Snow Festival, etc.

Soooo...I went to the Snow Festival! That was a long time ago. We went the very last day though, so the snow sculptures were dirty and not as nice looking, but as soon as it got dark and the lights were put on them it was much nicer.

Here is the "Snow Train," which is a series of inner tubes being pulled behind a snowmobile thing, whatever they're called. I was sitting in it here.


This is me in the entrance to one of the Kamakura. There were rows and rows of these igloo things, where you ordered food and carried it here and they had tables and grills inside for you to cook.


Inside


A lion.


Some people I was with sitting on one, pretending to listen to a very emphatic preacher. Even the Japanese people that didn't now what he was saying were laughing.


An elephant.


The big structure where everyone gathered later to watch the fireworks.


The fancy dinner my host family took me to. (See: Parking) There was one time during dinner though, where my host mom said something along the lines of, "Oh, so you drink coffee now? Yep, you're officially all grown up!" But...I always drank coffee. This really annoyed me.


The slumber party at Rylan's. He has a pretty big place, so we managed to pull out five futons (why does he have that many, anyways?) and cover the entire floor with them. Goodbye tatami, hello Giant Awesome Bed!


My friend Yuka took us to Jumbo Market, where they sell lots of foods for cheap, but only on the weekends. There was this incredible line lined up for this guy selling curry out of a big steaming pot.



When I got there, I immediately got some skewered chicken. Then we walked around a bit, and saw this guy gutting a tuna for sale. Not very appetizing.

Here a girl that was with us is holding up liquor with dead honeybees inside. Yum....


And Elizabeth with her head next to...I forgot. But I see the word "Bee" written on it, and it's being sold for $44.


Yummy delicious grilled cake with sweet bean paste inside! Yay!


After getting home from the market, we made nabe. It was so good! Here Yuka is making the dough stuff we put in it.


The nabe pot.



Also, last Friday was our graduation. It was so crazy! Lots of sitting down, standing up, it was like we were at church, only everyone had to do it in unison. And lots of bowing. And lots of speeches. The kids also sang Hallelujah, which I thought was hilarious. Oh, Japan. Some of the girls also started bawling during some of the other songs. I thought it was silly. Nobody's moving away! But, I am also coldhearted sometimes. None of the teachers cried though. It was all business as usual. Not really, because they were wearing kimonos, but you know. Afterwards we went to the hotel where the emperor stays when he comes to Morioka. I forgot to ask how often that is though. Probably not very. It looked like any other fancy hotel to me, though. Anyways, we had lunch there and some delicous ice cream, and I sign a million yearbooks and had a lot of pictures taken. The kids were allowed to relax a lot there, so they took off the top jacket of their school uniforms, and I could see which ones were going where, whether they kept their clothing neat when not being yelled at to do so constantly. Some of them stayed pretty presentable, and others were wearing really baggy shirts underneath and let their pants hang down, just because they finally could. It was really strange to see kids that every day looked exactly the same in dress, and were finally able to dress how they wanted, and how much that was probably indicitive of where they would be in a few years. They always looked just like students to me before, and when they let it all hang out some of them looked like people I wouldn't want to talk to in the street, and much older than before, not like the kids I hung out with everyday. But I am going to miss them. I was only with them for two semesters, but the older kids had the most developed personalities.

The new students come in on the 4th, and then the next school year begins.

And, on Wednesday, I'm going to Korea!! Yay!!