Blogs from Iwate, Japan, Asia - page 3

As you know Japan is known for its famous festivals which you can find just about in any town in this country and nearly every weekend! Morioka is host to a few major festivals every year. The latest matsuri had women, men and children all dressed up in colourful outfits, parading down the streets with portable shrines and colourful floats all to the sounds of taiko (Japanese drums). The floats we’re so big and you could see that so much detail went into each one. It was hosted down Morioka’s main street Odori. Afterwards we made our way to the local shrine where they had a small fair, where you could buy all sorts of traditional Japanese foods and play games like “Kinyo Sukui” where you win as many gold fish as you can catch! (It’s ... read more

This is Morioka’s most famous ‘Matsuri’ (festival) and it has to been seen to be believed. Hundreds of locals and gaigin alike form groups and parade down Morioka’s main street - Odori. It runs over 4 nights of singing, dancing and playing a memorizing tune to the sound of banging drums. My best-friend Renee arrived in Morioka on the 2nd of August and stayed with me for nearly 3 weeks. The night we went to the festival was on the 4th. That morning we all woke up packed a bag and headed to Okasans. (My extended family) Megan came with us that day too. We arrived at Okasans at 2pm where she filled us up with her famous cooking and got started on getting us ready for the festival. She was going to dress us in ... read more

My weekend was spent with Megan in her local town Kitakami. I travelled down on the local train which takes around 50 minutes from Morioka. Saturday night was spent at Crayon Karaoke Bar. A few Gin & Tonics later I found myself learning the art of Japanese Samurai Sword fighting with a few drunken locals and I’d have to say from what I remember I was pretty good! Megan and I stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning but not before stopping at the local Lawsons for some munchies. Can you believe I left my purse in the taxi and didn’t realise until minutes later when I had the taxi driver in the shop handing it to me! I couldn’t have thanked him enough, but I think he just wanted to get back in ... read more

The weekend we arrived in Iwate was the first month of spring so there was still plenty of snow around. A Japanese teacher Megan met in Kitakami - Yuki, offered to take us along with her friend Harumi and son Cougar to Geto Ski Resort. How could we refuse! I for one had never seen the snow before so I was thrilled. We were picked up at Megan’s apartment and headed for the resort, only a short ½ hour car ride away. I was like a kid it was so unreal, I couldn’t believe I was in Japan looking at and touching real snow! It was SO white and it looked like clouds there was so much of it everywhere all I wanted to do was make a snow angel and build a snowman. I kept ... read more

I have always understood the logistics of there being snow somewhere in November but I never thought I would actually be in a place to see it. North Carolina is a pretty hot place and snow is few and far between. It snowed this weekend. Sendai didn't get all that much but I was still around when I got up on Monday morning for my little excursion to Hiraizumi. Hiraizumi is in Iwate Prefecture; which is directly north of Miyagi. There was at least 3 inches of snow on the ground when I got there and there was flurries on and off all day. To top it off it was below freezing the entire day and I was walking around with wet jeans from the snow. I almost didn't get out of bed for this trip. ... read more