finally a nice day

its really scarying sometimes having to pay for everything in cash



hokutetsu train to uchinada

last couple of days

some of my 2nd graders at uchinadas summer festival

sometimes you just need to have a big mac

im walking and biking until i can get my japanese drivers license... bastards

my first year in japan is over

pre rainy season friday night.

金沢港

Rainy Season Kyoto in a Day

today was the rainiest day i have ever seen in my life. From the time i woke up at 430 until we got back into ishikawa this evening it poured rain constantly. Literally, i did not stop once, you can see the streaks of rain in some of the photos. As today was Marine Day, our random vacation day before summer vacation starts, took a japanese tour group bus from KZ to Kyoto and back. After dropping my camera and putting a huge dent in it, and with the torrential rains, the pictures didnt really come out as i had planned.
e
Gion Matsuri float procession. We sat in our plastic rain slickers for the 32 of these giant floats to pass. Im told Gion is one of the 3 biggest festivals in Japan.




then went on to Arashyayama

rainy season skies

you wouldnt know from these pics, but this is major rainy season here, there are major flood warnings tonight, the police are out talking on their loudspeakers about it now. here are some of the random pics from this week

i stumbled upon this new park in downtown

fire and violence festival 2

ushitsu-machi on the eastern noto coast held its' annual fire and violence festival this past weekend. the festival stems from a historical event to drive a harmful plague from the city. the portable shrines represented the plague that attacked city and this ceremony from what i understand is meant to purge the sickness from the city. they basically destroy this portable shrine by throwing it on pavement, into 2 rivers, burn it, smash it with poles, more fire, more dropping and more smashing it against things. all of this while drinking lots of sake.

at the end of the long procession they took it to the city's shrine and spun it through the fire several times scorching the sake soaked wood.


after burning it and basically beating the hell out of this thing, they took it inside the shrine said a bunch of prayers which was followed by a lot of yelling

at the end of the night the carriers rang the shrine's bells and were dowsed with more sake.

あばれ祭り 1

night

rainy season sunday