Festival Videos

More Festival Photos

Glad I gave my camera to my friend, he really shot some great pictures!

Taiko Dai Matsuri!

What a Saturday! Every year, Niihama holds a huge festival celebrating autumn, called the taiko dai festival. Each of the 55 neighborhoods in Niihama has a giant float, each weighing around 3 metric (that's right, metric) tons, and costing around 200,000 dollars. Ten men ride the float, four on the top, four on the legs to give directions, and two inside that beat a huge taiko drum. Each of these floats are carried by teams of 150 men around the city to different fairgrounds. Because I have some awesome friends here in Japan, I got a chance to participate at the biggest event of the festival.

Got to the staging area at around 10:30, and waited around for everyone to show up. Once our team all gathered with the float, everyone ate together. There was an entire pickup truck devoted to beer, I presume to make sure no one got dehydrated. We all had on jackets called hapi, which were bright yellow to represent our district. After eating and drinking for about an hour, I listened to some instructions from the main organizer for our group, none of which I understood. I grabbed a spot on the logs supporting our float, and off we went. We had to walk the float about 4 kms to the main area. Thankfully all we had to do was push it, there were wheels mounted on the bottom. Still, it takes a lot of force to move a 3 ton object. Every once in a while we would shake the thing, and lift it to show off the strength of our group. Usually happened when we were passing another team's float. The whole way we chanted, "Sodya, sodya." I'm told it actually has no meaning, just something to get the spirits up.

After about an hour of push and go, we finally entered into the main fairgrounds. Huge crowds, both in the stands and on the festival floor. There were about twenty of the floats in our area, each with its own crew of 150+ people. We put our float in line with the others, then we removed the wheels off the bottom, as well as removed some of the side panels, and filled it to the brim with balloons. Then 6 or 7 floats at a time would be carried to the front of the grounds and lifted together, while the crowd roared. You couldn't hear anything but taiko drums and the whistles of the guys trying to direct us. Like I said, crazy. And damn, was this thing heavy, even with 150 people supporting the weight. When our turn came to parade, we must have carried it and lifted it for around 20 minutes, but it felt like 2 hours. At the end of each section, the top opened up, and all the balloons were released. Great fun. We brought it back into the line, and put the wheels back on. And that was the festival. I have absolutely no idea what was celebrated, or what the floats mean, but I'd do it again anyday. Definitely was the only foreigner participating, I think my friends must have pulled a few strings to get me in. Wonderful experience!

Ya-kun's Band

Here's a little snippet of Ya-kun's band. I don't know the name, since it was written in kanji, but these guys were great. Sorry the video is short, but if it was longer I wouldn't be able to upload it. The sound is bad, but it was a small stage, and the mic on my little camera couldn't really take the barrage of sound. Oh, and according to Ya-kun, we're now brothers. What that means, I have yet to see. Funny guy. Great guitar player.

Translation Fail.

Not sure if this is a bar, or the name of a person. Either way, I think it's hilarious. Ten yen if you can tell me the proper pronunciation.

Sugar Village #16 Live!

Monday night was pretty crazy. Azami took me to another show, but this one was very different from the night before. It was a jazz festival in Matsuyama, held in about 8 different bars scattered around the Okaido area. Every hour, the bands would switch out, so there was opportunity to hear a ton of different music. We stayed in the same bar, called Yah Man 33, for three hours. The first band was a bass, guitar, and drums combo that played some really groovy contemporary jazz. Haven't heard music like that in a while. Second band was called Taja, seven members strong. No drummer, but instead a metro 20-something who beat boxed the whole time. Kinda sounded like Christian music, but I couldn't tell because it was all in Japanese. Good stuff though, the main singer could really belt it out. The last band had played the night before, the main singer and guitar player goes by the name Ya-kun (think raccoon). The night before, when I was introduced to him, he said he played like Santana. Wasn't kidding. This guy could shred on the guitar! After that, Azami and I wandered over to another bar to catch our friend named Pon-chan's band. They're called the Brick Brothers. It's hard to tell from the picture I took, but they're actually a Blues Brothers cover band. Nothing funnier than seeing a fat Japanese guy in a suit dancing like a maniac while singing "Play that funky music, white boy." Crazy good, and crazy fun. We rounded off the night by going back to the first bar and doing tequila shots with Ya-kun and the whole Taja band. Really good stuff. Now that I know my way around, I'm definitely going to hit up these bars more to catch some fantastic music.

Side note: this last picture is of me with a cute bartender named Ar (pronounced Aru). Managed to get her number, only to call her today and realize that she speaks about as much English as I do Japanese! Makes trying to get a date somewhat difficult. I've really got to work harder at learning the language. Time to hit the books!

Totokin Day

Sorry, been busy, so I've fallen somewhat behind on my posts. Had a fun weekend, here's the first of a few posts about my exploits. On Sunday, Azami took Lisa and me to a tribute concert about ten minutes away from the apartment. Tribute is probably the wrong word. Basically, this guy Totokin is a friend of ours, and he is a pretty damn good drummer. It was his birthday a few days ago, but instead of throwing a party, he threw a concert where he played with about ten different bands through the course of the evening. Each band got to play two or three songs, and then they switched out with someone else. Guy had mad chops, probably played for about three hours straight! Every type of music you can think of, from screaming metal to contemporary jazz to soft lounge singing. Azami sang three songs! Because I can't turn off the flash on my camera without the picture getting really blurry, I couldn't take too many pictures, but here are the two I did manage to shoot. The first one is the sign of the place the concert was at, and the second is Azami hiding in a conga case. Fits the night pretty well, I think.

What?

Ok, this sign was on the door to the main campus health center, where I give one of my lessons. I have absolutely no idea what point is trying to be made by this poster. Maybe if you rub a cat on your face you won't get the flu. Or maybe if you dress your pet up in a cape. I don't know. Crazy Japanese...

Nobody Doesn't Like Eel!

Had my first unagi shop experience. For those who don't know, unagi is Japanese for fresh-water eel. There are entire restaurants dedicated to this animal. One of my lessons, Mrs. Kobayashi, wanted to take me to one of her usual spots, which was on the north side of the hospital. Per usual, I had no idea what the menu was saying, so she ordered for me. Above is a picture of what I got. Starting at the top left, I'll describe what each thing is. The first dish has some pickled cabbage and daikon, or radish. To the right is a cup of green tea, and next to that is some eel soaked in rice vinegar. The cup of soup on the top right is basically water with some sprouts, onions, and pig skin thrown in. Very light, but really tasty. On the bottom right is, you guessed it, a big bowl of rice. Next to that is some egg, with eel in the middle of it. And the main course, of course, was an entire grilled eel, basted in a sweet sauce. Delicious meal, I could eat eel every day if it weren't so expensive. Ran into a small problem though. You see in the main dish, the black piece on the top left. It's easy to tell in this picture that it's the head of the eel, but from my vantage point, I thought it was the tail. Yep, you guessed it, I ate it. You know, because the tail would probably be nothing but good meat. The pop of the eyeball in my mouth, and the crunching of my teeth upon the myriad of bones quickly alerted me that I had completely misidentified which end of the animal I was eating. But, because I'm so awesome, I chewed for a while and managed to swallow it down. Actually, it was because my student chose that moment to see if I liked what I was eating, so there was no way for me to spit out the head into a napkin. Oh well, next time I will be more careful to check for eyeballs before I put a piece of food into my mouth. Definitely have to go back to this place again for another great meal!

I Swear I Eat Right!

For those of you doubters, who think I don't get my daily nutrients, I thought I would post a picture of the excellent (if I do say so myself, which I do) dinner I made myself tonight. While appearing like a wet goulash, it was actually quite tasty. Beef, green beans, onions, chilies, and garlic all cooked together, layered on top of some mashed potatoes, which you can't see in this picture. So there, almost all the food groups conveniently located in one bowl. You can even see some green!

And yes, I know, more food, but seeing as how I have to work, and don't get to travel as much, most of my exploits, and consequently, my posts, deal with what goes into my stomach. But considering the great variety, I probably won't repeat myself ever. So at least there's that.

Yakiniku!

Alright, another great meal! This one is called yakiniku. It's a table grill, the restaurant provides all of the meat, and you get to cook it on your table. Most of the meat is from a cow, and it's every part you could want: liver, stomach, flank, tongue, etc. The first picture I posted is the grill, the second is the big meat plate, and the third is a picture of the cow tongue, which was seasoned, and then you dip it in lemon juice. Really good stuff, especially the stomach and the tongue of the cow. Stomach meat is pretty chewy, but it really soaks up the marinade. Everything is eaten with a big bowl of rice, and some tasty dipping sauce. The manager of the place seemed to like me, because he brought out four big cuts of some salt-rubbed steak for us to enjoy. I could definitely go back to a place like this. Oishii! (That means delicious.)

Side note: I love running into little kids over here, they do love to stare. I think I might be the first white person they've ever seen. Tonight, a little girl who must have been three kept peeking her head over our table and just stared at me the whole time I was eating. Didn't even glance at the other people who were with me. Occasionally she would be joined by her little brother, but no matter how many times I tried to smile and wave at them, they'd just keep staring at me. Half cute, half children-of-the-corn creepy. The best part is when they poke their parents and point at me. Must need some explanation. I'm still waiting for a little kid to throw food at me to eat, like throwing peanuts to the monkeys at the zoo. It's bound to happen, just a matter of time!

Another Night, Another Good Meal

Went out again last night with my friends Hiro, Satomi, and Risa. It was a little place close to the train stations, tucked away. I love how most of the best restaurants are completely unobtrusive, you would never be able to find them if you didn't know where to look. Tried some interesting dishes tonight, along with some old favorites. I thought I would include a picture of one of the menu boards to show why I always need someone to order for me when I go to these places. I really need to start learning how to read Japanese! The sashimi was great. Apparently, they spear the head and the spine together to show that the fish you're eating is fresh. I imagine the pike's head starts to smell pretty bad after just a few hours. A nice touch though. The last picture is a bowl of some of the tenderest squid I've ever eaten. Really delicious, I'll have to find out how to cook it! Bon appetite!

Supermarket, Oh My!

Thought I would post a little bit about my local supermarket, called Fujimart! Here's some pictures of some of the aisles, basically my goal is to try everything in there. A little difficult, since I can't read the labels, but you can see for yourself! And oh my ramen choices!

The LSAT Oddessy

What a whirlwind weekend! Finally getting back into my regular routine, certainly glad that the LSAT is over with, though it wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Of course, I won't get my score back for another three weeks, but I can afford to be optimistic for a little while. For those who don't know, here was the breakdown of my weekend.

7:30pm Friday- Got on the Iyotetsu bus bound for Tokyo. Much more comfortable than any other charter bus I've been on, there are only three seats per aisle, and you can recline about three times as much, which is a big help. Still, hard to sleep, and they don't let you get off and stretch your legs after the first rest stop, the other stops are only for the drivers, apparently. There was a bathroom on the bus, so I guess no biggy. They shut all the curtains, and it's pretty much pitch black in the cabin, which is really nice considering how many street lights they have on the highways here.

7:30am Saturday- Arrived at Shinjuku station in Tokyo. Got off of the bus and wandered around for a few hours, checking out the massive buildings they have all over the city. And I do mean massive buildings. The Shinjuku station itself is a huge sprawl of bus stops, train stops, taxi stops, subway stops, and metro stops. The whole thing takes up a city block, and has at least 6 underground levels for all the subways and malls. Yes, I said malls.

Because I was so wiped from the 12 hour ride, I headed over to the area where my test was being held, and holed myself up to study at the university for a few hours before I checked into my hotel, which was near the test site. I know, I know, I didn't see nearly as much of the city as I should have, but I was concerned about resting up for the test, and I was really tired after not sleeping on the bus ride over.

Sunday- Took the LSAT. I thought it was pretty fun, if by fun you mean getting into a bathtub filled with Tabasco sauce, lemon juice, and broken glass. I overexaggerate, it actually wasn't that bad, just another long standardized test. Took about four hours, then I was free. Funny thing, most of the test takers were people in the JET program who had also traveled to Tokyo, since it was the only test center in the entire country. Saw more white people in my test room than I've seen in five weeks! Pretty amusing. Headed back up to the hotel to grab my stuff, and ran into some of my fellow test takers. We all decided we needed to blow off steam, so five of us went and filled up a ramen shop for a few hours. Some of us still had some hours to kill before we departed, so we headed over to the Harajuku district. Oh my people! The picture I took should give you some idea. Literally rivers of people, like Disneyland on the 4th of July. Just crazy! But I definitely know some places that I want to check out the next time I get up to this city. Crazy people dressed up in all sorts of cos-play stuff. Goth people, furries, even girls dressed up like Alice in Wonderland. You'd think there was a convention, but nope, just how like like to go out on the town. Didn't get any pictures, I'll try the next time. Got onto my bus at 7pm on Saturday, and arrived back in Shigenobu 12 hour after that. What a weekend!

So sorry for such a delay, but now that things are back to normal, I'll start posting regularly again!

Imotaki!

Ok, now that I'm back, I can start to post again. The first one, naturally, is about something I ate recently. I was at a friend's house for a little get together, and to feed us, the host brought out a giant pot full of goodies. The name of this dish is called imotaki, and I have no idea what it translates to, but I would guess it's something like "put everything you can think of into a big pot and boil it." Basically, it consisted of chopped up bits of tofu, chicken, bale root, cognac (not the brandy, some chewy vegetable which I'm sure is spelled different), potatoes, mushrooms, and other stuff I couldn't identify. Add in some udon noodles, and you've got some great drinking food. I should be able to make this at some point, it looks like great food to huddle over during the winter. Itadakimasu!

Sorry

I'm going to apologize in advance, my posts are going to be few and far between for the next two weeks. I have to crack down and study for the LSAT, which means not as much traveling as I've been doing. I'm still getting out, so there will be some posting, but it's not going to be every night like I've tried to keep up since I've been here. No worries though, after the 27th, it will be back to business as usual! Wish me luck!

Last Set - Summit and Down the Chains!

Third Set - Vids on the Ridge Top

Second Set - The Climb!

First Set - The Straight and Easy