FAQs as appropriate
Q1 What is the “AWAREMI-TAI” in the first place?
The first thing to mention is that this is a real organization. It is not just a website name. That is why the name of the site is “AWAREMI-TAI ‘OnTheWeb'”.
It is difficult to define “AWAREMi-TAI” in general, because the definition of “AWAREMI-TAI” changes like an amoeba in the present past future. However, in a nutshell, I think it can be summed up as “a group of Okadans and their friends.
Originally, it was supposed to be the “Awalemi-tai activities” of the members themselves, not the “Okaden faction”, but with the current liquefaction of the purpose of the group, it is becoming appropriate to define the “Awalemi-tai activities as the activities of Okaden and a few members”.
It all started when Okaden was heavily influenced by a book he read in his first year of college, “We Are Suspicious Expedition” by Makoto Shiina. He had his best friend from high school read the book and said, “That’s what I want to do,” and so the AWAREMI-TAI began. So we started as a group that “lives in tents in places (such as sandy beaches) that are not campsites on remote islands.
The tent camps on Kamijima and Sadojima were successful, but the original goal of finding a “remote island non-camping site” proved extremely difficult, and the “remote island camping group” was shelved for the time being.
This was because it was too much of a burden for the poor university students, who had to repeat preliminary inspections to secure a site, find water, and consider methods of obtaining food and fuel. For the time being, the tent camp will continue to be held mainly at Hanno Kawahara in Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture.
When I became a working adult, we started calling ourselves the “Sudden Outdoor Tent Life Group. We liked to drive around in our cars, and when the sun went down, we would pitch our tents in some open space and have a party, then go to bed. If we noticed that one or more members of the group were very excited, had a lot of money in their pockets, or were very productive at work, we would pack up the camping gear and head out. That’s why we called it “spontaneous.
However, since the team members are scattered across the country, the number of members and the areas in which we can operate are limited. Therefore, we are beginning to feel stuck in our tent camps by car. For this reason, we are moving our base of operations to motor camps.
However, it did not take long for the switch to car camping to increase the amount of luggage and make it impossible to keep up with the tent camps. When Okaden gave up his own car, he thought he could just rent a car every time he went camping, but he was wrong. It was a huge burden to carry a large amount of luggage from his room and load it into the car every time he went camping, and as a result the frequency of tent camping camps dropped dramatically.
Nowadays we are not limited to camping, but have settled into a more relaxed atmosphere where we do things when something interesting happens. Also, each member’s lifestyle has changed and we are not as active as we used to be.
However, since we are a group of people who are always looking for stimulation, we sometimes decide to do unusual projects. We sometimes decide on unusual projects, such as a tour of all the antenna stores in Japan, a tour of the three major cities in Japan, or a stamp rally of 106 roadside stations in Tohoku. I am sure that we will continue to organize such trips in the future when we have almost forgotten about them.
Q2 Why does it have such a weird name?
This story goes back to when the members of the group were in high school. Most of the members went to the same high school and were comrades in a film club for cultural festivals organized by Okaden. The name of the group at that time was “Lord, AWARE Mite…”.
When you hear that, you might misunderstand me and say, “Were you making some kind of religious movie?” But that is not the case. We just wanted to come up with a name that was funny and effective, and this is the name that came up when we asked the members of our circle for ideas.
The term “movie circle” sounds like a group of people making a movie with a small, difficult face, but it is not like that at all. At the high school festival I attended, there was no “class-based program” at all, and the rule was that anyone who wanted to do something could form a circle and do what they wanted to do. One of them was the “Lord, Please Look at Me…” movie club. Usually, the members of the circle were from different clubs, such as the homecoming club, the library committee, the astronomy club, the rakugo club, and so on.
Other names that were suggested as candidates were “Tokonon 4.2 Milk,” “Fossa Magna,” and “The Humiliation of Canossa. Even with the shallow wisdom of a high school freshman, the names were so unintelligible and surrealistic that they were rejected. In the end, we decided to call it “Lord, Let Us See…” in part because it was about “people watching” and in part because we felt guilty about the fact that it was a hidden camera movie. At the time, I thought it was an interesting name, but when I look at it now, it is totally boring. What was I thinking back then? I wonder myself.
In 1989, we made two movies, “The Lord Awake to Me…” and in 1990, “The Lord Awake to Me… II: The Last Stand,” and that movie group disbanded. That should have been the end of the group, but in 1992, Captain Okaden, who had been immersed in Makoto Shiina’s work, could no longer stand still and called upon the former “AWAREMI Payhe” members to form a tent group, which continues to this day. This is how it came to this point. The details of this process can be found in “Letter from Okaden Explaining the Purpose of Establishing Awalemi Tentai” in “Awalemi Tentai Activity Record.
The name “AWAREMI-TAI” was never officially decided, even among the members. It just came to us, and now it has become a common name.
Q3 What is the composition of the AWAREMI-TAI?
As the origin of AWAREMI-TAI, most of the members have known each other since junior high school. Some of the members have known each other since elementary school.
We have prepared a separate page for each member’s profile, so please refer to that page.
Q4 What should I do if I want to be a member of the AWAREMI-TAI?
In the present situation where AWAREMI-TAI has no specific regular activities, there is no great advantage in daring to become a member of the Corps. Anyone can become a member if they are willing to do so. All genders and nationalities are welcome.
However, since we plan to share several days of “hardship” together, we cannot accept people who have not established a relationship of mutual trust as members of the group. Basically, we will be recruiting people through referrals from existing members.
Even if you don’t become a member, you should try to feel like one by attending an off-site meeting where members are present.
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