Nothing but some, things

I'm so busy with writing my disseration
that I can't update this blog at the moment,
but I found a lovely music video so will put the link to it.

This kind of "effect" could be done by editing application,
but they made it "by hand" using a lot of webcamera.
I also like that a lot of people from different
countried participate it.

It gave me a small happiness while I am so busy.

I went to see a performance by "Kodo"
(A group of Japanese traditional drum players).
To be honest, I hadn't seen any proper
Japanese drum performance before,
and I just went there because it was 50% off for students!

But it was amazing. Just amazing.
I thought it would be good when I saw the promotion video
on their website, but you can never experience
the sounds of "big drum" unless you go to see them.
It echoes inside your body, rather than on the surface.
It was like thunder.

Another thing I liked about them was that
they were really entertainer.
The quality as musician was good, so they can
perform serious drum, but also they can do it
comically so that audience feel relaxed,
and above all, they looked enjoying themselves so much.
You can feel thrill, fun, rhythm,
and the time just goes by!

They will be travelling around Europe, so check it out!

Kodo website

Portugal, Day2. (yes, it's confusing but switch your brain!)

It was the first day of the event, OFFF.
There was a long queue in the morning!
After waiting a lot, finally we went inside the place.
There were some interactive installation,
and, Microsoft was showing their interactive campus
and "Surface".

Opening talk was by Neville Brody.
(I didn't know he was alumni of LCC...)
But actually I don't remember what he talked...
Well, how things were organised was not so good,
the sound was not so good...
The first day was a bit disappointing.

But the dinner we had at the hostel was so yummy!
Spinach soup and main dish was cod...
This hostel is so clean, the location is good,
the price is reasonble, I recommend!

To be continued to the Day3.

Neville Brody
Lisbon Lounge Hostel

Now it's Switzerland! It's the first experience
for me to travel around again and again
in such a short period. Actually it was a field
trip of the course but some of us went there
a few days earlier.

Taking a flight from Gatwick, it took only
1.5hours to Zurich. So close!
We rent a car and travelled around.
The first place we went was Luzern.
It was such a beautiful city with
lots of European buildings around the lake.
Walking on Kapellbrücke, having a dinner,
eating ice cream, we left the city and headed
for Interlaken. It was a really comfortable
travel on the car driving along lakes.

To be continued to the Day2.

I just finished writing a report...yey! I have to prepare for a presentation as well,
but I'm going to Switzerland tomorrow so want to write one more blog
before I have much more things to write...

So Spain, day2.

Before I went there, I had read some blogs
and had one place I wanted to visit, Frigiliana.
It seems most Japanese tourist who visit Malaga,
actually choose the place to visit Frigiliana, or Mijas.
The pictures show such a beautiful scenery
with lots of white houses. We went to an information centre
and a woman there told us she personally recommends Frigliana.
It seems a bit closer as well.

Taking a bus from Malaga, we first went to Nerja,
and changed there to a bus going to Frigilana.
The weather was a bit cloudy, but when the sunshine came up,
the white houses and colourful flowers looked so beautiful.

It was such a small village, narrow paths on the mountain
looked so european.

I just remember Kiki's delivery service looked a bit like this...no?

Spain is so lovely...the village itself is not so big,
so you can walk around everywhere only for a few hours.

So, when we were waiting for a returning bus,
suddenly I was talked by a Japanese women.
She told me that she was travelling around by herself.
She was such a nice person, and we decided to travel together

To be continued...
But the next entry will be about Portugal again or Swiss!

Err...what should I write about now...right, Portugal day1.

The reason why I went there was to attend a media event called OFFF,
but I was just passive as always, my classmate found about it (thanks!)
and I joined them! So I did no research beforehand!
But I enjoyed it very much
The event started on the second day, so the first day was beach...

After taking a train from Lisbon for about 30mins towards West,
we took a bus towards North. The beach was so nice!

Well it was a bit cold and windy...the water was so cold...
but the beach was amazing.

Again, input exceeds output.
I want to write more about Spain, but went to Portugal last week
so want to talk about it too...and I'm going to Switzerland next week!

Anyway, today is a short story.

A few weeks ago, I went to meet other Japanese postgrads students.
I was so impressed by people studying such different things.
We have all different background, age, but
have a big thing in common: struggling to fit into the life in the UK lol
I enjoyed it so much.

I think there were almost 30 Japanese students there...
One corner of the British pub looked like Japanese pub. hehe.

I'm going to join them again soon.
I wish to keep these connections after the course too.

As I heard that I could see "Noh" (Japanese traditional theatre)
at V&A, I went there wearing my kimono.

To be honest, when I went to see "Noh" almost 10 years ago,
it was in Yasukuni Shrine and the play was "Atsumori"
as same as this time, the situation was perfect as
there were some cherry blossoms around the stage...
but I fell asleep. Sorry. Noh is sometimes a bit too difficult.

But this time I watched everything! And it was amazing.
I wonder why the "Noh-men" (Mask that actors use) looks
so powerful. Wearing a gorgeous kimono, waving a fan
and a sword, he looks like someone who is not from the real world,
he looks so mysterious but still beautiful.
Some audiences who looked getting bored at first
even started to lean forward a bit and concentrated on the stage
once "Atsumori" appeared. And the last part of the play,
suddenly the music stopped and the air fell completely silent.
This silent actually talks a lot....it was so touching.

I would like to say thanks to my friend who told me about this event!

I went to Spain for Easter holiday.
It was the first time for me to go there!
Since I decided to join my friends only before the holiday,
I had no idea where "Malaga" was.
I took Easy jet for the first time, and flew from Luton airport.
I could sleep really well on the place as it was so early in the morning,
so I felt it was really short time. Once we arrived there,
I felt the air was so warm...feeling happy~~~.
We took a train from there to the centre of Malaga.

My first impression of Spain (or I should say Malaga)
was Japanese apartment area with strange colours???
Being different from British buildings, Spanish buildings looked
rather plain rectangle. But the colour is different from Japanese ones,
and there is a lot of palm trees so they looked so interesting.
From the centre, we went to the hostel called Melting Pot.
It was cleaner that I thought, so relieved.
After leaving the luggage, we went to have a walk along the beach.

It was a bit a shame that there were some places where were under construction...
The sand was rather dark like Japanese beaches, and also as the weather
was not so good at first, it looked "port" rather than "beach".
But still, long, long beach line looked amazing.
Walking for a while, we went to a cafe along the beach,
and went back to the city centre to have a dinner.

The fist paella in Spain! I loved it.
Seems I can expect much about foods....to be continued to Day2.

I was invited to my friend's wedding party.
It was very nice ambience, and the couple who
looked so happy made me feeling so happy too.
It was the first time for me to attend a wedding party in the UK,
but it was really relaxing place and I enjoyed it very much!

When another friend played Japanese flutes,
it was as if Japanese wind blew into the air in the UK,
exactly representing the couple, it was so touching.
It also made me miss Japan so much.
The sound of her flute was so warm,
I think I have to practice playing it too...

Anyway, congratulations! I wish their eternal happiness.

By the way, I want to write about a trip to Spain
which I went on Easter holidays, but don't have enough time...