Week 7: Golden Week and Music Week Vol. 2

May 10th, 2026

This week was Golden Week, a week with four Japanese national holidays, where people go home and visit family, take vacations, and generally have off work and school. I had no classes except a video lecture for Japanese History. Although I wouldn’t have minded a couple more weeks of classes before a break. Only 3 weeks before the first break seems a little silly.

On Monday I made up work from the classes that I skipped missed last week, which took up most of the afternoon. I’ll have a bit more of that to do next week because I won’t be in class on Thursday because I’ll… have a headache that day.

I made chicken fajitas again, and this time I was able to use the actual spices from the recipe instead of taco seasoning and cumin. I was missing onion powder previously, so I bought onion powder on amazon. It was about 9 dollars, and I was confused why it costed that much until it arrived and was absolutely massive. I will never be able to use this much onion powder. The recipe calls for half a teaspoon for a pound of chicken. This onion powder will stay at this house longer than I live. My legacy.

I also bought black beans on amazon, which may be the first time anyone has said that before. I couldn’t find any in the grocery stores near me, except dried and making them from dry beans seemed like more work than I was willing to put in that day. When the can arrived, though, I looked for a can opener and realized we didn’t have one, so I had to open it with a knife. I did it very carefully, and by that I mean my roommate walked in the kitchen to see me stabbing a can with a huge knife as hard as I could. I didn’t cut myself at all, but it got damn close. After Yoshio got home, I asked if we had a can opener and he showed me it was in the first place I looked. Oops.

The next two days I had no plans and mostly just took time to chill. I played Pokémon, studied Japanese and watched a lot of YouTube. It was nice to just have some time to chill and not worry about any work or feeling like I needed to be doing things. I did go out to Lumbini with Yoshio and Etsuko for dinner on Wednesday because apparently I’m incapable of going one week without it now.

On Thursday it was a beautiful day outside and I had an actual plan, which was to go to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It is such a cool building inside and out, and just as whimsical as you’d hope it would be. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so you’ll have to believe me when I say there are really cool stained glass windows, a tiny spiral staircase, and a huge fuzzy Catbus that kids can play in. Not quite bus-sized, but definitely bigger than cat-sized.

There were some really cool pieces in an exhibit about different types of animation. One really stuck out, which was Totoro themed zoetrope, a scene with a bunch of different poses for characters that spins, and with strobe lights that act as animation frames, it looks like the figures are moving instead of spinning around really fast. It’s a bit difficult to explain, so please consult this video taken by a person who is not as rule-following as I am: (WARNING: Intense strobe lights)

There are 10 Ghibli short films that only are shown at the museum, and I got to watch one of them called Treasure Hunting (たからさがし, takara sagashi), an adaptation of a children’s book of the same name. It was adorable, and I’m excited to see more of the films while I’m here.

There is roof access where you can meet a big robot from Castle in the Sky, and see the building from the top. It’s really such a cool place and I’m glad I got to go. Plus, there was a great gift shop that I bought a bunch of stuff at. There was surprisingly little representation for some movies like Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo, but there was still at least something for everyone. The pin selection was a little lacking, but I still got a few.

Nearby I noticed there was a zoo, and I didn’t have any other plans for the day, so I figured I’d stop by and check it out. There were some wacky animals in there I’d never seen before like maras, a leopard cat (different from a leopard! It was only like 20% bigger than a house cat), Japanese marten and Japanese serow. Some real cuties over there.

I had a chill evening after I got home and ended up beating the champion in my Pokémon game. Congrats to Joel (Quagsire), Tess (Gengar) Yari (Dragonite), May (Tentacruel), Madi (Houndoom), and Emma (Meganium, not named after a real person) for being on the winning team.

The next day was schoolwork until the evening, when I had my first concert of the week. I was going to see Masayoshi Takanaka in Shibuya, a show I’ve been wanting to see for years now. He came to the US twice in the last 2 years, but the first show was in LA and I couldn’t get tickets, and the second time was in NYC but I was already in Japan (Harry got to go to that show). Luckily, he did a “Triumphant Return to Japan” show after his “world tour” (US + Australia, a bit of a stretch of the term world), which I was able to snag a ticket for.

It was such a fun show, and I’m really glad I was able to make it. Takanaka is an amazing performer, and has a lot of energy. The crowd also had tons of energy. Maybe even too much, but it definitely made for an entertaining show. The setlist was great, and overall it was such a fun concert. For the encore, he brought out his famous surfboard guitar which was very cool to see in person. Had a lovely time, and excited to see him again next month.

The next day was mostly uneventful until the evening when I ordered some really bad Chinese food and got sad that I had to throw it out, so I walked to the mall to get cat bread and ice cream to cheer myself up. Happy to report that it worked.

Usually Sunday is my blog writing and laundry day, but someone else was doing laundry in the morning, and I didn’t feel like writing then, so I took a nap and didn’t do much until the afternoon when I went out for another concert. This time it was Katsushika Trio, a band consisting of ex-Casiopea members. Casiopea was at its peak fame in Japan in the mid 80s, and these three were 3/4 of the band at that time. It was pretty surreal to see them live, and I was really close to the stage, only 8 rows back. Surprisingly, I wasn’t the only white person there! There was one other that I saw. Unsurprisingly, I was the youngest person there by 2 or more decades.

This show was also really fun. They have great energy, especially considering they’re all about 70 years old. The bass player even does kicks and spins. I hope I’m that able-bodied at that age. They’re all amazing musicians, and I’m really happy that I was able to see them. There were 3 concerts I wanted to see before I left Japan this year, which were Casiopea, Takanaka and Katsushika Trio, and I’ve now seen them all by the end of week 7. I’m a pretty lucky guy.

The show was at a jazz and beer festival, so I walked around for just a little bit to check it out. There was food from around the world, including Philly cheesesteaks! I did not get one.

That’s all for this week! It was a nice, chill school-less week with some fun music to end it off. Next week is a big one—I’ll be taking the bullet train to Kyoto for 4 days. Expect to read about some cool things!

Until then. Have a lovely day.
-Dan