OF Mice, men, kites and sewage ewwwww

Actually there's no mice to report about really sorry sorry ... all right fine you want mice? well here's some mice, giant mutant, eating things alive mice, happy now?

This beastie is the true reason we don't have dodo's anymore.

Anyway this weekend me and a few friends took our local Board of Education supervisor out for drinks and food, the reason being he's actually a very nice guy and over the last couple of years has had to deal with my many bizarre requests and questions (example; new futons, broken door bells, sick leave holiday leave Christmas leave, err general leave oh and sewage (don't ask, actually you don't have to will mention that in a moment hmmm sewage) err and lots of general "whhhaaaa" sounds coming from my general direction) so to say I owe him a drink or two is to say the least. Anyway it went down all rather nicely in fact so much so we've all agreed on a visit to the local "Magic" bar, which is apparently not the usual magic of money disappearing from your wallet more the Paul Daniels kind, just with out the gnome like magicians and less wizbit.

Of course with the occasional nice hot weather we've been having (in between the bouts of torrential rain that is ) and with fate being what it is this is also the perfect time for our toilet to become blocked up. I won't include details but lets just say when an old septic tank system like ours (we have to use a foot peddle to flush which always confuses guests but does make you feel your driving a weird toilet shaped car) gets block "things" return to haunt you...... shudder the horror, the horror.

Anyway last time this happened (funny enough exactly the same time last year) the official toilet people (and also the people you probably don't want to stand next to on a warm day) ended up having to poke a veeerrrrrry big stick down (Japan land of the high tech devices) this time was far more sophisticated as they used a giant suction machine into the tank, but not before opening it all up and showing T.O.H the blocked pipe section which I presume was an attempt to encourage us to flush more, a bit like if your caught smoking by your parents who make you smoke an entire pack , but you know with more sewage. Of course it probably doesn't help that instead of an actual manhole cover ours has rusted away so much they now just put two cinder blocks over the top to stop people from falling in, oh high tech Japan indeed.

Anyway onto nicer things, well probably. This weekend saw the annual Yokaichi kite festival, possibly the only reason Yokaichi is in wikipedia, and a day full of ohh's and arhhs and the occasional OW!

Last year we saw the giant (around 80 tatami mates big) kite go up up up and then down down down, tangling itself in the bamboo forest for the next few hours, (see here for video and oh so witty comments)
Well this year despite the storm clouds on the horizon and the crackle of the pylons nearby thankfully things went somewhat smoother sailing or plainer flying (what ever you'd call it) and most kites actually achieved full take off. proving lots of ohhhss and arhhhhs indeed.

The big kite itself presumably the kanji on it reads "don'tfalldaon'tfalldon'tfall PLLLEAASEE DON'T FALL"

Everyman man, women and child and dog got in on the hot kite action

As you can see for some people the kite flying was just too much excitement.








On the right the often seen species of Japanese "photo man" seen wearing his traditional garb of fishing hat, waistcoat and a photo lens that's almost as big as he is.






Here he is keeping a couple apart BOOOOO!!!

Here's we have a gaggle of photo man presumably locating their prey and circling RUN YOU FOOL RUN!

Below we have the grand moment itself, one of the largest kites in the world actually managing to take off, while the chosen young ladies at its base fan for all their lives ( I presume if it doesn't fly one of them will have to be sacrificed...well that's a guess anyway) Also not seen about a 100 people holding the kites string below running frantically left and right.





So there you go a grand day out indeed now, I'm off to the local river with a piece of paper and some string cause that's all you need. Well according to Mary Poppins it is anyway.

Kites kites kites, did I mention the kites? My weekend part 2

So after the prison food and mushroom madness Sunday was more of a casual affair, it was on with the hat, shades and suncream and off to Yokaichi to watch the kite festival. Without doubt the Yokaichi kite festival is on the biggest things to hit our small area with bus, train and bikes full of people arriving to watch the displays, eat from the many many ohh so many hot dog stands and be prepared to run when one of the large kites goes rouge. (Oh and for some reason the computer keeps moving the pictures around, I daren't move anyhing in case they are deleated please bare with me and sorry!)

This is one of the large kites entered into the competition, the rules of which I actually don't know, but I'm guessing it involved flying the kite and attempting not to decapatate anyone (most kites achieved one of these things.. but I'm not saying which one)



Lots of people young and old arrived with their own kites, the sky was full of paintings, insects, birds and errr cows.

This is one of the many chain kites that littered the landscape.


This mans kites (on the right) had the same pattern as his Jimben


Click here for the full album from Picassa

This is the grand display, featuring what I think was possibly the biggest Kite in allllll of Japan around 200 tatami mates big, if that doesn't mean anything to you (and frankly if you don't live in Japan it probably mean nothing) our living room is six tatami mates if thats any indication of size.




This is the crash site of the giant kite, stuck in a the nearby bamboo forest. Oh and thats not the giant kite on the right, the actual giant kite was about 3 times as big.



This man is beginning to realise that when the shadow on the ground gets bigger and bigger you should really begin to run.

And finally click on the fish kite below to go the album. Whilst the video below is the awesome display that no one seemed to be watching except for us, you can hear how loud the wind is throughout.

There's a fire in my haaart for you

In between bouts of stomach cramps, preparing school work and attempting to edit a huuuuuuge blog about animals I've uploaded the photo's from last years April Fire Festival that introduces spring (In the form of a massive pillar of fire, the only true way there is).

We did intend to go this year but as the previous B day post shows we were distracted by the promise of Sake and stomach meat hmmmmm (although frankly I'm distracted by shiny thin......ohh shiny)

T.O.H is off to Osaka today and I know I should be busy cleaning the house, practicing my Japanese, fixing the heated table (over worked I think) and carrying on with my printing but I think I might just spend most of my days slouched in the corner starving but still unable to tear myself away from playing Super bomberland touch on the DS....
Anyway click on the picture below for more fire festival...

Yet another Fire festival, 2006

Looooooong weekend

Yep it had to happen the end of my B day boooooo still I've managed to have rather a nice weekend, and one of those nice ones where everything happens by chance (although its actually a giant well organised scheme by T.O.H).
Let's see if we can go back over it in a scooby dooooo style .....
(Best if you imagine me staring up at the ceiling whilst the screen goes all funny.) blboboboboboboboboboobbobobobobo

Birthday Friday morning saw me surprise the other half with 360 folded cranes I had made for every day of marriage, I had intended to make a thousand but after the first 20 took me about 2 days I slightly narrowed my intention, although I can now fold cranes in my sleep and it has taught me that I will never mock my students paper folding abilities ever again. Click for more images of my folding technique

click image for the album Cranes

Friday night saw me, The other half and some friends go out for a nice meal at a local restaurant. Here's a picture of me admiring the giant golden egg outside. Although it does look more like I've just given birth to the one behind me...ouch.



Saturday we decided to stay in, cook a biiiiig bowl of ramen and watch Peep Show (The comedy series not some sort of weird B day present!!) well that was the plan at least... until we wandered to the local shrine to see why all the lights were on, only to find a group of very very old men sitting around the fire who shared their sake hmmm and dried squid ewww with us and then occasionally wandered off to beat a big taiko drum. Like everyone in my village they were very friendly although we did catch them making a sign that we recognised as "condom" (its like the okay sign but horizontal if you need to know) which I thought was quite funny. Anyway after that we wandered around the quiet empty streets before stumbling upon yet another party going on, this time almost everyone was under 50. As I've said before everyone in my village is a big drinker so I received a pint glass of sake and they stuck some lovely stomach meat on the BBQ ewwwwww (something that manages to look and taste horrible) a few people can speak English, one wasted guy ended up trying to get me and T.O.H to bring any female friends we had as he wanted to meet an international young girl, which I think sounds creepier than he actually meant. Anyway it turned out there was a big spring shrine event the next day that we said we would attend.
Sadly no burning for this event (the burning actually happened in the nearby town, but lots of cigarettes were smoked by the Japanese men... does that count??) still it was interesting to see lots of the towns children and several young men pull/ carry the holy float around the village, stop at a shrine, and perform a ceramony, if I can sort out a video site I'll post the videos on here so you can watch for your self in the mean while click on the picture below to see the album.

From B day weekend

The best bit was when we realised that several of the drunk men we met the night before were in fact the Shinto priests. Thankfully they didn't give us any more dried squid....
Best bit was probably T.O.H managing yet again to fool me by hiding my present under the table without me even realising, and the gift? A brand new DS lite WOO HOOO this afternoon I'm off to look for new games and funny things to hang off it....

so over all not a bad B day.. now whats tomorrow??? oh yeah school boooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Fire Festival

Every year the local town holds a fire festival in which giant floats are made, paraded around town, then repeatedly crashed together, massive amounts of sake are consumed and more often thrown around and where health and safety regulations are few and far between.



The best bit comes at the end when the floats are placed in a row, everyone backs away and then they're set on fire. I managed to get close enough to make this video, at the instant the fire really caught causing a small stampede of Japanese photographers...