Akiu Falls

Recently I have been updated about once a week, but since Tuesday was a national holiday (and I went somewhere) and since I will be in Tokyo this weekend (which means maybe no update this weekend...), you get a special midweek update.

Anyway, yesterday, I went to a place called Akiu which is has "one of the 3 best waterfalls" in Japan (have you noticed there are a few "one of the 3 best--insert any phrase here-- in japan"). It was pretty nice, but I gotta be honest, I think it would be much nicer in the fall, spring, or even summer for that matter! so since I enjoyed going in the winter (it is in the mountains so it is still winter there) I wanna go back again sometime! Check out the photos.

Hote Matsuri

After a week of purification it was time to carry the shrine all over the city and up and down Shiogama Shrine. Unforetuneatly I had to work most of the day so I could only catch the ending of it at night, but they carried and parraded around from 1230-800pm and everyone looked exhausted afterwards! Not too much more to say so I will let the photos speak for themselves.

From here is about the half way point...

Think it is getting heavy...

Preparation for Hote Matsuri

Last Friday, March 10th, Shiogama celebrated/observed Hote Matsuri. There will be more on Hote Matsuri later, but more or less people carry this shrines, play music and carry different things around the city and up and down the 200+ stairs of Shiogama Shrine. Anyway, the main shrine is suppose to be a vehicle for G-d to travel in and only certain "pure" people get the privilege to carry this around the town. How the people get selected, I am still not really sure about but I did get to watch what these people do to prepare for this festival. The photography teacher (and club) from my boy's school goes to this every year to take photos, so that is how I got to tag along as well.


The main part is undergoing a ritual in which one uses water to rinse or take away the evil or bad things within themselves. So wearing what looks like a cotton diaper, in close to freezing weather (on average I would say it was about 35 every night), for a week these people try to purify themselves by reciting prayers and throwing water all over themselves. Check out the photos for a better understanding.

What do you think?

To be honest, I know enough about digital photography, video, audio and the internet to have some serious doubts about the validity of this video, but it does raise some interesting issues nonetheless....what do you think?

Matsushima: 1 of 3 Most Scenic Views of Japan

Last Sunday I went to Matsushima and as the title says it is considered to be one of the 3 most scenic views of Japan (the other two being Miyajima and Amanohashidate which I plan on going to the 1st week of April) and it is only about 20 minutes away from where I live! Kind of surprised that it took me this long to get there but I guess it is like my dad who lived in New York City for a large part of his life and has never been to the Statue of Liberty...When you are this close you feel like you can always go so there is no rush. Anyway I made it there and it was pretty amazing. Basically Matsushima is a bunch of small islands of rock with pine trees on them. There are 275 islands total and the waves/ocean has shaped them in interesting ways over the years. I thought this place was pretty amazing, but to be honest, I can see it changing a lot depending on the weather and the time of day you go. On a cloudy day or during the middle day it is not nearly as scenic as it is on a nice day right after sunrise or right before sunset (when I went). Check out some photos of Matsushima below and here for the gallery:


My favorite part about Matsushima was actually the boat ride that I took around the bay; not because of the great views but because of the seagulls that followed us around for food!



Seriously these seagulls were pretty amazing. Not bc if you held up food they would come take it right out of your hand.....


......but more impressive is that if you threw them food pretty much 9 times out of 10 they would catch it in flight........


...... but also (sorry for the run-on sentence here) the boat would make make announcements about when it is OK to feed the seagulls and the within (mili)seconds the seagulls would come back or go away (if we were told not to feed them). Anyway, I have a new appreciation for seagulls.

You looking at me!?!?!

Graduation

March 1st was graduation for all high schools in my prefecture and it was very different from high school graduation back in the states. The main difference being it was a lot more serious than what we are use to back in the states for high school graduation. It starts out similar with teachers, parents and underclassmen already in their seats and then the graduates walking in by class. They did play the same music we use in the states tho. After everyone was in their place, the names of every person was called out and they stood up when their name was called.

OK quick side note. I am not sure if I have gone over this or not, but the way Japanese classes are structured is a lot different than the states. The students are first divided by grade and then by class (so when I say class I do not mean senior class). For example, class 3-5 is Grade 3 Class 5. Throughout the school day 3-5 does not change classrooms, they always stay in one classroom (room 3-5) and instead the teachers move from classroom to classroom. make sense? good.

OK, after one all of one classes's names are called, one student from the class goes up to the stage bows and accepts the graduation certificates for the whole class. Then the rest on to the next class and so on until everyone's name is read. There was no special (or graduating class) speaker to make (or try to make) us laugh (not that I would understand what they were saying well enough to laugh, but that is beside the point...). One student did come to speak about something but I am pretty sure it was about as formal and polite of a "congradulations speech" as you could get. Then everyone sung the school song.

After this was all done, the graduates left by class again and again the same music we use was played (kind of funny that something that is so traditional would use music that I am pretty sure isn't Japanese). Anyway, some of the graduates wore masks and stuff on the way out and that was kind of funny.

One guy was wearing a chicken mask, but took it off before I could take the photo.

Waiting for the graduates.

Walking in

Receiving the graduation certificates.

Finding a Niche

It should come to no surprise that my city (pop. of about 60k) is not exactly the most happening place in town; however, last November or so a new darts cafe/bar opened about 3 mins from my house called, "Niche." Up until this point of my life I have maybe played darts maybe 3 times, but I decided to check the place out anyway. The food turned out to be really good and after going a couple of times the staff started to become pretty friendly with me (since it was easy to remember me bc I am a foreigner). It turns out that the owner is one of the top darts players in Japan (and is pretty famous within the darts circles) and also happens to be a great cook. When the place was not so busy he taught me a little bit of how to play and eventually gave me my own set of darts (a set that would cost me about $30) and in return I gave him a book of my photos. Actually now, it is starting to become pretty popular around here bc of the really good food and decently priced drinks. So when I don't feel like going into Sendai but wanna go out, I have my niche.

On a packed night I when I was asked to teach some English slang to everyone I taught them "peace out," as slang for goodbye. As I was leaving the whole place yelled peace out to me and gave me the peace sign!!!