More Pictures, As Promised
In this update, we've got Sports Day, a few lonely enkai (welcome party) pictures, some random veggies, and festivals galore! I'm so good to you guys.
So to start with... Kurino Sports Day! I conned a friend into going with me, and then conned her into joining their strange activities, as well. When I arrived, the main English teacher there ambushed me with an events schedule and pointed out that I could still join in the relay race and bean toss.
The relay race amounted to jogging around a bit of the track, picking up a bamboo pole with a hook on a bit of string at the end, grabbing a plastic bag with symbols on it, and then hot-footing it with three other people's ankles tied to mine towards the finish line. I didn't come in last, anyway. The bean toss was basically throwing bean bags in the general direction of a bucket on top of a really long pole and trying to avoid braining anyone with them. Like so:
Here are my crazy students:
And the school, as seen from the field.
Giant tug-o-war.
Bajillion-legged race.
I just like this picture because it has amazing poses.
And then the club captains ran around the field holding various items representing what they do. For example, the baseball club person carried a bat, the tennis club person carried a racket, and the unfortunate soul in charge of the ping pong club had to carry this monstrosity:
I don't really know why.
And then performances.
With a people-pyramid.
Setting it up...
Almost there...
Done!
And in possibly the most awkward maneuver ever, these kids all joined hands, and then sort of shimmied over each other while the people at the end of the line were laying down.
More performances:
And here's a view from the school towards the field.
After that, we figured it was such a beautiful day that we might as well head to Iso Garden, which is near the city. I got pretty bad road rage, but it was all worth it in the end. (Worth fifteen bucks, too.)
This is a view out of the "main gate" of the gardens. It actually looks out onto the highway (if you can really call it that), but I was lucky enough to get a picture with no cars.
Pretty purple flowers.
And another gate, going further into the gardens.
It has a great view of Sakurajima, too. Here it is, hiding behind some clouds, but still looking lovely and volcanic.
Ready for a close-up...
And a pond that looks lovely, but is actually probably a terrible hazard in the summer due to amorous mosquitoes:
A small creek:
With rocks!
These flowers are sort of awesome and are a popular symbol for autumn here. They're called Spider Chrysanthemums, but crabs kind of like them, too. (Crab to the left, crab to the right!)
Still walking in the garden...
And a last pic of the flowers:
We also came across a small shrine to cats, and an ancient rice-grinding machine that was noisy and quite inefficient, but probably did the job well back in the day. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures. Oops?
Here are some pictures from the enkai (welcome/drinking party) the office threw for us. It was fun, mostly because we work with ridiculous people who say ridiculous things all the time, and especially when drunk.
Food.
People!
The KIFA (Kajiki International Friendship Association) invited us to go farming with them. Never one to pass up fresh veggies, I went along with the rest of the Kajiki ALTs.
We had quite a bounty by the end of the day, and all for only about $3!
Veggie-picking success!
The next weekend was Ohara Matsuri in Kagoshima City, so we all trooped out there to learn the festival dances and make a spectacle of ourselves in front of the good people of our prefecture.
Our group was called the "Genki Gaijin," and we wore radioactive green happi (coat-things) and headbands.
These women looked a bit more put-together, and did a much better job with the traditional dances. I wasn't envious. Really.
There were some intriguing vehicles there.
And kiddos!
Random festival pics:
Maybe they meant "Outerwear"...
Interesting costume choices, too.
And Power Rangers. Because that makes perfect sense.
I stuffed myself on festival food before we got in place to do our little turn on the catwalk (a.k.a. dance with clueless expressions down the main street), and then had free shochu (liquid courage!) from some of the stalls set up along the way. It was quite untasty, though, and I really don't recommend it.
I have no photographic evidence of our fifteen minutes (hour and a half, whatever) of infamy, which is probably for the best, all things considered. Some people had issues remembering the steps for all three dances, and so our group was forced to improvise. With things like... the macarena, the bunny hop, and a conga line. I'm comfortable with the fact that even if we looked moderately insane, we were at least entertaining.
Last weekend, we went to the city for Kagoshima University's festival. It was full of crazy people saying amazing things. Various clubs were selling food, etc. to raise money for their activities. The people selling corn were particularly enthusiastic in their approach. I was accosted by a guy thrusting a tray of corn at me and yelling, "IT'SCORN!" at me not five minutes into the festival. I was later implored by the corn people to, "Eat za corn! Japanese culture!"
But that's not nearly as amazing as the club that decided to do live-action, real-person whack-a-mole. It was spectacular. We were given puffy mallets made of plastic, and then told to whack the heads of the guys who popped up through holes in the cardboard. (Some were dressed quite ridiculously, and I think they were only too happy to hide their faces again.) Meanwhile, the other club members ran in a tiny circle chanting, "MOgura, mogura, MOguRA~!" (mogura = mole) until time was up.
Pictures of that will come later, after I've bummed them off someone else. For now, you get general festival pictures.
And one drink that should perhaps consider getting a new name:
After that, we headed off to Kirishima for "momiji" (leaf hunting). Although this may sound like we stalked through the forests in search of the best leaf to kill and mount on our walls, in actuality we just went to look at autumn leaves changing colors.
...But they were still green for the most part.
I did manage to find a small cluster that was ahead of the program, though.
And some amazingly huge flowers.
Then we climbed up a lot of stairs to go look at a shrine.
It had a nice view.
And then my camera died. But that's alright because there wasn't much else to see except for a really (really, really) big tree.
And that's it for updates for now! Whew.