Last weekend I stayed close to home, but still had so much fun! On Saturday I joined a family from Judo to spend the day at local festivals. In the morning we went to our town's annual sports festival. It was held at the local highschool sports field. In the center of the field all the events and races were held, while the outside was lined in a circle of tents for each village. Each village organized a team to compete in the event, the only restriction being you play for the village you live in. About 10-12 villages were represented, with players ranging in age from toddlers to grandparents. The whole family and whole community participate in the sports festival! While walking around I saw so many people I knew, I was constantly saying hello to students, teachers, and members of the board of education while we were there.

They had events such as relay races, dance performances, and other fun and silly games. I was drafted to compete in the Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. The teams were comprised of about 10 adults who marched onto the field and stood behind a line in front of our opponent. During play we took turns running up to the opponent and playing rock paper scissors with him or her. If you won you get to run behind him and cheer for your teammates. But if you lost you had to run back to the start and get in line again. We played until all the teammates won and made it behind the finish line. I lost twice, so I had to run up there three times before I won. But my team was certainly not last place! (I actually am not sure what we placed)

At lunchtime the dance performances began. A group of older ladies performed a song and dance in tribute to our town, the Noto song. Then a group of highschool or junior high girls did a performance. Also they had games and songs for the little children to participate in all together.

My friends also invited me to join them to go see the aviation festival, which of course I did. We drove out to the airport where they had games for the kids, airplanes on display, and lots of delicious food! They had several retired airplanes set up in a field for people to climb inside, as well as a commercial jet, and military humvees. We ate our fill of takoyaki, okonomiyaki, onigiri, ramen, and rice-filled squid for lunch, and it was delicious!

Grandmothers performing the Noto song

On Monday I went to Nanao, a neighboring city to hang out with a couple of my friends that are ALTs there. Their village was having its fall festival, so we joined that for a couple hours. It was a very small festival, only about 40 or so people attended, but it was still very fun. The men and the shrine priest carried a mikoshi around to 15 different houses to give a blessing to those that had donated money that year. A mikoshi is a portable shrine, that is used to carry the god around during festivals. The men led the procession, dressed in their colorful matching happi coats, chanting while they carried the mikoshi. Following them, was a row boat on wheels with paper lanterns hanging from the top that carried all the children. At each house we were offered delicious food and drinks, such as takoyaki, gyudon, sandwhiches, and other little finger foods. At one house the spread was laid out on the back of a kei truck! It was a hilarious sight- kei trucks are little bitty yellow plate single cab trucks with a little flatbed on back. The food was great, and the people of that village were very welcoming and interested in talking to me since I am from out of town. Halfway through the night they even produced happi coats for my friend and I to wear so we could really look the part and join in the festivities. 

Kei truck feast

Row boat full of children, pushed up and down the streets

Yesterday, while at one of my elementary schools I joined the English Club to do Halloween activities. Our theme was Jack O' Lanterns, so we made origami jack o' lanterns, I made a poster with information about the history of them, and we even carved a pumpkin! While showing my students how to carve a jack o' lantern, I sliced my thumb open. Blood poured out! The students were all gasping and my vice principal rushed me back to the teacher's room and called the nurse to bandage me up. The cut was small but deep, so although it bled quite a bit it is fine now. But I guess I gave the kids a real scary Halloween! 

Our Halloween display