Last Sunday, Dan and I were picked up by a teacher from his school(Fukada-sensei) and her husband and taken on quite an adventure. They picked us up at 8:30 in the AM and took us to Otsu for the Otsu Festival. This festival involved a huge parade of 13 elaborate traditional floats. Each one was an enormous old wooden wagon thing and it represented one of the 13 spirits. They each had a wooden doll(kind of like a marianette) in the front. The floats made periodic scheduled stops where they would have the dolls move and perform for the crowd. There was lots of traditional music begin played on the floats and sometimes they would throw these rice sweets out to the crowd. It was very festive.
From there, our day only got better. Around 11:30, The Fukadas took us around the lake to there yacht club for lunch and a boat ride. There we feasted with some of the people that Mr. Fukada sails with(and has since college-everyone here has a hobby that they have done since college and that is how they met there old friends). The food was awesome. There was sushi, tempura, noodles, rice, oden- soup with tons of stuff in it, different kinds of tofu, and some other stuff. So- we ate and then headed out on the sail boat. It was great- we saw the whole area from the lake. We were out for about 2 and 1/2 hours and cruised around the southern end of Biwaco(lake Biwa). Everyone was super nice and they invited us back for a race. We are not sure if that means we will be on the boat for it.
From there, our day only got better. Around 11:30, The Fukadas took us around the lake to there yacht club for lunch and a boat ride. There we feasted with some of the people that Mr. Fukada sails with(and has since college-everyone here has a hobby that they have done since college and that is how they met there old friends). The food was awesome. There was sushi, tempura, noodles, rice, oden- soup with tons of stuff in it, different kinds of tofu, and some other stuff. So- we ate and then headed out on the sail boat. It was great- we saw the whole area from the lake. We were out for about 2 and 1/2 hours and cruised around the southern end of Biwaco(lake Biwa). Everyone was super nice and they invited us back for a race. We are not sure if that means we will be on the boat for it.
Otsu Festival
The Fukadas
Musicians on a float
Dan and I being spoiled on Lake Biwa.
The crew
They let Dan steer the boat.
A view of Otsu
I really enjoyed myself.
3 comments:
you mentioned everyone has a hobby...what other hobbies do they have??
The hobbies vary. It can be any type of sports, art, equestrian, dance, singing, sailing, you know the usuals. It seems rather intense here though. Like you only belong to one activity and you do it everyday.
Hi,
Your blog is interesting and
your pictures are great
Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy
PS Be well and enjoy your experience
Post a Comment