Nagahama's Kimono Festival

Nagahama holds a kimono festival every year where hundreds of young women dress up in kimono's. Drawings for prizes such as cars and trips are given away so a lot of people participate. Nagahama first started having a kimono festival because they wanted more people to buy silk. Kimono's are made from silk and are very expensive. They can run into hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Nagahama used to produce a lot of silk so in order for people to buy more of it, they decided to have this festival. The tradition has since stuck. I want to buy a kimono, but since they are so expensive I might just get a yukata. They are similar, but yukatas are worn during the summer and are lightweight. Though I wasn't wearing a kimono at this festival, some guy still took my picture. Definitely random!

There were so many people there!

These are examples of the elaborate bows that are tied on the backs of women wearing kimono's.

Here some Japanese women pose for pictures with Kasa (umbrellas).

Peace :)

Here the women who are wearing kimonos are lined up to enter the temple grounds.

Here's the temple grounds where the festival was held.

Tea Ceremony

This fall Doug, John, Eric, Tanaka Sensei, and I went to Otsu where we viewed some temples and also participated in a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. Tea ceremonies are a huge part of the Japanese culture. Everyone drinks tea here and tea ceremonies are very honorable. There are certain sets up rules that you must follow when participating. There are even specific "tea ceremony" rooms just devoted to serving and drinking tea. These rooms are always covered in tatami mats and have a wall scroll hanging from them. The women who make the tea actually have to learn how to properly prepare "tea ceremony" tea. The bowls where the tea is poured into are also very expensive. They are handmade and cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. In fact, before tea is poured into the bowl you must pick up the bowl in your hands and rotate it while looking at every angle of it. This is done to show appreciation for all the hard work that went into creating that bowl. Once tea is poured into your bowl, you take two or three gulps to drink it down. Now this tea is not ordinary tea. It is like a green frothy mixture. To me it looked like melted green ice cream, but don't let this fool you. It does NOT taste like ice cream. Lets just say that I have had things that have tasted better.

Here a women is preparing tea for each one of us.

Here is a guy dressed in traditional Japanese tea ceremony attire. He served us lunch.

For lunch, we had a traditional bento box. I mostly ate the rice, but since being here I am not as picky as I used to be (I know it is hard to believe). :)

Here's the gang.

Cultural Festival

In October, my students had a Cultural Festival. It is basically like a big talent show where everyone participates. For two weeks, classes were shortened so that students could work on their skits, dance routines, and practice their instruments. On the actual festival day, students only had to go to their classes for half the day. The other half was devoted to the students' performances. At Inae Junior High School, an entire school day was devoted to this festival. That meant less classes I had to teach and more performances I could watch so it was okay by me. The Cultural Festival is also like a big open house so parents came to videotape their son or daughter and student's artwork and other projects were displayed throughout the school. During lunch, games and other activities were played. I preferred to watch the student's dance routines because I couldn't always understand the plays since they were in Japanese. However, I did get to see the Japanese version of Beauty and the Beast. :)

Here the ichi-nensei's (7th graders)are performing a traditional Japanese dance.

The san-nensei's (9th graders) put on different plays. They also designed their own sets.

Here some of the san-nensei's are performing a dance routine.

In this picture, students took cans and strung them together to make kanji characters. It means to fly or to soar.

This is an example of promoting alcohol at school...J/K. It is a close up of the previous picture. Although someone did have to drink a lot of beer to make this.

This is an essay composed by one of my 9th grade students. After having three years of English, this is considered to be above average. Yet, as you can tell they still have a ways to go.

Some of the student's artwork that was on display.