41...tokyo rainbow pride

Yesterday, i was able to go to the Tokyo Rainbow Pride (held at Yoyogi park in Shibuya, Tokyo) for the first time - and as the little cloud on the banner stand says, "Happy Pride" was everywhere i turned. There were people from all sorts of backgrounds there, all gathered to support and share love with the LGBT community in Japan. For those of you who don't know what it's all about, you can go here (Japanese) or here (English) to check it out.

Quick background info: The first ever Tokyo Pride Parade was held in 1994, but due to lack of funding and organisation, it took over 8 years until it was held again. The TRP is currently an NPO run by volunteers and supporters and this year it was funded by the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health in Tokyo, as well as the American, British and German embassies in Japan.

While walking along with the parade, i saw a few same-sex couples holding hands and supporting the parade from the sidewalk. Out of the 11 years i've lived in Japan, i don't remember seeing that while walking around everyday. I don't know how much people suffer just to be able to proudly hold hands with their loved ones all around the world, but if small things like this are going to help open more minds and create a safer and better place for everyone, i'd like to be a part of it.

Of course, i couldn't resist taking a ton of shots at such a colorful and wonderful event so without further ado:

Just two of the many glamorous people we bumped into

Since it was the 27th, we showed off some love by supporting #27GO,

a movement that began in January this year supporting LGBTs in Japan.

27 GO

People who turned up to the event that day could show their support by

joining in with one of the 15 floats in the parade. I joined in with Tokyo Diversity/東京大行進 

TOKYO NO H8, a group striving to lessen racial/sexual/social discrimination.

TOKYO DIVERSITY

29...baam let it out

i have recently discovered a new favourite pasttime - which is similar to my other favourite pasttimes since they only require me to sit in front of my computer and watch my screen. It's Poetry slam. I recently came across a video of a girl reciting a poem which led to others (since i'm one of those people who like to oogle the links on the side on youtube) and one of them turned out to be this one:

and then this one:

to this:

And i was blown away by the intensity, the honesty and the charisma that they were emitting - i love people like this, doing things like this, expressing their feelings openly and unashamedly since, what should they be ashamed of in the first place. These are all from Button Poetry and i'm sure that there are more brilliant poetry slam videos out there but this was an awesome place to start; i went from video to video to video (as you can see). 

Not only through poetry slams or even poetry itself, i think it's wonderful to have an output to your emotions or ideas or well anything. As i mentioned before on this blog, sometimes it's difficult for me to word things verbally and much easier writing them, but i think i'd like to give this a try someday; yell my feelings through a mic? very cool.

22...good food

i've always thought that being a food critique would be a fascinating job, not to mention a extremely satisfying one as well. So when i was eating this particularly delicious panini today (shrimp with mozzarella cheese, tomato and spinach) at Cafe 506 i was daydreaming about being one while writing an article about the panini in my head.
If you've ever played 'Order up!!' on your phone or iPod, you'll know the annoying food critique who resembles someone from a Tim Burton movie that comes along during the game to rate your restaurant sometimes - that's who i want to be. The only problem here is that i love food too much that it's going to be pretty darn hard to rate things; i would probably end up being deemed 'unreliable' since i give all the places i go 4 or 5 stars. But still, i can dream.

Darn it, i keep looking at the photo thinking 'Yum'.

21...places to go

some people might be completely happy where they are, and some may have dreams of travelling all around the world...and i'm a mixture of both. But i just wanted to list some of the places that i've recently been thinking of going to sometime during my life, so i don't forget (since i'm the most forgetful person i know *smilesweakly*)

・Tivoli, Italy

i've always wanted to travel to Italy simply because i thought it was a wonderful place to be (being too influenced by movies perhaps), when i found out about Tivoli, i knew that i needed to go there sometime, and sometime soon, to see this wonder with my own eyes. It looks like a mini + more 'earthly' Rivendell - which would be a reason to go on its own. 

 ・Uttar Pradesh, India
i think India would be a fantastic place to go, starting with curry. Now of course, i've heard a lot about travelling in India, and not only about the social side, but also about the political disputes, but meeting many Indians and Sri Lankans has made me want to go see their hometowns.  

・Gramado, Brasil

This is actually a place i am lucky to have been to before, but it's also the place that i would love to go back (and even live if that's possible). It's a small town and the cosiest place you could possibly be - it makes you want to paint the place from all angles, and make tiny figurines of each house to decorate your home. And of course, i have to mention, definitely try the fondue. 

・Mamamata, New Zealand

Once again, LOTR but aiaiai, what i would give to go see Hobbiton. It would be lovely and i would spend hours pretending to be a hobbit. (and then i'd run around through the splendid nature pretending to be a member of the fellowship - which would probably end badly with me either being caught or getting lost). 

・Yellowknife, Canada

Back in 5th or 6th grade, a friend came up to me and asked me if i knew about Yellowknife. Since i'd never been to Canada and the closest i'd gotten to it was making a Canadian friend in 2nd grade who told me that they had Star Wars 7 in Canada, i'd never even heard of the name. But after some time on google and wikipedia, i later found out that it was the place where i could go to see the aurora, which has been a huge dream of mine since i can remember. (Note to self - try the cheese (that's what my friend wanted to know about when she asked me)) 

・Ephesus, Turkey

i'm not sure why i've recently become so interested in going to Turkey, but i had been thinking about it for a while before the Olympic rush came about. Since i wrote an article about that for the school paper, i've been wanting to go there even more, to experience the clash of European and Asian cultures present there (from what i've read). Being a book nerd, i'll have to go see the library of Celsus while i'm there.

・Persepolis, Iran

i read Marjane Satrapi's 'Persepolis' comic books and thought they were so brilliant, i was all set to go ask for permission to translate them...only to find out that they were already translated into Japanese (darn it!). There's so many political and social issues crammed into those books as you follow Marjane's life from childhood to adulthood, and i eventually found myself wanting to go to Iran, and seeing the country for myself. (i think reading Azar Nafisi's 'Reading Lolita In Tehran' before that also contributed to this)

・Sukhothai, Thailand

There are so many other places i would mention here but i'll come to an end for this post with Thailand, which i consider to be one of the most beautiful places to be - but also one that needs a lot of help and care. Since my 12th grade trip to Thailand was so short, i would love to go back and revisit, and travel all over whilst doing more volunteer work with whatever i can. And just for that one day in November, i'd go see the lantern festival which is bound to make me fall in love with the country and their culture all over again.