Week 9: I'm going to too many festivals!

I have a new pet!

He's so cute!

His name is Albert, and he is a rosemary. (purebred) 

I haven't re-potted him yet because I've been too BUSY.  And when I'm not too busy, I'm too forgetful. Gonna try to fix that this week.

I went to two festivals this week! We didn't have school Monday, so after a lazy morning, I figured I'd go to the Indian festival in Kobe!  After all that dancing, I felt an easy walk around would be a good thing.  And you know? It was!

They had dancing!

And yoga!

I didn't get to participate, it was already too crowded.

And people in cool outfits!

dancers, waiting to go on.

And so much food!

yes, those are rain clouds in the distance. on and off all day.

I have never seen naan baked before, but they literally stick it to the wall of the oven.

 I'll admit, mostly went for the food.  As shown by the fact that they had cool market stalls, but all I got were curry mixes. :) 

I think they've got the wrong "Indian" here....

So, I got some tandoori chicken, and all the sudden, my stomach was complaining. "we're smelling all this wonderful food and you got ONE thing?!"  So I went back and got the "special plate" that had rice and naan and two kinds of curry and tandoori chicken.

Now, apparently Japan doesn't like things particularly spicy, because it was all VERY mild. (I have yet to try anything too spicy for me here) I mentioned to the shop owner (who spoke English) that I would like things hotter, and his eyes lit up and I'm like "I just asked an Indian for spicier food. Did I make a mistake?"  His assistant brought out a cup of red...stuff.  And put a dollop in each portion of my food.  Thankfully, it was JUST enough heat.  SO GOOD.

So there I was, watching the dancing, enjoying the nice day. Lingering over the last bits of my curry when the plate shakes! Something has dropped onto it! I think it's rain, because it's been threatening all day, but when I look down, I see a BIRD has POOPED in the rest of my green curry!!

The GALL!

I mean, I had eaten most of the food before this TRAVESTY happened, but STILL!

What's worse, because it fell in the green curry, it splashed green all over my shirt and my shorts!

And then a guy came and hit on me!  I'm like "dude, I'm tired, I'm sore, I just got denied the last of my curry, and now I have green on my shirt and shorts. There's nothing really you can do to make me feel attractive at this point.  Just...move on."



School has been pretty normal. Halloween is, of course, coming up.  My Friday school even bought orange pumpkins! (they're hard to find here)

The principal approached me "do you know how to carve a pumpkin?"
 "Oh, yes, I've done it many times."
"Oh good, can you carve ours?"
"...sure!  Love to!  Do you have a knife?"
"Let me check."

Later, she approaches me again.
"Can you draw on them instead?"
"Drawing doesn't really work. I've got a better idea."

The short one would have been great for a glower, but this principal wants a cheerful Halloween.

We stuck them in the windows, and of course, the kids loved them, and were always patting the pumpkins and saying "Bye Mr. Pumpkin!" (in Japanese.)

This weekend, my travel friend and I decided to go down to Wakayama to see the Lion dancing festival!  Which we never made it to.  Darnit. Still, it was a fun Saturday!  Wakayama is MUCH more rural than where I am, so it was NICE and they were near mountains! (and ocean!)  We saw a mountain shrine

and went to the beach!

She showed me how to hold hermit crabs, and there were a BUNCH of them!

so cute/hideous!

And it was JUST so PRETTY

And we went to a bath house with an outdoor bath!

Been a while, but still great!

When night fell, we met up with Charles and checked out the lantern festival! 

it was an igloo of flame!

you could tell kids had decorated the paper cups for the lanterns

bamboo with tea lights in the everywhere

one section had carved bamboo

there were performers around! and the castle is nice at night!

we even got to go up and see the city view at night!

They had a big red button and I DIDN'T push it!  At first.

It was lovely, and that's why we ended up not going to the Lion Dance festival.  By the time I noticed we had to go, we would have had to have sprinted to the train station, and we probably would have still missed it.  So we enjoyed ourselves anyhow.

There were some traditional musicians playing in one area, and I loved listening to it.  It sounded calm and mournful.  It sounded like mournful kazoos. 

And then we all went to our respective sleeping locations, because it had been a long day! :)

Next week is going to be a boring post, because I'm staying IN.

Doing laundry.

Sleeping.

Might even clean my room.

I'm having a blast! Really I am, but I think I need a short break before running back out there.  (and coincidentally, there are no nearby festivals next weekend.)