Your Japanese word of the week is...

"dekai". It means huge. Like big, only bigger. The funny thing about this word is that I only learned it about two weeks ago and, within the day I learned it, I heard it about 3 times. Now I have no idea whether that's because I never noticed it before when I didn't understand the meaning or if......... well....... it's just pure coincidence.

But since learning the word, I hear it all the time. I'm really beginning to think that even if I only have a passing knowledge of certain words, having heard it once wires my brain to pick it out from conversations anytime afterward. I would be lying if I said I don't glaze over sometimes while people are chatting around me. It's still work to try and make sense of the language and though it's coming slowly, it's still a conscious effort so my available level of concentration makes a difference.

But no matter- this past weekend was a long weekend as, on Friday, the Japanese celebrated what I was told was a Labour Day of sorts.

On Friday, I went with Matsuda sensei (my home stay) to nearby Miyashiro city to attend some cooking class run by her friends at a community centre. And by attend, I mean sit and watch as they cook, then eat all their food haha........ Even more interesting was this cosplay competition festival thing that was happening across the hall. It's the first time I ever actually saw lots of people gather to do one of these things and, to be honest, it seems a bit unbalanced.

I mean, everyone was sitting in the gym perfecting their overly waxed cartoon hair (many in unnatural shades of colour) and outrageous costumes. And then they headed off to what seemed like a judging only to come back after 5 minutes. Then they all hang around taking pictures of each other with each other. I can understand being totally into something, but how do you justify a 30:1, 60:1, or even greater time ratio between prep and activity??

This was partly the reason why I didn't autocross more. I'd head all the way out there (although cruising down the highway with friends is always fun), spend the day at the track (runway), and run a handful of times. That's also why I never bothered to set up the car. If I had more track time I would've starting adjusting things but as it was, I just wanted to see how my car drove exactly the way I had it driving it everywhere else. It also meant I didn't have to bother with fiddling with things for 10 minutes of driving.

But then again, I always enjoyed autocrossing and I can only assume that to the cosplayers, the prep time was out of love and quality of activity is more important than quantity. And some of those people were pretty crazy. There were two guys who must've showed up as Black Hawk Down or something with desert fatigues, vests with flashlights, M16 replicas, helmets, the whole lot. I just wished they got another friend to dress up as the Black Hawk. That would've be awesome!! haha........ Reminds me of this old old picture I saw of a guy dressed up in a cardboard version of the car from Initial D. I can't find it online though haha.....

But dressing up aside, some of those people have some mad sewing skillz y0. I was a bit too busy eating to take any pictures but some of the costumes were rather well made when seen from 10 feet out....... through a window.......

I didn't take this picture but some of the people there on Friday really did put in a lot of effort and some did look like this. Although, cosplay isn't for everyone........

............... then again, maybe it is =-P............