For your viewing pleasure: Kuwana's Ishi Dori Matsuri! AKA the noisiest festival in Japan. Kuwana is usually very quiet, but for three nights a year, this sleepy little suburban town erupts in frenzy of taiko drumming, drunken debauchery, and all-night shenanigans. For this special occasion, Ruth, Jen, Jenny, and I donned our brand-spanking new yukatas and painted the town red!
Jen playing with nori-ame, which is kind of like a melted lollipop.
Ruth and Tom try their hand at catching goldfish.
Me and Tom after a successful fishing stint.
Jenny rocks out taiko-style!
The story behind the Ishi Dori Matsuri is that each district of Kuwana has a special custom-made float decorated with paper lanterns bearing the chinese symbol of the district. Each float is pulled by a number of the residents wearing special festival clothes marked with symbols representing the various districts.
The floats each have a giant taiko drum and are accompanied by several suri-gane (gong-like instruments). Every district has its own unique drum beat. When you consider that there are nearly 100 floats all banging away at the same time, it can get pretty loud. They kept me up until 4 in the morning the first night.
All of the floats are then brought one by one to the main shrine in central Kuwana.
The whole town gets in on the festivities. I saw people starting on the sake at 10 in the morning all three days. There's nothing quite like bonding over greasy festival food and alcohol.
And finally, the obligatory highly-photoshopped artsy-fartsy pic:
If you missed the fun this year, I definitely want to go again next year, so let me know! First weekend of August for Japan's noisiest--and most fun--festival!
Currently reading: nothing. My brain is fried.
Currently playing: Green Day - 409 in Your Coffeemaker
bored bored bored bored bored bored...
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 400 pages
Sushi for Beginners: 600 pages
The Last Don: 300 pages (second half of the book)
Having nothing to do at work for the last four days: priceless.
Yes, I read nearly 1300 pages of novel in the last four days at work. And like the next person I like not having any responsibilities, but this is a little ridiculous. Someone shoot me now and put me out of my misery.
On a side note, it just rained like no other. All of Kuwana now smells of mildew and is as hot and humid as a locker room full of football players who have just finished a game. Mmmmm...what I wouldn't give for air conditioning in the office right now.
All fixed. I love how no one really posts any comments until they need to point out a mistake I've made. Way to stay on the ball, guys! Oh, and Eva, it was only posted 11 times. Hardly a million!
Currently reading: Marian Keyes - Sushi for Beginners
Currently playing: Limp - Where Is Your Mind
Piece of shit blogger deleted my entry and stupid Windows ME crashed before I could save the text file I made of that very same entry. Grrr.... because I'm too lazy to type that all out again, here's the watered-down version.
I can see how it's dangerous for JETs to go home for a visit after having lived in Japan for a long time. If I had actually gone home home, I probably would have found it difficult to come back. I hadn't realized just how much stuff about America I actually missed. I'd forgotten how nice it was to be surrounded by familiarity. Hopefully, I stuffed myself full of enough Mexican food, Burger King, kalbi, and Cheetos to last me until my next trip home. Fingers crossed.
On a more positive note, Oahu was gorgeous. Our condo was on the 15th floor of a 16-story building no more than 20 yards from the waterline of a beautiful white sand beach. A beautiful PRIVATE white sand beach. Jealous yet?
Long story short, the week went by waaaaay too quickly and I'm back. Back to sipping my green tea, squatting over Japanese-style toilets, and making-do with the Mexican restaurant in Yokkaichi that once served me a tortilla-less enchilada. My memories of paper towels in every bathroom, lazing about on a deserted beach, and finding my size in every article of clothing that I wanted (thank you, American Eagle Outfitters!) will have to suffice
P.S. Pictures will be uploaded once I get internet in my apartment. Promise.
Currently reading: J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Currently playing: Less than Jake - The Ghosts of You and Me
