moving out

I have lived in my small little place in Agamachi Japan the longest of anywhere since I moved out of my parents home when I was 18. It is tiny but it has become my home and I was sad to tear it apart! Here are some last pictures before I took everything down. This is just the living/ bedroom the rest of it is a mess! Bye bye little place in the mountains.

gosen goodbye party

I had a goodbye party at the Torikan in Gosen last weekend. First Misael and I went Koide sensei's house to see his grandfather's samurai sword and gun. I work with the Mr. Koide and Misael works with the Mrs. Koide. His old Japanese house was beautiful.

Misael teaches the Koide kids.

Koide's grandfather who was in the Yakuza and they now call the Japanese Yoda. He was really shy to have his picture taken with me!

At the Torikan Chiharu always makes a strange face in pictures.

see

This is her duck face

The Koides

the group

After we went to karaoke.

I love Tsubo!

Yasuko showed up after work

Stayed at Misael's house that night just like old times! It was a great goodbye I just wish I could remember what we sang at karaoke.

musical reunion

Had a final party with the musical members where they gave out beads from Papua New Guinea and we all said our goodbyes. It was great to see a lot of those people again. We had spent every second weekend together for around 6 months so it was nice to have a chance to say goodbye.

Ironically I found a great club right before I am leaving. I had been there before for a techno event (which I don't like) but it was hip hop night and it was a great time!

ultimate frisbee

Ultimate frisbee was a mystery to me though I had a lot of friends who played. Thanks to Jon in Niigata city I now understand the game. He organized a get together once a month and I was able to make a few of them. They were a great time to get together with people and get some exercise though I don' t really have the stamina for the constant running of the game.

Maybe I will find a team in Canada!

murakami matsuri 村上祭り

Two years ago I went to the Murakami matsuri with my mom and had a great time. This year I had the chance to participate thanks to Naomi and one of student's parents. We pulled the oshagiri with Oomachi 大町 . Only the Murakami festival's shrines are called oshagiri which I think means big wheel. Each of the older areas in the city have an oshagiri and I think there were 19 in total. Our happi were a slightly older version of the ones that everyone else was wearing but they welcomed us with open arms. We had actually woken up at 3 in the morning to see the start of the festival which had Kubouta machi pulling their oshagiri at a run through the streets. It was quite a site but I think some of Oomachi's men had started imbibing at that time and were already drunk by the time we joined them at 8:00.

The morning Oomachi crew

We were a bit behind but started drinking almost as soon as we joined them!

Initially we were just pulling the rope in front but we were soon given the honour of doing the hard work pulling in the yoke and it was pretty hard work. They sang a song as they pulled where the leader would sing and then they all would sing in response. I learned a bit but it was pretty hard to discern. Whenever we stopped for a traffic light or short break we put the yoke down and sang a different song to the beat of our claps.

Along the way we were pulled into people's houses for beer, food, and relief from the sun. We were something of celebrities and the people were incredibly generous. Some of the houses along the route were very old, as Murakami was a castle town, and still had non-flushing (outhouse style) toilets.

Me and some of the afternoon crew. These guys are the ultimate in style here. They would probably be called Ikkeman which pretty much mean sexy, good-looking and cool. They were all too young for me though! Besides the old guy on the left :).

Their happis all have their names printed on them, it is something they do every year!

Ruu and Futoshi popped by and by that time we were sweaty and sun burnt so we decided to say goodbye to Oomachi and get in a few hours nap.

After our nap we headed over to Ruu's parents house where Ruu did our hair and her aunt (a kimono teacher) dressed us in our Yukata.

Ruu's aunt is telling her how to stand!

Then we went out again to sample the delicious festival food and watch the oshagiri light up for the night.

Met some other Murakami peeps there

Apparently this is a big no no. When you are wearing a yukata you are suppose to be prim and proper and never show your legs but...mine were sweating streams so I didn't care!

Drinkin and resting our tired geta wearing feet.

We found Oomachi again and I pulled the rope a bit though I guess it is strange for someone in a yukata to do so. It was soooo much fun though.

Met up with Aimee who looked pretty as a picture in her yukata

It was a great time and probably my last time in Murakami!