A walk in Kita-Ageo

Well, I am really enjoying my work, my students are great, I'm learning lots and lots and I love it! It's such a rewarding job! :-) When I walk from the train to my work I always wish I had my camera with me there are always butterflies flying around me and beautiful flowers in everyone front garden, I decided to take my camera with me a get a few more flower shots with my new lens. Oh wait... before I did that I saw this... and just thought it was typically Japanese... Bikes are EVERYWHERE!

Saitama-Shintoshin Matsuri

I had such a great time with Charie at the Festival and the weather was perfect! We had originally planned to go there because there was going to be a flea market, but as it turned out (and it had been raining heavily the night before) only a few people showed up for their stalls. So we didn't actually buy anything at the flea market. However... there were rows and rows of food stalls selling various popular food from around the world... yuuuuuuum!

We both got some food cuz we were pretty hungry! Charie had some Korean food and I (of course) had YAKATORI... I'm a little bit addicted!!! I love it! And no... neither of us had the octopus in the photo above... When I first came to Japan this sort of thing would have totally surprised and shocked me, but now it just feels normal to see this kind of thing for sale and after I've taken the photos (as evidence!) and don't give it a second thought! I am certainly accepting how and what the Japanese do. Infact... I love it all!

We heard some drumming and we decided to go and see what was going on! We found the parade part of the festival! It was great spending an afternoon with Charie, she is so positive and excitable about anything and everything, I loved it. We kept moving around so I could take photos from different angles! It was great!

There was lots of dancing, singing and drumming going on, this group looked amazing. They all wore Yukata/Kimono style clothes but they looked like the same material that Saris (Indian ladies clothes/dresses) are made from. Stunning!!! I want to get one!!!! I'm thinking next pay day might call for a stop at the cheap yukata shop in Asakusa, see what they've got for me!!!


I took lots of videos so I won't put them on on the blog but you can find the rest on our flickr page.

There was so much going on and so much to see, and we kept moving all time so we would see something new. I am normally happy when I find a good spot to just stay there and not give it up (typical western thgoughts!), but it was pretty cool seeing the same thing from different angles... it was definitely inspirational for my photography! I love Japanese tradition dances like the one above, the movement in so slow and smooth it's very relaxing to watch... I wonder if it is relaxing to do too!

This one was quite funny to watch. It was much younger people dancing and singing maybe between the ages of 18-30, but I really can't tell how old Japanese people are, everyone looks so young! hehe,
I found this quite amusing to watch, alot more upbeat that the previous one but still such slow movement.

We had a walk around and we saw a crowd of people gathering and in the middle of the crowd was a lady and her performing monkey. I don't know whether it was cruel because he was on a rope lead but he didn't seem to mind doing the tricks... next video is definitely a good watch!

There was so much to see and do, and we both had a great day - and more photos to see on our flickr page :-)

Purikura Machines

Well, me and Fran are still managing to have cheap days off even though we have both been paid... all thanks to the rain! Hahah, It is getting cooler now, thank goodness, though when there is direct sunshine it is still about 27degrees - pretty hot! Me and Fran are both wearing trousers, jeans and jackets now which feels good!!!  I've even worn my hat and scarf a few times, but it's not quite cold enough for that just yet.

Ok. So we discovered the purikura machines! They are like photobooths, but about 5 times the size so you can have 2 people standing up and moving around in them. There are about 6 lights faceing you and a screen in the middle showing you what posses to do or what backgrounds you want to be infront of (you stand infront of a blue screen basically) then once you have taken the photos you then go and sit in the editing area and you can decorate your photos with lots of different things! You can then hook up you phone and download the photos and get them printed ALL for ¥400 (£3)

ONLY PROBLEM.... it's all written in... 日本 ... Japanese!!! Obviously! haha. Me and Fran had no idea what was going on, and weren't quick enough working it out either!!! haha. So if you go... make sure you take a Japanese friend with you to translate hehe! We had 6 photos taken (they were great too), and there was a timer and we only managed to select 2 photos before realising what was happening. Then we wondered around the booth a bit trying to work out where the photos would be printing... thinking we had been TOTALLY ripped off (we thought... we've just paid ¥400 to pose for 6 photos and then that's it!?!) only to realise a few mins later that you have to sit in the booth next to the photo taking area to edit the photos. When we had both finished decorating our pictures we had NO idea what to do next... we ended up pressing that many buttons (impatient I know!) that we now printed like 30 1cm photos!!! Well we must have pressed way too many of the wrong buttons as you are meant to get 4 decent sized photos printed!!!! Anyway, I thought it was amazing... (after getting over the initial upset of only having 1 cm photos - haha) and I'm gunna go back with Rieko and shes gunna give me the low down on purikura machines (she said they are easy to use... hmmmmmm, I guess that means we are stupid then :-p)! Then when I know how to use them... I'm going to use them ALL THE TIME! hehe. Oh also, Japanese girls are obsessed with being Kawaii/Cute and these purikura machine make your eyes really big like anime characters...!!!

Electric Storms in Saitama

Firstly, I want to apologise for not blogging sooner... I guess having a job tires you out huh! But I am determined not to neglect my blog!!!

So we had a CRAZY thunderstorm... We had the door open with the mosquito net on, and we heard it start to rain. Which was strange because the days weather had been beautiful blue skies (Japan's weather is so irratic)! So (me being obsessed with the climate/earthquakes and everything here) I checked the report on the internet of see if our area had been forecast for rain/monsoon, and our area was in red for high alert to expect severe Electric Storms, Heavy Rain and flooding... and all I wanted to do was go and stand out in it! I think it's because it was so unexpected and like nothing we had ever seen before!!! It was incredible!

The first video is from our balcony and we were lucky because we were on the right side of the building to be shaded from the rain... but me not thinking (and having no common-sense what so ever) decided to go to the corridor and open the window (which is on the other side of the building!) for no longer than 3 seconds and I got totally and utterly drenched!!!! Then the second video is from the front of my builing!