戸ヶ崎香取神社獅子舞祭

This past weekend was a special treat for me as I got to experience my first real local matsuri or festival.

The matsuri is known for its 獅子舞い (shishimai), which is the lion dance. The vice principal at one of my schools suggested it a few months ago as a thing I might find interesting.

I nearly missed it though! The shishimai is only held the first weekend of June, and I nearly forgot that this weekend was the date. Luckily, many of my kids were also going and were thoughtful enough to remind/ask me if I was also going.

This was a bustling and cozy matsuri. The shrine itself, perhaps spacious on a regular day, was crammed with people and stalls selling foods and doing typical festival games.





I also bumped into quite a few of my kids since 3 of my 4 schools were relatively close by (about 15 minutes by bike). It was quite nice to see them outside of the confines of the classroom and just enjoying themselves without the restrictions of a teacher.

The shrine where the matsuri was held is called 戸ヶ崎香取神社 (Togasaki Katori Shrine). It's an incredibly beautiful shrine in and of itself. I think it's also one of the larger shrines in the area, and it actually has live-in caretakers who have clearly been doing their job.

The interior of the shrine had a very warm cozy feeling, although I may also attribute that to the smoke coming from the grills that were from all the food stalls.

The architecture was also incredible with the beautiful handwork and carvings that were everywhere you turned. If the beams weren't so high up, I would've liked to get even closer to touch the wood work.




Of course, I can't forget the most important aspect of this festival--the shishimai.

I was honestly expecting something closer to the Chinese lion dance that I grew up watching every Chinese New Year, so the fact that it was completely different was a pleasant surprise.

Since it'd be much easier to simply watch it, here are some videos of the different dances.





Every once in a while, paper fortunes were also tossed at the lions for good luck.



Besides the shishimai, there was also a dance from the maiko. It was lovely and was another great chance to see traditional folk performances.

The festival was definitely a great first experience, and it was also nice that it was hyper local. Many of the attendees had been coming here for years, and all the kids I met with said they made it a point to attend the festival each year.

Switching gears, JL also came to town, and it was very awesome seeing her! We met for dinner and had okonomiyaki.



The last time I had seen JL was when I met her and NL in San Francisco after work. This time, JL and I joked about our next meeting, which would, again, be half way around the world.

Meanwhile, it's getting late here, so I'll leave you with one more picture (it isn't food!?!?).

Till next time!

Discovering Home

Whew, the weather has been B A D.

That's right, BAD with all caps! It has been switching between heavy rains and moderate winds to summer humidity and heat here in Saitama.

The sun allows for me to take my bike out and around town though, and explore more of Misato and the neighboring towns of Yoshikawa and Koshigaya.

While I'm not a big fan of mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies that tend to come out near bodies of water, I can't deny that I'm very lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful rivers. Foster City had quite a few lagoons, but nothing half as wide as the Nakagawa.

I also found the cutest bridge to cross the Nakagawa, and it reminded me more of a shinto shrine tori than a bridge.

Right over this bridge is a mall called Lake Town. It's one of the rare places with an "outlet" although I have yet to check out how cheap their outlet items are. While before I used to take the train, if I want to visit Lake Town for a look around, I might simply go by bike from now on since the view is so fantastic.

A friend also treated me to some deliciously fantastic 和食 (washoku), traditional Japanese food. There were all sorts of items, including pickled squid, tororo (grated nagaimo yam), burdock stir fry, and more.

Having tororo was a first, and although I had seen it in other food-related shows before, it didn't look particularly appetizing. However, the one bowl of tororo completely changed my mind. It has an incredibly clean taste on the palate despite it being a bit slimy. Some research on the good ol' world wide web also seems to make it fairly easy to make, so I might try it out at some point.

Another surprising instant favorite was the pickled squid. While it did look suspicious with its limp strands of squid floating in some thin unidentified orange-red sauce, my first taste of it had me hooked. The pickling retained the texture of the squid, and the (still unidentified) red sauce gave it a salty bite, which went perfectly with the steaming hot rice.

All in all, a delicious meal with a lot of first-time dishes! I'm super happy I got the chance to try it out (*´ω｀*)

Before I met with my friend for dinner though, I managed to find the local library. I also picked up some awesome free books! While my Japanese reading comprehension is by no means up to par, I think the pretty pictures in the books will motivate me to actually pick up a dictionary.

This coming week is known as Golden Week in Japan. Yes, they call it Golden Week in Japan-ified English. It's various national holidays that fall within the same week, so this means I get a breather before I dive back into the world of elementary school education and overactive school kids.

Until then, see you next time!

Around 三郷市

These past two days have been nonstop traveling all around 三郷市, getting lost and relearning some of the most important parts of childhood.

Riding a bike.

Due to Misato's setup, there are some things within walking distance and other things within biking/busing distance. However, busing can get expensive, so for a year-long resident like me, the best option is the one-time cost bike that will (hopefully) take me wherever I need to go provided I know the way.

The yellow color makes me want to call it "Kinkin." Kin iro (金色) being Japanese for "yellow." Kinkin (キンキン) can also mean a variety of other things in Japanese, ranging from "brain freeze" to "soon, before long" to "quite cheerful." I could probably take the latter two and skip out on the brain freeze.

The bike riding itself was daunting at first. Most of the time, I had trouble starting/stopping, so I probably need to make some seat adjustments, but I managed to survive, which really says a lot considering my lack of athleticism.

T and I pretty much walked all over lower Misato in search of a recycle shop that would sell used bikes, but in the end we found a much closer option at a Japanese chain super store called Don Quixote.

Don Quixote probably has everything you could possibly need in life, including (my favorite!) a giant supermarket downstairs complete with fresh vegetables, fruits, meats and seafood for great quality.

I should also mention that Japanese mushrooms are MUCH cheaper here. It's a good thing I like them since I believe I will be eating much more of them over the next year.

The flurry of activity these past few days have included meeting Misato's Board of Education and the principals, vice principals and teachers of my four elementary schools. Some of this took place at Misato City Hall, which was also decorated with the city mascots, Kai-chan and Tsubu-chan.

T, KB and I also took care of some logistics at the Misato City Hall, and KB was kind and generous enough to treat us to a delicious bowl of karaage donburi which consists of Japanese-style fried chicken with mayo on rice. Mine also includes of heaps of benishoga (pickled ginger) because I absolutely love the stuff with rice.

And with that, I will leave you till next time!

引越

Moving is never fun.

Whether it was in to college, out of college, back home, out of home, in to Japan--moving is not fun.　It's especially not fun when you have to bother your friends and making them nearly late for work while dragging the most ridiculous luggage case known to mankind.　To ☆子--thank you SO SO much again, and I'm so sorry for all the trouble I kept causing you and K m(__)m

The only positive thing to moving is knowing that there will be a new adventure in store. There's something oddly appealing about getting lost and prowling the local area like a cat.

There's also a giant supermarket, Itoyokado nearby along with a giant mall (Lala Port), IKEA and Costco. Everything is accessible by bus, and I'm looking forward to getting a bike to make it even more accessible whenever I want it to be.

Lala Port has anything you could possibly need, from another Itoyokado supermarket to clothes, to bikes, to etc etc. They also happen to have a fancy boulangerie with its cute (probably inedible) displays.

Even with these corporate retail giants though, we also found some great deals at small locally-owned grocers. We met Mr. Hideo Hasegawa, who owns a small and cozy grocery store. Not only was he friendly, but he was happy to give us tips about how to make 和食 (Japanese food). While we were chatting with him, he even introduced us to a matcha green tea powder produced in Kyoto and let us sample a cup.

Even though Ann Arbor also encouraged the joys of buying local, it's ironic that I crossed the globe before realizing how doing so is actually a really great experience. While we have shopped at hyper local grocers before, it was really out of price factors and not so much out of a desire to support the local community. After meeting Mr. Hasegawa, it's nice knowing that doing your good deed of shopping local is not only cheaper, but also more joyful.

I'm currently hunting for a bike at the moment and tried a bike today before realizing that it's ridiculously high and I seriously need to work on my bike maneuvering skills. When did turning left become so hard for someone who wasn't Derek Zoolander?? (Lame culture joke, but I still love that movie).

じゃ、また～