Let’s Celebrate: Festivals!
It keeps raining here.
Like typhoon rain heavy rain.
Is this normal for this time of the year?
No.
Let’s all please ask it to stop raining. Thanks.
Toronto isn’t the only place with lots of cool weekend events and festivals. The difference would be that Toronto usually celebrates different cultures such as through the Filipino Festival, Caribana or an Italian Festival, while Japan usually celebrates their national treasures , tradition or a holiday with their festivals.
Tsukumi had a fan dance festival on Sunday, August 25th. It was supposed to be on the 24th, but because it was raining all day and the festival was outdoors, it had to be postponed to Sunday. Tori and I were dreading the festival because it meant that we had to perform a dance that we had about 30 minutes to practice and potentially falling onto our faces while in our yukata. Although the ground was a bit wet from rain, it wasn’t so bad because we were surrounded by many other dancers and we were able to fake our way through the entire thing 🙂
Usuki had their Stone Buddha festival on Saturday, August 31st. Usuki is only one train stop away! So for 230 yen, in about 10 minutes, you’ll find yourself in a much busier place. The ALTs from Usuki and I went to a cute coffee shop before going to see the Stone Buddhas and the lighting of the bamboo lanterns. It had been raining all week and even all day. Despite this, the organizers of the festival decided against cancelling and decided to continue on with the festivities. The area was fairly empty because it kept raining, but thankfully for us, the rain paused for over an hour to let us walk around and enjoy the evening. I think that the smaller crowds made it much more magical! Here are some cute photos of the Stone Buddhas, some of Japan’s national treasures. Usually you have to pay to see them, but it’s free entry during this festival or if you’re a resident of Usuki.
Tsukumi had a tuna festival on Sunday, September 8. It was an extremely hot, humid and busy day and we didn’t even get to eat tuna. But I was happy to finally see the sun and it was nice to see that people existed in our town! I didn’t take many pictures because I was a little grumpy from being hungry… but here’s a picture of the delicious tofu/soy strawberry icecream that we enjoyed! I also ate some pizza which was actually better than I expected. After, we went to the beach and enjoyed the cool breeze.
Sorry for the lack of posts! I’ve definitely been slacking recently, but I do have a ton of content to share. Until the next post, which is probably going to be really soon…
Love,
Carole