Twenty-seven teams compete for approximately $5000 in cash and prizes(including a year's supply of freshly harvested rice) from morning til afternoon. What are they doing? They're bursting balloons using 800-kilo straw barrels.
The teams have to work together, pulling ropes that extend from the hay barrel, manuevering it through a parking lot and bulldozing balloons set in various places. There are prizes not only for the fastest teams, but also for the teams with the best outfits. Two of the men's teams caught my and my camera's eye. One had colorful robes, with painted samurai on the back, reminiscent of the ones I fell in love with at the Tamana Iris Festival last year and the one I brought back for Boulder Aikikai. The other were men dressed in loincloths of various colors.
The painted samurai costumes won first place.
I don't know about the loinclothed men. Ran a pretty good race though.
Getting used to being alone, or perhaps I'm just not as alone anymore. School is going very well; I can't stress how much of a relief that is to me. In fact, I feel very free.
The high school is preparing for their annual Sport's Day Festival, which means classes are practicing in the gym for much of the regular class time. They take Sport's Day so seriously here--but it's good because everyone is really focused around this time. The only way it affects me is that I have less classes this week, so I've been going down to the gym to watch.
Have also felt a opening into understanding the Japanese mindset(which I actually think is just a mindset, and not specifically Japanese). It's because of the books I found in the cubby(Thanks P). They are incredible and have been blowing my mind as to insights into the language and culture. I've been learning how important it is to say the appropriate 'set phrases' at the appropriate times. It's revealing a different way of operating to me.
2 comments:
Glad to see you're back at blogging
Wow this looks like fun.....
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