Sorry no pics in this post, I'm typing this up during my break at work. Ok so let's see...I left off somewhere in February....Sadly there wasn't much going around for the setsubun (bean throwing festival) in my town and I wasn't sure where to go to see things, so maybe next year I can see some festival stuff for that holiday. Setsuben, btw, is a festival where they throw beans at people dressed as demons to symbolize driving away demons/evil spirits so the new year is free of bad spirits/luck. The stores around me did carry little paper boxes with beans and a paper demon mask that you could buy, so I got to see some fun/weird cartoon demon masks ^^. Oh, and in winter here (by the coast of the Sea of Japan) it is very very windy, there are signs warning of strong winds causing waves to come up onto the road, and a lot of Nami no hana (波の花), or “wave flowers,”which is where the sea foam forms en mass and blows around like snow/flowers :). It's pretty cool, when I post pics I'll try to find a video of it as well for you to see. And as cool as it is to see, it is freezing out when it happens and the wind is really strong (almost pushed me over a few different days) and if its icy it's especially fun b/c then you get pushed around the ice.
Ok so snow festival. There was a local snow festival/wedding in a small town about 10-15 minutes from me. I knew some of the people setting up (Kamimura-sensei, Chika-sensei, Nakagawa-sensei, and some people from the BOE) so I joined and helped set up. I helped work on the giant snowmen that were at the entrance and stamp down snow to make pathways and so on. In the bigger spots were we had to stamp down the snow I showed the people there a much more fun way to do it. They were just marching around and literally stamping it down, I went and grabbed one of the giant snow shovels...they have really big ones like this:
Ok so snow festival. There was a local snow festival/wedding in a small town about 10-15 minutes from me. I knew some of the people setting up (Kamimura-sensei, Chika-sensei, Nakagawa-sensei, and some people from the BOE) so I joined and helped set up. I helped work on the giant snowmen that were at the entrance and stamp down snow to make pathways and so on. In the bigger spots were we had to stamp down the snow I showed the people there a much more fun way to do it. They were just marching around and literally stamping it down, I went and grabbed one of the giant snow shovels...they have really big ones like this:
And I sat down in the shovel part and had one of the guys pull me around to flatten the snow that way :). Everyone was rather impressed and had fun doing the same ^^. Oh, and people were also very impressed with my Pikachu hat that Donnie sent me for X-mas (thanks Donnie! :) ).
So it was a lot of work and very tiring, but also a lot of fun getting things set up. After stomping down the fresh layer of snow (a good 1-2ft) we shoved a long pole down to where we think it finally hit bottom and we were standing on top of at least 5-6ft of packed snow 0.o. The snow in that town (it's at the bottom of a small mountain) was high enough to cover the entire first floor of a house and start going onto the roof of the 1st floor, there were snow banks taller than me along the roads and sidewalks. I've never seen so much snow before!! Even with us digging out steps and making a giant chapel out of snow I never did see the ground lol. So, to the day of the festival, I worked as the staff and helped man the drink-booth and helped monitor events. I got to wear an armband that said ''snowman staff'' ^-^. A decent amount of kids and parents showed up to build snowmen throughout the day. There was a tent full of oba-chans (old ladies) next to the one I was in, they were rather entertaining to watch ^^. They played American music all day (Lady Ga Ga, Maroon 5, etc.) which I found rather interesting lol. Oh and it snowed aaaallllllllllll day, big snowflakes that at times were a bit blizzard like....I felt kinda bad for the kids/families that showed up early to build their snowmen for the contest because by the time of the contest their snowmen had a good 1/2+ foot of snow on them if they didn't get a chance to brush them off. Luckily it wasn't too freezing out, but at the same time with being warm in you coat the snow melted when it hit you and so by the end of the day everyone was drenched, especially your gloves....so next year I might bring a pancho to wear over my coat and definitely more gloves. Just before it started to get dark we went around and placed tea candles inside little pockets/holes in the snowmen (people dug out the spot where they wanted the candle to go) and we lit them. We also made little snow blocks with a hollow center and put candles inside them to create a lighted pathway for the bride and groom. Once it got dark the bride and groom came and walked down the path (we had spotlights to provide light) and to the chapel's stage. The wedding is a bit different in Japan, rather short, and the bride and groom do a lot of talking rather than repeating after the priest-guy. But it was really cute, they were a bit embarrassed to have that much attention and it took a bit of encouragement to get the groom and bride to do kiss...they just did a really quick peck on the lips and wouldn't really do more than that...they really couldn't do much more b/c they were laughing/giggling too much over the whole thing lol. Then they cut a slice from a very small cake, and kids came on the stage and said stuff to them (idk what happened to the cake :P), and then there were fireworks from behind the chapel and that was that. People would get up and take pictures on the chapel's stage and look around at all of the snowmen. The volunteers sat around for a long time, eating and sitting by the small fire pits and taking pictures and goofing around. Then we cleaned up and took everything down and packed up, and some of them were going off to a bar but Kamimura, Chika, Nakagawa-sensei and myself voted to go home and sleep seeing as we got there around 7:30 and it was 10:30-11 by the time we got things stored away. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next year ^-^.
So that's all for now, lunch time ^^......hmmm, next are pictures and graduation and stuff, and then we'll be all caught up to now ^^.
So it was a lot of work and very tiring, but also a lot of fun getting things set up. After stomping down the fresh layer of snow (a good 1-2ft) we shoved a long pole down to where we think it finally hit bottom and we were standing on top of at least 5-6ft of packed snow 0.o. The snow in that town (it's at the bottom of a small mountain) was high enough to cover the entire first floor of a house and start going onto the roof of the 1st floor, there were snow banks taller than me along the roads and sidewalks. I've never seen so much snow before!! Even with us digging out steps and making a giant chapel out of snow I never did see the ground lol. So, to the day of the festival, I worked as the staff and helped man the drink-booth and helped monitor events. I got to wear an armband that said ''snowman staff'' ^-^. A decent amount of kids and parents showed up to build snowmen throughout the day. There was a tent full of oba-chans (old ladies) next to the one I was in, they were rather entertaining to watch ^^. They played American music all day (Lady Ga Ga, Maroon 5, etc.) which I found rather interesting lol. Oh and it snowed aaaallllllllllll day, big snowflakes that at times were a bit blizzard like....I felt kinda bad for the kids/families that showed up early to build their snowmen for the contest because by the time of the contest their snowmen had a good 1/2+ foot of snow on them if they didn't get a chance to brush them off. Luckily it wasn't too freezing out, but at the same time with being warm in you coat the snow melted when it hit you and so by the end of the day everyone was drenched, especially your gloves....so next year I might bring a pancho to wear over my coat and definitely more gloves. Just before it started to get dark we went around and placed tea candles inside little pockets/holes in the snowmen (people dug out the spot where they wanted the candle to go) and we lit them. We also made little snow blocks with a hollow center and put candles inside them to create a lighted pathway for the bride and groom. Once it got dark the bride and groom came and walked down the path (we had spotlights to provide light) and to the chapel's stage. The wedding is a bit different in Japan, rather short, and the bride and groom do a lot of talking rather than repeating after the priest-guy. But it was really cute, they were a bit embarrassed to have that much attention and it took a bit of encouragement to get the groom and bride to do kiss...they just did a really quick peck on the lips and wouldn't really do more than that...they really couldn't do much more b/c they were laughing/giggling too much over the whole thing lol. Then they cut a slice from a very small cake, and kids came on the stage and said stuff to them (idk what happened to the cake :P), and then there were fireworks from behind the chapel and that was that. People would get up and take pictures on the chapel's stage and look around at all of the snowmen. The volunteers sat around for a long time, eating and sitting by the small fire pits and taking pictures and goofing around. Then we cleaned up and took everything down and packed up, and some of them were going off to a bar but Kamimura, Chika, Nakagawa-sensei and myself voted to go home and sleep seeing as we got there around 7:30 and it was 10:30-11 by the time we got things stored away. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next year ^-^.
So that's all for now, lunch time ^^......hmmm, next are pictures and graduation and stuff, and then we'll be all caught up to now ^^.
I am so jealous of your Ubersnow! I bet it is beautiful :D
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