The Silk Road Kimono Festival and Fireworks

Hi everybody!

Well, this has been a fun week. The beginning of the week was quiet, because the kids were all home with swine flu. Everyone but the third graders, anyway.

I put up a huge construction paper Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas in the English room. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will, and when I do I shall post it. Thursday I went to Ishikawa elementary, and Friday I went to Iwataki elementary. (And had school lunch again. Whee!)

Now, these two elementary schools are soooo different. Ishikawa is very small, and only has one class per grade. The children are polite and sweet, and always help me to understand them. They're very well-behaved, but still very vivacious kids. Iwataki elementary is very BIG, there are three classes per grade. The kids are rowdy and raucous. The three boys who always scream after me when I'm on my bike going home are in this school. The teachers are more strict with them, and every time I come out of class, the school secretary asks me very sternly if any of the students asked me any inappropriate questions. I have no idea, because I can hardly ever understand their Japanese. When I ask them to slow down or tell them I can't understand, they stare at me and then run away. But they're back two minutes later with another question. Both are adorable in their own way. XD

Friday night we went out for karaoke with some visitors from Yosano's sister city, Aberysthwyth, Wales. (I think. Welsh! OI.) The karaoke machine was old and kept screeching. I thought I sounded awful (I sang "Blackbird" by the Beatles and "LoveFool" by the Cardigans and I don't remember what else) but Alex said I sounded great...husband filter? :3

Saturday was a day to shop. Toshiko came by and took us to K-Stanky where we FINALLY got our new printer/scanner and I bought a new camera! It's so cute! I love it! And it was on super sale. So you'll be seeing a lot more pictures from here on out since this new one is a ton more portable (and comes with a rechargeable lithium battery pack instead of having to change out AA's all the time. <3). style="font-style: italic;">Chirimen Kaido Kimono Matsuri, or the Silk Road Kimono Festival. Yosano is famous for its special type of crepe silk, so this was all about that. Yay!

PICTURE TIME LULZ

First, we went to a rich silk merchant's house from the 1800s that had been kept in very good condition. Yay for really old-style Japanese houses!

This is one of the kimonos worn by one of the owners of the house. His surname was "Tsuru" which is Japanese for "Crane." The little white circles on the back and sleeves have cranes in them. Yay for cranes!

This room had a lot of really neat decorative screens and stuff. But I won't bore you with every single picture I took.

There's a bit of the deer-decorated shoji sliding door in this picture, and the entrance to the house. And some tatami mats. Yay tatami mats!


Here's the other side of the deer screen. Yay for deer? Again? There were also some beautifully decorated closet doors. Everything is painted very ornately in this house.


Here is the garden that is bordered by the guest rooms. This little garden is specifically for guests to use. There's a bigger one in the middle of the house (the house is shaped like a two-story square ring) but this one was so cool I just had to take a picture. I love Japanese lanterns and stuff.


This is all of us sitting in the room upstairs together! We are, in order from left, (I don't know), Myeko, Aberysthwyth person, Alex, me, Kimiko, and (I don't know). Ambiguity is fun!


Look! Look! The sliding doors had baby chick handles! HOW ADORABLE IS THAT!? I don't have much to say but I love it.

Okay. There were at least two bathrooms in this house. These two pictures are both of Japanese baths. The one on the left is embedded in the ground. It's kind of small around, but it's very deep. My dad, who's pretty tall, would probably be able to sit in it and have water coming up to his chin.








The second is another type (probably older) of bath style - an outer bath. Notice the little stool to help you get in it, and the cover that keeps the water warm so multiple people can use it in succession. Before you get grossed out, remember - the Japanese don't wash in the bath. They wash thoroughly BEFORE getting in the bath, because they keep in mind that other people will want to use it after them. The bath is just for relaxing.



Here is a bridal palanquin. In olden times (the Edo period) Japanese brides were delivered to their husbands' family's estate in these thingies on the rejoicing shoulders of their servants and/or families. It kind of looks like a crunch to me.

It brings a whole 'nother meaning to 'mail order bride', doesn't it?






Here's one half of a traditional old Japanese kitchen! Note the sake bottle, baskets, etc. That's actually a really old sink in the picture.

What you can't see, is that hanging above was a kind of water spout, and there was a pump off to the side and on the floor. There was a pulley system that, when you pressed the pump, it would pump water up and through the spout, and water would fall from above into the sink for use.





And here's the stove!

As you can see, it kind of looks like a brick oven. But the doors underneath are for burning wood, and weren't used as ovens at all. They were more just for heating the 'stovetop' above.

The circular parts on top with the wooden lids are for rice. They're actually pretty deep, and the stick-spoon thing on top is an old fashioned rice paddle.

The wooden box thing is a steamer, for fish and vegetables.

And that's Kimiko over in the corner. Hiiiiii, Kimiko!!





Once we got out of the house we got to (had to) take a picture with the Kimono Queens, who just happened to be on their way in. They're all wearing the long sleeved furisode that practically scream "I'm brightly colored, female, and single!"

My shirt is pooched weird. Ugh.

But Alex sure is cute!!






Then, we went to this place; another traditional Japanese residence that was attached to a Buddhist temple, for an informal tea ceremony. We drank matcha, which is sweet, creamy green tea that is whisked until frothy. I really like matcha. It's goooood.

Also, curiously, there were CD's hanging on long strings from the roof of the shrine. Alex and I curiously looked at them for a while before asking Myeko what they were for. She answered "To scare off the birds." Genius!!! At very least, birds that are more interested in shiny things would smack into those instead of the windows.


There were a handful of street performers around, and I wanted to get a picture of them. So of course, when I say anything (or even make the motion of raising my camera to my face) the camera is immediately taken from me and I am shoved into the picture that I had really rather been candid, with hapless Alex dragged behind. This type of entertainment is called Chin-don-ya and consists of people dancing playing and chanting in the streets. Apparently it was an old form of advertisement, actually. This troupe came from Osaka, it seems, to perform at the Kimono Festival. See the look on my face? WE ARE NOT AMUSED.

One of the big events of the kimono matsuri was the kimono parade. It's where, aptly, all the people who wore kimono parade slowly down the silk road, with the Chin-don-ya people blaring and dancing in front. Everyone behind them got to shuffle behind slowly in their geta, or traditional Japanese sandals (the ones that KILL). The Aberysthwyth (sp!? Whatevs) people also were put into kimono and haplessly walked by.

HERE IS A VIDEO. HA HA HA HA HA.



This was the beginning of the parade. You can hear the Chin-don-ya people playing, and at the beginning was a troupe of people dressed as if for a traditional old Japanese wedding, with all sorts of old costumes. The two ladies at the end are Toshiko and Kimiko. The conversation was basically Kimiko protesting that I was taking video and me playfully responding that she wasn't allowed to protest since they made me take the picture with the Chin-don-ya. XD

Hey look! Lots of people in kimono!

There were a lot of gorgeous kimono today, but it was a lot colder. A lot more people are seen here in their fall and winter kimono; not as many bright colors as usual. In fact, I think the only people I saw wearing bright colors were the UK kids....hrm.










This is Yuuko, posing alongside a giant, anthropomorphic grain of rice.

Yes, the grain of rice is wearing a kimono.

Oh Japan.










Hey look! Some classic cars!

They had these on display too. I'm not really sure why. But hey guys, isn't this cool! Old cars! ...or something.





















These two are Toshiko and Junko, who were in the video. This is probably the best picture of Toshiko I could have asked for. She's definitely an Enneagram type 7. Anyway, Toshiko and Kimiko are both in our eikaiwa group, along with Junko from before. Toshiko is boisterous and fun. Her English is fantastic, and she loves to tease me about everything. Kimiko is much more gentle-natured and very sweet, but she's a little forgetful, frequently late, and has a 'second stomach' for sweets. :) They and the rest of the group take really good care of us.

After we finished at the matsuri, we went home for a little while and then went back out to watch the fireworks over the bay. We saw a lot of my students there and met a couple of the students from Wales, as well. I took two videos of the fireworks, but I'll only subject you to one of them; the first one is easy to find on Youtube (same title, just part 1 instead of 2. :3)