Nagasaki Kunchi

Some of the gifts that were displayed on the Saturday night before the festival.

One of the kasabokos.

(Dragon Dance)

The Ship of the Seven Gods of Fortune being turned.

(Seven Gods of Fortune)

(Lion Dance)

(Tounsen-matsuri)

Hon-odori the dance of Uwa-machi.

Montakoi Montakoi!

(Encore)

(Kawafune)

Last week was the Kunchi festival. It is Nagasaki's biggest festival and it only takes place in Nagasaki. The towns in Nagasaki alternate hosting the festival every seven years. The performances they give are an offering to the deity of the Suwa Shrine. The town that is in charge of the festival start practicing and organizing in June. The festivities started the Saturday before. For three hours people could walk around the shops and see the presents that were going to be given to the performers and organizers and they could see the costumes. On Wednesday early in the morning the people organizing got up uand decided at three in the morning if they were going to hold the event that day. If it was raining the festival would just be extended. On Wednesday they did decide to hold the event and everyone knew because the sound of the fireworks going off at five in the morning. On Wednesday morning I got up and watched the first performance at the Suwa Shrine with my host family. Even though it was early in the morning everyone was so excited and energetic. Each day the performers had multiple performances until late at night. As I sat and watched my host parents went through all the acts for me and told me about them. My host mom also pulled out a couple of photo albums that contained photos of when their town was hosting the festival. On Wednesday night I saw the performance live with the other two Rotary exchange students. The first act was Hon-odori dance of Uwa -machi which was a traditional Japanese dance. It was also the first dance to be offered up to the Suwa Shrine. The next act was Kawafune which means river boat. A boy cast a net to catch some fish on a boat. Inside the boat were 12 children playing drums. After the boy catches the fish 16 people pull and turned the boat around. It is supposed to show how the boat goes in the waves. The third act was Tounsen-matsuri. Children played their instruments on a ship which looks like a ship from the Chinese dynasty Tang. The sixteen men dragged the boat around and turned it to the rhythm of the music. The forth act was the lion dance. The fifth act was Shichi-fuku-jin. They are the seven gods of fortune. The band and the gods rode in on the biggest ship and on the flag on the top the kanji said treasure. The gods did a dance and then the men once again turned the boat multiple times. The last act was Ja-odori which is the dragon dance. Ten men moved the dragon while one held a gold ball which represented the moon or the sun. The dragon danced while following the golden ball. This year there were three dragons dancing which is unusual many people told me. While the dragon was dancing there were people playing the trumpet, a gong, and a drum. In between the performances there was a dance of the kasaboko. Each town has their own kasaboko. On the kasaboko it has the towns name, decorations representing the town, and cloth draped on the sides of it. Every kasaboko is really heavy and there was only one person underneath carrying it. Since the people underneath couldn't see another person had to guide the others underneath with a flag. The festival lasted until Friday. On the last day my host family took me to where some of the acts were walking around such as the boats being carried and the children playing their instruments and then occasionally they stopped and did their performance. The seven gods of fortune came around to each store and blessed it. It was so cool to see their costumes up close. I couldn't believe how extravagant the festival was and can't wait to attend more festivals. The people of Nagasaki love festivals.

My Birthday

Me in my new boots at the Russian restaurant.

(In the background is my host grandmother.)

My birthday did not really feel like it was my birthday. When I got to school many of my classmates wished me a happy birthday and one of them gave me a little present which was some chocolate. At lunch my classmates sang happy birthday to me. The day ended with my host family taking me out for Russian food. It was very interesting. I had bread, borscht, buckwheat porridge, mushroom salad, Russian tea with jelly in it, and pasta with peppers and garlic. It was very delicious. Then for dessert I did not have cake and instead I had a dark cherry tart which was still really good. However I did not get to blow out any candles! My host grandmother gave me some money to buy myself a present and my host parents bought me some boots. They were both wonderful presents!

Silver Week

At the arcade playing the drums.

Purikura

Purikura

From Saturday September 19th to Wednesday September 23rd I had no school because of a holiday and it was called silver week. On Saturday I got to rest. I did go out to lunch though for soba with my host family and then I went to the DVD and bookstore to get my own card so I could rent DVDs whenever I want to. On Sunday I got up quite early in order to pack for Fukuoka. We left at 10 o'clock in the morning and drove to Fukuoka which is another big city about two hours from Nagasaki. On the way we stopped at a rest stop. The rest stops in Japan are so much nicer than the ones in the United States. It had many street vendors selling delicious food and people playing the drums. At one of the street vendors I got my favorite food in Japan which is mochi. It is a rice cake and is really chewy. We finally arrived in Fukuoka and had to rush to get lunch because I was supposed to meet my friend at one o'clock. We went to a restaurant that served curry and it was delicious but we had to eat it fast so it was a little hard to enjoy. When my host parents dropped me off at Tenjin station my friend took me to another shopping area called Marinoa. At the Marinoa there was a huge Ferris wheel but I did not go on one. After having little luck finding things to buy at the Marinoa we returned back to the Tenjin area and went to an underground shopping mall. It was very cool. The Tenjin area had some of the best shopping. For dinner we went to an Italian chain restaurant and I took the opportunity to order pizza. After a little bit more shopping we returned to my friend's family's apartment. We rented a DVD in Japanese and watched it. Although I had no idea what they were saying I did understand the plot. The movie was based on the TV show that I had been watching so I knew all the characters. My friend's mom was a tea ceremony teacher so she made us some matcha and we had a little tea ceremony. Next we set off for the day first returning to the Tenjin area to go to a couple of stores where I had good luck buying some dresses and a hat. We then headed off to Canal City where we did some more shopping and went to see a movie. The movie was "The Ugly Truth." The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles. At the movie I had caramel corn which was delicious. They also sold french fries, juice, green tea, and hot dogs at the concession stand. When the movie was done we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. With our movie ticket we got free drinks so I had a lassi. It was delicious. I ordered naan and alu gobi for dinner. It reminded me of home. When we left canal city we were very full and tired. The next day we visited my friend's grandma who was very eager to meet me. She served us tea and some sweets from Italy. We then returned again to the Tenjin area to go shopping again before I was to be picked up. During my time in Fukuoka I took advantage of eating familiar foods! For lunch we went to Starbucks and I a sandwich and had a chai latte. At three o'clock my host family picked me up and we headed back home. I had so much fun in Fukuoka and I have many Purikura pictures to remember it by. Purikura is like photo booth pictures only better! Purikura is very popular in Japan. On Wednesday I had to go get my supplies for tea ceremony club. I met three of my classmates from school to help me get them in the morning. Unfortunately the shop was closed so we went and did karaoke instead. We first stopped by a convenient store to get food to eat while we were doing karaoke. At the karaoke place we rented our own room. It had a table, couches, and a karaoke machine. It was so much fun and a great way to help me with my reading Hiragana and Katikana. I sang a couple of songs in English as well. My other classmates knew the song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne so we all sang it twice and danced around. After I sang that song my throat hurt! We then went to McDonald's for a snack and I had mini pancakes they were really gross. Many teenagers like to go to McDonald's in Japan. We then went shopping, however, I did not buy anything. I had a great last day of break with my classmates!

Kwassui Sports Day

This is me with some of the girls in my math class.

The Eye of the Typhoon

Marching

The class flags. My class flag is the American flag.

Yesterday was my school sports day. I practiced for sports day almost every day at school for four weeks and the other girls at the school started practicing before I started school! The day started out with an opening ceremony. The only thing I understood from the opening ceremony was that they had worship during the opening ceremony. After a quick warm up the games began. My first event was jumping and I must say that I will not be going to the Olympics for it anytime soon. I only jumped 30 cm. After jumping I was able to relax for a little while and watched the other events that were going on. There was a big pants race, a 100 meter race, many club relays, races where they had to blow up a balloon while running and then pop it, and some dances from the junior high. After those events were finished the 3rd year high school students which are the seniors had a costume race and then put on a performance. The costumes were all very amazing and the performances were very funny. The first part of the first performance I did not really understand what was going on but in the end Michael Jackson came by and made everything all better. Then they danced to thriller. The second performance they danced to music and dressed up like people from the roaring twenties. In the third performance there was a wedding and people weren't really getting along. Then President Obama arrived with Michelle Obama in a limo and said "Yes we can!" He made it all better and then they danced. Everyone really loves Obama here. Many of the class flags that they made said "Yes we can!" After lunch with our families the events began once again and were kicked of by marching. My next event was the eye of the typhoon and all of the second year high school students competed against each other. We ran with this huge bamboo stick and before we passed it of to the next line our class had to jump over the bamboo stick. It is a really difficult event to explain. My last event was the dance that we practiced for so long. It was a dance to four different songs. The songs were "Rock Around the Clock", "Fly on the Wall" by Miley Cyrus, "London Bridge" by Fergie, and "Best of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana. The events wrapped up with another dance with the first year high school students and some other grade events such as jump roping. The teachers also had one event which was trying to through balls into a basket that was on a bamboo stick. To close sports day there was a closing ceremony and a few awards were given out. When the ending ceremony came to a close we had to clean up by taking down the tent and taking our chairs back to the classroom. I was so exhausted by the end of the day and really ready to go home and relax. I had spent the previous night up late sewing on my zeken which is the thing on my shirt that says my class and my name. It me a little over a hour to sew and my classmates said it only took them a half hour!

Ashura

Last Sunday I went with my host family to Fukuoka. There we picked up my host mothers mom and we went out to lunch. Lunch was at an Italian restaurants with pizza and pasta. The pizza tasted so good because I hadn't had it in such a long time! Although I have to say if I was back in the United States it would not have been on my list of favorite pizza restaurants. After lunch we dropped off my host mom at cooking school and continued to drive on to the Kyushu National Museum where there was a special exhibition gallery "The National Treasure Ashura and Masterpieces from Kohfukuji." When we got to the museum there were 180 people waiting in line. So after we got in line my host father bought my host grandmother and I both some ice cream. It helped pass the time and cool us off. finally after an hour and a half of waiting in line we began the ride up the escalator into the exhibition hall where the treasures were kept. Many people were packed inside the room. The statue Ashura has three faces and six hands. It is one of the Devas of the eight classes. It is one of the most famous statues in Japan. As we got closer to the statue we were herded around it by other viewers trying to get a look at the masterpiece. The national treasure the Ashura and the other masterpieces are usually in Nara and people can go see them behind the glass however this special exhibit was to commemorate the 1,300 anniversary of Kohfukuji temple.

Meeting the Mayor of Nagasaki

On August 31st I met the Mayor of Nagasaki. He was very kind. Many people from the Nagasaki Rotary Club came who were involved in the exchange program. The Nagasaki Rotary Club talked about there exchange program with the St.Paul Rotary Club. They talked mostly in Japanese so I did not understand a lot of what they said. When it came my turn to talk to the Mayor I told him about my hopes for my year in Japan. He said he hoped that I would make friends everywhere I go in Japan because that is how we begin to create peace. He also said he hoped I would learn some of the dialect from Nagasaki as well. The Mayor gave me a scarf with penguins on it and it said Nagasaki. It was so kind of him. One of the local newspapers was there during the meeting and covered the story. The next day the story and and a picture was in the newspaper.

My School Schedule

Monday

1st : Math

2nd : English

3rd : Japanese literature

4th : Sports

Lunch

5th: Free

6th: Free

7th: Homeroom

Tuesday

1st: English

2nd:Math

3rd: Tutor for Japanese

4th:Tutor for Japanese

Lunch

5th:Japanese literature

6th: Computer

7th:Free

Wednesday

1st: Free

2nd: Free

3rd: Sports

4th: English

Lunch

5th:Free

6th World History

7th: Math

Thursday

1st: Japanese

2nd: Free

3rd: Free

Rotary Meeting

Tea Ceremony Club

Friday

1st: Tutor for Japanese

2nd: Tutor for Japanese

3rd: English

4th: Free

Lunch

5th: Free

6th: Math

7th: E Learning