Things on a Saturday

These past couple of weeks have been a little hectic, but I wanted to share what I've been doing. Through the art of photography. Through the pain of my photography skills.

We had a taiko performance. I don't have any pictures of us performing, just the setting.

Paulette (bottom), Margaret and I saw Phil (left) of for a little bit and Liz (top) off for good. Five people, three mouths. We weren't as excited about Liz's departure as we looked. We weren't crying, we were just cutting onions to make a lasagna for one.

I spent a day with an English school's summer camp. The students were preparing to help out at the Hozugawa Boat Ride (I've been before. I put up a slide show). They practiced helping foreigners and reciting Hozugawa history. Then a few boatmen from the Hozugawa came over to eat with them and play some games. This is suicawari, a game in which a person is blindfolded, spun around three times and directed to the watermelon.

They used a wooden sword to bust that sucker open. It only took four tries; pretty impressive.

Correction: Nature eats the bicycle that someone (not Paulette) never uses.

Every August 7th is Kameoka's hanabi festival. One whole hour of fireworks. They had some in the shape of sunflowers this year, which was really cool. Hanabi, by the way, translates directly as "fire flower," so if you're ever in Japan in July or August and someone asks you about "fiya hlowa" you'll know what it means.

Hanabi partners in crime, left to right: Margaret, Dara, Kim-chi, J.S. We never did find Paulette…

That's right, suckas, I did this myself! With help from Kim and J.S. One of my teachers had given me a yukata to wear to the festival, since summer festivals are when Japan breaks out its traditional dress. I turned a lot of heads in this one. Not the, "Hey there, pretty lady," kind of head-turning, but the, "What the crap? Was that a foreigner? Did she put that on by herself?" kind. There was that drunk guy and his wife/sister/wife's friend who asked to take a picture with me and Margaret, though.

Japanese yo-yo=balloon partly filled with water on a rubber band

Gaijininja=me