Sirakashi Matsuri
So this weekend I have been trying to lay a bit low since I have a very busy August coming up. As many of you might know, my birthday is in August which makes this month my favorite month of the year! This year in particular, I have many things lined up to my birthday climb to Mt. Fuji, to my best friend visiting from America. I've got lots and lots planned so be sure to check back! I also am trying out a new lay out on the blog so hope you guys like the switch up!
Anyways, the last couple weeks of work have been in Osaka and this weekend was suppose to be a chill one but life had other plans (good ones though)! On Friday evening after work, a few new coworkers I had been working with in the week, Jaime and Andy invited me out for a Friday beer. A Friday beer turned into a few beers and by the time I knew it I was eating a peanut butter sandwich on the train stop to sober up. Cheers to that! But Saturday was a really low key day. The weather had been a bit wet and it made for a good stay-inside day.
Sunday I had my usual morning of church and then afternoon of cleaning and cooking for the week. The nice thing about working in the office now is that I never have home work to do! So this Sunday I was invited to a local fire works festival in Kashihara, the city in which I live, by a fellow English teacher, Shoko. I have hung out with Shoko before and really enjoy her company since we are about the same age and also share similar work experience at school.
So around 6:30 p.m. I decided to bike to Kashihara-jingumae Station. I could of taken the train but I figured I could use the exercise. The bike ride was not too bad, about twenty minutes or so. From there, Shoko met me up and we walked to the festival grounds. It was a local event but there were still many people that showed up. The weather was sprinkling which left the ground wet and a bit muddy.
Once we got there, I saw many girls wearing yukatas and many booths for food and games with a stage set in the middle. We did a round of wandering just to scope out the food choices. The festival was similar to what we have back home, many different vendors for food and drink, many games for children, and people everywhere. Today seemed even more crowded because everyone also had an umbrella! Our first choice of food was this egg type sandwich. It was like a shrimp cracker sandwich was a fried egg and sauce in the middle. Pretty tasty if you ask me! Then we moved on to share a cup of fried chicken. For dessert I decided to get this waffle on a stick dipped in chocolate. Also we had this mochi ball type skewer thing which was pretty tasty too. Oishii!!!
After our many snacks and walking around a bit, Shoko wanted to play this ball catching game. I had seen it in many of the festivals I had already been to. What it is, is you have this net which is made of a thin paper and you must try to catch as many balls as you can before the net rips completely. From then, you turn in your ball count and the lady hands you a bag of bouncy balls as a prize. This game is also popular with little fish.
The rain was letting up and the festival was filling up. We suddenly ran into Shoko's friends, Midori and Mai. Shoko told me all of them had been friends since they were young. It was great for me to meet more people even if the language was a bit of a challenge. The four of us decided to get some beers and chat while we waited for the fire works to start at 9.
Once it got closer to 9, I could see many people setting out mats to sit on the ground. That would of been nice but the ground was wet and besides we didn't bring one. The fireworks started promptly at nine and had a continuous show for fifteen minutes. The fire works were big, loud and very beautiful. These were my first fire works in Japan so it was really neat to see.
We all had work the next day so couldn't stay out too late but I really enjoyed the change of scenery, festival food, good company and new friends. Cheers to a great start to the week!!
xx
t
Anyways, the last couple weeks of work have been in Osaka and this weekend was suppose to be a chill one but life had other plans (good ones though)! On Friday evening after work, a few new coworkers I had been working with in the week, Jaime and Andy invited me out for a Friday beer. A Friday beer turned into a few beers and by the time I knew it I was eating a peanut butter sandwich on the train stop to sober up. Cheers to that! But Saturday was a really low key day. The weather had been a bit wet and it made for a good stay-inside day.
Sunday I had my usual morning of church and then afternoon of cleaning and cooking for the week. The nice thing about working in the office now is that I never have home work to do! So this Sunday I was invited to a local fire works festival in Kashihara, the city in which I live, by a fellow English teacher, Shoko. I have hung out with Shoko before and really enjoy her company since we are about the same age and also share similar work experience at school.
So around 6:30 p.m. I decided to bike to Kashihara-jingumae Station. I could of taken the train but I figured I could use the exercise. The bike ride was not too bad, about twenty minutes or so. From there, Shoko met me up and we walked to the festival grounds. It was a local event but there were still many people that showed up. The weather was sprinkling which left the ground wet and a bit muddy.
Once we got there, I saw many girls wearing yukatas and many booths for food and games with a stage set in the middle. We did a round of wandering just to scope out the food choices. The festival was similar to what we have back home, many different vendors for food and drink, many games for children, and people everywhere. Today seemed even more crowded because everyone also had an umbrella! Our first choice of food was this egg type sandwich. It was like a shrimp cracker sandwich was a fried egg and sauce in the middle. Pretty tasty if you ask me! Then we moved on to share a cup of fried chicken. For dessert I decided to get this waffle on a stick dipped in chocolate. Also we had this mochi ball type skewer thing which was pretty tasty too. Oishii!!!
After our many snacks and walking around a bit, Shoko wanted to play this ball catching game. I had seen it in many of the festivals I had already been to. What it is, is you have this net which is made of a thin paper and you must try to catch as many balls as you can before the net rips completely. From then, you turn in your ball count and the lady hands you a bag of bouncy balls as a prize. This game is also popular with little fish.
The rain was letting up and the festival was filling up. We suddenly ran into Shoko's friends, Midori and Mai. Shoko told me all of them had been friends since they were young. It was great for me to meet more people even if the language was a bit of a challenge. The four of us decided to get some beers and chat while we waited for the fire works to start at 9.
Once it got closer to 9, I could see many people setting out mats to sit on the ground. That would of been nice but the ground was wet and besides we didn't bring one. The fireworks started promptly at nine and had a continuous show for fifteen minutes. The fire works were big, loud and very beautiful. These were my first fire works in Japan so it was really neat to see.
We all had work the next day so couldn't stay out too late but I really enjoyed the change of scenery, festival food, good company and new friends. Cheers to a great start to the week!!
xx
t
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