You don't even have to say it: I already know it's been more than a month since I've posted an update. Truthfully, something has been post-worth each weekend and every Sunday I tell myself, "I'm gonna write a blog about that!...Tomorrow..."

So here I am, many tomorrows later. 

First off, it's July. In America this means: no school, BBQ season, camping season, vacation from work, 4th of July, fireworks, swimming in the river/lake/your preferred body of water, day camp, mosquitoes, amusement parks, tank tops and shorts, iced coffee, and weddings. 
In Japan this means: life goes on as usual, it's just 94 degrees every day and probably a chance of rain. There is no Independence Day celebration. No fireworks. No iced coffee, and no shorts or tank tops because we're all still working. There are, however, plenty of mosquitoes and spiders to go around. The 3 Wakakusa girls decided we couldn't live without a 4th of July celebration so we planned a little party, inviting everyone we knew. It ended up being a marvelous success! Some of our American friends from the big city took the train in, and many of our Japanese friends came too. We found some dilapidated grills (Japanified of course) and BBQ'd our meat given to us by Enchou Sensei. It was delicious! We tried to make some American summer food such as cheese cake, deviled eggs, and chicken cabbage salad. We played relay games, water balloon volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and an old-fashioned water fight with water pistols from the dollar store....and buckets of water. It was the one day without rain (yay God!) and we had a marvelous time even without the fireworks. 
You'd think that being so close to the land of inventing fireworks, Japan would import a plethora of these magic sticks. Nope. You only see the big ones at public events. The only thing for sale is sparklers and bottle rockets...it's like being in California. These people need Reservations!
Next: Umi no Hi
This is literally "Ocean Day" and is a national holiday. Falling on a Monday, everyone partook of a 3-day weekend. Most Japanese people take this opportunity to go to the ocean (surprise, surprise) but because of the radiation accident things have changed. I decided to set up a girls day at the lake, and several of us ladies took our towels, books, and sun block and rode the train out to the lake. We ended up with an hour to kill at a train station transfer and I taught a mini salsa lesson out on the platform. One of the girls taught a belly dancing lesson! When we got to the lake it was practically deserted, but sunny and warm. At the end of the day we boarded the train towards Koriyama for dinner and we all realized how burnt we were. I guess you really should reapply your sunblock within a 10 hour period. After a leisurely and scrumptious dinner at an Indian restaurant we picked up some aloe gel at the pharmacy. Pajamas and a chic flick ended the perfect girls day out. 

Having the three-day weekend made the following work week much shorter and time flew by. This past weekend involved two festivals: the yochien (kindergarten) festival at Wakakusa and the town festival which we call the taiko (drum) festival.

The yochien festival is basically cuteness everywhere...it's almost not fair. All of the teachers wear their yukatas (summer kimono) so we each bought one and followed suit. 
Picture
You can see how different, but similar they are. We enlisted a Japanese friend, Manri, to help us tie, and tie, and cinch, and straighten, and adjust, and tie again. We were also requested to do face painting for the kids. I have never done face painting in my life. I knew I'd be terrible but I did it anyways and it was very fun! I got to paint a huge black spider on a little boy's forehead...so cool. Around and inside the building was a bazaar, games like ring toss and dart guns, ice cream, juice, and a gym hosting the entertainment program. The teachers were all dressed up and led the kids in some dances they learned at school. They did a performance of a village trying to grow turnips....it's Japan, I'm not surprised. 

The next day was the town festival. One of the streets was closed to car traffic and vendors set up booths along one side. There were lots of games, and many vendors offered "service" which means they give it for free. Ice cream, fresh mochi, giant tug of war, street meat  like yakitori, yakisoba, fried chicken, and my favorite: cucumber on a stick! They were throwing these little packaged mochi out and all the kids rushed to grab as many as they could. I snagged a few out of the air and before I ate it, asked one of my elementary students what it was just to be sure. She pointed to the little scrap of paper that was included with the mochi and said, "Change." Okay. What does that mean? After a few more language fails I finally figured out that the kanji on the paper was actually a store name, and if you go to that store you can redeem your scrap of paper for a prize! I found prizes to range from candy to surgical face masks. Oh, Japan.

There was a little musical entertainment from the local bands, free bingo with whole cantaloupes as prizes, and everlasting taiko from the erected grandstand. The everlasting taiko was in fact, an everlasting beat and the players continuously rotated around to take little breaks. In front of the elevated stand was a giant circle where guys with lanterns did a little group dance. Anyone could  learn and join. I learned and joined! (surprised?) 

The weekend ended with a Miyazaki film, Nausicaa, which I heartily recommend. The end. I'm going into work early now to write term reports. Hopefully, now that I've caught up on my blog I'll be more prone to write in depth.