Cherry Blossom Festivals \( ^ 。^ )/ in small towns

  So Sanpoku is my tiny little town and so when the cherry blossoms were out there were two little festival things. One wasn't actually in my town but the one just inside the mountains (Nakagatsugi?). And that was a simpler, there are a few booths of the locals selling stuff (mainly mountain veggies, but not many had come up yet b/c of the colder weather in the mountains, and some other handmade stuff) and an area to eat a box lunch. A lot of the people there—as is true w/ the people closer to my house—are the parents/relatives of my students. So they were happy to see me go to their little town, esp since 5+ years ago they used to have an elementary school so the ALT of the area went to their town on a regular basis; but now the schools are grouped into two bigger ones so no more regular visits from an ALT :p.  But anyhoo, it was really nice seeing them and it was lovely out, though sadly the blossoms were still just buds—these cherry trees are more like weeping willow trees, very beautiful—esp when in full bloom. But I had a nice lunch w/ Sadae-san and then we walked around town a bit. Oh and one of the guys there was really cute ;)…..but as w/ most of them he couldn't speak the best English in the world.

   The second area w/ a festival was literally in my town. There were booths/stalls/stands all up and down this one side street. Some selling food, some candy, some goldfish or turtles (the turtles were sooo cute XD) and a few game stands (ring toss, grab a ticket, and such).  The students were really surprised and in general happy to see me, especially the younger ones and the ones that just graduated. But sadly I couldn't remember all of the names of the ones that had just graduated L. Though, in my defense in class they always covered up their notebooks that had their names on it and they changed seats all the time so the original seating chart quickly loses its use and there are no sheets w/ their names and faces together, it’s always just names—in kanji which I can’t read.  So needless to say they didn't make it easy for me to learn their names xp….but I still feel bad that I couldn't recall all of their names.  I could remember the chair they sat at before they graduated, but not their name -.-….  That aside, it was really fun and I got an interesting finger pointer thing that has proven nice during my lessons^^. Oh, and the students pulled little shrine floats (little shrines set on these things to be carried around the town) through the town as a sort of parade thing and they were really happy to see that I saw them having a blast doing such. 

  Oh, and while walking around I got corralled by some of the older town folk (most of which prob committee members of some sort) to sit under their tent where they offered me all sorts of things. They gave me like 2 cans of ice coffee to drink, snack packets, giant swiss-cake-roll thing, tried to give me beer, and bread and such. They were asking all sorts of questions and taking pictures with me and it was rather nice, though after a while I wanted to go see the festival some more to see some more students that just started to arrive. Luckily one of the older ladies sensed that I wanted to go and swept me away, she said ‘’oh have you seen this little area in town?’’ and dragged me off to go see the little cemetery in town that’s tucked away behind all the buildings so you can’t see if from the main road. It was really pretty up there and I hadn't been there before (always hesitant to walk around the alleyways b/c some are alleys but some are driveways and they look the same xp). She asked me a few questions but mainly talked about the area and then took me back down to the back side of the festival stands and said ‘‘excuse us for taking your time’’—or something to that affect—and ‘‘thanks for chatting with us, please enjoy the festival’’. So, yay for old ladies that whisk you away so you can return to the festivities—not that sitting with them was a lot of fun, but w/ it being a nice day and a festival I didn't exactly want to be sitting around that much :p. And, yeah, that was that for the most part^^ just some nice, quieter but still very enjoyable festivities^^.    

0[]o *gasp*...*erhem* The Tale of the Samurai Battle Festival

To begin w/ I found out about this cool Samurai Festival and that people get to dress in traditional old armor and fight if they sign up on a list before the event. But sadly I didn't make the list of people to be samurai in the battle (they had a long waiting list from last year). Despite that, I decided to be adventurous and drive the 3 hrs to the battle w/ only directions written on some scrap paper. I made it there, with some help from signs and out of luck/good sense of direction b/c some signs said to go one way but then never showed up again to tell you to turn -.-.....and I found a place to park in a parking lot of a store. Normally they frown upon parking there for other events, but they were allowing it since this was such a big event. The old guy who was the volunteer to help people park in spots that were ok seemed a bit worried about me being a gaijin girl by myself and when I asked him if it was ok to park and where the event was at he was very meticulous about giving me details and kept asking if I understood and was very kind. Then I went to the area and I think I saw a greatdane off in the distance, and of course I saw lots of people dressed for the battle. It was really neat to see the foot soldiers, ninjas (yes they had ninjas :D), archers, leaders and such all decked in traditional-styled armor/clothes. 
     While there I found a decent viewing spot (it was already crowded when I arrived).  I also so an older woman that was a little peculiarly dressed and was carrying around a doll....but that's beside the point. Anyhoo, I saw a few other foreigners but they walked passed me and didn't really notice. G ranted I didn't say "hey" and wave like a dork, but I did smile and the one that saw me just looked away and started talking with the others in the group. They gathered a bit of a ways away from where I was but I could still see them from my spot. One time while looking around --crowd watching during a break in the battle-- I saw some of them in the group look at me and I smiled and started to wave but they immediately looked away when they saw that I spotted them. Then after the battle I walked around closer to the battle grounds. I saw some of the other foreigners that were fighting (and mind you a lot of them are ALTs like myself) and went up and said "Hello" and they smiled but didn't say anything. Instead they just went on w/ a conversation w/ the person next to them. I saw an older lady (40s or 50s) who was a foreigner and I smiled and said hello to her. She was nice enough to say hello back and smile, but then she looked to the distance and said to herself (but still aloud) "oh the international group seems to be gathering" and then walked off. 

     So I was a little perturbed that I drove 3 hrs to go to an event that I was told to "by all means come we'd love to have more foreigners at the event, even if it's just spectating. Can’t wait to see you there", and then when I go to said event I couldn't get the time of day from any of the other foreigners. Not that I was expecting the time, but at least a short: ‘’hello, oh you're from ___, I'm from ___,’’ ‘‘glad you made it to this event’’, ‘‘this event is a lot of fun isn't it’’, or a ‘‘oh hey another foreigner that's cool’’....or something. But oh well. I didn't let it dampen my spirits b/c it was a really neat event and after leaving the other foreigners that didn't want to chat with me I passed some junior or senior high school boys who---in their typical rowdy jhs/shs boy manner---said "oh, hello! Nice to meet you. I'm happy/hungry/hot. Goodbye!" So that was a good laugh to have them randomly say stuff in English while walking past me. And the view on the way to the event is absolutely lovely. It's a mountain road that cuts through mountains and over rivers and dams and small mountain towns and small waterfalls (like maybe a foot wide if that, but really tall/long) and whatnot. It was gorgeous. So all in all I’d say that adventure was a victory and it was a nice festival.  Oh, and the guy who "died" and stuck his sword in a way so that it looked like he was stabbed and the other one who died but kept kicking their feet around in boredom where extra amusing to see^^. And a nice---though long-- drive with good music is always nice^^. But yes, that was that festival. Later will be the kite battle festival, my parents stay here and some other festival I think? I think there's another one....oh and the amazing Buddhist Temple and Mountain temple/shrines that I saw just this weekend 

12 o'clock the ghost awakes ( ^ ' ~' )^ and goes to a Cherry Blossom Festival

Once upon a long long long time ago (three or so months ago… to be more precise-ish kinda) there was this chica named Mary and she has been spending quite some time in Japan, fought with some Tsukumogami and had tea with Tengus and such. But this day was special, it was a long journey south to a city she has often heard of but not yet seen.  She was going there to spend some time with the humans she has met, they aren't as fun as the spirits and creatures she has encountered, but some of the people are very enjoyable and fun to be around....unfortunately those said people weren't there. The ones that were there are nice enough and fun to watch, but it seems that Mary is a bit too much of a strange wallflower for their more party hearty-style antics. But, on the way down she gave a ride to someone that can carry on a very nice conversation and so a lovely conversation about this and that was had during the very long car ride south. Despite the lack of gps or knowledge of the area they made it rather easily.

 When they arrived the sky was rather overcast and threatened to bring rain, and after a bit it did. But, before the rain came they met up with the other people.  After sitting awkwardly for a bit just listening to everyone else converse and only getting in a few words here and there, she went and bought a rather tasty doner kebab to eat. Upon getting back and finishing the doner, she was invited to play a game. It is writing and drawing game where one person writes a sentence and the next person draws a picture interpretation of the sentence then the next person writes a sentence based of the picture and so on. It was very fun, but it started to rain just when everyone started on the second round of the first/original sentence....so everyone packed up and moved to a shelter area (they were sitting in a field on a tarp prior to this).

 Once under the shelter some of the group members, including Mary, wanted to continue with the game, but those who weren't in on the game and some of those that were wanted to call the picnic quits-- seeing as it was supposed to be a cherry blossom festival and most of the blossoms were already knocked down from rain the prior week and that it was now kinda rainy and gross and the sky didn't look like it would clear up anytime soon. So most of the people left and went to go to a bar and party, Mary and some of the others decided to stay at the festival just a bit longer and do something before driving all the way back north. After a rather tense/not fun debate of what to do (one person in the group was very bummed that the drawing/writing game stopped and everyone except the small few were leaving) they finally decided to head over to the small castle in the park (very small castle).     

Upon finding out that it costs $2 to look around the castle some people decided to just go get food, one decided to sit and watch stuff that people didn't want to carry around, and some decided to go to the castle. Mary decided to see the castle, and as nice as it was it was also a bit awkward seeing as the only other people who went to go see the castle were two recently-started-to-date love birds that she really hasn't ever talked too. So, Mary with her already purchased ticket in hand decided to have fun at the castle anyway, and overall she did. Then they returned to 'home base' where the person watching the stuff was.....some people had fun putting their faces in the cut out slots of those tourist picture things where your head replaces the would be face of the people...in this case a prince and princess. That was rather amusing to watch and then it was time to split ways and go home. Mary gave a few people a ride to the train station and then drove all the way back home (4-ish hr drive) by herself. It was rather pleasant seeing as she was a bit tired from socializing all day and just wanted to be a dork and sing in the car and such fun things.....being bold and a bit of a penny pincher she decided to try to take the back roads most of the way home b/c the highways are toll roads. She made it quite a distance traveling back routes in a foreign country at night....stopped for gas and possibly had the guy flirt with her-- he offered her a rag to wipe down the inside of the car and a cigarette (didn't accept the cigarette) and kinda hovered a bit and seemed rather happy that she stopped for gas there and he got to talk with her...could've just been b/c she is a foreigner but the flying mint bunny seems to think it was more than that.

Anyhoo, she drove a bit over an hour on the back roads but when she got close to a major city that's two hours south of her house she kept hitting a plethora of stop lights, so she decided to just get on the high way and pay the toll b/c it was late and the amount of gas used at all of the stop lights would probably even out to toll road fees. When she finally made it to the end of the toll road she had about an hour left in her journey home...the toll road guy was also rather nice/smiling and cute....anyhoo she made it back and was glad to have gone back that night rather than stayed at an elementary school near the festival and slept at the school. Now she had all of Sunday to relax and do what she wanted rather than worry about driving all the way home and having that eat up most of the day. And that is the end of the tale of the cherry blossom festival story, an overall good day, tiring, but good ^^. The other festival stories will shortly follow (festival in town with the kids, samurai fest, and maybe another one in there too lol ^^''' )