Time keeps on slippin'

Well hello again! Not to much new going on here. A large dose of the same old, same old. It's been hot and humid beyond belief- it almost feels like we're living in a jungle! Overall though, we had a pretty tame week and weekend.

 

We got a gift from our neighbors. "It is the corn sent form 2 parents home. Please eat, if good." (They have 2 little girls in preschool, so I assume 'parents' refers to other parents at the preschool.) They were indeed good!

This is a photo of the neighborhood were I have been teaching English. The driveways literally go over the creek, with no barriers. Hope you're good at backing up!

To give you an idea of how narrow these streets are. Well, this is actually a one-way but still, the Japanese drivers will just pullover whenever, turn on their hazards, and expect you to be able to get around them!

We rescued a kitten on Wednesday! Super kawaii!!!!!! She weighed 3 oz and hadn't even open her eyes yet, so she must have been less than 10 days old. We named her Momo :)

She fit in my hand! Unfortunately, she was a little too little. She aspirated the milk we were bottle feeding her and she didn't make it :'( At least she knew love in very short life.

We spent Friday night at YouMe town, hitting up the arcade there. Super fun! And then since YouMe town is so near the Gyoza house, Nick just HAD to go get some and I was oh so against the idea ;)

On Saturday we made a trip to Hiroshima (aka 'Hiro' around these parts) to see a fireworks show. They were supposedly going to launch 10,000 fireworks from the port there. It was obvious we weren't the only ones excited to see so many fireworks because when we got to Hiro it was crazy busy. The show was going to start at 8 but even by 6 when we got there, the trolleys were jam packed. 

We ended up walking most everywhere that night- which was more than a little uncomfortable since it was SO muggy.

We stopped at a 7/11 for some hydration and found this gem- a salty watermelon Pepsi! It was surprisingly tasty...but we were so hot anything probably would have tasted good.

 

We got tsukemen for dinner- so delicious! Tsukemen is a cold noodles and other assorted vegetables that you dip into this spicy soup-like sauce. Yummy!

 A silly cartoon at the tsukemen restaurant. No idea what this says, but we made up our own words. Hilarious!

We finished eating a little after 8 and caught a trolley to take us to the port. The fireworks had already started, we could hear, but there were going to be 10,000 so we figured it would last at least and hour and a half, if not 2. The trolley was moving ridiculously slow so we decided to get off early at this bridge that had a view of the fireworks. However, by the time we got off the trolley and walked back to the bridge, it was like 9:01 and the show was over. We couldn't believe it! We had come to see 10,000 fireworks and missed all but 5 that we had seen from the trolley. Hahaha just our luck. And then, since the show was over, everyone was leaving the port and so the traffic was even more insane and the trolleys were even more full, so we decided to just hoof it back to the train station.

On our walk back we found this vending machine- where you could buy a whole BOTTLE of whisky! This one did require an ID, unlike the beer vendi we saw at the chicken shack, but still- a whole glass bottle of alcohol from a vending machine!!

Keep it real, readers!

-Elle

Kitakyushu Kokura Taiko Drum Festival

On Saturday (7/21/12) Nick and I went to a Taiko Drum Festival in Kokura (which is a city near Fukuoka, on the Southern main island, Kyushu. Kokura is the old name for the city, now it is called Kitakyushu but they use the two names interchangeably as far as I could tell). The festival was from 3:30 to 7 and we took a bus from base down there and arrived at 2. They threatened to cancel the festival if it was raining and it had been raining on and off all afternoon. It was even raining at 3:29 but then, literally at 3:30 on the dot, they fired some shots to signify the start of the festival and the rain stopped. How cooperative! (We must be in Japan.) So lucky for us, the festival was not called off and here are some pictures of it!

Before it started raining when we first got there, we explored this park/shrine area.

The park was smack in the middle of this built up area so it was quite quintessentailly Japan: the old/traditional toriis in the shrine area and then this ultra-modern mall as the backdrop.

 The juxtaposition once again: the parked car in the foreground and the ancient castle in the background.

 From the park we could see the back of the vendor's tents.

As we explored, we found this cool photo op of the castle moat.

Some performers preparing their float. As we later found out, this was less of a festival and more of a parade of floats like this one that all had Taiko drums on them.

 Me, the moat, and the castle.

It started to rain then so we sought shelter in the mall. (There were these little kids playing in the fountain and it made me wish it was more socially acceptable to photograph strangers!) Looks just like a regular mall, though, yeah?

Wrong! It was 10 stories tall! With 3 adjoining buildings!

The view from the top.

The view of the castle from the 5th floor's rooftop garden area.

Also on the 5th floor, we found a wedding chapel!

 We couldn't quite figure out this sign which was out front of a store full of those photo booths that give you the instant strip of photos. Our best guess is that you must be in co-ed or girl groups. Guys can't go in the photo booths with just guys?

Nick won a cute cat thing from a store full of claw-games. He's so proud.

Another store full of photo booths

We got hungry so we ventured back out to the festival area to find some food from the vendors. Nick found a banana covered in chocolate covered in sprinkles. On a stick.

The festival was actually getting underway now so we stopped to watch for a bit. There were bleachers set up on both sides of this red carpet area but it was 2000 yen (so like $30) to sit on them. We chose to stand for free. It apparently was some sort of competition and I think this area was where the judging happened but since it was a parade that went on for 3.5 hours, we found lots of other areas to get great views from.

All the floats were pulled by groups of about 20 people, aged ~3 to ~75 from the looks of them. We couldn't figure out if they were schools or families or what. And they all dressed in matching outfits.

The red carpet/judging area from the other side.

The first float of the day.

This is a video we took of the parade. It captures the cacophony pretty well. Add in the noise of some really, REALLY loud cicadas and you've got the gist of it.

So we got a little bored and went to find some more food. Nick found his favorite: yakitori! Yakitori is the sauce they use to cover this meat (chicken) on a stick.

I found some steamed meat buns- yum! I also found some bacon wrapped rice which was tres delicious but did not photograph it.

Then the sun came out and since it had been raining all morning it was unbelievably muggy so we went in search of some A/C. On the way we found a neat volcano fountain. So I stood dorkily by it while Nick captured the photo. 

Back inside the mall we found, among many other things, a store selling Minntonka moccasins (MN represent!), a whole display of purses specifically being sold toward men (so m-urses, you might say), a movie theater, an art gallery, an art museum and this toy store. This peach man freaked us out.

This was written on a towel of some sort. I hope it was a face towel. For Miffy?

Sufficiently cooled off, we ventured back outside and found some more vendors and where all the performers were hanging out before their turn.

A haunted house. We did not go in.

This captures how the floats were pulled.

Miscellaneous images of the parade.

This was our favorite float.

This one was cool because the lanterns were lit up.

Cutest baby ever!

Found some candied strawberries.

Creepiest float.

After we got bored of watching the parade, we went up to the castle area and found some more vendors (these ones selling beer ;) ), tables, and a stage where there were actual taiko performances going on. SO we took a load off and spent the last hour of the trip sipping cold beverages and enjoying the show.

Video of part of a performance.

Li'l baby playin taiko! Super kawaii!! (Cute)

 

And then it was time to go. It was a 3 hour bus ride back to base and we realized maybe those adult beverages had been  mistake because about 45 minutes into the drive, we had to pee so bad our kidneys hurt! Luckily we made a pit stop halfway home or I probably would have exploded!

And I'll end on that. Ta for now!