蒲郡花火大会 (Gamagori Fireworks Fest)

Still got that paper due and still have no desire to read the newspaper article - so I figure I might as well just write two blog entries in a row, right? Especially since I've been doing so many awesome things lately!

After my amazing Saturday in 春日井市(Kasugai), I headed over to 蒲郡市(Gamagori) to spend the day there with some friends and then hit up the fireworks festival that night. It takes place every year on the last Sunday in July (or maybe the last day of July? can't remember), and I didn't go last year, so I was psyched to get to go this year. You might recall that I also took a day trip to Gamagori with Alexis and Martin when I first got here last year. It's amazing how different the experience was this time (though both times were defo fabulous!).

I met up on the train with some friends heading over from Gifu and some of their friends, and we got there early enough to do some exploring before the sun decided to come out and kill us.

The tide was down, so instead of using the bridge, we headed over to the turtle island under the bridge, and there were TONS of adorable little crabs (or crabby things) crawling around everywhere - SO CUTE! :-) The turtle island is this adorable little island that is uninhabited and covered with shrine type things. Very natural and very Japanese, and I love! (Note that it is not ACTUALLY called the turtle island - I just keep calling it that because it reminds me of the huge sleeping sneezing turtle from the best movie of all time, the Neverending Story).

Exploring the island was super fun. There were lots of flags and cute statues and shrine things everywhere!

Why do Rachael and Abi look so perfect and well-kept while Matt and I look as if we are attemping and maybe failing to survive a windstorm?

There were also fun rocks everywhere, and everywhere we looked there were the BEAUTIFUL iridescent blue and green lizards. I totally wish it were appropriate to keep a lizard as a pet. I wonder what they eat. I can just imagine it hanging out in my room and then sleeping curled up in my elbow. Yes, I want a pet lizard. There were also some extra large scary lizards, though. Like the little dude to the right. Click on him to make him bigger. If you want a picture of a pretty lizard, , check out Abi's blogging of the day!

Me being rather monkey-like and Abi being a dancer, we couldn't help ourselves and just had to climb out on the rocks. There was one that looked like a duck-billed platypus (which I apparently also noticed the last time I was there)!

Abi's got a nice version of the pictures from all three of our cameras put together. Check it out - mine's super boring compared to the other two.

After exploring the island, we found some shade and ate lunch. The sun was so strong, though, that we might have all gotten sunburnt despite the shade and the spf 45/50 sunblock. I was wearing a unicorn necklace, and I was hoping for a unicorn burn on the chest, but no go. :-( In order to escape the sun, we then headed over to karaoke. Being with two Japanese guys and three Americans all capable of singing, I had NO PLANS of actually singing anything myself. Somehow, though, when I get into the dark room with music, I can't help myself, and I destroy everyone's ears with my inability to sing.

In front of the karaoke place, there was a hair salon, and there were all these really creepy practice heads just sitting outside in a line.

I made a new friend!

Karaoke done and the sun setting, we headed back over to the beach for the fireworks! We sat right on the water with an amazing view!

The fireworks lasted an hour and a half and were すごく迫力　(i.e. super intense - somehow it sounds more powerful in Japanese)！ They counted down with fireworks in the sky - it was amazing!

Getting home after was a bit difficult because of the CRAZY amount of people at the station, but we managed, and all in all, it was a FABULOUS day! :-)

I kind of love onions

Last weekend was, once again, kinda crazy.

Last Friday, our class had a Bar-B-Q on the beachish thing by the river (the same place Martin and I discovered while biking and then where Martin, Alexis, and I hung out last weekend).

back:Uri, Alexis, me, Martin, Chin, Yo
front: Andrea, Matan, Ken, John, Ii

It was, oddly enough, the first time I really actually talked to some of the people in my class (other than about class things).


Don't ask what Alexis and I are doing, because I do not know.

It was a lot of fun (even if I, not at all shockingly, didn't eat anything). Someone from the class had brought a ball, so we played at throwing it around while standing barefoot on the rocks in the river. And I determined that not a single person in our class (with the possible exceptions of Martin and Matan) is athletic.

Ken's birthday was Sunday, and the bar-b-q was sort of like a birthday party for him. They threw him in the river (from what I understood, it is a Taiwanese tradition to throw people celebrating birthdays into bodies of water - I don't know if this was made up or not), and, because he was so cold, he fell asleep afterward.


Ken being tortured while asleep.

me being too cool for Martin and looking like a blue-lipped man in the process

It was fun hanging out with all the people from our class. I'm glad I decided to go, as I was sort of hesitating in the beginning.

Then Saturday morning, Alexis and I went to the special farmer's market that was in town. Onions were so cheap that I might have bought at least 15 of them. I've still got some left over! Man, I love onions! And here, they are so huge that I only have to use one.

On Sunday, Alexis, Martin, and I headed over to Gamagori. It's this cute little town on the water about a 20 minute train ride from Okazaki. It was a LOVELY day, and we had a great time walking around and exploring.


Me and Alexis with Gamagori behind us!

There was this really cool island a bridge walk away. The trees puffed out of it in a funny way, making it completely adorable and making it resemble the turtle island (that was actually a turtle) in the Swamps of Sadness in the greatest movie of all time, the Neverending Story. It was love for me.


Us with the adorable turtley puffy island behind us!


We also saw this little statue thing on a rock that I thought looked like an oversized fat duck-billed platypus. Alexis and Martin thought I was crazy.


Do you see it? If you can find it, it's really cute!


Oh, and on the walk to attempt to find a grocery store, I came across the weirdest thing.



I don't know why they decided to hang their onions out, but it was kind of awesome. I want to do it now, too!

Fabulous times were had. Can you tell that I am absolutely ADORING my time here in Japan? This weekend has been great, and I will write about it soon. This week is looking to be pretty test crazy, though, so I'm off to read fiction and sleep to prepare for it (sounds like a great review plan, right?)