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Stephanie- Festivals and Holidays

Festivals and Holidays

I've finally uploaded and organized a lot of the pictures I've taken from the last few months, so here is a summary of a few of the festivals and celebrations I've experienced here so far:

OMIKOSHI FESTIVAL
The omikoshi is a portable shrine that's supported by large wooden planks and carried the shoulders of those participating in the procession during the festival.  In September one of the Hippo fellows, Aryusha, was helping organize a festival in a city near where I live, and invited me to join. It was really fun and I met a lot of people from different parts of Japan as well as quite a few other foreigners who were visiting or living here. We all dressed up in happi coats (pictured above) and took turns carrying the omikoshi when the procession started. Even though the omikoshi is really heavy and the procession lasts a long time, it's full of energy and everyone bounces up and down and sways back and forth in unison to the beat of the drum, kind of like a march, which makes all the bells on the omikashi ring. And of course after all the hard work, there was a party to celebrate!
 

HALLOWEEN 
 
Halloween is a much more low-key holiday here, it's not really celebrated like in the U.S., but at the beginning of October you start to see all kinds of Halloween themed treats and decorations in the stores, which actually surprised me, though they lack the scary, gory aspect and are instead super kawaii (cute). My Hippo club had a Halloween-themed meeting where the kids went "trick-or-treating" around the room to the adults with candy and my host family had a Halloween mochiyori (potluck) at our apartment to celebrate.
 
I had brought a set of face paints from home and asked the kids if any of them wanted their face painted. At first they were all really shy, but once one of them volunteered they were all eventually lined up waiting for their turn. I had to stop after about an hour, when all the space on their faces was pretty much used up anyway.  It was fun because they got really excited and were super adorable, and it was a good way for me to be able to interact with them without necessarily having to speak much of the same language. It was also a good learning opportunity for me; I learned new words like kumo (spider) and koumori (bat), and zonbi (zombie), which may turn out to be very useful someday, you never know!
BIRTHDAYS
In October my host sister Azuki turned 11 and we celebrated with a birthday dinner at our house, complete with lots of good food and a birthday cake. I was a little surprised by the cake; cakes seem to be a real specialty item here, probably because most people like my host family don't have ovens so they don't bake at home. The cake was really beautiful and delicious but it cost a lot and was sooo small!
Also, as part of Azuki's birthday celebration later in the month, another new cultural experience for me - Disneyland!  It was my first time ever going to Disneyland, and something I certainly wasn't expecting to experience in Japan. I actually didn't even know that there was a Disneyland in Japan, and it seems very American to me, but apparently it's really popular here. We went on a Monday, a non-holiday, and it was packed; there was an hour and a half wait for some of the rides. Also, at least every other woman or girl there was wearing a headband with Minnie Mouse ears and a bow. It was definitely an interesting day.
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