I woke up a little before 9AM today (I know, it's a Saturday, but my sleep schedule is so old person-like here!) and did my laundry while having a Skype date with David and eating my breakfast of champions: Oreos and a Coke. I wanted to get the laundry done in the morning, because I planned to be quite busy in the afternoon. That made me not have much time to talk to poor David who is still recovering from being sick, which was lousy. But it's always nice to chat, even for a little while.
At about 10:45 I caught the bus to Hirakatashi-eki. I go there so often; it's starting to get annoying, really. (By the way, Hirakata is the name of the city where I live; "shi" means "city;" "eki" means "station"--Hirakata City Station.) Anyhow, I met up with William there after we spent about ten minutes trying to find each other in the maze that is the station area. We hopped on a local train to Murano to get to Momoko's school's culture festival.
I had been looking forward to this thing all week. Culture festivals are a big thing here in Japan; they seem to be a lot like our church picnics in Louisville. In all kinds of anime and manga about high schools and middle schools, the series often have episodes involving culture festivals. If you've read Hana-Kimi (Erin, remember the boys in the artsy dorm who dressed up as girls and put on the play?) or Ouran High School Host Club, you know what I'm talking about. In any case, this was not at all a touristy thing to do, but rather very Japanese. I was pretty proud of myself for having obtained a ticket. Momoko was very thoughtful to give them to us.
Anyhow, we walked through this really beautiful neighborhood of traditional Japanese houses and narrow streets to get to the school. I'm amazed at the system of streets here. Neighborhoods are very hilly with homes set close together, so it reminds me a lot of pictures I've seen of Portugal and Italy much more than my image of Japan.
We arrived at the school a few minutes early and had to stand in a long line to get in. After you presented your ticket to the security guard (!) you could wander around the school grounds and look at all the booths. The booths in the main courtyard were run by students in teams, and each one sold a different sort of food. It was hot, so William and I stopped at the sno-cone booth and got some shaved ice. I was surprised how cheap everything was; I got a bowl of strawberry shaved ice for 50yen, or about 45 cents. Shaved ice is a popular snack at tourist spots, and it usually costs about $3! Pretty good deal. Well, maybe not, considering I spent money on sugar and water. But still, I love my bargains.
Anyway, we walked around the main courtyard and checked out all the food stalls. There were hamburgers, okonomiyaki, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, tamasen (seems to be some sort of egg and sweet sandwich, but I'm not sure), okonomiyaki, bebii taiyaki (little fish-shaped cookies with sweet bean paste inside) cotton candy, ice cream sundaes, etc. It seems that fair food is fried and portable all around the world. ^_^ No deep-fried Twinkies, though. That's probably an atrocity/delicacy confined to Kentucky.
We also were able to go into the main school building. The tickets had requested that you bring slippers to wear inside the school, because outdoor shoes aren't allowed. Right at the main entrance, all the students had small lockers that they use to store their shoes in every day. So we changed into the slippers we brought (I was glad I could read that portion of the ticket!) and went inside.
Most of the rooms had different displays or activities going on. We spiraled up the maybe five stories of the school, which looked very much like an American school. The classrooms had chalk boards and all the usual classroomy things. But there was a small central courtyard that all the classrooms circled around, which I thought was cool, though there was a creepy bronze statue in it. Also, the bathroom I went into had no Western-style toilets. That's fine, I guess, but it was a little tricky. But now I can use a squat toilet when I'm wearing jeans. It's a good skill to have, I suppose.
The activities were really varied. We watched performances of old Japanese folktales, saw displays of student artwork, played some carnival games, etc. It was all very elaborate; I wonder how long they have been planning this thing. Lots of fun, though. All the students were really enthusiastic, too. Many of them, especially the boys, were wearing silly costumes. I saw a big pink bunny, Elmo, Santa Claus, and a cow, along with several really ugly girls who were boys in disguise. ;-) The students were standing outside the classrooms where they were stationed and hawking whatever if was they had inside. It was a lot of fun, and very lively. I had a blast.
After spending about two hours checking out the festival, William and I were tired and decided to leave. On the way out, I stopped to use a vending machine. Most vending machines here are very like American ones, although they're absolutely everywhere! But this one, like some of them in Japan, dispensed soft drinks in cups with ice. It was a little confusing, but I watched a Japanese kid do it and decided I could too. You just put your money in and the cup drops down and fills automatically; I was afraid I'd have to push a button or something. Anyhow, I had a nice cup of orange Fanta, and we were on our way.
I was way too tired to do much of anything else, so I grabbed some okonomiyaki to go at Hirakatashi-eki, took the bus home, at the lunch (which was so-so; Sachi has me spoiled with excellent okonomiyaki, I think), folded my now-dry laundry, and took a nap. For supper this evening I made another egg sandwich.
I was supposed to meet William and some other people at 8PM for karaoke, but no one showed up. Norman, Kei, Yusuke, and Shoko came at about 8:30, so I think I just had the time wrong. We thought William was supposed to come at 8:30 too, but we waited until 9 and he still hadn't shown up, so we went without him. Oops. I hope everything was okay.
So we walked our bikes to Big Wave Karaoke in Makino, the place where we always go. My group wanted to do three hours, which I think is way too long, so I decided I wouldn't stay the whole time. There were three nihonjin and three gaijin, so we sang a lot more Japanese songs than I had before. I actually picked out and sang 明日があるさ ("Ashita ga Aru Sa"), a very fun song that we learned it in my Japanese 212 class this spring. The beginning is really similar to the Candy Mountain Song in Charlie the Unicorn, too. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Also, I completely rocked "Part of Your World." It was a good night, and very tame. After an hour and a lot of fun, I left, stopping at McDonald's on the way home for a snack.
When I was waiting for the karaoke group in the evening, I had been looking at a tour book and found a really nice day trip for tomorrow; I was thinking of going to Kyoto to see the national museum and a temple. I've changed my mind, though. It's late right now--2:30AM--and I'm tired of going to Hirakatashi-eki. I think tomorrow I'll stay in and chill. It'll be nice, and, as the song says, "ashita ga aru"--there's always tomorrow. Some other time.
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