Kagura Dance and Mt. Noro Climb

I’m heading off to Hong Kong tomorrow to meet up with my parents and sister. Amazingly, this is going to be my first trip ever to Hong Kong. I’m really looking forward to seeing Hong Kong and also eating good Chinese food again. As for the past weekend, I had a fun time in Hiroshima City.

On Friday we had another English conference in Saijo (a town about an hour from Hiroshima city). We seem to have a few of these every few months. The conference went well and it was one of the best ones that I have been to since my arrival in Japan. At the conferences we had group discussions with other JETs and got many good ideas that I want to try in class. Also, during the conference, there was a guest speaker from Hiroshima University who gave a really informative talk on communication. After the conference we made our way to a local high school where the students put on an amazing music performance. It was really spectacular, with a brass band, choir, Taiko drummers and various traditional dancers. The dance was inspired by the sake brewing process as Saijo is a town famous in Japan for high quality sake. After visiting Saijo Junior High school a few of us went out and ate at the food court. Ww saw a huge Pokemon statue so we all decided to pose with it.

On Saturday Asuka and I made our way into Hiroshima to catch a local Kagura- (Japanese dance performance) at Hiroshima castle. We got their late afternoon and met up with Pete, Masato and Sally. This type of Japanese dance has really colorful masks, costumes and elaborate dances. It was awesome to watch and we all really enjoyed the performance. After leaving Hiroshima castle we made our way to a local gaijin hangout called the Shack. It’s a bar/restaurant and it’s pretty much filled with JETs and other foreigners. It’s interesting because every time you head into Hiroshima you run into at least 3 to 4 groups of JETs. Most JETs make their way into the city to hang out during the weekend and you end up running into them quite often.

We had a good time relaxing at the shack and then made our way to Round 1 entertainment center. This place is a blast I tell ya. It’s sort of like Playdium but much better. They have tons of arcade games, especially a lot of interactive ones like motion sensor games. They also have batting cages, pool tables, darts, archery, golf, badminton and lots of sport arcade games. The place is damn cheap to at about 12 dollars for 3 hours. So we had a blast playing all the different games. There was a sharp shooting game and samurai sword game that I really like. We managed to stay out pretty late and the last train back into Kawajiri is at 10:05, so Asuka and I had to got off 2 stops away from our house and then take a taxi home.

On Sunday Asuka and I climbed the local Mountain in Kawajiri. I had been meaning to climb Mt. Noro for awhile and finally managed to make the climb up. Climbing in the summer is tough as it’s really hot, so climbing now was perfect as it is cool and the leaves are changing colors. We were able to take some gorgeous photos of the mountain. We left around lunch time and it took us about 2 hours to hike up. We managed to make our way up in about 2 hours and had a little picnic at the top of the mountain. The top has a great view of Kawajiri and the surrounding islands.
This part of Japan is called the inland sea, which is the area between Shikoku and Honshuu and is renowned as one to the prettiest areas in Japan. On clear days you can actually see Shikoku island. On Sunday we were lucky to get good weather and we were even able to make out our apartment from the top.

Overall, the day went well and the only freaky thing that occurred was when I was taking a stroll in the river on the mountain. I was climbing around the rocks and when I suddenly looked down I saw two dead foxes. It freaked me out a bit. They were still preserved really well because the water is pretty cold. I figured they probably slipped on the rocks and drowned and got caught down river in the rocks.

As for Japanese factoid #10, its about “Shichi go san” which means 7,5,3. On November 15^th “Shichi Go San is marked by Japanese families by visiting shrines to offer prayer for the healthy growth of girls at age three and seven and of boys at three and five. So this past weekend we saw a lot of kids with their parents at Hiroshima castle wearing their traditional kimonos. The kids look really cute and I managed to snap a few pictures of them.

Well hope you are all doing well in Vancouver. Looks like the Canucks won another game. Still following the stats everyday over here and I’m getting my sister to bring my Naslund jersey so I can cheer while listening to the games on the internet. Have a good week and I’ll write about Hong Kong when I get back.