1.5

Today I have about a week and a half to summarize, so this post is probably going to be long.

On Saturday 7th, Konoura Jr. High had its school festival. I went in to school shortly before 8.30am like on any workday and ended up judging posters before the festival started at 9am. For most of the day I was in the nearly pitch-black hall watching many performances. There were speeches and presentations, and I actually managed to understand some of them this year. I had to judge the class chorus competition, which was difficult. There was a play about chickens (?) and of course the cross-dressing fashion show. What’s really funny is that because the girls mostly have short hair, they just look like normal boys, and because the boys are so young when wearing ribbons in their hair they just look like normal girls. Anyway, the festival finished and I helped clean up the school before heading home to get an early night.

On Sunday 8th I got up shortly after 4am in the morning, got picked up just before five, went to Kisakata and got on a charter bus to Sendai. My yosakoi team performed at a big festival there, but because staying in Sendai costs quite a bit in hotel money, my team decided to go and come back on the same day. We got to Sendai about 9am, left our stuff on the bus and set out in our costumes with only a small purse each. We performed in various parks around the city, using the subway to travel between them. The weather was very strange: sunny and showery, at the same time so there were a lot of rainbows all day. It was also very windy. We did four stage performances (one of which was right in front of Sendai Station) before heading to the centre of the shopping district to do two parade dances. We didn’t dance on Oomachi, but the next biggest pedestrian road, the one that is still under cover. I can never remember its name, but it is the street with the expensive shops on it. We started from outside the Louis Vuitton store. We finished dancing shortly before 6pm, and by 7.05 we were back in the bus on our way home. I got home at 11.30pm and crashed.

The next day was a public holiday. Miwa picked me up from Konoura Max Valu (supermarket) and took Saya and myself to Akita International University to look at a Halloween festival. Miwa and I went in costume, and we constructed a partial costume for Saya out of a pair of devil horns and a Korean toy that was in Miwa’s car. When we got there we found that the only people who were in costumes were the university students who were running the stalls. Oh well. First we went to look at the food stalls. They had all sorts of food there. Saya wanted to see the Indian curry store because the posters had taken her fancy. She took a picture of the guy who drew the posters, and asked for a signed copy. So embarrassing. Saya told them she was Canadian. Miwa was wearing a traditional Korean costume, so she was telling people she was Korean. And because it is an International University, everyone believed them.

I ate a Korean something and some little pancake things called dorayaki. Then we went inside to look at some more stalls. We found a fair trade coffee shop. I had a chamomile tea that, because it was fresh actually worked and I started to go to sleep right there. Then we found a massage parlor where students were giving hand, face and shoulder massages. I had a shoulder massage for only 150 yen, and I got a free cup of tea too. Saya told the girls giving the massages that she is Canadian, and they believed her too. “Wow, your Japanese is so good!” they said.

Because so few people were wearing costumes, the newspaper journalist covering the event was hunting us. Or rather Miwa. It was hot so I took off my cape-thingie and didn’t look like I was wearing a costume. Miwa’s costume was eye-catching and even though she ducked and dodged the camera whenever she saw it, a picture of Miwa and Saya ended up in the paper the next day. I was behind Saya so only my arm was visible.

When we got bored of the festival, we went to Aeon Plaza which is not far from the University campus. We had an early dinner and then I went to Kaldi Coffee, which is a shop that sells coffee beans and lots of foreign food. I bought my standard feta, blue cheese and edam, and two bags of muesli. We also got puri kura taken, although now I think about it, I can’t remember where I put mine . . .

Last Tuesday I went to Kamagadai like normal, but in the afternoon I went to Kamihama Elementary to watch and English class performed by John (the Kisakata ALT) and then to participate in a lengthy and boring meeting about English in Elementary schools. Yay.

On Thursday I had a day off because everyone at Konoura Jr High had a day in lieu off last Tuesday when I went to Kamagadai. The reason for the day off was the school festival on the previous Saturday. Anyway, I went nowhere on Thursday but Max Valu. I cleaned, I uploaded stock photos to DeviantART and I read an entire Discworld book.

On Saturday I traveled all over Nikaho City taking pictures for an ALT photo treasure hunt competition that I entered. I had from between 8.30am and 5.30pm to take as many pictures of the list I was e-mailed that morning, and then send them to the person running the competition. Toshi picked me up at 9.30 and we went to Nikaho Max Valu to take pictures there. I had to wear an arm band showing everyone I had permission to take the pictures. We picked up Atsuko and ran around taking the rest of the pictures. I might post them here separately later, with explanations.

After I had finished sending the pictures, we three made dinner at Atsuko’s house. We do that from time to time because it is better to eat with company. Toshi spent all night until 5am on Atsuko’s Playstation, so it was as if he wasn’t there. If we talked to him, he wouldn’t answer. I slept on a futon in Atsuko’s living room. In the morning Toshi played the Playstation again, so I had to wait for him to finish before he would take me home. I got home at 1.30, had a shower and a nap before going back to Atsuko’s house again for dinner. We ate shabu-shabu, and then Miwa came over with a home-made pizza. I got home last night after 11.30. I feel very tired today, and it is only Monday.