This year, the holidays did NOT line up beautifully, because some years, you get a lot of time off. This year, we got 4 days scattered. :P There was Friday last week, when I went to Cinco de Mayo. And this week, we had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. So I had to go to work on Monday and Friday. Which is no fun. I would rather have had those two days together, because, I'll tell you, NO ONE wanted to be there either of those days. And we were anyway. Oh well.
So! Beginning of May is also boys day! Remember last week, when I mentioned they celebrated with mochi and carp banners?
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| mochi |
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| ring a bell? No? |
Anyhow! Part of the whole "No one wants to be here" meant that some classes did arts and crafts.
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| cute! |
And again, I can't blame them. I woulda rather done that too. :)
Oh, and I mentioned this before, but you wouldn't believe what I saw Monday! So, I was biking back from school, and it was a lovely day, and I saw a group of 5 people just standing there, watching the river. Now, the river is about 15 feet below the ground level, so I couldn't see what they were looking at, so I went over and looked also. Saw nothing. Enjoyed the beautiful day for a little, went back to look, when suddenly, I saw it! A muskrat!
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| My first thought was "that would make a nice hat" |
As I watched, one of the guys watching the river started calling to it! "Miki! Miki!" Well, that muskrat popped out of the water and took some bread out of his hand!
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| A man and his muskrat |
He had even trained it to stand up straight when it wanted food! With a hand signal!
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| It wants more bread |
This man had trained a WILD MUSKRAT. And was also working on training an Heron. (crane?)
The show ended when a person decided to walk their dog near him, and the muskrat was like "nope! nope nope, no." and went back to the river.
So! Tuesday, my Japanese friend who likes to take me places and spoil me, went with me to northern Osaka to see the more carp festival stuff!
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| we got SO lost trying to find this place. |
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| "it's 20 minutes this direction" Hour and a half later, we found it. |
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| The place of 1,000 carp! |
We were glad when we finally found it. There was a nice little river area, and people were picnicking a lot. And the kids were having fun, and it was just pleasant.
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| The kids made these! |
And the kids were playing in the river
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| They were fishing with nets too! |
and they had some art they used as a slide.
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| Of course I joined in! I just couldn't take pictures of it. |
And lots of picnickers.
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| smelled so good! |
We hung out there for a little, just enjoying the atmosphere and people watching.
Then we went to a jazz festival. It was right around the same place as we were, so that made it easier. :)
I gotta say, I'm not sure I'll go to another one. It's so hard to find music I like, in a venue that's not crowded/smokey/etc. It took a while to find one we like, and finally just ended up sitting outside the pub, listening to the music there. We could hear fine and we didn't have to deal with the smoke. We DID hear some good music, but it was hard to find. We ended on a good note though, so that was nice.
Oh! and I got to see another "what will the Japanese fry?" restaurant. :)
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| L to R, that's Eggplant, an egg, and tofu. |
The best part was when I tried to eat the egg, and the end of it just exploded! Shot yolk across the table and onto the floor! I covered it in napkins and was like "never happened! Dunno what you're talking about!" :)
Wednesday, I went to a festival with an American friend! It was an interesting one. A "historical festival". It honestly reminded me Renaissance festivals! (I was craving turkey leg all day)
It was at a beautiful venue
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| nature! |
And there was stuff from different countries and eras!
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| China! |
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| Juggling from...I don't know. |
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| Korea! With Ribbon hats! |
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| Fisherman dance from Japan! |
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| Not sure, but I know it's from Japan |
And they had a "ancient times life" section!
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| how weights and measures work. |
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| games! |
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| board games! |
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| Hemp clothes! |
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| rice straw shoes! |
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| cart rides! |
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| something that was like a maypole... |
And some other games too, like tops and croquet and stuff! It was a lot of fun to mess around with. :)
There was a Falconry show
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| My favorite was how they helped the birds fly by chucking them in the air. |
And we bonded with some kids through the age old language of "isn't this a cool rock?"
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| the cone has a crown! |
Which eventually evolved into "let's see how many rocks we can pile on the foreigners."
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| The end result was a lot more than that. |
There was some Korean drumming and dancing!
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| story about a man and his cow |
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| this kid did not want to be friends with the quail. |
Eventually, we went over to Nara park, as my friend had never seen the Nara deer.
As it was Golden week, it was REALLY crowded
Now, in Nara, there are lots of sacred deer. And you're not supposed to feed them normal food, just these little deer cakes you can buy there. But as it was golden week, and lots of people were visiting, they were SO FULL, they were just lying there, docile.
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| sometimes one would get up |
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| not really begging for food. |
People would come up to them with the deer cakes and they'd sniff at them and turn their heads. They'd be mildly interested in contraband, but...no, no more deer cakes. :)
We saw the big Buddha,
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| No, THAT'S a building |
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| THAT'S the Buddha |
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| He really is tall. It's hard to tell. |
And there was the pillar with the hole through it.
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| saw when I went to Nara with David. |
The legend is, if you can fit through the hole, you are guaranteed a spot in heaven. When I saw it last time, I figured, why not? I'll try.
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| that's a kid there. |
Well, I kinda wedged myself in, and David offered to haul me through, and I thought "I bet I COULD make it through this, especially with David pulling. But what if I'm wrong? What if my hips get stuck? Can you imagine the Headlines?!"
I didn't even try this time, the line was too long, and I'm really sure I couldn't get through.
We enjoyed the festival type atmosphere, and the beautiful weather and area
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| a ship! |
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| flavored ice! |
And as it was a really sunny day, we kept applying sun screen, but still got a little red. Can imagine what we woulda looked like WITHOUT the sunscreen!
Thursday was an adult day. You know, grocery shopping, cleaning, chores, cooking. I did a really bad job at it all. :P
Friday was raining, and no one wanted to be at school. no one. Not the principal, the teachers, the students, nor me.
Saturday did much better. I took the day off as a "personal time" day and was much better at being an adult then Thursday. Entertaining thing from that was the different kinds of cheetos I saw. :)
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| yum |
And now I have no vacation time until July 18. wheee.
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