Week 46: You gotta Yukata!

WHAT a week I have had!  Fun, but oy VEY, busy.
So! Actually started Sunday night, there was a summer party, it was a "takoyaki/watermelon" party.

Takoyaki are little bread balls with, traditionally, bits of tako (octopus) in them.  Then you cover them in takoyaki sauce (it's like bbq sauce) and mayo.  And...Ok, it's not my favorite, mostly because I'm not a big fan of Octopus.  However, I have learned that when you make your own, you can throw in whatever you want.

like bits of hot dog.

My favorite was actually the Kim-chi and cheese ones.  Did NOT expect to like that combo. :)

Monday, I'll admit, nothing really happened.  That was nice.

Tuesday, I went to English class. I help out by being support. We talk about things, I am a second opinion on how to pronounce things and such.

They've been trying to figure out how to get people to hang out and chat afterwards.

Snacks. I think they hit on a winner.

We sat around and chatted for a while before I finally just got too tired and tried to go to bed early.  After which I woke up at 1 am to contemplate life for about 30 minutes....

Wednesday was pretty normal, and after school, there was a small friend gathering for dinner! (of course I showed up late, but the person who arranged it was even later. :P
We made Gyoza and played with the baby.

My practice in China paid off!

That is not the baby's mom. But they are both cute.

Well, I got to torment the baby.  She does NOT like tummy time, and of course her mom is a new mom, so when she starts crying she wants to pick her up.  But there I was "c'mon! you're doing great!  Just one more minute of tummy time and I'll let you up."  :)  And then I confused her by picking her up and singing to her.

Thursday, I got my paycheck, and that's also when things got expensive.  Nothing big, you know, just...lots of medium things.  When you're trying to follow a strict budget, even a couple 10's here and there can throw things off a lot. :P  Gah.

It also rained.  Even through rainy season is "officially" over, it has not stopped raining. In fact, we got this AMAZING thunderstorm roll through Thursday.  It was after I was done teaching, I was standing in the hallway, and suddenly it got WAY darker.  I look out and there's this REALLY ominous cloud covering the sky.  I waited a little, and then all the sudden FSSSSSSSSHHHHH!
Furious pounding of rain just SWEPT in! Torrents of rain, playgound was suddenly a marsh, rumblings of thunder...  And then...GONE.  lasted 30 minutes.  10 minutes after that, I biked home.  What timing! :D

I'll say one thing, the plants love the weather

here's one trying to claim transportation.

Friday is when things got really interesting.  It was pouring in the morning, but by afternoon, it had cleared up, so I figured I'd stay in and do laundry. (It's harder to do when it's raining)  As I was doing this, one of my friends contacts me.  (we'll call her R)  She has lost her key, she is locked out of her apartment, she can't find it anywhere, it's dark, what is she going to do??!! (she also lives in a nearby town, not here)  I proposed a few ideas, but the basics is that she's illegally subletting from a friend who lives in Osaka.  And is currently visiting Singapore.  WELL! Not gonna help.  

So I suggested she bunk down for the night and try to think things through in the morning.  Stressed out in the dark is no way to solve problems.  She decided to come visit me, and I got the sharehouse to rent her a room for the night.  As she's on the way, she kept chatting with me to stay calm.

R: So..hypothetically, do you have any ideas on how to break into an apartment through a second story window?
Me: Well, is the window unlocked?
R: Yes.
Me:  That's easy, all you need is someone light enough to hoist up to it.
R: reeeeally?  Hm....
Me: That person is not me. I am not light enough.
R: Darn
Me: However, I miiiiiight know someone.

Thankfully I did. And she was up for an adventure!  So Saturday morning, we went to break into my friend's apartment!

intimidating

What we did was climb on the lower balcony first.

no one living here thankfully

And I crouched on the balcony, and she stood on my shoulders and used the height to bounce off stuff to climb up!  Less than 5 minutes total!

I was very impressed.

I didn't have time to take pictures during, as I was part of the ladder.

We got some really odd looks from the Post man, and no one called the cops.  We figure that one reason no one called the cops is, as suspicious as we looked, we were not ACTING suspicious.  There was no one keeping lookout, we didn't hide, we just went "huh. Ok, let's do it"

That and "crazy gaijin" IS a thing.

That afternoon, we went to a festival, and we wore Yukata!  That's right, I put on traditional clothes again, and THIS time, I OWN them.

The only problem with that being, of course, putting the darn things ON.  It is much more involved than I thought before I came to Japan.

it's a process

The Obi, or wide belt, is the hard part, and we watched youtube tutorials and spent a good while swearing at the them.

how ELSE you gonna hold it in place?

We finally got them together!

I think the rabbit ears really pull it together.

butt bow! I tied that!

And we gathered with the others

what a conglomerate!

And off we went! To the Gion festival in Kyoto!

wow.

I will say, this was not my favorite festival.  It was very crowded, which means that when they had performances. (really cool ones, too) we couldn't SEE THEM.

You see the problem?

We saw and heard stuff, but it was hard to see, and even more difficult to take pictures of.

the one decent picture I got that night.

There were a few things with smaller crowds, but that's mostly because they were less impressive. :P

 This guy was cool though.

And there was a kitsune guy

just standing around for photos

And we went up to see the shrine

I did mention this is crowded, right?

And got festival food

food booths at EVERY festival.

And saw some sort of story/dance show. Of which I couldn't get a decent picture, or even see that well.  What I COULD see was pretty cool, but...  ::sigh:: it was very frustrating.  

After that, we walked the quieter paths of the festival.

this is someone else's camera. 

mine does not like night shots.

And it was pretty and quiet.

We finally fought our way BACK through the crowds and headed home.

So there it is, my week!  Pretty crazy, right? Thank heavens for the 3 day weekend!

And I never want to wear traditional Japanese sandals again. (geta) because my feet HURT.