Golden Week ++
So, I was at the grocery store this past Sunday, and instead of the normal "grocery store" song that usually plays. (you know the one that goes. "grocery stoooore, grocery stooooore, grocery STOOOOOOORE" - I wish I was kidding) They had a midi version of "Secret Agent Man" playing. I love that song.
In other news, apparently there are some big intra-prefecture tournaments at the end of this month and thus my school is doing cheer practice. The cheering team gets up on the stage in the gym and does their cheer routine while we practice singing the school song and communist propaganda anthems. No, no, that is unfair. All propaganda anthems basically sound the same and I shouldn`t pick on just one subcategory of them. I will try to get a few shots of our Ouendan (cheering team) doing their thing before the week is done. I should have plenty of opportunity since we have practice every day right before lunch for the rest of the week.
In other, other news, The Reason For Chibibigos`s Inability to Update Regularly: REVEALED. I have joined...a yosakoi group. I believe I have mentioned yosakoi before, but it is basically updated folk dancing, although it`s true awesomeness cannot be expressed by mere words. The reason this translates to no updates is that the group has a performance at a festival at the beginning of June and had to start late cos of the earthquake, so currently we have three practices a week. That I have to go to a different town for (I couldn`t join my own town`s group because the JET that I go with likes that particular group in another town) and that I have to devote the majority of my evening to. So, not much time in the evenings, especially if you take into consideration that I am also going to Waj one of those evenings for tai chi. It`s true that I`ve been slacking off on that lately, but I usually replace it with some other form of exercise. So yeah, not a lot of spare time on my hands.
Still, yosakoi is awesome! It`s a bit pricey - about 200 dollars to cover the costume, having a song recorded (each group has their own original song), dues, little clacky things (like castanets only not!), and eventual drinking parties. BUT! The dancing is a lot of fun - like an extended aerobics routine, only there is a point behind it. I also enjoy the clacky things - they make noise! In some bits the dance is pretty hard and quite fast, but we (me and two other JETs) are slowly getting it. I also like our song, even if the lyrics were composed by the same guy who made up the grocery store song. (yosakoiiiiiii, yosaaaaaakoi, yosaKOI!) but all yosakoi lyrics basically sound like that.
Also known as, What I did for Golden Week. I ahve to say it was a very nice Golden Week, full of both play and relaxing. It was also full of matsuris. But that is the way of Golden Week and no surprise to anyone. On the advice of...several people who failed to take their own advice, I did not make any plans to go anywhere - opting instead to stay in Ishikawa and take advantage of the attractions going on there. I also thought it would be a nice opportunity to see everyone from KZ, whom I had not seen for...quite some time and was sort of starting to miss.
THUS it came to pass that I headed over to KZ on Saturday (I could not go on Friday because 1. yosakoi and 2. lazy) where I met up with lilannan, rhapsody2122 and her friend, IthinkitstartedwithaK. We then proceeded to have delicious ramen. Really, it was heavenly - I don`t even LIKE ramen all that much and I was deeply, deeply impressed. Also, the restaurant was quite picturesque in itself - large wooden tables and benches. Very nice, would go again. Afterwards, somebody mentioned the fact that there was supposed to be a yosakoi festival going on somewhere, which prompted me to demand to go watch. This we did, first stopping to take a look into a store which sold clothes for gothic lolitas. I don`t know why they knew this store was there, nor do I want to know, but it did add to my General Enjoyment of the Day by a factor of what I judge to be .04, so I suppose I am happy that they did (know it was there - today is the day for needlessly convoluted sentences.) Afterwards we found the yosakoi and it was lovely and wonderful and we watched for something like an hour and a half. I will not go into it much here, but I DID take about 500 pictures - a large majority of which, I have found on review, are of a particular group of guys who had lost their shirts somewhere. I cannot imagine why that would be. Once I finally finish posting pics from Spring Break, I will get right on that. Fortunately, I only have Osaka and Kanazawa to go, so that should happen pretty soon.
Afterwards, we walked for a bit around Kenrokuen and proceeded on to okonomiyaki for dinner and Karaoke with a ridiculously large group of people. It was fun! But pricey. We need to find a cheaper place.
I am trying to recall what I did on Sunday - I think Margaritas were involved. I also spent time with Seika, which was nice - as usual. Comparitively speaking, I am spending a lot of time with Seika - I hope she does not get sick of me...or, you know, vice versa.
On Monday, I went home and lazed about in an unseemly fashion. (I also bought some pink buns from German Bakery - man I love that place. AND I love their pink buns. They are peach flavored! and pink!)
It was during this weekend that lilannan introduced me to Puyopuyo (15th anniversary edition) which prompted me to buy the game as soon as I got back to my 100man Volt and to be obsessed with it for nearly a week and a half. After that, I discovered Justice League: Unlimited, and am now obsessed with that. (Puyopuyo, incidentally, took over from my Heroes obsession which was waning due to the approaching end of the season, AND a lack of things to whine about. That`s right, it was SO GOOD that I stopped being obsessed with it. What`s up with that?) Fortunately, I stayed obsessed with puyopuyo long enough to use it as an example when I explained "obsession" to 3C, and am I glad I did, because it was the BEST REACTION EVER. They ALL knew what it was - and one of them came and told me about his ability to make a chain of 8 combos. Yeah, not playing with him any time soon. Almost as awesome as when I tell the students that pizaman is my favorite food.
Tuesday and Wednesday, I had to go to work. BUT, we had a bunch of random event scheduled which essentially meant that there was little to no work getting done. Unfortunately, these were outdoor events and it RAINED both days. The hilarious thing is, even though all the notes and stuff had mentioned that the events would be cancelled in case of rain, they decided to go ahead and do them anyway because the teachers were no more keen on doing actual work than the students.
So, projected schedule:
Tuesday: Sports Test All Day: indoor portion (including stretching, situps, this weird sidesteppy thing you see baseball players do a lot, and testing grip strength) for the first half and then outdoor portion (long jump, 100 meter dash, 1 km run, and ball throwing) for the second half. In case of rain, only the indoor parts would be done and classes would proceed as normal otherwise.
Wednesday: first half of the day: classes as normal regardless (bummer) except for the third years, who only get two periods and then go off to KZ for Job Cafe - whatever that is. After lunch, which, incidentally, was supposed to be an outdoor barbecue for the second years, the first years would go and help the earthquake refugees move into their houses while the second years would go "orienteering" an activity that I had not known actually existed, but which certainly explains several anime episodes that I've seen. (basically, they take you out to some forest somewhere, give you a general map of the area and tell you "go here, while checking into the following checkpoints in order. oh yeah, and be quick about it" I am almost sad that I did not get to see this) In both cases, if it rained, class was supposed to proceed as normal.
As I said, both days, it rained.
So, on Tuesday we did the indoor part of the test as planned (For those interested, my grip is apparently around 30 kg for both hands - which puts me at the higher end of the "girl" scale - the things they have to test it are really nifty! you just squeeze as hard as you can and you get a measure) then I thought we would have classes, but they announced that since it was only "kind of" raining, we should go on with the test. And that is how the students came to run around in the rain for nearly an hour. Eventually, they gave it up as a bad job and had classes instead, but it took a while for them to admit it. Still, I got out of my class, so I was cool.
On Wednesday, the third years went off to KZ as planned, since rain didn't interfere with that, and it was announced that the first years would be able to "volunteer" inside and the second years would be making yakisoba in the home ec room and then going to play in the gym. Now, I had been agonizing about which group I wanted to join, because the idea of orienteering appeals to me as being ripe for hijinks whereas volunteering is, you know, good and stuff. After the change of schedule, I decided on volunteering - although I almost certainly would have anyway. BUT! (and at this point i should mention that everything I've said about changes of plans is stuff that I inferred - I had no idea about it at that point, so my next actions will make much more sense) as I was going to change into my gym clothes, I heard fascinating noises coming from the home ec room (which I, at the time, had no idea was in use) and peeked in. Naturally, I was immediately noticed and pressed into making yakisoba with one of the new teachers. Apparently, a foreigner making yakisoba is about the most hilarious thing on earth, regardless of how well she does/doesn't do it. So yeah, they wouldn't let me leave. and then I had to eat the yakisoba, which, I gotta tell you guys, I don't even particularly like. Still, it was fun, so I forgive them. AND I got to join the volunteers later by convincing Seika to drive me to the volunteer center. There, it turned out that they were making plaques with people names on them to put on the temporary housing. (awwwwww) The organizers made the mistake of giving us paint for this and of letting me and Seika do one. Through a fascinating series of events that I will not detail here, this combination of factors led to the discovery that it was ok to decorate the plaques as one saw fit provided that one was cool with only using primary colors and/or black and white. Anyway, once the whole decoration thing came out into the open the kids went nuts (and were actually ENCOURAGED to do so by the teachers chaperoning - which only goes to show that you shouldn't let teachers get bored because they get malicious) I wonder if you can have those signs replaced? I imagine so, and even if you can't, I'm sure that at least one family that I'm thinking of will find a way.
Anyway, that was the "work" portion of Golden Week. Let's move on to fun! Thursday, I decided to go up to Suzu and Ogi with Eliza for some matsuris. Suzu had the koinobori festival going on, which is held for boys day (which is no longer called boys day, but something else that no one can remember because everybody just calls it boys day) and involves stringing up a lot of goldfish shaped...kites? windsocks? I think that's what they are called. Anyway, it is very attractive - i have pictures that you will never see I mean, that I will post soon! Anyway, it is called the koinobori (or koi climb) because it is during this time that koi swim upstream (from the ocean, apparently) in order to lay their eggs. I always thought that that was salmon, but apparently it is also koi - or so random old guy from the festival told us! We ate some fried sweet potatoes, chatted with a Suzu ALT who was manning an easter egg booth with a Japan, America, Taiwan theme (don't ask me, i don't know) in the interests of international exchange, and I did a ring toss game in which I managed to net myself a lovely keychain dangley thing of...KETTLE MAN - the most AWESOME of all Taiwanese super heroes. Not only can he pour scalding hot water on his enemies, he can make you tea before/after/while he does it! Amazing! Kettle man is my idol. There were also things going on on the stage, but they were not as exciting.
After we had enough of that, we went over to Ogi where they were having a festival for something or other at the harbor. This was ALSO really cool, because there were a bunch of boats pulling along these catamaran looking rafts that had what looked like entire trees attached to them in lieu of masts with additional giant stick of bamboo with Added Pompom At the Top Action (TM) tied to the top of the tree. Suffice to say that it was pretty tall. We got to watch one be put up and it was really cool to see the pulling and what I assume was some sort of pulley action. It also looked like the boat was about to tilt sideways because of the leverage being applied. Nice. I wanted to get on one, but nobody else seemed to be as keen, so I just took a bunch of pictures instead. We met several of Eliza's students, who all said high, had some candied apples and went to have ice cream in Mizuho - where they have handmade gelato in such fascinating flavors as soybean paste and salt. I am Not Making This Up. Also, salt is the most delicious gelato flavor in the world - at least the way that they do it. Soybean paste is not half bad, but I cannot say that I am a fan of Random Leafy Vegetable. They have normal flavors too, by the way, and they TOO are delicious.
After that, it was dinner at Nihonkai and karaoke with the Wajima crew + one friend from...um, some other prefecture. I spent the night at Eliza's and woke bright and early so I could go home and clean in readiness for the (probable) arrival of Lilannan and Boy that evening after a rousing day of Dekayama.
As you can probably infer, after that exciting round of cleaning, I went down to Nanao to join the aforementioned L&B for Dekayama. We wandered around, oohed and aahed the dekayamas as they made their glacial progress through the city, had a bunch of festival food including really delicious tiny taiyaki filled with custard and chocolate. SOOOO YUUUMMMMMYYYYYYY. Then we went to Yamaya for booze (squeee, seagram's!), Uniqlo and BookOff. Then we came back and watched the fireworks. They were very nice - although the bit where they announced what they would be and who paid for them is something that I still find weird. Incidentally, the information regarding fireworks was gained from the Taiyaki man, who somehow heard us talking about it IN ENGLISH on the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET. I assume that is what happened, because as soon as we came to the stand he starts telling us about the "hanabi" that were going to be at 7:30 (unless they were at 8, I don't remember) In thanks for his telepathy or super hearing or whatever it was he was using, we naturally bought more taiyaki. Then we came back to the 'miz and played puyo puyo. Yeah, we walk on the wildside.
The next day was back to Nanao to send off my guests as well as to witness the majesty of the dekayamas once more. There were also "attractions" or at least that's what the sign said. These consisted of some Man Dancing, Taiko, Normal Dancing, and Koto. All very nice, but it failed to induce us to stay very long.
I realize that that was not particularly informative. But we failed to find out what the festival was for (except to make giant floats that look like they are liable to fall over and destroy some buildings at every turn and then parade said floats around town for three days - that's what dekayamas are, incidentally, I don't think I mentioned it) and there really wasn't all that much happening - although I have it on good authority that it is more fun if you are one of the people pulling. Also, I plan to go into more detail when discussing the pictures (that I will seriously eventually put up) and I am sleepy now, so I want to finish this up.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday were spent relaxing Ewa-style (doing laundry), so I will not go into it.
So yeah, that was basically Golden Week. I had fun, and I am glad that I did not bother to go anywhere, I think it was a good balance of excitement and relaxation.
Incidentally, another reason that I have not updated is because I was FREAKED OUT by the personality spider that was in the below entry until recently. Ewwww, what are you supposed to do if you are scared of your inner soul critter?
Next up: Rice-planting in senmaida and strawberry picking this weekend. Also, I may go back and talk about the parentals time in Noto. Not sure.
In other news, apparently there are some big intra-prefecture tournaments at the end of this month and thus my school is doing cheer practice. The cheering team gets up on the stage in the gym and does their cheer routine while we practice singing the school song and communist propaganda anthems. No, no, that is unfair. All propaganda anthems basically sound the same and I shouldn`t pick on just one subcategory of them. I will try to get a few shots of our Ouendan (cheering team) doing their thing before the week is done. I should have plenty of opportunity since we have practice every day right before lunch for the rest of the week.
In other, other news, The Reason For Chibibigos`s Inability to Update Regularly: REVEALED. I have joined...a yosakoi group. I believe I have mentioned yosakoi before, but it is basically updated folk dancing, although it`s true awesomeness cannot be expressed by mere words. The reason this translates to no updates is that the group has a performance at a festival at the beginning of June and had to start late cos of the earthquake, so currently we have three practices a week. That I have to go to a different town for (I couldn`t join my own town`s group because the JET that I go with likes that particular group in another town) and that I have to devote the majority of my evening to. So, not much time in the evenings, especially if you take into consideration that I am also going to Waj one of those evenings for tai chi. It`s true that I`ve been slacking off on that lately, but I usually replace it with some other form of exercise. So yeah, not a lot of spare time on my hands.
Still, yosakoi is awesome! It`s a bit pricey - about 200 dollars to cover the costume, having a song recorded (each group has their own original song), dues, little clacky things (like castanets only not!), and eventual drinking parties. BUT! The dancing is a lot of fun - like an extended aerobics routine, only there is a point behind it. I also enjoy the clacky things - they make noise! In some bits the dance is pretty hard and quite fast, but we (me and two other JETs) are slowly getting it. I also like our song, even if the lyrics were composed by the same guy who made up the grocery store song. (yosakoiiiiiii, yosaaaaaakoi, yosaKOI!) but all yosakoi lyrics basically sound like that.
Also known as, What I did for Golden Week. I ahve to say it was a very nice Golden Week, full of both play and relaxing. It was also full of matsuris. But that is the way of Golden Week and no surprise to anyone. On the advice of...several people who failed to take their own advice, I did not make any plans to go anywhere - opting instead to stay in Ishikawa and take advantage of the attractions going on there. I also thought it would be a nice opportunity to see everyone from KZ, whom I had not seen for...quite some time and was sort of starting to miss.
THUS it came to pass that I headed over to KZ on Saturday (I could not go on Friday because 1. yosakoi and 2. lazy) where I met up with lilannan, rhapsody2122 and her friend, IthinkitstartedwithaK. We then proceeded to have delicious ramen. Really, it was heavenly - I don`t even LIKE ramen all that much and I was deeply, deeply impressed. Also, the restaurant was quite picturesque in itself - large wooden tables and benches. Very nice, would go again. Afterwards, somebody mentioned the fact that there was supposed to be a yosakoi festival going on somewhere, which prompted me to demand to go watch. This we did, first stopping to take a look into a store which sold clothes for gothic lolitas. I don`t know why they knew this store was there, nor do I want to know, but it did add to my General Enjoyment of the Day by a factor of what I judge to be .04, so I suppose I am happy that they did (know it was there - today is the day for needlessly convoluted sentences.) Afterwards we found the yosakoi and it was lovely and wonderful and we watched for something like an hour and a half. I will not go into it much here, but I DID take about 500 pictures - a large majority of which, I have found on review, are of a particular group of guys who had lost their shirts somewhere. I cannot imagine why that would be. Once I finally finish posting pics from Spring Break, I will get right on that. Fortunately, I only have Osaka and Kanazawa to go, so that should happen pretty soon.
Afterwards, we walked for a bit around Kenrokuen and proceeded on to okonomiyaki for dinner and Karaoke with a ridiculously large group of people. It was fun! But pricey. We need to find a cheaper place.
I am trying to recall what I did on Sunday - I think Margaritas were involved. I also spent time with Seika, which was nice - as usual. Comparitively speaking, I am spending a lot of time with Seika - I hope she does not get sick of me...or, you know, vice versa.
On Monday, I went home and lazed about in an unseemly fashion. (I also bought some pink buns from German Bakery - man I love that place. AND I love their pink buns. They are peach flavored! and pink!)
It was during this weekend that lilannan introduced me to Puyopuyo (15th anniversary edition) which prompted me to buy the game as soon as I got back to my 100man Volt and to be obsessed with it for nearly a week and a half. After that, I discovered Justice League: Unlimited, and am now obsessed with that. (Puyopuyo, incidentally, took over from my Heroes obsession which was waning due to the approaching end of the season, AND a lack of things to whine about. That`s right, it was SO GOOD that I stopped being obsessed with it. What`s up with that?) Fortunately, I stayed obsessed with puyopuyo long enough to use it as an example when I explained "obsession" to 3C, and am I glad I did, because it was the BEST REACTION EVER. They ALL knew what it was - and one of them came and told me about his ability to make a chain of 8 combos. Yeah, not playing with him any time soon. Almost as awesome as when I tell the students that pizaman is my favorite food.
Tuesday and Wednesday, I had to go to work. BUT, we had a bunch of random event scheduled which essentially meant that there was little to no work getting done. Unfortunately, these were outdoor events and it RAINED both days. The hilarious thing is, even though all the notes and stuff had mentioned that the events would be cancelled in case of rain, they decided to go ahead and do them anyway because the teachers were no more keen on doing actual work than the students.
So, projected schedule:
Tuesday: Sports Test All Day: indoor portion (including stretching, situps, this weird sidesteppy thing you see baseball players do a lot, and testing grip strength) for the first half and then outdoor portion (long jump, 100 meter dash, 1 km run, and ball throwing) for the second half. In case of rain, only the indoor parts would be done and classes would proceed as normal otherwise.
Wednesday: first half of the day: classes as normal regardless (bummer) except for the third years, who only get two periods and then go off to KZ for Job Cafe - whatever that is. After lunch, which, incidentally, was supposed to be an outdoor barbecue for the second years, the first years would go and help the earthquake refugees move into their houses while the second years would go "orienteering" an activity that I had not known actually existed, but which certainly explains several anime episodes that I've seen. (basically, they take you out to some forest somewhere, give you a general map of the area and tell you "go here, while checking into the following checkpoints in order. oh yeah, and be quick about it" I am almost sad that I did not get to see this) In both cases, if it rained, class was supposed to proceed as normal.
As I said, both days, it rained.
So, on Tuesday we did the indoor part of the test as planned (For those interested, my grip is apparently around 30 kg for both hands - which puts me at the higher end of the "girl" scale - the things they have to test it are really nifty! you just squeeze as hard as you can and you get a measure) then I thought we would have classes, but they announced that since it was only "kind of" raining, we should go on with the test. And that is how the students came to run around in the rain for nearly an hour. Eventually, they gave it up as a bad job and had classes instead, but it took a while for them to admit it. Still, I got out of my class, so I was cool.
On Wednesday, the third years went off to KZ as planned, since rain didn't interfere with that, and it was announced that the first years would be able to "volunteer" inside and the second years would be making yakisoba in the home ec room and then going to play in the gym. Now, I had been agonizing about which group I wanted to join, because the idea of orienteering appeals to me as being ripe for hijinks whereas volunteering is, you know, good and stuff. After the change of schedule, I decided on volunteering - although I almost certainly would have anyway. BUT! (and at this point i should mention that everything I've said about changes of plans is stuff that I inferred - I had no idea about it at that point, so my next actions will make much more sense) as I was going to change into my gym clothes, I heard fascinating noises coming from the home ec room (which I, at the time, had no idea was in use) and peeked in. Naturally, I was immediately noticed and pressed into making yakisoba with one of the new teachers. Apparently, a foreigner making yakisoba is about the most hilarious thing on earth, regardless of how well she does/doesn't do it. So yeah, they wouldn't let me leave. and then I had to eat the yakisoba, which, I gotta tell you guys, I don't even particularly like. Still, it was fun, so I forgive them. AND I got to join the volunteers later by convincing Seika to drive me to the volunteer center. There, it turned out that they were making plaques with people names on them to put on the temporary housing. (awwwwww) The organizers made the mistake of giving us paint for this and of letting me and Seika do one. Through a fascinating series of events that I will not detail here, this combination of factors led to the discovery that it was ok to decorate the plaques as one saw fit provided that one was cool with only using primary colors and/or black and white. Anyway, once the whole decoration thing came out into the open the kids went nuts (and were actually ENCOURAGED to do so by the teachers chaperoning - which only goes to show that you shouldn't let teachers get bored because they get malicious) I wonder if you can have those signs replaced? I imagine so, and even if you can't, I'm sure that at least one family that I'm thinking of will find a way.
Anyway, that was the "work" portion of Golden Week. Let's move on to fun! Thursday, I decided to go up to Suzu and Ogi with Eliza for some matsuris. Suzu had the koinobori festival going on, which is held for boys day (which is no longer called boys day, but something else that no one can remember because everybody just calls it boys day) and involves stringing up a lot of goldfish shaped...kites? windsocks? I think that's what they are called. Anyway, it is very attractive - i have pictures that you will never see I mean, that I will post soon! Anyway, it is called the koinobori (or koi climb) because it is during this time that koi swim upstream (from the ocean, apparently) in order to lay their eggs. I always thought that that was salmon, but apparently it is also koi - or so random old guy from the festival told us! We ate some fried sweet potatoes, chatted with a Suzu ALT who was manning an easter egg booth with a Japan, America, Taiwan theme (don't ask me, i don't know) in the interests of international exchange, and I did a ring toss game in which I managed to net myself a lovely keychain dangley thing of...KETTLE MAN - the most AWESOME of all Taiwanese super heroes. Not only can he pour scalding hot water on his enemies, he can make you tea before/after/while he does it! Amazing! Kettle man is my idol. There were also things going on on the stage, but they were not as exciting.
After we had enough of that, we went over to Ogi where they were having a festival for something or other at the harbor. This was ALSO really cool, because there were a bunch of boats pulling along these catamaran looking rafts that had what looked like entire trees attached to them in lieu of masts with additional giant stick of bamboo with Added Pompom At the Top Action (TM) tied to the top of the tree. Suffice to say that it was pretty tall. We got to watch one be put up and it was really cool to see the pulling and what I assume was some sort of pulley action. It also looked like the boat was about to tilt sideways because of the leverage being applied. Nice. I wanted to get on one, but nobody else seemed to be as keen, so I just took a bunch of pictures instead. We met several of Eliza's students, who all said high, had some candied apples and went to have ice cream in Mizuho - where they have handmade gelato in such fascinating flavors as soybean paste and salt. I am Not Making This Up. Also, salt is the most delicious gelato flavor in the world - at least the way that they do it. Soybean paste is not half bad, but I cannot say that I am a fan of Random Leafy Vegetable. They have normal flavors too, by the way, and they TOO are delicious.
After that, it was dinner at Nihonkai and karaoke with the Wajima crew + one friend from...um, some other prefecture. I spent the night at Eliza's and woke bright and early so I could go home and clean in readiness for the (probable) arrival of Lilannan and Boy that evening after a rousing day of Dekayama.
As you can probably infer, after that exciting round of cleaning, I went down to Nanao to join the aforementioned L&B for Dekayama. We wandered around, oohed and aahed the dekayamas as they made their glacial progress through the city, had a bunch of festival food including really delicious tiny taiyaki filled with custard and chocolate. SOOOO YUUUMMMMMYYYYYYY. Then we went to Yamaya for booze (squeee, seagram's!), Uniqlo and BookOff. Then we came back and watched the fireworks. They were very nice - although the bit where they announced what they would be and who paid for them is something that I still find weird. Incidentally, the information regarding fireworks was gained from the Taiyaki man, who somehow heard us talking about it IN ENGLISH on the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET. I assume that is what happened, because as soon as we came to the stand he starts telling us about the "hanabi" that were going to be at 7:30 (unless they were at 8, I don't remember) In thanks for his telepathy or super hearing or whatever it was he was using, we naturally bought more taiyaki. Then we came back to the 'miz and played puyo puyo. Yeah, we walk on the wildside.
The next day was back to Nanao to send off my guests as well as to witness the majesty of the dekayamas once more. There were also "attractions" or at least that's what the sign said. These consisted of some Man Dancing, Taiko, Normal Dancing, and Koto. All very nice, but it failed to induce us to stay very long.
I realize that that was not particularly informative. But we failed to find out what the festival was for (except to make giant floats that look like they are liable to fall over and destroy some buildings at every turn and then parade said floats around town for three days - that's what dekayamas are, incidentally, I don't think I mentioned it) and there really wasn't all that much happening - although I have it on good authority that it is more fun if you are one of the people pulling. Also, I plan to go into more detail when discussing the pictures (that I will seriously eventually put up) and I am sleepy now, so I want to finish this up.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday were spent relaxing Ewa-style (doing laundry), so I will not go into it.
So yeah, that was basically Golden Week. I had fun, and I am glad that I did not bother to go anywhere, I think it was a good balance of excitement and relaxation.
Incidentally, another reason that I have not updated is because I was FREAKED OUT by the personality spider that was in the below entry until recently. Ewwww, what are you supposed to do if you are scared of your inner soul critter?
Next up: Rice-planting in senmaida and strawberry picking this weekend. Also, I may go back and talk about the parentals time in Noto. Not sure.