Aki Matsuri (lit: Fall Festival)

Hey folks, the Hirosaki weekend posts took a week to get up cuz of all the classes I had (still no internet at home except for on the iphone... which I can't make into a hotspot unless I jailbreak it... it may come to that...)

Anyhoo, ever since going back to Shichinohe, I joined Tim and David (fellow ALTs, but both are from California) and started some informal Taiko drumming lessons in the Shinmatchi neighbourhood of Shichinohe. Good times were had (I shall add a picture of the shed we were practicing in, I just forgot to load it on the flash drive) a super busy weekend resulted from it!

Thursday, September 6th, all the neighbourhoods gathered in town and competed (I'm not sure what we were competing for... but we got lots of cheers for being the group with the most gaijin... however that didn't get us enough points to win. Maybe next year.) After the winners were announced, a much better taiko group performed and put us all to shame.

Suited up and ready to smack some skins!

Muuuuch better Taiko group

 Friday, September 9th, after finishing teaching at Kamikita JHS, I booked it back to the office, got changed and then rushed to Touhoku-machi to join Joseph and Chelsea in the Aki Matsuri there. Chelsea and I got all bound up in some form of traditional manner (wrapped up like a mummy so our boobs are all smooshed flat... they even stuffed a towel over our stomachs so we seemed even flatter... baffling) and helped carry the portable shrine.

CC, Chelsea and Joseph.

After that... it was time for food and drink. I had been constantly reminded during the day that I could not imbibe of alcohol (you can't get behind the wheel even after one drink out here) but instead of letting me drink water, like I asked, they kept giving me non alcoholic beer. :P
At least the food was helluv good.

Saturday, September 8th. Tim and I went down in the afternoon and watched some of the festivities, including Christina dancing along with Shichinohe HS, Tim's elementary school students dressed up like One Piece characters (SO FUNKIN' CUTE!) and some Carnival type dancers who took a wrong turn at Albuquerque... There were also these little fellahs:

Joseph decided he wanted one (or two, but finally decided on one) for a pet... as he was trying to choose which, the fellow kept offering cooking tips...

Took a nap in the afternoon to rest up for the big evening:

Tim, David and I

We had a blast alternating between pulling the float and riding around on it pounding away on the Taikos. There was a post-festival party, then a post-party-party at a karaoke bar where shortly after we arrived (I'm talking... like... 1 minute) one dude was being stripped of his clothing while singing. Had lots of fun singing along to Queen, Muse, Green Day and Weezer. Woot woot!

Sunday September 9th,

Surprisingly hangover free (yeah!!) got up and ready for noon where we got changed into the same yukata as the night before (:P) and headed up to the top of a seemingly never ending hill only to be greeted by our team, food and (you guessed it) BEEEEER! Nothing like a liquid start to your day. After feasting and drinking (I don't think I can go back to pulling floats without a buzz :P) we pulled the floats down the big hill (and around in a few circles). Thankfully it only down poured at the end... it really came down on us while we were drumming. While I'd been cursing how heavy the yukata was while it was muggy and gross, I was pretty glad it didn't go see-through. After going home and getting cleaned up and dry clothes, we went back to the meeting place (no, really we were based out of a building called the 'Shinmatchi meeting place' according to the kanji... that Tim or David read to me... ) and had more food and good times relaxing with the team.

Yeaaaaaaaaah up to daaaaate!