Seriously, why do they not just finish school now? We've got another week and a half before the holidays! It starts the Thursday AFTER Xmas. I kind of understand it, since Xmas isn't a big thing here, but all the shops are decorated, and houses are still covered in lights and all that, but it's not even a day off for the people who do celebrate it. We have to got school! ARG!!!
Anyway, as to why THIS week was pointless. Take yesterday, for example. We got to school at 8:30, and the bell went at 8:40. The teacher for form came in, said a few things that Tsumu says wasn't very important and took note of who was there and who wasn't, then left by 8:50. He came back at 12:00 to make sure we were still here, then told us we could go home. That was IT. The rest of the time, for 3 whole hours, we just sat in the classroom.
That's what most of the week's been like.
Thrilling, right?
But then the weekend started. Holy cow...
So, since I'm bad at describing what goes on in my life, from a mixture of laziness, bad memory, and the fact that I want to just curl up in bed, here's a heap of pictures and a couple videos!
Remember this? Check out what we did to it!
WITH BROOMS!
The start of the trails around the temple grounds that we parade on.
Not even Tsumu knows what this is, but it looks cool, so here it is!
Finally! I got some birds! I'm pretty sure that this is a gaitsupuri, a kind of Japanese duck.
Are you proud of me for knowing that without Wikipedia?
Another gaitsupuri, I think. Could be a ban, but I don't think they go near water... Could be wrong...
I've seen these all over the place, but never got a picture of one till now! Sorry that it's blurry, it was a bit too far away... This is a kosegi, a kind of stalk I think.
The walkway to the temple from the road. Wonderful little statues aren't they?
They're called Tanuki and are the mascot for the Gunma prefecture. No idea why they dressed them up...
First time I've seen a real dragon fruit. I've tasted it in tea but never seen one. Too bad we didn't buy it. I'd love to try it fresh sometime.
How they managed to cook a cupcake with Oreos stuck in it, without ruining the biscuit, I shall never know. But this was delicious!
Another delicious dinner last night!
OK, so today was Mochitsukiri. A ceremony for making Mochi (not to be confused with matcha, though both are delicious!) which is a traditional treat for New Year's Eve. We make a heap today and ate some. The rest is apparently going to be dried and we'll eat it at the New Year's camp.
The used these to boil water and then steamed the rice on top. After the rice was done, they used to pots to make soup. You can see a picture of that in a bit.
Once the rice is cooked, it's tipped into this big wooden bowl, and they use the big mallet to crush it into a paste.
You have to keep it wet though, otherwise, it sticks to the mallet and bowl. It turns into almost glue!
Then, when it's squished, you pick up the mallet and BASH THE HECK OUT OF IT!
Here's an idea of how tiring this can be! In the red cap is Masa, a rover/venturer leader, and he'd been doing this with us since about 8:15 or 8:30, so he was pretty tired.
Ah, the soup! I didn't much like it, 'cause it had fish in it, but I trust the opinion of others that it was good!
The group chairman gave me an official woggle and a belt buckle! They're so cool, and I can't wait to get a belt to put the buckle on!
After that, we packed up and finished by 2:00. Then we drove home, got changed, and race out again!
Tsumugi's friend was performing in a show and invited us.
We picked up another 2 of their friends and drove down to the theatre.
A nice little snack on the way. It tastes like icecream, but with a totally different texture.
a pretty sweet threatre! Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the performance for obvious reasons.
It was a dancing show. Only 3 of the songs were sung. The rest were pre-recorded songs, with amazing dancing! Even the two 6-year-olds were great in their one item!
They were all women, and 3 were dressed in male outfits for the whole show. It was really cool! two of the 'guys' realy got into it, and when they walked down to the audience, one of them sort of did that flirting wink think to a girl, who I assume (from her reaction) to be a friend.
The show was great, and I wish I could have recorded it!
We went to a sushi bar for dinner, and I ate so much... NO REGRETS!
I finally tried that dreaded Natto that Tsumu hatesso much.
It's not bad.
Not great, I wouldn't eat it alone, but with rice, seaweed and soy sauce, it's pretty good.
Some tamago sushi (egg), I don't remember what it's called, but it's a sheet of soy bean, wrapped around rice (on the right). The pea looking things are young soy beans. Delicious!
That... is cheese...
No idea why it's orange, but it's cheese.
It's pretty good, actually. It's a salty kind of cheese, so it works really well on chips.
More natto. Stil pretty good,even at this amount. It's only half full of natto. The rest is rice.
Corn and some kind of mayonaise, on rice and wrapped in seaweed. This is the best one I tried!
And on to dessert!
This is Annin tofu, with frozen strawberry bits. It's not actually tofu. It'smake from dairy, so don't be fooled vegans!
It's great! I wish I could have more...
And for a second dessert (Relax, I split it with Tsumu.) a thing that I don't remember the name of!
I'm great at this, aren't I? ;)
Anyway, that about sums up my weekend. Off to school again tomorrow!
(Seriously, though, they're just dragging this out. They could have done this sports day last week, instead of leaving us in the classroom. Same with the presentations of Tuesday, that I bet will only go for an hour or so, and the rest will be in the classroom again. Whatis with these people? I need a chance to sleep in... I' so tired...)
It's 11:14 now, so I'm gonna race off. I'm going to be useless in basketball tomorrow otherwise...
-_-
Anyway, Goodnight! I hope I made you hungry! XD
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