Shimada festival
Trip Start
Jun 21, 2010
1
30
32
Trip End
Jul 01, 2011
Shimada, Shizuoka, Japan
Monday, October 11, 2010
Today we went to the Shimada City Festival with some friends that Becky has made during her visits to Apple chan. Chieko has provided us with information on many things to do while we are here in Japan. Every time Becky and Chieko get together she has more information for us. We are very thankful for her. She has helped us out a lot. She says that her English is not good but it really is. She is very interested in our lives back in the US and always asks us about things. She is just as interested in our lives in the US as we are in the Japanese peoples' lives here in Japan.
The trip today started by getting the girls out of bed early, dressed and ready to go right away. We left the house at 7:10AM to walk to Chieko’s house to meet them and walk to the Mishima station. The weather today was absolutely beautiful – crystal blue skies with a high of 78F. The walk to the station took about 20 minutes or so. We opted to not take the strollers since the festivals tend to be crowded and it is very difficult to navigate through the crowd. We have also decided to use this trip to try and figure out how to travel lighter than we have been. Train travel requires one to be frugal with what they bring – after all you have to haul whatever you have wherever you go. We had asked Chieko if they will be bringing their stroller for Ken-chan. She said that they would just carry him because the stroller would be too much of a hassle. She later texted Becky and expressed her concern for us since we have 2 kids and each of us will have to carry them a lot. With them having only Ken-chan they can pass him back and forth to share the load. In her text she said that "I fear your muscular pain will be great" – boy was she right. Carrying kids around all day does give one a great deal of muscular pain. Chieko is so funny.
I will have to be honest – as far as parades and festivals go this one had to be the most boring. It was very cool to see because it is something that we never get to experience otherwise but the pace was too slow and not very interesting for the girls. We didn’t feel too bad thinking this since our hosts’ thought the same thing. During the parade they kept stopping and we weren’t sure why. They would walk about 50 feet and stop for 10 minutes. It is hard to get into the flow and enjoy it when there is no flow to it in the first place. The most important thing was that we enjoyed our company very much. We enjoy hanging out with Chieko, Atsushi san & Ken chan.
While we were walking down the street we met another American. His name was John and is the president of and AquaMarine Engineering Company that does work all over the world. He and his Japanese wife had just gotten married about 3 months ago. He stopped Becky on the street and told her that his wife would love to talk to her. Their home was right along the parade route so we hung out with them for a while and talked about life in Japan. They were very nice people.
Just about everywhere we go, someone wants to take a picture of the girls. This is fun for us and the girls love getting their pictures taken. However, during this parade, this was the first time that we felt like we were being stalked. There was an older guy that kept running around and taking pictures of us. He tried to be covert in his picture taking but I was watching him because he was trying to be so sneaky. I would point to him and tell V to smile. He would look all embarrassed and turn to walk away. I think he was trying to get some candid shots vs posed shots. Chieko took our picture with some of the people that were dressed up for the parade. The costumes really freaked S out, she kept saying “NO” and trying to climb away, but being good parents we laughed and moved her closer. We got some really cool pictures. After Chieko took our pictures we would start to walk away only to have some random Japanese person ask us to please stay so they could take a picture of us as well. This happens just about everywhere we go. I have a feeling that in next years advertisements and publications for these festivals there are going to be a lot of pictures of the girls. Here is a funny question for everyone reading this “If an American in the US sees a Japanese person do they get their cameras out and take pictures?”
Some of the costumes for the festival were very cool. Others I wish I hadn’t seen. There were a couple of older guys dressed up and their costumes weren’t quite long enough. I don’t know if they intended to try and be authentic or if that is how it was way back when but I wasn’t prepared to see old man butt cheeks hanging out the back of the costume. Of course we took pictures – it was funny and disturbing at the same time. Becky was bummed because the guys were old and not like 20 something.
We decided it was time to go and eat lunch before we took the train back home. We went to this little restaurant (do I have to say Japanese??) and were told we would have to wait a few minutes while they got a table ready for us. Not a problem. Their kids were out front and they were entertaining us and the girls. They were talking to us and we were doing our best to answer in Japanese, sometimes with Chieko’s help. Have we mentioned when we go out with them that Atsushi doesn’t really talk? He is very quiet and shy, he knows English but is nervous to use it. He laughs when we talk and very rarely does Chieko have to translate for him. He will even answer in Japanese or some English once in awhile. The more we get together the more he talks. We also try our little Japanese with him. Chieko says he has a great time, he is just shy. So funny. Anyway they of course were petting the girls hair and oldest girl who was probably 8 or 9 carried S up the stairs when we went up for lunch. Imagine our surprise when they led us upstairs and we realized we were actually eating at a table in their living room. They had run out of room in the restaurant so instead of making us wait for a table downstairs, they had us eat in their apartment above the restaurant. Typical Japanese hospitality. The food was great and we had a good time. The girls love rice and are happy with that and we also had tempura shrimp and fried pork which both girls like. When we were leaving the restaurant there was a table of girls who had been in the parade and they were thrilled to see the girls, taking pictures and saying Kawaii. It was a good day and we were hoping the kids might sleep on the train. This is the point where we all realized that the train is too exciting and they are not going to take a nap. Oh well, the girls and Ken chan were great even without a nap and we all had a good time. As we were playing on the train V dropped her Pooh and said “Oh no Pooh san” that’s what they call him here, and apparently she is going native! It is funny when they use the Japanese words that they know.
