DAY FORTY-ONE: Farewells, Fish Heads, and Festivities

This Sunday was our last Sunday attending Takamori Church. Because of our Japanese studies, we were able to sing out the hymns with the rest of the congregation. We didn’t know what we were saying but we were able to sound out the words and sing them… 😉 We brought a gift for the pastor and his wife, and Mom used Google Translator to address the congregation in Japanese and thank them for welcoming us.

When the weather forecast said that we were going to have one last day of summer, they meant it. The weather dropped ten degrees overnight, and all last week and this week, we have had rain- cold, windy rain. The rain was a strong drizzle today, so we decided to brave the cold so we could check out the Isehara festival that was going on that weekend.

 

 

We saw mostly food stalls, which we had fun checking out. We got okanomiyaki,

(These ones had hot dogs cut to look like octopus! :D)

 

yakisoba, caramel churros,

 

chocolate covered bananas (these were very popular, second only to the takoyaki stalls),

 

and some other candy that I am not sure what it was.

 

There were some other stalls that we looked at, but did not buy food from. One stall was carving meat from this HUGE fish head. The head was approximately as tall as my torso, and the eyeballs were about the size of the palms of my hand. (see umbrella and hamburger for size reference)

 

These stalls were selling squid… I think.

 

This was at a takoyaki stall. These are tiny octopus, smaller than my hand. I think each takoyaki ball got its own octopus.

 

Mom got a baked potato, Japanese style! This is how they cooked their potatoes:

After steaming, I think they fried the potatoes. The vendor gave you your potato, and you put on your own toppings. Some of the topping options were butter, corn, kimchi, and some pink dressing.

 

In addition to food, we all loved watching some of the attractions. This float passed us, as we were walking down the street. I don’t know who these people were supposed to be, but their float was cool.

 

The taiko drummers were my favorite! It was amazing to watch how in sync they were! They even had a dance to step up to their drums.

*if you have trouble viewing the above video, try this link https://teamhadjes.smugmug.com/Japan-2017-Blog/n-c8Sfvn?mobile=true

 

*if you have trouble viewing the above video, try this link https://teamhadjes.smugmug.com/Japan-2017-Blog/n-c8Sfvn?mobile=true

In the end, the rain got the better of us, and we decided to head home. On our way out we saw these kids pulling a huge log, with even younger kids riding on the log. I do not know why they were pulling a huge log down a metropolitan street.

 

*if you have trouble viewing the above video, try this link https://teamhadjes.smugmug.com/Japan-2017-Blog/n-c8Sfvn?mobile=true

My favorite part was the cleanup crew, walking behind the log, sweeping up the tiny, itsy-bitsy wood pulp smudge that the log left behind. Japan is SO clean!

 

I have said before that bikes are very popular. On our way to the train station, Mom found this ADORABLE bike rack!

 

At the train station, we saw a group of cub scouts and boy scouts. Elias was geeking out 😉

We made it home, wet and cold. While at the beginning of our trip we were turning the air conditioner to the very coldest it would go, now we are turning up the heat to the highest degree Celsius that the heater will let us 😉

 

Stay warm my friends!

Hannah