Tsu Festival

I think that these weekend would be among the top qualifiers if I held a competition for most "Japanese" weekend.  I'll follow that sentence with a brief, situational definition of "Japanese."  In this case, I mean that I got to experience a whole lot of Japanese culture, and see what the people who live in Tsu city get up to when they throw a party.  


This was the weekend of Tsu's annual city festival.  It was cool to see how the city has slowly been preparing itself for the festival; watching the city's many industrious workers prune trees, clean sidewalks, hang banners, signs and flags, and generally scour the city for any unwanted dirt.  One thing is certain, Japanese festivals definitely win the cleanliness award!  The actual festival was amazing as well.  It was a two day shindig centered on the city hall and Phoenix street, which is one of the main thoroughfares in the city, and it featured Japanese dancers from all over Japan, and a wonderful variety of Japanese festival food.  As far as the former goes, Japanese dance is awesome.  The dancers themselves were crazy animated, and they all looked like they were having the time of their lives.  It was also really cool to see the wide range of ages in the dances.  Some of the dance groups were all university students, some were obaachans (old ladies, literally grandmas) some ojiichans (grandpas) and every once in a while, a couple a little kids!  The little kids were the best.  They were usually lost, hidden behind the legs of their elder compatriots, but whenever they made an appearance in the front row, they were most definitely the most entertaining people in the whole festival.  They also had really cool flags that they used in their dance routines! 


I also ate a ton of Japanese food!  The first day I kept it pretty basic, I ate various fried things, some chicken, and a pork chop sort of thing.  I also at some yakitori, which I believe is chicken.  The most interesting food experience was when I bought a kebab sandwich from a stand on the street.  The guy had the most excellent mustache, and he spoke fluent english, so we were chatting about the festival, and how we came to Japan.  As it turns out, the guy was from northern Iraq, and made several jokes (at least I hope they were jokes, other I owe the friend I shared the sandwich with an apology for getting her killed!) about poisoning my sandwich.  It made for an interesting lunch, let me tell you!


It has also been determined that I look like a Japanese cartoon character.  His name is Anpanman, and he is pretty awesome.  He is made out of bread, and he feeds hungry and needy people by breaking off bits of his own head and giving it to people.  Pretty cool, right??  Unfortunately, when he gives away too much of his head, he starts to get weak, and he can eventually die, I think.  Have no fear, though!  Anpanman is friends with a first-class baker who makes new Anpanman heads and replaces the diminished on when Anpanman starts to get too weak.  Anpanman's favorite means of disposing of his enemies is by "An-punch"-ing them.  I was skeptical at first, but I have grown fairly fond of the little guy.  He is also delicious.

The second day of my festival food adventure was a bit more... well.. adventurous.  I ate takoyaki for the first time, and it was... intimidating.  Tako means octopus, and takoyaki is a fried octopus ball.  As you can see in the picture to the right, they make no qualms about the contents of the little guys.  Honestly, they were pretty decent.  A bit chewy, but the taste was not so bad!  Karroll, if you're reading this, we are going to Osaka when you visit, and we are going to eat Takoyaki!  Osaka is the birthplace of takoyaki, as far as I have been informed.


Thats all for now folks, its off to bed!
Good night!!!