated.

Alexander this doesn't sound like a test. Please evacuate now!

So I pack my things -- hey it's better to burn with my research, than to loose it all and just get away with my life, plus I could never leave my camera behind and in comes one of the PhD students.

Alex this is a real fire -- evacuate, I just need to swing by the office and will come shortly.

Sure thing, like me he values his research more than his life, but just as me he manages to escape with his data and life intact, or so I presume.

I just needed to Twitter[^2] the fire alarm, before we left.

I can only say I'm glad that I have an iPhone and so I could Twitter it from the safety of the evacuation zone.

[^1]: This is supposed to be sarcastic. There is just hardly any English here, so it feels a bit like read Japanese or die [^2]: Twitter is a blogging service, where you can write a maximum of 140(?) characters per post. Quite funny for fast status updates