Yosakoi Festival

Tonight kicks off one of Japan’s 10 largest festivals, and it takes place right here in Kochi! The Yosakoi Festival is a festival that takes place all over Japan, but the one in Kochi is special as it was the first! Held for the first time in 1954, the festival is centered around Yosakoi which is a type of dance. It’s actually quite a long festival! It will be kicked off tonight (August 9, 2017) with fireworks, and continue in full swing for the next two days. But it won’t be over just yet! On Saturday, ceremonial portions of the festival are held in which awards are presented to the winning teams of the previous days’ competitions.

In general, festivals in Japan are known for their endless yatai or food booths. You can get anything from meat on a stick, to cotton candy, to noodles, and even corn on a stick! If it can go on a stick, it is on a stick and you can find it at a Japanese festival. But these are special Japanese versions of anything American you can think of, from noodles which have been grilled in a soy sauce mixture until it stuck to soy sauce being brushed on your corn as it’s grilled. Not EVERYTHING has soy sauce though, so if you’re allergic to soy, no worries!

Pictures of my experiences with this festival to come in the next few days! xx

Welcome to Japan

So, I’ve been in Japan for the JET program for just over 2 weeks now. I’m settling into my small town, and learning just how little Japanese I actually know! I hope to use this website to keep you up to date on my experiences here as well as to provide a platform in which my English lessons can be readily accessible.

To give you an idea of how it’s been since I’ve gotten here, I just want you to imagine living in a country side town with one small grocery store and no one speaks your language. Add into the equation that you don’t have a car! That’s where I’m at. But it’s beautiful here and I’ve been loving every moment of it! Since school is currently on break, I’ve been spending my days making lesson plans! Oh, and filling out forms. I swear, Japan is the land of forms! They love forms more than anyone else, and none of the forms have any English support so that makes it super fun… But in all honesty, I’ve gotten pretty proficient at writing my address in Japanese, I’ve memorized my cell phone number, and I don’t even hesitate to write my full name in English and in Japanese. It’s probably actually really good for me to be honest.

This is just a glimpse of what my town looks like. It’s beautiful and abundant with nature and traditional Japanese architecture. Sure, I seem like an old man with my love for the traditional when compared to the young people of Japan, but the traditional is what we all fall in love with when learning about a new country. What’s so interesting about the modern day architecture that we have in literally every country of the world? Nothing! That’s what.

Well, I figure this should be a good introduction of my life here so far!

 

Until next time! xx