Week 35: It's gonna be May!

The weather is getting warmer!

This is both a good and a bad thing. See, two of my schools are actually faster to get to by bike than by any public transportation. Easier too.  And a good portion of the ride is along the river.  This is nice, because it's just lovely.  It's not so nice because it IS getting warmer, the bugs are coming out, and, let's face it, exercise makes clothes smell a little funny... :)  

Still, I like it.

Except Wednesday.  It decided to rain while I was at work Wednesday.  And then kept raining. I heard it was going to rain SOME, so I packed my rain jacket, but, of course, as soon as I left school, it started really coming down.  So I biked home with wet pants.  And the hood to the jacket kept blowing off.  I mean, at least, I had a plastic bag for my briefcase and purse, but it was still a pain.  THEN I got back to the share house, and of course no one bothered parking their bikes in a decent manner, so I had to wedge in between two, and one of them has a delicate kickstand, so I'm trying to hold MINE up, and THEIRS up and prop the dumb things up, only mine won't stay up because it has my brief case in the basket on the handlebars, throwing off the weight, and I FINALLY got it all worked out, my pants were soaked, I was tired and frustrated, and the manager got to see a normally cheerful yet tired girl storm in raging. :P  

On the bright side, I got a haircut Wednesday too.  It helped cheer me up.

It's cute!

One of the residents here works at a salon and actually cuts the hair of any resident that asks for free!  I gotta say, I was a little unsure about getting a haircut in Japan (since they deal predominantly with people with thick straight hair) but this is one of the best cuts I've gotten! :)

Thursday, I had my full rain suit, so of course, it only rained a little on the bike ride home.  (of course!)  But the WIND.  Oh, that wind was blowing hard.  As there was no work Friday, I had totally planned to go out swing dancing Thursday night, but after that bike ride, I collapsed in my room and begged for the sweet release of death for a little.  OH my legs hurt.

I was better by Friday, which is good, because I went into Osaka!  There was a festival! (is anyone surprised?)  I will admit, I was a little torn. There were two major festivals going on. One is for boy's festival.  You remember girl's festival, with the doll set ups?  Well, boys have carp flags,

FISHIE

And war dolls and mochi treats!

you don't eat the leaf, they said.

So it was a choice between a giant boys festival and Cinco de Mayo.  

Guess which one I chose

I will admit, part of the reason I went to Cinco de Mayo was with the vague and desperate hope that they'd have decent tacos.

I don't know why I got my hopes up.

But it wasn't just Mexico they celebrated, they used it as a chance to celebrate all the Latin American countries!  Like Brazil!

Their Pao de queijo was MUCH better.

I was a LITTLE confused when I first came in and saw a Capoiera group doing dancing on stage instead of a good demo, but, eh, I guess they wanted to get the Carnival dancer up there, and she had QUITE an outfit she was almost wearing!

look at those tail feathers!

But then they had a lot of different countries!

Mexico, reminded me of home!

I...didn't catch the country. Pretty awesome though

Peruvian handkerchief dance. So graceful!

TINY DANCERS

Salsa! (I really wanted to whack those two girls. The ENTIRE TIME

what feathers!

feather butt!

I felt a little bad for judging, but... most of the Japanese don't have the hip movement that Salsa calls for. They did the steps great, but they didn't have much swivel.  But in all fairness, they don't have much TO swivel.  Very slender people.

Oh! And they did salsa dance/demonstration!

those girls had enthusiasm!

Lots of people loved it, it was fun!

Wait, that one was definitely Bollywood moves...oh well.

And THEN the Capoiera group did a halda demonstration!

Good music section!

What fun! 

Wait! Who's that stunning girl?

Hang on, I got this...

Nope, I don't got this. I'm out. :P

Still, it was lots of fun to try!  After, they hunted me down and handed me a flier.  I'll admit I had heard of them, but...it's a little expensive for what I can afford.  It's reasonable!  But...I'm poor. ::sigh::  Nice to know I hadn't forgotten EVERYTHING. :D

Let's see, they had some great music!  

They had a Mariachi band!

No trumpet, but well done anyhow.

They represented Japan at the "International Mariachi festival" in Guadalajara!  I didn't know they HAD an international Mariachi festival!  Their accents were impeccable though!  

I actually had missed Mariachi music. :)

Oh, and they shipped in a famous Peruvian singer!

dunno her name

Which was hilarious because she kept talking to the crowd in Spanish, and about a third of them would respond, but the rest just kinda stared at her.  

There was also a group from Nagoya (a bit north/east of here) and I KNOW some of their members are Hispanic.  They played some great Salsa numbers and again, kept talking to the crowd in Spanish. :)

I was loving it, because MOST of the announcements were in Spanish first, and then Japanese, if it was even translated, and I COULD UNDERSTAND!!  It was nice to be able to go "oh! performance in 10 minutes! Got it!"

Oh, oh! And guess what ELSE they had!! 

NEW ORLEANS STYLE JAZZ BAND!!

They did TWO shows!

Oh my GOSH, it was so GREAT! I could not stop dancing it was so fun!  There were a whole bunch of people just up in front dancing their hearts out and having a great time! (not really a Japanese thing to do, so most of us were Gaijin)  SO FUN.

And after their performance, they would take a walk!  Still playing!

REALLY traditional style

And they were great!

And everyone was following them, dancing and clapping and having a great time and back on stage, the announcers tried to say what was happening next, but no one was listening, and once they had made a bit of a walk, the band parked it and launched into a rousing rendition of "When the Saints to Marching In." And Everyone just lost it, yelling and singing and cheering and it was FUN!  My cheeks hurt from smiling so much! :D

They had a few things that they always have at festivals in Japan,

Yukata

Face painting 

masks worn on the side of the head

...random..guy... dressed up...

And when it was getting late, I was torn. I was tired, I really was. I had danced so much, I had wandered around and had a lot of fun.  I had danced SO MUCH. I was tired.  BUT...how often do I get the chance to do this, right?  So, I stuck around until the end.

While the DJ played

And enjoyed the club atmosphere.  I mean, I do like the wild dancing, it's the smoke and heat I have trouble with in clubs. But since this was outside... no prob!  Heck, I had to dance just to keep my hands warm! :)

In all, a great day!  

I got to speak Spanish with a couple people.  Got to dance with some different people too!  One was while the Mariachi group was singing, I was doing a little basic cha-cha while listening, and I looked over, and this older gentleman was doing it as well, so I just spun around and face him and we started dancing together! :)  Later in the evening, another guy saw me doing a basic Salsa, so he swept me up. :)  Mostly I was glad for the chance to let loose a bit.

I ate bad food, I got a sunburn (not as bad as it coulda been), smiled until it hurt, and danced until I almost couldn't walk.  

SUCH a good day.

You can guess what I did Saturday.  

Yep. Chores. and naps. and lots of sitting.

They had a game night that I joined in on,

SOCIAL AGAIN!  SEE?!

And we played cards and it was fun and they found out that my statement that my brain shuts down at 11 PM wasn't a joke.

"Taaaaaaylor, it's your turn. Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taaaaaaaylor."

"I KNOW Kim, I'm thinking."

"But its you tuuuuuuuuurn."

So that's the week! :D  Love you all!