Festivals, and Day Outings, and Disney! Oh My!

 Hey everybody! So, I apologize in advance but this post is going to be kind of sloppily written because I am writing quickly since I want to catch all of you up on my past two weeks, so I can move on to SCHOOL, which started three days ago. I'm so behind...

Alright, first let me start off with the summer festivals! So, my host dad's "thing" (I guess it's a hobby, I don't really know what to call it) is organizing festivals. I'm not sure if that's just restricted to summer, but I guess I'll find out as the year goes by. And I don't mean a little block-party-let's-invite-all-the-neighbors-and-wear-our-yukatas-type festival, I mean a legitimate festival, with booths and traditional food and entertainment. Did I mention they're very popular? There were so many people! (He organized two festivals, by the way). Now let me fill you in on some of the highlights:

During the first one, there was this big, tall platform in the middle of the area, where there were these women dancing in a circle. And below them, on the ground, many of the festival-goers were doing the same. I think it's kind of like Japanese line-dancing. Anyway, I was watching them when one of my host dad's drunk friends ambled over and invited me to come dance! So I said yes, and it was actually a lot of fun! This really nice lady next to me showed me the basic movements, and it was pretty easy to catch on to the rest. And of course, proud old Papa-san stood in the middle of the circle and took pictures the whole time!

Oh, and there was some pretty sweet taiko playing

Of course, I had to don my festive headband before I could do any REAL Japanese dancing!

For the second festival, I got to wear a yukata! For those of you that are unfamiliar the term, a yukata is like a kimono, only it's much simpler and, um, lighter? I guess? I suggest google if you're really curious. Now it may look all free and flowy, but those things are the Japanese equivalent of corsets. They are tight! And to make things worse, they add these awful wooden shoes that pinch your feet and are so small that your heel falls of the end. But I still had fun dressing up like a Japanese person!

Me and my host niece were matching :)

geta, japanese for "feet torturers"

Oh, and at the festival, we got to fish for water balloons! I sucked, but it was really addicting!

The next day (or maybe it was the day after that...) a friend of a friend from Boston who lives in Japan (although he also goes to school in Massachusetts) came by to take me to this big summer festival in Japan called Azabu-Juban Matsuri. It's basically like this super famous festival in Japan that attracts a lot of people because of the food and culture/entertaiment booths. For (a little) more info click here. However, this year, for some reason, there wasn't really much to do there. So instead, I got a tour of the cool hangout places in Tokyo, plus a walk through Azabu-Juban Matsuri! It was really nice, the guy was really sweet (forgot to ask if I could mention him in this blog...), and I discovered some really interesting parts of Tokyo! I think we went to Shibuya, which is a great place for shopping, but really crowded, Roppongi, and some other place with a long name that I forgot (that happens to me alot, I should start writing these things down...).

 Modern art in Shibuya

So crowded!

So the tradition of cucumbers on a stick came about when there was a drought in Japan, long ago, and people ate cucumbers instead because they were water-y? and refreshing.

More modern art in Roppongi

Then, that night, my host parents and I went on a little dinner cruiseboat on the river that goes through Tokyo. It was pretty relaxing and I got some nice views of the city as a whole.

A day or two later, I got to go with my mom to her taiko (a kind of Japanese drum) class. I was really excited when at the beginning, they handed me some drum sticks and I got to bang away with the rest of the class. Then ten minutes passed, and my sticks were promptly taken from my hands, and I was sent to sit in the corner and watch for the next one hour and fifty minutes. And I thought I was doing well...Hmph.

Host Mama drumming away!

Some time after that, the sister of the friend that took me around Tokyo came by and took me out to dinner in Harajuku! We had gyoza and it was sooooo good. She goes to college in Tokyo, so it was nice to have connections with someone who lives close by and knows the city well. And a few days later, the rest of the family took me out for a fancy lunch at this teppanyaki restaurant and then to an amusement/waterpark afterwards! Did I mention how lucky I am to have been put in touch with this family! I feel so blessed! Thank you Kato family!!!!

Also during these two weeks, my host mother took me and four of her grandkids to the aquarium. It was really nice, because I get pretty bored in museum-like places, but the kids, including a 4 and 6 year old, had about the same attention span as me, so I did not get bored this time. And we saw a seal show! I love seals. They're so cute!

Also, there jellyfish exhibit was considerably better than the New England aquarium's. Just saying. It was pretty darn cool.

Thought I would share this picture of an ad for a kid's show that I saw in the subway. I think this was one of my first experiences with culture shock, since, in Japan, there is nothing wrong with this image...

 Oh, and I forgot to mention that the youngest of the grandchildren, Kosei, was half Canadian, so he could just switch from Japanese to English whenever he felt like it! It was like this magic switch in his brain that he just flipped, like, whenever! It was amazing, but it also made me very jealous that I cannot do the same...

And finally, the highlight of my last two weeks of vacation: TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!!
It. was. amazing. We got there kind of late, around 11:30, so there weren't really any fastpasses left, but it didn't matter because it was pouring rain until about 12, so there was like half the crowd! None of the waits were more than 50 minutes, even for Space Mountain. Also, I got to go on all the rollercoasters I wanted because my 19-year old host cousin also came along (Oh, I didn't mention that our group was me, my host sister, two of my host nieces, and my host cousin), meaning, along with H-sis, roller-coaster riders made up the majority. And the majority always rules. I did feel bad, though, because my 12-year old host niece hates rollercoasters, so she was alone a lot, but she brought along this giant disney bucket with her, that can be filled with popcorn sold around the park, which she ate quite a large amount of. On the other hand, my other host niece was the bravest 9-year old I had ever met. She went on nearly every ride with us, except Splash Mountain. Granted, my host sister and cousin, did literally drag her onto Space Mountain with us, and she was pretty much crying at the end, but I mean, she did it, and that's what counts right? I also got to see two parades, where I figured out where all the foreigners in Japan work- as Disney prince and princesses. That's going to be my job in the future, by the way. Overall, it was a pretty Disney-magical day! I want to go back soooo bad, and, of course, I still haven't been to Disney Sea...

Splash mountain! I think I went on all the mountains in Disney: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. But Space Mountain was definitely my favorite.

I took a ton more pictures then that, but since Blogger takes a really long time to upload photos, I must make do with just these. But if you want to see more, just check Facebook, or ask someone who's Facebook friends with me to see them.

Did I mention I tried soy sauce and butter flavored popcorn? Yup, I'm definitely in Japan.

Oh! And one more thing I forgot to mention. My host family put me in traditional Japanese dance classes. The kind of dance is called Nihon buyou (Nihon being the Japanese way of saying "Japan") and I love it! I feel like a geisha girl, haha. I even have to wear a yukata for class!

So that's about all the interesting events of my last weeks of vacation! I have to say, they were pretty exciting, and I can't wait until my next break, seeing as my weekends have been reduced to one and a half days. I'll try and get a post up about school by the end of this week, but there is also a large chance that I will get lazy and it will be up next week. We'll just have to see, shall we? So for now...

おやすみなさいみんなさん！


Oh, and by the way, thank you to everyone for all your comments and feedback! It really means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying reading about my year. Thanks again!