Gohoku Furusato Festival

The name of this festival literally means “Gohoku (*the name of my area) hometown festival.” This festival is for the people of the area to celebrate their hometown on a personal level, with performances from students and other members of the community! I found out about this festival about 3 hours before it started, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I went! Of course, not knowing many people in town yet made it quite the overwhelming experience, but I figured that I should try to start integrating into this society if I were to become an active and functional member of it. So, even though most people didn’t talk to me, at least they’ll remember me when I start teaching classes at the middle school.

At the start of this festival, I felt super out of place and alone, so I coped by eating festival food! Always a good plan if you ask me. Well I first got a slushi! So good. I went and sat in the bleachers (as many people were doing) and watched some of the taiko (traditional Japanese drum playing) performances along with many of the people present. But, after a while I felt people looking at me as I sat alone and started to feel a bit out of place. Naturally, I went and sat behind some of the tents for a break from the awkward attention. After some time, I decided to go get some food. They were selling pork on a stick, in the traditional Japanese festival food manner, so I waited in line for that. Fast forward literally 30 minutes and I finally make it to the front of the line. It was well worth the wait, so I got my food and walked around, eating them while watching other performances. This two girls played an instrument and sang together:

It’s a bit dark so it may be hard to see them! The festival was held on the school grounds of the middle school – in the middle of the baseball diamond to be more precise. So I hung out as did many of the Japanese people at the festival, just watching what was happening around me. I sat down in a secluded place again for a bit and was approached by a Japanese couple with their small child. They were so sweet to me and gave me this balloon yoyo thing that they won at one of the games:

I sure hope they intended to give it to me! Otherwise I’m a horrible person. See that number on my fan? Remember it for later, it’ll be important.

Next thing I know, there’s a ramune drinking contest. For those of you who don’t know, ramune is a popular pop in Japan which has a marble that you pop down into the bottle to drink. This kids competing had all sorts of strategies! My personal favorite was the strategy of shaking the pop before opening it, resulting in a ton of pressure building up and exploding once the drink was opened. While this technique mostly caused pop to come out of their noses, it actually resulted in a win for some of them! It was interesting to say the least.

As I was standing there, confused and amazed at how the festival had so many interactive events, two little girls ran up to me, stood about two inches from me, and just stared up with the largest smile. I waved and they ran off giggling. Then again, a few minutes later they did the same thing. This time I said hello to them and they said hello back. I squatted down and talked to them. They were so adorable! It was unexpected to say the least, but I’m glad they weren’t too afraid to come up to me in the end!

Then, there was a raffle….remember how I told you to remember those numbers? I didn’t even realize what the number was for until they started calling out random numbers with prizes. There were probably 400 or so numbers, maybe more as there seemed to be 500-600 people, and only about 20 prizes. Well, somehow I won! When my number was called out, I had to double check to make sure I didn’t look like a fool and raise my hand for a number that I didn’t actually have. Well, I did actually have it. What did I win, you ask? Only the most American thing they had in the lineup. A French toast maker! It allows you to make French toast in the microwave…

That’s convenient for someone living on their own!

After the raffle, there was some more dancing, in the style of yosakoi!

In the end, I’m glad I went and was able to take part in a tradition of my area. This was the 44th annual Gohoku Furusato Festival.

Until next time! xx

Yosakoi

So, I went to the Yosakoi festival! I actually went on Wednesday night (for the fireworks) and Thursday (for the festival) last week. Now is the first opportunity I’ve had to update you all!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the fireworks, but they went on for an hour and a half! I attempted pictures but those don’t tend to turn out… After fireworks on Wednesday evening, we went to a food court and I got some katsuo tataki, which is the local dish. It’s basically tuna which is seared on the edges, leaving the inside raw. I personally like fish, and even raw fish, so to me it was so good!

On Thursday, I got some lunch before heading to watch the festivities. There is this French style café in the city, and they had a “yosakoi special” which was basically supposed to be cold food to get you through the extreme heat! It worked. The sandwich had a berry bread which was actually amazing, and the gelatin for dessert had milk gelatin as a second later underneath. It was subtle and so good.

At first when my “milk tea” came, I was sad because it was just tea. THEN I realized that there was milk (cream, rather) that I was supposed to add myself. Then I got happy because the drink became really pretty with the cream cascading in. Sorry for subjecting you to the things I find entertaining…

Anyways! Then we headed out to the festivities! So many groups performed at varying levels of professionalism and talent, as well as a wide array of costumes. It was so awesome watching the groups perform (despite the fact that it was real feel 127°F out). I honestly wonder how they survived the heat while performing and wearing what they were wearing! My favorite group for cuteness was this group that consisted entirely of small children (with a few adults to make sure they remembered the dance). Unfortunately I only got a video of that group and I can’t post videos on my vlog 😦 so let me know if you want a video! Here are some awesome pictures of some other groups that performed!

Running across the street!

Fan hair!

I also watched the best advertisement of my life at this festival! There is a phone company called AU and they did a dance with hundreds of people in their group. It was amazingly choreographed and precise. It was just awesome! (Side note: I have DoCoMo, not AU as my service provider… oops!).

Seeing as how I don’t have a car yet, I had to hitch a ride home with another ALT. He was so kind to give me a ride even though I was a bit out of his way. We stopped for ramen on the way home which was so good!

I look forward to this festival again next year! And next time, I’ll be more prepared to avoid dehydrating as much as I did this time…

Until next time! xx

 

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