Festival in Korien

Praying mantis!

Dragon fly!

So today I went with Alex to Korien. Her home-stay parents were going to take her to a local festival and I wanted to ask if I could tag along.

Kitty owned by the bookstore. They have her leashed to the table.

The neighborhood where Alex lives with her host family.

Public safety bulletins...

I wonder what this one says...

"Come, children and random old guy, we shall protect the city from our giant flying key!"

...Wait... what?

More public safety announcements...

"...Mam, can you describe the guy who took your purse?"

"Sure, he looked like a raccoon driving a trash can with handlebars..."

Want to know why this sign is really scary? The Japanese associate nosebleeds with sexual arousal...

Where Alex lives! But her Okaasan wasn't home yet, so we wandered around Korien some more...

Stopped at the 711 for Alex to use ATM... As I waited by the magazines, I couldn't help but notice... something...

Bookstore kitty is awake second time walking by!

Still not home...

I have no clue...

Bookstore kitty is ready to go for a ride, third time passing by...

The backside of Alex's home-stay house.

We decided to wait for her Okaasan to get home.

Alex called her and she said she was running late. She works as a caregiver to the handicapped.

So we played sudoku and hung out until she came.

Alex's Okaasan is really nice! She said it would be fine if I came along. The festival was a short walk from their house.

It was at a small local shrine. This festival is to celebrate the harvest.

Sorry the pictures are blurry. We were moving pretty fast. Alex's Okaasan wanted to get good seats.

And we did get really good seats...

This festival, unlike the other one I went to, is locally organized and not professional. All the singers and performers are local people and their children who volunteered.

Introduction.

Speech by Shinto priest.

Then a traditional children's performance. Their sticks are filled with beans. They preformed to a Doraemon song. (A popular children's cartoon and comic.)

The youngest of the group was in the third grade.

The oldest was in the sixth grade.

Next there was a traditional dance, performed by a young girl. I loved her kimono! So pretty!

My favorite picture of the night. It seems, one out of every 400 pictures I take turns out not blurry. Yay...

She becomes a chrysanthemum. It is a very special flower to the Hirakata area, especially at this time of the year. Hirakata is famous for them. There is an artist that makes life-sized statues with clothes made out of the autumn flowers. They call them chrysanthemum "dolls."

Next, a performance in... French?! "Let's have champagne in Paris" was the translated name of the song.

Then a dramatic song about a dying actress...

Then a magic act! I couldn't understand many of the jokes because everything was in Japanese, but I could usually figure it out.

What would you like to see here in this pot? Hana? (Japanese word for "flower")

Let's then water it with special water...

voila! Hana! (Also Japanese for "nose")

What is in this box?

Is it milk?

Orange Juice?

And the final answer is... beer.

Another trick they did was take a 1000 yen bill from an audience member, put it in a blank envelope, then it miraculously is in a sealed envelope within like eight other sealed envelopes...

Then there were several traditional poems sung by three different people and narrated by a fourth.

Then they had what is roughly translated as "new dance." It still looked fairly traditional to me, but these dances were choreographed in modern times I guess...

"Samurai Dance"

It was a relatively small crowd compared to the other festival I went to. I was certainly the only blonde there. Alex and I were the only gaijin (foreigners) there.

Another magic act!

It ended with a shamisen song and a "water trick"

They had one of the famous chrysanthemum dolls there. Water was hooked up to the cart it was on and sprayed in in time to the shamisen playing.

Then there was a dance. They pulled people from the audience to participate. Everyone in the audience clapped in time to the music and they danced in a circle. I felt this festival was much happier and fun. You really felt like part of the community if only for that night. Everyone was so nice and friendly.

Everyone rushes the stand to pick up their "prize."

You were given this ticket at the beginning of the performance. If you stay the entire time, you get...

Fresh edamame beans! Alex's Okaasan told me how to cook them. You boil them with salt, Alex's Otousan's favorite, apparently...

My "please speak to me in at least half English," face.

So much fun! The dancers were all really nice. They insisted on shaking our hand "western style."

Alex and her Okaasan! Mr. Seito is barely in this picture on the far right. He is a family friend of Alex's host family. He suggests cool things for them to take Alex to, like this festival...

Alex's Okaasan is Catholic and was really excited to find out that I am Christian. She says she will help me in finding a church near Kansai Gaidai that I can visit.

Oh my gosh! I had so much fun tonight! Yay! And tomorrow we're going to try and go to Shinsaibashi to look for Halloween costumes and then that night go to some festival in "Korean town"..? Not sure where that is, but someone on the fourth floor knows. Should prove interesting...