Another Festival

They say September is "festival" season in Japan, and it is easy to see why. This month has played host to a shrine festival, a village (fun) festival, and three holidays: Respect for the Aged Day, Autumn Equinox, and one whose name escapes me at this time.

The festival this past Sunday was simply for fun - no religious purpose whatsoever. Vendors from all over Hokkaido came and hawked their wares from booths set up outside the Community Sports Center. The festival was planned for the village park, but the weather was uncooperative. Never daunted by rain, though, the festival was simply moved to the Sports Center. The Sports Center is a very large building which houses both an indoor pool (unheated, unfortunately) and an indoor baseball field. This group has obviously been through this routine many times before. The floor of the baseball field had been covered amazingly well with many, many blue tarps, all of which had been taped together with duct tape. Along each side ranged boothes operated by local organizations selling various food items or gifts. There was even a booth whose sole purpose was to engage people in a simple game of chance which would result in a prize of candy or gift coupon for shaved ice, cotton candy or other small gift.

The events opened with several presentations, which I cannot, unfortunately explain because my Japanese still stinks. Afterwards, a very sharp-looking band from Sapporo performed. Seems they are the Sapporo Police version of a Navy Band. They travel from place to place playing and performing dance routines. None of the musicians are actually active duty police. They put on quite a show, including "Chatanooga Choo-Choo".

The young girls you see here are all but two of every single girl that attends Nishiokoppe Middle School. Don't be misled by the absence of boys. This is not an all-girl band on purpose. For some odd reason, no boys are in the brass band. So, instead, the band is composed of six of the eight female students. The attractive woman acting as thier conductor is the middle school's music/art teacher. She is very kind. This coming Sunday will be the middle school's culture festival. This is a BIG deal, with a huge amount of preparation. In fact, I have no English classes at the middle school this week so they can focus all their energies on getting ready. Students and staff alike will practice on Saturday, and spend the whole day on Sunday performing music, plays, and more. In return, the middle school has no classes on Monday or Tuesday next week. Can you imagine that? Comp. time for students and staff at just the middle school? Wow! That would never fly in America, eh?

The final "event" before lunch was our introduction. I'm not sure why we needed to be introduced. Again. But..okay. I made Kurata translate for me this time, so it was not very stressful. As lunch began, the large room undertook a transformation. People began to move the long pieces of styrofoam used for seating around and forming square sitting areas. Earlier, dozens of hibachi grills had been started using blow torches. As they were now buring quite well, the "grill crew" began to bring them in, placing them in the center of each newly formed seating area. Everyone then opened what food they had brought or puchased and slapped it on the grill. Most people bought packages of prepared food sold at the entrance to the festival. You can see in the photos that the food included a fish, a scallop in the shell, several shrimp, various kinds of chicken, and a bit of thinly sliced beef. It was really quite the feast, especially when you add in all the extras that were for sale. In the photo, you can see Mr. Kanou's head (down in the left corner). He bought lunch for all of us, and his wife took charge and cooked all the food. She also filled us up with bowls of soup that she purchased, azuki bean filled pancakes (small - about 1.5 in. across), and a gift of sashimi from one of my students. I'm afraid I just couldn't bring myself to eat it, though. For those of you who don't know, sashimi is raw fish. No thanks. I shared mine and Aaron loved his.

At the end, I was asked to don one of the festival coats worn by the village assembly and other head village employees. Each village organization has a coat they wear for festivals and such. The one the village assembly wears is green and white, with a salmon and a Holstein cow on the back. I have no idea why. Anyway, I got to go up with the men and throw mochi to the crowd. Mochi is, basically, a lump of very glutinous rice with little taste and a texture reminiscent of playdoh. People here love it though, and grown men and women were yelling at us, trying to get more. What a riot!

Check back tommorrow for the scoop and photo of Ridge's new bike!