Aight. Here's the dilly... yo.

This weeks special activities started with Wednesday. I stayed at school after 3:05 to watch the first round of the JV Debate tournament. Mainly, I was there to act as moral support to Monica, who managed a season of debate with a new partner who understands less than I do how her mind works. In any case, I thought that they had definitely won the first round, so I headed home on the train to do homework. As it turns out, they lost the round that I watched and won the second, which they were very unsure about. Most of this inconsistency is due to judges. They're screwed up in the head. The first round, Monica and her partner debated affirmative, which means that they present their plan and the negative team can win only if they can attack at least one point without it being refuted by the affirmative team. On the ballot, the judge wrote "refuted all negative arguments." By definition, they won. The opposing team was horrible. One kept saying "bi-assed" as in "with two bums" and also referred to countries that impose tariffs as "corrupt," probably without knowing how to use it properly. The other was just IRRATIONALLY ANGRY ALL THE TIME!!!! "The Dalai Lama HIMSELF says that he DOES NOT want independence!!! HIMSELF!!!" Puh... Indians.

Thursday was the first of three performances of the school's fall play. It was a production of Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, two different but related one-act plays that didn't seem to mean much until I read the summary aquí. It was entertaining though and, while I was slightly baffled for a lot of the play, my lovely thespian acquaintances did a lovely job. It helped to know both Shakespearean stories though. I would have been completely lost if I didn't.

Friday was the varsity debate tournament at St. Mary's. The tournament itself was during the school day so I couldn't go to watch, but Mrs. Gotterson had invited me to the debate dinner during the play the night before. After my weekly tsugaru-shamisen lesson, I hopped on the train and met up with the team at an Indian restaurant near St. Mary's. ASIJ won (again) and received a buttload of speaker awards. (Monica got one for JV. Congrats!) I ate some hyderabadi chicken curry, which battled with my stomach acids. While there was some discussion of going to karaoke or some other night-time entertainment establishment, no one had the incentive to organize on the spot, so we all went our separate ways. When I arrived at my grandma's house and started to dig into a delicious mikan, I got a call on my cell phone from Monica. "Erica and I are in Shibuya and we're going to do something. Come!" Faulty planning to say the least. I hopped back on the train, rushed to Shibuya and met with them by "the street-car by the dog."

While the initial plan was to go to karaoke, we decided to go to the dungeon-themed bar instead. THE LOCKDOWN is an incredibly ridiculous establishment. It is in the basement and the stairwell leading down to it is decorated like a cave... as is the rest of the place. The hallway from the stairs to the door has a motion-sensored person in an electric chair and possessed trash can and a squishy bit of floor. When you get led to your table, one person of the party has to get handcuffed. We sat in a cave cell with barred windows and an elevator screen door. Their original drinks are in test tubes and beakers. Their service sucks. They have an item on their menu called Russian Roulette, which consists of five-or-so chou cream puffs, one of which has wasabi in it.

We had a celebratory drink and then freaked out when the lights suddenly went off with the enormous sound of thunder over the speaker system, followed by some strange police-dispatch-esque voices talking about how monsters had gotten out. The blacklights came on and I scooted to the other side of the table, away from the door and next to Monica and Erica. While most of the monsters just ran by, one with a freaky mask and a bra smashed into our cell and made us squeeze its fake breasts. A monster fight scene was enacted (which we witnessed only through the noises over the speakers) and after things seemed to die down a little, a lady came by with a flashlight to check if everyone was alright. We relaxed a little when suddenly, a man with a gigantic glow-in-the-dark knife and a scary Michael Meyers mask slammed the screen open and waved his fake weapon at us. We screamed and trembled and pulled on each others' clothes. It was fun. I didn't relax until the normal lights came back on. We thought of how fun it would be to work at such a ridiculous place. It made me love Tokyo more than I already do. I mean... what the fuck?

Saturday, nothing really happened. My stomach got angry at me for stuffing myself with really spicy curry. It burned. You need no further details.

Today was the Oyama-kai's official "family" concert. It was a day of tsugaru-shamisen, taiko, dance, song, erhu, and shakuhachi. I played for only five songs. The first four took place between 9:50 and 11:30 and I waited around until 4:00 to play the fifth. It was exhausting to be in a kimono all day, hustling and bustling about backstage, but it was undeniably fun. I really enjoyed the concert hall experience. I ended up in the front row for two of the five songs and messed up badly on one. Fortunately, that one was also played alongside three-hundred or so other people, so mistakes went unnoticed... by the audience, at least. Hopefully, I will have some pictures to show for it. I forgot my camera, but my teacher and fellow students took quite a few. Damn. I really should have taken mine. The pros are really incredible. The son of the current head of the Oyama-ryu, Yutaka Oyama and another one of the teachers... whose name I can't remember. They are both incredibly cheerful and play pristinely. Despite it the tsugaru-shamisen being such a robust instrument, they can bring out beautiful delicate melodies and tones. Ahhh... it makes me want to do better. More practice than usual for at least a week. Maybe if my teacher was more inspiring...

Exciting week! More shit to share than usual.