Fukuno
check it! a masterpiece by my roommate Ivy:
we live there among the rice paddies.
This week is Obon so ivy and I are chilling out at our supervisors office instead of going to work. Obon is a kind of a big holiday in Japan when families honor the dead and theres a big festival at night where they place lanterns on the lake/river to guide the spirits home. The schools are still open but all the teachers are on paid vacation, so we don't have to go. So its internet and air conditioning all day everyday this week xD
On saturday a bunch of ALTs in the area attended an indigo dyeing workshop in Fukuno (two towns from fukumitsu) They described it as being an old art form that our city is well known for. We each received a piece of cloth to dye and they wipped out the "materials" - a bunch of rubberbands and beads, and we were all like dude this is tie dye! it was pretty sweet. They took our picture for the newspaper and we were in the community section of the Sunday paper. I was quoted (sorta... they changed my words so that they appeared in coherent japanese). It said something like "Diana Grande from Fukumitsu Junior High says with a smiling face, 'we have something quite similar to this in the states called tie dye, I find it very interesting.'" haha...
Afterwards we were hungry so we went bumbling about the town looking for a place to eat. Nothing was open until 5 so we walked around for a long time in the heat before finally sitting outside a conbini eating ice cream. They were setting up for some festival too, called the Yukata dance festival. After dinner we walked around the festival a bit. (being maybe 6 stands and a few dozen local families. kinda cute). There are local events going on like that all over everyday.
lanterns at the festival
Since there wasnt much in fukuno we headed over to Tonami to find an izakaya but got turned away everywhere 'cause they were all full (and it was only 730!) The only place with room was Big Blue- the american bar we had our 2 regional dinners at. I think the staff at this point recognize us on sight.
last night was awesome. A whole bunch of us went up into the mountains where danielle works to attend the music festival thing. It ended up being more like a dance party in this log cabin-like abandoned ski resort with free chuhais and live bands. !!
tonights another thing in tonami with fireworks and the day after theres this festival thing where they light a massive "ya" kanji on fire.
we live there among the rice paddies.
This week is Obon so ivy and I are chilling out at our supervisors office instead of going to work. Obon is a kind of a big holiday in Japan when families honor the dead and theres a big festival at night where they place lanterns on the lake/river to guide the spirits home. The schools are still open but all the teachers are on paid vacation, so we don't have to go. So its internet and air conditioning all day everyday this week xD
On saturday a bunch of ALTs in the area attended an indigo dyeing workshop in Fukuno (two towns from fukumitsu) They described it as being an old art form that our city is well known for. We each received a piece of cloth to dye and they wipped out the "materials" - a bunch of rubberbands and beads, and we were all like dude this is tie dye! it was pretty sweet. They took our picture for the newspaper and we were in the community section of the Sunday paper. I was quoted (sorta... they changed my words so that they appeared in coherent japanese). It said something like "Diana Grande from Fukumitsu Junior High says with a smiling face, 'we have something quite similar to this in the states called tie dye, I find it very interesting.'" haha...
Afterwards we were hungry so we went bumbling about the town looking for a place to eat. Nothing was open until 5 so we walked around for a long time in the heat before finally sitting outside a conbini eating ice cream. They were setting up for some festival too, called the Yukata dance festival. After dinner we walked around the festival a bit. (being maybe 6 stands and a few dozen local families. kinda cute). There are local events going on like that all over everyday.
lanterns at the festival
Since there wasnt much in fukuno we headed over to Tonami to find an izakaya but got turned away everywhere 'cause they were all full (and it was only 730!) The only place with room was Big Blue- the american bar we had our 2 regional dinners at. I think the staff at this point recognize us on sight.
last night was awesome. A whole bunch of us went up into the mountains where danielle works to attend the music festival thing. It ended up being more like a dance party in this log cabin-like abandoned ski resort with free chuhais and live bands. !!
tonights another thing in tonami with fireworks and the day after theres this festival thing where they light a massive "ya" kanji on fire.
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