October 11 2009: Went back to the Grand Hotel....this time with friends. They just moved here in July and hadn't been introduced to the fish. You remember.....the giant fish with the VERY large mouths? (it's in an earlier blog if you've missed it.)Anyway, we all brought ample bread, thinking this would just be another quiet morning.
Oh, but wait....there's people...LOTS of people. Ahhh yes, there must be a "festibal" happening.
We joined the crowd and went into the hotel grounds. Noting along the way that there were no other Americans. Obviously not a festival that is advertised on base.The kids, Andi, Jolie and Ethan started feeding the fish and soon a crowd developed around us. I wonder if people were wondering what the crazy Americans were doing. Soon, this crazy white lady (that'd be me) started handing out bread to the Japanese children. They had a GREAT time! And all were very polite, thanking me for the bread and looking so happy. I know others do feed the fish, but I wonder if it's mostly tourists.
Jolie, Andi and Ethan feeding and posing at the same time...nobody fell in!
The festival area, out on the pavilion area. Looks like a lot of people....and it is!
The three with I guess a Samurai warrior. We don't know what the festival was in celebration of. But there was live entertainment, and lots and lots of food!Bree, the mother of the two kids, was worried about looking like a tourist, so handed off her camera to her husband, who is Japanese-American (born and raised in the states as were his parents). He said he'd be happy to take the camera, just wasn't sure what he could do about the rest of her to keep her from looking like a tourist.....she's as white as I am.
We were the only Americans there, but were definitely welcomed. Either that or they are just to polite to tell us to leave....no we were welcomed, and had a great time!
Some of the crowd.
Oh! It's lunch time! So many choices....what to get. As you can see there is fish skewered on sticks. I guess they are dried. They are definitely salted.
Or perhaps and octopus tentacle (left), mini octopus (center) or duck (right), is more your style. Ok, I had none....Garrett (the father of the two), went for the mini octopus. Yum. We all tried some....I just tried one of it's mini tentacles...it was chewy and tasted like the fish market smells. Maybe it's like calamari, just gotta eat it while it's hot, this was cooked, but no longer warm.
Cooking a big vat of something. I think it is Ramen of some kind. Whatever it was must of been good, as people were lined up (below) waiting for their portion. The line must have been over 50 yards long as it snaked all along the pavilion area.
And yes, there was some normal looking meats being cooked there. Beef and pork, and perhaps some other species of four legged animals....but to my knowledge the Japanese don't eat dog, that would be the Koreans and Chinese. So I'm going to assume that there was nothing barking in those meats.
This is just the back side of the festival. I think the pavilion always leans like that....that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Jolie, Andi and Ethan. It's great to have friends to go along on new adventures!
There were a couple of ponies out in a corral in the parking lot area. And then these two horses (uma) by one of the shrines. They were bigger than the ponies, but still not as big as some of the horses I'm acquainted with in the states.
There were other people ringing the bell. We decided to take full advantage of the moment and give it a ring ourselves. Though I think Andi tried to get in more than her fair share of gongs, those spirits must be awake by now!
Went in to a different area than I'd been before. (Andi was picking the route) Came upon another peacefully wooded area with another pond and this old water wheel. It was the backside of the modern hotel, and from our vantage point, could see into some of the rooms. We didn't look real close, as we didn't want to sneak up on anybody and startle them.
Below, a quiet pathway.
Well, that was the weekend. On Saturday night we had an earthquake of 5.2. And just now while sitting here, we had another. Or it could just be the tractors moving into position out on the road...the road is a dirt road and is being scraped and prepped for paving. I'll check in a few minutes to see if there was any shaking. I have found this site helpful in getting our info: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ just click on the area you want to go to...Also, we did have a typhoon last week. Well, it harder in the southern areas, like Tokyo and Yakota. By the time it reached here, it had hit colder waters and weakened to tropical storm status. Pretty much it was strong winds (a lot like we get in the winter) and lots of rain, about 3 inches worth. I've seen only one damaged rice field. But who knows it may have soaked the rice to much. Will have to get out this week and get some pictures of the rice fields and see if any are being harvested yet.
