Matsuyama Odori

Well, here I was thinking this was going to be the thing I update most frequently! I hope that will be the case, once I actually get fully settled in (ie, I actually get internet at my house). My situation right now? I live on campus, at Takahashi High School, in my own tiny little house. Granted, if I had a bigger place, I would probably just get it messier. But it is growing on me, and I rather like it there.

It would be nice though, if I stopped finding dead bugs (and live bugs) all over the place. But I suppose I shouldn't complain, or be careful what I wish for haha...

Yeah, I suppose it isn't so bad. I really need to figure out a good way of getting rid of all the bodies of dead insects I keep finding though, since I'm pretty sure that cremating them would probably not be the best of ideas, seeing as how like, half of my house is made of wood. ._.

But right now, I only can access the internet through the school's computer, which is a Dell, uses an ancient version of IE, is all in Japanese, is super slow and sometimes doesn't work. It is, however, better than nothing at all, but what this means is that all the writing I have been doing at home... goes into my personal journal, and I have really only been using the school computer for short stints, which, in my book, is not enough time to write an actual entry. I mean, I like to write and ramble on so I need a good half hour or more to write my entries. I like to think that thought went into them haha.

I also tried looking for wifi hotspots and internet cafes around Takahashi, but alas, the only place I found a tiny weak signal was across the river (a 10-15 minute 100 yen busride) at the YouMe Town McDonald's. And yeaah, I'm not that desperate. I have a cell phone (probably should have waited for the iPhone, but oh well) so I can connect to mobile sites. After having an iPhone... oh man, it's such a difference! Mobile sites totally suck lol. Full pages ftw. I keep getting errors on the silliest things (like wikipedia searches) and they're all in Japanese, but I'm fairly certain that they are telling me that sorry, can't access this site on your mobile. Lame.

I can check my email though (gmail anyways, not mobileme unfortunately) and facebook. But that is abooout it. Seriously, I almost think it's worth it to try and return the phone and order an iPhone instead, since I seriously could use the iPhone to its full potential.

On the other hand, I want to try and be a little bit more disconnected. I have been at both ends now - completely wired and connected 24/7 and completely disconnected - and while generally, I don't mind being completely wired, I feel like I'm missing out on something. Like looking up and enjoying the scenery once in a while haha.

So while I really really want an iPhone, I think I will just stick with the bright pink phone that I have. It works. It lets me do what I need to do (and nothing more). If I could figure out how to do twitter on there, that would be cool, but then again, I would probably be on my phone too much (though, I already am).

But enough about my wireless situation. I have no idea when I am actually going to get it at home, and at least I have a cell phone, so really, I have no reason to complain. On to Matsuyama Odori!

For some reason, despite my city being Takahashi (or Bitchu Takahashi for the train station name) our obon festival is called Matsuyama Odori. I have no idea why. People I ask do not know why either. It's three days long, from 7pm until like, 10something, and it is waaay bigger than even Jtown's Obon festival. Maybe the same size as Cherry Blossom, but I almost feel like this is bigger and has more people involved. Perhaps not though. They bring in six HUGE blocks of ice (that make you want to throw yourself all over and just rub your face up against them haha) and they carve them into these beautiful ice sculptures. Along the main street in front of the station, there is this booth set up and everyone, literally, joins in the odori dances. No need for practice or anything. You just watch the people with hats (they're like, official dancers I guess since they're all in groups with matching kimonos and hats) and off you go~

There are two types of dances that run for the entire three hours of the festival - the slow dance and the fast dance. They're both super easy to learn; even I was able to learn and join in.

Apologies for lack of pictures, they're all on my other computer. I haven't felt quite up yet to trying to bring stuff in a flash drive yet.

Along this other street are the majority of all the food and game vendors. It is almost like festival at home; they have hot dogs (really really long hot dogs) on sticks, they have a billion shaved ice people (some let you put condensed milk on top, which is actually very very tasty), udon (except the udon is stir fried like yakisoba is), skewered meat (so freaking tasty - more of a savory thing though, than our beef teriyaki is at home. Ours is sooo tasty but a little on the sweet side, and has bell peppers. Here is just sticks of bite sized chunks of MEAT), the duck game (but they have ducks that light up) and goldfish (ours doesn't have goldfish, but the Berkeley festival I think had goldfish) as well as a chicken booth, but theirs was flavored with garlic instead of teriyaki.

They also have french fry stalls like, everywhere. It's kind of funny actually, how many there are. There are also stalls for yakisoba, takoyaki, taiyaki, squid on a stick, kaarage (fried chicken), these popsicle things that were kind of like otter pops, castella cakes, pineapple spears, these things called hashimaki (almost like okonomiyaki wrapped around a pair of chopsticks), and my favorite, the candied fruit stands. THey have candied apples, and these really cute baby candy apples, grapes, and strawberries. OMFG. The strawberries. I freaking LOVE those things. They're SUPER sweet and oh so delicious. The strawberries themselves are Driscoll and fairly sweet, but they are dipped in this red candy stuff that hardens so that when you bite into it, it crunches. Wow it's fantastic. Seriously, I could eat like, ten of those. SO TASTY.

Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I've also been exploring Takahashi, both by bike (I have a bike! It has given me several bruises in exchange for carrying me places) and by foot. I gotta say, while having a bike is super convenient, I like wandering around on foot a little better, since you actually have more time to really notice your surroundings, since you're moving a lot slower.

The more I explore Takahashi, the more I am slowling willing to accept that it is not as rural as I originally though (though I guess, compared to places like kurashiki it is still pretttttyyyy damn rural). I would almost say suburbs? I don't know. Takahashi is technically a city since it bears the city marker (shi) in its name. It is more like a town though, I think, since it is sooo spread out. But more and more, I am questioning our concept of 'city' and 'town' and 'rural.' I mean, I am definitely not as rural as the places I passed to get to Takahashi. We have a train station and a small department store. A bowling ally. A university.

So it isn't a village, that's for sure. But I still would be hesitant about calling it a real city. Suburbs? What the heck are the suburbs anyways?

I suppose the real question here though, is, does it really matter what you call it? It is what it is, I suppose, and I am exploring it bit by bit.

I cannot wait to put up pictures. X)