Samurai Fest

A few weeks ago  (I swear someday I'll be better at updating this thing more on time!) we went to a festival in a town about 30 minutes away where my friend Casey and Brian teach English at a local school. I'm not entirely sure what it was commemorating, but people dressed up as warriors (they asked Brian and our friend Digi from the squadron to dress up too!) and played in a mock battle.

Traditional shoes...traditional shoes...Vans... (they didn't have shoes big enough for the gaijin!)

These ADORABLE kids from the school got up and sang their school song!

The horn blower (it was a very decorated conch shell)

we got snow cones!

Casey and her aunt who was visiting

For 100 yen (basically $1) they dressed us up in these costumes and printed a few pictures for us! It was so much fun! We attracted quite the crowd of newspaper and media photographers.

All is well here. Fall has set in, which means the weather is lovely and cool. It drops down to pretty chilly temperatures at night. The house is freezing all the time due to the complete lack of insulation, but I'm okay with that; I like a cold house! I just have to wear slippers and sweatshirts most of the time and I've been drinking a ton of tea. 

More pictures to come...Halloween in Japan up next!