yesterday afternoon was the long-awaited annual English-Club party hosted by the fabulous Fumiko! This party was to involve a BBQ, American drinks, and english word games forboth the kids and adults. Ebun, Hayato and I were in charge of games.

The party started at 2, and we were to turn up around 10 to start preperations. I thought this was a bit silly at first, but it turned out to be a good call, we had a lot to do! Luckily we’d prepared the games already, last thursday night. I was in charge of Balloons for the morning, and decorated the garden with them. (Only a few didn’t survive, but I did hang them up next to a thorn bush.. oops).
We had an early lunch of deliiicious curry and rice, and watermelon for afters, then we were to start preparing the food for the BBQ. There was a LOT of food. I mean, a binbag full of aubergenes, a binbag full of peppers, a box of leeks, a box of scallops and squid (yeah). And so forth. My job was washing vegetables for Hiroko and Motoko to chop, haha, I took some photos to demonstrate how mnay there were;

Weird long thin eggplants called “Nasu”

“Piman”

yum yum. Vegetabubbles.

OH, and the customary Drinks Photo;

That is an ice-water bucket full of cans of root beer and cherry cola. CHERRY COLA.
Grahame and I took a few moments to lament the lack of Irn Bru.

Now, I had heard legend and song about Fumiko’s amazing house. And I can tell you, it’s all true, the house is gorgeous! Even though this was an English Club party, there was to be Tea Ceremony, and a Koto demonstration in the tatami room at the back of the house (near the garden, a very nice set up :))
You know your house is impressive when there’s seperate mens and woments toilets…

Also, Julia had her own house in a seperate section of the garden. Whats the big deal right? Most dogs have a dog-house in the garden right?

That’s Julia in her house. She’s so cute and so soft. I love Julia :p

I learned that Motoko is a licenced Master of tea Ceremony (or something to that effect). Isn’t that awesome?!
here are some photos of the tatami room of Fumiko’s house;

You can see the set up for the tea ceremony there and in the back is the household shrine for departed family members, there were photos of Fumiko’s grandparents and older brother at the shrine, and incense.
Most family shrines are much smaller than this.

In this room we helped set up the koto for the demonstration;

They’re very large, but surprisingly light.

Blurry, sorry, but here are two women playing the Koto.

And afterwards, we were alowed to try playing them ourselves!

The english word games we’d prepared went down well,

Kids game!

Adults game! (from left to right, Hayato, Kunohe’s official Photographer, Tomoka, Anna, Fumiko and Hiroko)

After all that, it was BBQ time. Squid, scallops and vegetables on the grill!
So delicious.

It was a long and exausting day, and so much fun.
There was one incident in which a lady fell on the stone steps and had to go get stiches in her knee, but we were assured later that she will be okay. Apart from that everything went smoothly.

I hope whoever is here for the party next year has as much fun as we did this year

Way back when I first arrived, I took some photos of my new place with the intention of posting them here on Sanguiscity.com to show the world what my new house looked like. (or to show people what rural japanese accomodation is like, whichever way sounds most interesting!).
But the photos were bleak, my house had no furniture, all my things were on the floor;

No shelves in that cupoard. No pillow. The bus and recycling scedule on the floor in the corner there.

The floor is just like a really big desk.. right? right?! Oh, and that TV doesn’t work.

Anyway, this is what the place looked like for the first month. But then, I got paid! I bought a table from Fumiko-san’s shop. And some kindly friends from Kuji knew a guy who had left and had left spare shelves and stuff fot the use of a new person! With these things, my new place is starting to look a little better;

My fabulous kotatsu. There’s a pillow on the bed! And there’s shelves in the cupboard holding my books.

The broken TV is still there, but it’s a bedside table now. My notices are up on the wall! And there’s more shelves (you can never have too many shelves).

The other room (through the screen doors there…) is the Kitchen;

My little gas burner and sink and cupboards combo.. there’s a small bathroom and toilet room  just off to the side aswell.
and that’s the whole set up. It’s small, but it’s more than enough for just me!

Obon’s epic festival that consumed Kunohe for three days is finally over. I am sad, because it was the most wonderful experience. And I am glad, because any more of that and I would fade away and turn into very sleepy dust.

Day 1;

The parade!
There goes tengu.. on his way to the starting point of the parade.

here they come…








(masaki’s friend, Yachi is in that tiger costume!)

led by a dancing fox..

agh! He saw me..
and there they go…

Next, the floats!





everybody, PULL!
ganbatte…

After this, there was slushie-ice, yakisoba, and fireworks! Really, beautiful fireworks.

Day 2;
Possibly one of the best things I have ever done, I did yesterday. Last week at the kimono class, I was pretty sure I was told to be at the town hall at 5pm. I wasn’t sure why, but then people kept asking me if I was going to dance. So I thought, that must be where the dance starts off! Sure, festival dancing I can do.
Oh no, it was so much better than that.
The kimono club were there, and were getting into Yukata. And sensei had very kindly brought a spare, for me! I got to wear this beautiful yukata, and thenw e were going to dance. I was breifly given a run down of the dance steps… it was far more complicated than the festival dance we did on friday.
And we were starting from the other side of town, so Yabichi-san and I went ahead to the starting place, to meet the other dancers and make it known that our group was here.
When you walk down the centre of the main road of a small town on a festival day ina yukata, everybody looks. And all the old folks know each other, so every house we passed and everyone we met we had to stop and bow and promise to do out best! It was really, really wonderful.
The starting place was packed. This was a bigger dance than the festival dance I saw on friday. In fact, this was another parade.
And we danced, more than a hundred of us, in threes, down the main road of Kunohe for almost an hour.
And it was magical.


Just before setting off for the starting point, Sakanoue-san took these photos for me.

Day 3;
This evening, it was raining. But the parade has to go back up the town, in the oposite direction from the first day! And this time, I was helping out.
Masaki loaned me a matsuri jacket, and we went to pull the floats along the road! It was hard work, and its a hot day. But it was so worth it for this experience!

waiting in the rain..

Masaki and I, after pulling the floats.

Sakanoue-san in his traditional clothes! he pulled a pose too late, so this photo will have to do :p

And a delicious dinner for the workers. I ate this.. and a second plate of soup. Then we went to Masaki’s cousin’s food stand for yakitori… then I had a chocolate-coated bannana and a slushie.
masaki called me a monster XD for eating so much.
But then said “it’s okay, I’m a monster too!” and got even more food. I’m not as hardcore a monster as masaki.
And now I’m at home again, and it’s all over.
I want to rememebr this forever!

In japan, turning 20 is a big step, and you are officially considered an adult. Every year there is a ceremony for all the people who turned 20 in the last year.
In Kunohe, this ceremony was yesterday morning and grahame and I were enlisted to help out by signing in people as they arrived. The ceremony started at 9, and we opened the reception desk at 7.30am. And it was busy.
Kids of families have all come home for Obon, so there were many new 20 year olds at the ceremony!
Guys mostly wore suits, there was one guy who was wearing traditional japanese mens clothes. I hope he didn’t feel too out of place, he looked fantastic!
Most of the girls wore Kimono, there were one or two in prom dresses though. The Kimono were amazing, I have honestly never seen clothing so amazingly beautiful before. And I know they come with an appropriate price to match all the work and effort that goes into them.

Old friends chatting before the ceremony begins.

All the girls had their hair curled and in comlicated styles with the appropriate accessories in it to go with the Kimono.

3 girls, the guy in traditional clothes and a guy in a suit make a speech.
I listened really carefully, but I couldn’t catch most of it.

Beautiful Kimono!

Kimono are usually made to order, and hand painted.

On Friday morningt I got an email from masaki saying there was a mini-matsuri that night, he was going with some friends, and did I want to go?

YEEAAH. The big festivals aren’t untill next week, but this was so much fun! Now, my phone camera isn’t the best ever but I got some videos to share.

some music, and dancing, to get you in the Matsuri mood!

one of the guys I work with is actually in this dance group. I had no idea! He’s very quiet at work.

dokoissho dokoissho SOURAN SOURAAN.. I’ve had this stuck in my head ever since. And now you can too :p

Matsuri seem to be mostly at night, so there wasn’t many photo opportunities for my poor struggling camphone, but it did it’s best;

people and lanterns!

A pikachu sitting on one of the food stalls!

and it wouldn’t be an SC post without a Weird Drink. This doesn’t look so weird, it’s just milk tea in a can. But the can was HOT. Hot tea in a hot can, from a vending machine that somehow sold both hot and cold cans. The mind boggles!

yesterday was a hot, hot sunny day, and I was working an afternoon shift. There are no busses between 10am and 2.30 pm, for reasons I don’t care to look into, so I decided to walk!
I took my umbrella for use a parasol, a very japanese thing to do, I know! But I honestly might have fainted if not for my umbrella. I left with 40 mins to spare so I could take my time, and I wandered slowly around Kunohe roughly in the direction of the swimming pool.
There was a slight breeze every so often, and I had my umbrellasol, and Kunohe really is just beautful. There’s mountains and trees and farms and gardens.. and not much else!

Some gardens in kunohe are more interesting that others though, some people get artistic with their gardening! Here we have trees shaped like birds;

This garden is about 5 minutes away from me. I see it pretty much every day.

And next is the Panda Tree! This one is a little more out of my way, but I had time anhave been meaning to take a photo of it for ages;

I love panda tree!

Soon, I had to head towards work for real, and on the way I stopped a vending machine for Something Mysterious and New;

“Mikkusu Nekuta-” or Mixed nectar.. is peach juice! and it was delicious.

This week I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out in Kuji with Dana, and I met Liz and Yasu. There was a surprise birthday party for Li, and a small festival going on! We attempted the dance at the festival, but it was very difficult. Still, it’ll make good practice for next week when Kunohe’s summer festival will be!
I even went to a Kimono club to learn how to put on a yukata. Not that I have a yukata, but it’s still a lot of fun to do, and a good thing to know! Also, they are surprisingly comfortale and flattering, I felt so pretty! I’ll be sure to get photos of the matsuri next week.

I’ve been pretty rubbish about taking photos this week, but I still have some random pictures of interesting things from the last little while that I haven’t put up, so here they are!

First, just over a week ago now, I got a mystery parcel!

“What a strange shape for a parcel” thought I. I wonder what Will would be sending me in Japan?

:o!!!

OMFG YAY. Again, major thanks for these!! They’re perfect with grape fanta.. shame you can’t get both in one country.

The original plan was to pace, and eat them slowly, make them last. But in the end I went with fully enjoying them all in a short space of happy days.

During this week, on one of my short jaunts around Kunohe’s semi-wilderness I happened across this tiny little shop that was actually just someone’s front room converted into a shop. (I have since seen a lot of these in Kunohe actually). I had a good look around for interesting things and of course, was not dissapointed. I saw a box with the One Peice logo on it and had to look inside..

One peice 10th anniversary melon soda!! From a box in the back of a small shop in kunohe… how random! And it was gooood. So good in fact, I went back for more. But there wasn’t any.. instead there was this;

One peice 10th anniverarry Iced Coffee! With a really distracting skeleton playing a fiddle on it.
(I don’t know the characters name, sorry! I don’t watch One peice.. these were for the kicks of many friends who do :))

Today, I’m udating the site a little bit. A link to Dana’s blog will be added under the “wonderful people” secion on the right there, and I wand to add some info to my About Me section at the top on the right.
Also, I’m gonna go through the previous posts and add some pictures I just got off my keitai So if you’re interested, look back! If not… I totally undertand :p

On sunday morning we got up early, our hostel was in Asakusa right next to the shrine;

There’s Dana modeling the shrine! :p

we got our group together and headed out to odaiba for the day to see all the things there is to see on Odaiba;

Gundam-san with his eyes lit up! He made a little speech shortly after this…

and this is for all my fellow Pokemon-ites ;D It made me giggle out loud..

And here, the impressive fountain INSIDE the venus fort shopping centre.. yeah. The whole building was done up inside to look like a beautiful outdoor shopping street.
Oh, and there were Purikura machines in here

PURIKURAAAA

~~Next, bonus photos :p ~~

This one is from Disney, I’m not sure why I decided not to post it yesterday. There was no Alice area in disney Sea but this sue looks like the cheshire cat made his appearance anyway! I <3 you Cheshire Cat!

And here’s the bear I bought;

So.. cuute. I’ve been calling him “B”, short for “bear”.. some of you may notice this nickname is similar to “B” short for “bryan”.. I like this nickname. And B-short-for-bear takes up less bed space (but isn’t as good at hugs..).

I also had a photo of a drink i tried today,

“strawberry milk” mmm! Sounds good, right? Oh no.. no no no. It was strawberry milk, yes, but there was milk flavoured CHUNKS in it too. Blergh.

Tokyo, Disney Sea! Yes, it deffinately IS the genki-est place on earth. And I loooove it! This weekend 11 of us Iwate folks took the night-bus down to tokyo for a saturday at Disney and Sunday in tokyo. The bus there was a giggle, the seats could lean back, had foot rests… and bizarre little hoods on the top to pull down over your head for sleeping. They looked a lot like hairdresing equipment and as such were comical on the men. Since it was the night bus, i’m sad to report that it was too dark for my poor little phone camera to take a photo of.

Still, for a bus journey, I slept very well and soon enough it was 8am and we were in tokyo, racketing about. I stared out the window trying to soak in as much City Essence as possible. I like this country-life thing, but I’m a city girl at heart. And after a while of that, we reached the Disney Carpark.
We trooped out to the monorail, stopping breifly to ask The Happiest Policeman Ever for some directions to the station. The monorail train was Mickey themed.

we got to the gates and stopped to put things in lockers and get changed ans such in the bathrooms.

I chose locker number 4242.. just incase the number is lucky or something since Mum always chooses 42.

AAAND, Disney Sea;

Haha, you can see Lauren, pete and Dana in the corner there…
THE GLOBE, was mighty impressive, there were shops and a hotel here in the entranceway.

Then through the castle gate, where we could see The Volcano, hear some very energetic music and you can just see the outline of the fox from Pinnochio under the arch there…
Through there was the lake, and a Very Genki Lady in a bright costume dancing like crazy to super upbeat japanese disney music. It was hillarious! There were boats on the lake too with Mickey and chip and dale on them… all of these people were carrying hoses and getting the crowd splashed/ soaked depending on where they were dancing!
Well.. I guess Disney SEA should be watery? It was a very hot day, so Laura, Dana, jar and I attempted copying the dance Jar and I bailed out after a bit though, too soggy! Dana and Lauren got soaked.

Our first port of call was to grab some breakfast, while Dan and Tyler kindly went to get us some fast-passes. because they’re awesome like that.. and we’d been on a bus all night.
We got dinner in the New York area, and then made our way to The Tower of Terror! Okay, the voodoo doll that supposedly cursed the tower was genuinely scary, and the ride was fun.
So we were geared up for more! And walked accross the bridge to the Indiana Jones area;

This area was impressive, you’d never know you were in japan let alone Chiba. There were torches with flames and all, which was really cool but it was already a scorching hot day so being near the torches was always kind of uncomfortable. However, there were random Cool Mist stations around the park that spew out cold mist to stand in! The one near here was in a hedge, there was a purple flower that spewed out cold mist.

Right next to the Indiana Jones ride was a runaway-train ride called Raging Spirits.. it had a small 360 loop and this impressive setting outside;

yeah, that is fire on a waterfall… Any ideas how that was done?
We grabbed a fast pass for those two on our way past and carried on to the Journey To The Centre of the Earth.

Fast Pass! I was a little dissapointed that the staff take the tickets off you when you get on the ride, I mean, I know they have to so you don’t use it again.. but I wanted to keep them for my scrapbook. haha. Oh well! I took a photo instead.

Possibly my favourite setting, The Journey To The centre of the Earth! This ride went up inside the volcano and you come out of the volcano.. from the gate we could see other cars coming out of the volcano and smoke comes from it when the train goes through. It was really fun.

And in the same area, just round the lake, is the spiral-y entrance to 2000Leagues Under The Sea. That was was pretty cool too!

After all that excitement we stopped for Lunch in the Venice area, I had mozzarella and tomato salad, it was sunny, we sat outside.. and I admit I felt a little sad, because it felt like so many family holidays from before at that point. It didn’t feel like japan, and I was a bit sad that I wasn’t sharing the experience with Bry or the family.
Still, a glass of grape juice, a round of singing disney songs with Dana and we were off to the Alladin zone, via Ariel’s mermaid grotto.

ariel on the rock outside her underwater-theme castle.

This is a close second on my favourite settings, it was really pretty. Inside was cool too! Even though it was the zone for younger kids, it was all that wavy colourfull style. but it was too dark to get a good photo of
This one s the best I got..

We went to the shop in this area to find souvenirs for the people we needed to get souvenirs for, and made Jar try on various amusing hats.

And the Alladin zone was right round the corner from here. I love that about disneyland, you don’t have to go far to be in an area with a completely different vibe. You’d think they’d all mash together into one big Disney-themed place, but they don’t. every area feel like a different place.

Alladin and Sinbad shared this themed area which is cool. We even got to meet alladin and Jasmine :p there was much excitement from our group because they weren’t japanese, looked appropriately arabian and were infact speaking english! And jasmine was so beautiful, I always feel gross by comparison to the disney princessess!

More souvenir shopping, and we also got our photo taken sitting on a prop-camel! I don’t have this photo yet.. it’ll be on the cameras of the others.

If I could have guaranteed it’s safety, I would have bought one of these! GENIE TEA. (sounds like G’n'T.. get it?)

So we’d wandered all the areas of Disney Sea, and it was time to put our Fast passes to use! So we wandered back to the jungle area with Indiana Jones and raging spitits and took on those two! The Indiana jones ride was my favourite, it was really good! And the good company mad eit all the more hillarious.

Raging Spirits was good, but by and large it was very tame for a rollercoaster. But there was some interesting effects when the train goes past fire,so you feel really hot for a second. Then through a cloud of Cold Mist so you get cold! then the loop, which was actually weirdly small. Still good fun, thought I’m glad we had the fast-pass because I wouldn’t have waited in the regular line for it.

It was starting to get gloomy, so we wandered back to the New York area for final gift-buying and to find a place to sit for the show on the lake. we found a good spot then broke off to get food, or souveniers or drinks and such. I got a hotdog for dinner, and a teddy-purse as a souvenir for myself. You see, all day Lauren and I had been wondering where these bears had been coming from that everyone was carrying. They were lovely, and a mystery! But Dan knew where they were and pointed us to the shop in the New York section to see them. The mystery was solved. I bought the teddy-purse because it’s cute, because it’s functional and because it’s the perfect souvenir for such a good day and proves that we solved a mystery we’d been thinking about all day!

The show on the lake was amazing. there were coloured water jets, fireworks and light beams in the sky. There was this huge angel-shaped fountain of water, and fireworks and actuall fire came from the volcano.
The a huge mechanical phoenix/dragon with lights for eyes and fire fir feathers ROSE OUT OF THE LAKE.

and sang with the angel-fountain thing and it was all very impressive.

And murder for my feeble little camera… but I did my best;

There he is… and the fire, again, on the surface of the lake. I kept thinking about how that big dragon must have been under the lake all day.. we would never have known. oh the secrets of Disney :p! haha.

After that spectacle we went to do some last-minute rides. namely, indiana jones again, and the tower of terror again! The tower was really something at night, when the windows open up to show you the whole park before you drop, it was really amazing lit up in the dark.
but now, It was after 10pm.. and we had to get our butts back to tokyo centre to find our hostels and sleep.

The globe, lit up in the dark.

I love disney sea, I know I’ll go back.. and I can’t wait!!