Ringon, Ringon (Apple Festival)

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The weekend came as a very welcome break. The first few days were so packed with sorting stuff - bank accounts, alien registration (just call me ET), introductions etc. The villagers of Takagi and my board of education had been so welcoming, but I really needed some time to chill out. Thank God for the Ringon festival!

One of the other local JET teachers picked me up on Saturday afternoon and a group of us, a mixture of new teachers, people who had been there for two or three years and some of the privately hired teachers in the area, joined together for Iida City's Ringon (Apple) festival. The city (which is actually more like a town - quite spread out), was buzzing. There were dance displays by local community groups and school children, drumming displays, puppet shows (Iida is famous for its puppets), food stalls and games. My group stuck out like a sore thumb as we are some of the only non Japanese people in the area. It felt good to talk English with the others and let off some steam. After drinking a few beers at about 7pm we gathered at our allotted space in the city centre and then followed a procession, copying the traditional moves of the Ringon dance - at this point, although it had been a sweltering day, the heavens opened and we got a drenching - but it was actually really refreshing. We moved along following the dance for about two and half hours!! Here's a clip of the dance - very catchy! I think it is something about encouraging apples to grow.

We finished about 9 and a really nice American couple, Emma and Daniel offered to give me a lift back. We were all peckish from the dancing and went for pizza at a local restaurant, which was a real treat as I'd been craving pizza and cheese for a few days. I've actually not had too bad a range of foods here - mostly Japanese, which I really like, but a few of the guys from my office took me for a Nepalese curry on Friday for lunch and it was a pretty decent curry house with some of the biggest nans I've ever seen. One of my colleagues, Kurama-san, managed to polish off about three of them.

Sunday I got up late and had a day to chill out. Re-arranged some of the furniture in the house, mooched through the cupboards (There is so much stuff here collected by all the teachers who've been here over the years - some of it useful, a lot of it junk). I wandered out to the two shops near me and introduced myself to the shop owners. The little convenience store near my house stocks a reasonable range of items and the couple who run it seem very friendly. The little fresh fruit and veg place just up the road is run by a very sweet old man who chatted to me for a while and gave me free watermelon. I admired the little bugs they sell in cages as pets for school children and bought some delicious locally grown fruit, garlic and onions.

I also attempted to cook a stir fry and use my rice cooker for the first time. The stir fry was a success but I can't figure out how to get the rice cooker to time its cokking, so I ended up with a soggy mess.....better luck next time.

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