Local festival goings on and whatnot

This weekend I stuck around Tamba (the cluster of towns around this area) to attend a festival. It was a couple of towns over, in a place called Ichijima, so all us local JETs who attended stayed the night on Saturday with a different family. We arrive on Saturday and are introduced to our host family. The woman who comes to pick me up seems really friendly and a little odd.

She's a little elderly, dressed a bit like an 80s pop star (matching denim jacket [popped collar] and jeans). She drives an old wide sedan, and as we drive off, she says 'I saw on your information sheet you like jazz.' (I write it everywhere, seems to be a good conversation starter.) So she's putting a tape in as she says this, and I'm like yeah this is gonna be some wicked jazz or something and she's like 'me.... not so much. I love Justin Timberlake. Do you love him?' Sexyback comes on. He's not bad I reply, not lying. She pushes further. 'I especially loved Nsync. Did you love them?' Not so much, I reply. She says that they broke up because one of the members wanted to go to space. For some reason I know that this was Lance Bass, so saying this makes us Firm Friends. But it doesn't stop there. Do you love Britney Spears? Jessica Simpson? 'Um....' I don't want to make a bad impression so I tell her I like them a bit. Misteeq? "THEY'RE BRITISH' I say, happy to have found a way out. We arrive at her house.

It's before 5 in the afternoon, and the minute her husband sees me he says 'beer or whiskey?' I tell him both are good, which he takes to mean I want both so within 10 mins we're drinking. He's quite a cool guy, 30 years ago he travelled around Europe so with my shitty Japanese and his speaking-to-a-retard-child Japanese we manage to have a fun conversation. As we drink we talk about really random stuff until we start to get so drunk there's no way we're getting over the language barrier. I remember having a moment of clarity as the evening wore on: I was half watching this anime about Korea, drinking Henessey with Pepsi NEX (he was surprised people mix spirits with coke in the UK and insisted we have it that way after that), eating this cool Japanese stew, stroking a male shitzu dog with massive pink bows in his hair, and talking to a slightly weird couple about anything and everything...fun times. I was in bed by 9, absolutely wasted. (In a massive traditional Japanese room, it was beautiful.) Surreal.

Anyway next day is FESTIVAL day. Wake up early and have traditional Japanese breakfast (nice, but my stomach is not ready for fish with rice and miso soup with Japanese cockles in at 9 in the morning) before heading off. There's a big area where different groups come in holding shrines on two beams on their shoulders. They jump around a bit and rotate the shrine and stuff before setting it down.



We got to carry a sort of a shrine, except instead of a gold throne like thing it was big tubs of sake (rice wine) roped together. I know which I prefer.



So we carry it in set it down, and the compere comes over and chats hilariously to a couple of the JETs about where they're from etc. I squirm around hiding in the back.

"Ladies! Oh My Gosh... For the ravers! Inside!"

Then guys come over with a hammer, bust open the crates and it's sake for all!


So yeah, a few square wooden cups of sake and lunch later, we head off to see a sake brewery and a temple. Pics can tell this bit.




The guy hugging the big tank of Sake? He was a friend of our translator guy (a friendly young student whose hometown was Ichijima so he'd come back for the festival - there's a picture of him and his girlfriend in the next section) He was really drunk and kept asking people if we thought he could get a girlfriend. When the guy who was transslating messed up a bit, in a jokey way his girlfriend went and gave him a big hug, and drunkenly looking on, poor drunk guy with no girlfriend started hugging the sake tank instead. Later he hugged a pillar as well, then ran off because he was supposed to be playing Taiko in the main square but had gotten too drunk and forgotten about it. Temple (check out cool looking monk):



Oh, on the way down the mountain (little hill) that the temple was on, me and the guy who was translating were having a cigarette and his girlfriend was trying to stop him from having one and he was like 'FUCK YOU BITCH!' (I think she only knew how bad it was from our reactions) and then she chased him around for ages. That was fun.

Kids playing taiko on vans! Some of us joined in for a bit one by one. (Incidentally my taiko lessons have gotten really fun.)


Oh and there was this guy, I don't really know who he was but a local man of some note, maybe a councillor or something, he was wearing a suit with an armband with writing on it (only important people seemed to haver these.) Anyway, he was WASTED, slurring his words like anything and stumbling around. He came up to our group and was asking where people were from. He shook hand vigourously with the Iranian couple, saying something about they should have nuclear weapons, then asked me. I said I was from England and the dude SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE... kind of slow and jokingly, and started to slur on about how England was America's bitch. He asked the Americans where they were from and sort of walked away pretending to ignore them when he found out. He also picked up one of our group and sort of hugged her which mortified the other Japanese people around... He literally had to be dragged away protesting (but, hilariously, in a respectful way). Here is a picture of this awesome guy.


Those were the highlights of the festival. Came back on Sunday still a bit under the influence so couldn't drive, stayed at Dylan's place along with his girlfriend Heather and Shivana (victim of official guy above) and just chilled watching some Peep Show courtesy of a package from my housemate Ali (first tinge of homesickness - from peep show?) Went to a potluck party the next and was confronted by the double cuteness of DOGS and JAPANESE TODDLERS (I have a friend who is obsessed by how cute they are and keeps looking at Japanese men wondering only half jokingly if they can 'give her cute babies' .........)

Also this week took my car to the garage, and got told its gonna cost 40,000 yen (200 quid) to cover the scratch :o( got a loan car til then, a tiny little kei car, like driving a matchbox.