Karatsu Kunchi and other assorted fun :)
You are Form 3, Unicorn: The Innocent.
"And The Unicorn knew she wasn't meant to
go into the Dark Wood. Disregarding the advice
given to her by the spirits, Unicorn went
inside and bled silver blood.. For her
misdeed, the world knew evil."
Some examples of the Unicorn Form are Eve
(Christian) and Pandora (Greek).
The Unicorn is associated with the concept of
innocence, the number 3, and the element of
water.
Her sign is the twilight sun.
As a member of Form 3, you are a curious
individual. You are drawn to new things and
become fascinated with ideas you've never come
in contact with before. Some people may say
you are too nosey, but it's only because you
like getting to the bottom of things and
solving them. Unicorns are the best friends to
have because they are inquisitive.
Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Oops, I've gotten a little backed up in posts again...what a surprise -_-;; Last Saturday I hosted an origami class at my apartment and a bunch of people came, including Mama-san! Here's some of us with Halloween origami :) Arita Town the next day was fun. Arita has specialized in pottery (specifically porcelain) production for over 400 years. My kind of place ;) I went to a workshop at one of their studios where they let us make a piece of pottery on the wheel and paint our own glazed dish (this is the front and back view of mine. I actually painted a second one later but I don't have a picture of it, I'll post it in a few months when I get the pottery back). I went with a few friends and a good time was had by all. I wasn't too thrilled with the bento lunch they gave us (half of which was seafood *shudder* and one piece of which was black, rubbery, and smelled like my cat's litter box) but it was free so I could hardly complain. What I thought was most interesting in working with the porcelain on the wheel was the different way Japanese potters are taught do all the various steps. I tried to center and pull out like I'd been taught to do in college and the guy kept correcting me and doing it for me his way. This was both annoying and interesting at the same time, but at least for the actual bowl-making bit (where you bring up the sides and shape it) he left me alone and even complimented me (in Japanese, but I'm getting better at understanding people, even if I still can't talk to them) on my skill. Seeing as I studied this stuff for nearly four years, I should hope I have some ability!
Well anyway, after the workshop we were allowed to wander around town for a few hours. Most of the town seems to be either homes or pottery shops; I only spotted a handful of restaurants. They have a lot of really nice work for sale in the shops, stuff that was just begging to be made into Christmas presents, but the better items ranged between 200 and 800 dollars! Ouch -_-;; I went with another ALT to the local shrine, which turned out to be more than what it seemed. This is the place where all the potters come to pray for good fortune, so this particular shrine is rich in pottery decorations. We took a bunch of pictures, then discovered a small flight of stairs going furthur up the mountainside. There was no one around to tell us "no", so we climbed them and found ourselves on a little windy dirt path, which brought us to a small paved road, then to another flight of stairs, past these awesome tori gates and a series of very small shrines, and finally all the way up to the top of the mountain where there was this cool obelisk commemorating some ancient potter guy. The view from the top is amazing. You can see the entire town nestled in between the mountains. Lovely :)
This past weekend had two of the biggest festivals on Kyushuu island: the Saga International Balloon Festival and Karastu Kunchi. Both last a few days, and both are extremely cool. I went with Anne on Saturday to the balloon festival. Balloon teams from all over the world come to participate in races and flag drop contests, where they try and score points by dropping weighted flags into target rings (not an easy thing to do from a hot air balloon!). There were dozens of balloons in the air, and some came in cool shapes such as an octopus, a panda, and Tom from Tom and Jerry :) I was a picture-taking fiend for this and I finally managed to get a shot of a balloon with its engine firing and some balloons flew very close overhead.
Near the end of the day there was a particularly exciting moment where two balloons actually crashed. There were so many balloons in the air there were many close misses going on, and finally one balloon started rising very fast (I'm not sure why, his engine wasn't firing, maybe it was an updraft?) and collided with the basket of the balloon above, whose engine was firing. The top balloon got a bit scorched, and its basket tore a gaping hole in the lower balloon. Both of them crashed on the far side of the steep artificial hill that runs the length of the field and there was this mad scramble of people up the side of embankment trying to get a glimpse (or a photo) of what was happening. People are morbid -_-;; Anyway, it was very sad and scary, and the ambulance came to take the pilot of the lower balloon away. I have no idea if he's okay or not, since I can't read the newspaper, but apparently something like this happens just about every year. No one's died yet, so I imagine he's okay, after all his balloon didn't fall that far (maybe a hundred feet) or that quickly. Poor guy. On Monday night after coming back from Karatsu, we stopped at the festival to catch the last few minutes of the finale, where all the balloons sit on the ground firing their engines so they glow in the dark. I wasn't able to get pictures, because the festival ended about two minutes after we arrived, but they were very cool-looking.
After the festival on Saturday Anne and I hopped on the train for Karastu for the Kunchi festival. Kunchi is a very old festival dating back at least 400 years and celebrates the gods of the Karatsu shrines. Huge teams of people of all ages (from little kids to middle-aged guys) pull 14 beautiful floats throughout the city over three days, chanting "Enya!" (it doesn't actually mean anything, it's just something cool to say), and play infectious music on traditional flutes and drums. The opening parade is at night (I got some awesome photos!), on the second day the floats are pulled first across a sandy field at one of the elementary schools (apparently in the old days it took place on the actual beach, of which there are several in Karatsu), then all over town; on the third day they go through the city one last time, back to the museum where the floats are kept most of the year.
Many of the floats are close to 200 years old (they constantly repaint and repair them so they they honestly look brand-new) and weigh up to two tons, so I can only imagine the amount of work it takes for these people to pull them for mile after mile. The routes the floats follow are very old, taking them through all 14 of the original towns (there's one float for each town, and each team has its own design of hanten jacket) that now make up the city of Karatsu. To pull the floats you have to be a member of one of the original families, so the tradition is passed down from father to son, in fact some of the guys had their kids with them! Girls can pull the floats too, but only until they are 15 years old. Good old Japanese sexism :P What was funny is that some of the really little kids were actually asleep in the bottom of the floats, despite the tremendous racket going on around them. Simply amazing, not to mention cute :) Overall this was an extremely cool festival to experience, and one of Ti's JTEs that she works with is a member of one of the families, so we got to go to her house and watch the festival from their second-story window. They pulled the floats right by us! I bought a new digital camera this weekend (expensive, but completely worth it! I couldn't have gotten the night photos without it) and it takes decent video and sound in a format all of you can actually download and view, so in a later post I'll put up the videos. That way you guys can see some of the festival for yourselves ^_^ Here are some other photos, including a lineup of the floats where they were parked in the sand. Enjoy! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
As a sidenote, we also made a little sidetrip to Fukuoka again (where I got my camera) and took a ride one of the three large Ferris Wheels they have there. I love those things :) And even more random, I passed by this cardboard ad of Snoopy in a gi and hakama. Too unique to miss, really. Check out the samurai person next to Snoopy...believe it or not, that's supposed to be a guy. Scary, isn't it? Yet another photo, this one of Saga's train station decorated for the balloon festival.
