Posts tagged Tokushima
The Tokushima Cultural Festival
Oct 29th
For 10 days in October, Tokushima played host to a nationally sponsored annual cultural festival. Luckily for me, this year Tokushima was the chosen prefecture. As there were more events in that one week than a single person could ever hope to visit in a year, I was only able to partake in a few. It was certainly a nice week however. With the exception of the Awa-Odori in August, the city is very quiet for the remainder of the year. This was a good excuse for the city to come alive again. The spurt of activity was a nice breath of fresh air for both myself, and the rest of Tokushima’s residents. I’ve posted a few photos from the day Mari-chan and I spent hiking “Mount” Bizan and watching a group of old men make moochi. With the conclusion of fall and the coming of winter, things have really begun to quiet down here.
One Year Ago
Aug 8th
One year ago today, I came to Japan and watched the Awa Odori. This year, in four days I’ll be dancing the same dance I was previously only and observer. I’ve one more day of work and then the next week off. Lots of time to practice and study. I’ll have lots of photos to post over the next week so be sure to check back often!
Naruto
Jun 10th
Yet another month has passed and I’m still without an internet connection in my apartment. As far as I know, the company has my application and it is “in the process of being processed.” What that means, I will surely never know. A conservative estimate puts the installation date somewhere in the middle of the month. I promise…! when the connection is installed, posts will become much more frequent.
As far as life in Japan is concerned, things continue to go well. The most recent batch of photos come from a day trip my sister and I took to a neat little town called Naruto. Although it’s quite a small town, they’ve built up a fairly sizable tourist industry that revolves around some large whirlpools that form beneath a very large suspension bridge that connects Shikoku to the mainland. Although we apparently didn’t come at the right time to see the whirlpools, the trip itself was certainly worthwhile. The area surrounding the bridge is gorgeous and there are many nice little gift shops and museums to visit. On the next trip to Naruto, there is a very famous (and large) museum that I would like to visit. I’ve heard there is a spectacular life-size recreation of the Sistine Chapel.
Additionally, my sister is heading back to the US this Monday (June 11th), Akiko is coming to visit at some point this week and I’ve joined an Awa-Odori dance group. (Awa-Odori is the name of the traditional dance that Tokushima has become famous for within the past decade or so.) During practice, although I can only catch about 10% of what my teacher is yelling at me, it’s still a good time. I’ll be sure to have some photos posted as soon as I can. Please, keep me posted on all of your lives. It’s always good to hear from you.
Early Morning
May 7th
Early in the morning and I’ve some time to kill before I head out for Osaka. Here’s a photo of the park, river and castle grounds taken from the balcony of my apartment. This is the first time I’ve woken up in Japan and it has been quiet outside.
Hana Haru
May 6th
So after picking up my alien registration card on Friday and contacting KDDI to have a connection installed in my apartment, I found out that I will very likely have to wait another three to four weeks before things are up and running. For the next month therefore, I will still be relatively out of touch, checking email and updating only sporadically.
A few weekends ago, there was a nice little festival in Tokushima. Although the official name was the “Hana Haru Festa” I’m convinced it was in fact a festival. Really good food, interesting music, and scores of young kids competing in a hip-hop competition (there were also the Awa Odori dancers, but they make appearances at every event worth of note in this city); it was quite a festa. I posted some pictures from the “festa” as well as the trip to USJ (Universal Studios Japan) and Osaka.
If any of you are in the area, be sure to look me up. Akiko, when will you be making an appearance in Tokushima? Is that still in the works or have plans changed?
