Doing Stuff

Hello again, faithful readers.

This weekend was a holiday weekend, specifically umi no hi, or Marine Day. Marine Day is a secular holiday that only became a national holiday relatively recently, so there aren't any traditions associated with it or anything, but people like to go to the beach, which I suppose makes sense. So, that's what I did. Actually, first I just drove around looking for a good beach and ended up driving on the tiniest roads I've ever been on, which also weren't paved and many of which ran right alongside cliffs. So, while I was driving, I had to stop to move a turtle out of the road, as there was nowhere to drive around it. I decided just to take the turtle with me, and put it in the back of the car. Then later I went swimming in the ocean. Some guy I've never met asked me where I was from and all, so that was nice.

Earlier in the weekend, there was a festival here, so I went to that. It was mostly just watching a group do kagura, a traditional dance-music-story thing with costumes. I guess it's kind of a big thing in this region. Anyway, then there were a few local tv celebrities who played music and talked in goofy voices. The one guy even shouted out some things in English, "I like MUSIC!"

Yesterday I was at a kindergarten because some kindergarteners go there even though it is summer vacation. Kindergarten hardly qualifies as school from what I can tell, anyway, so it's not like they really need a vacation. We played in one of those little kid pools, and I brought them the turtle to keep as a pet because they have all sorts of animals like rabbits and whatnot. Plus, I didn't actually want to keep a turtle. When I left, they gave me a whole box full of vegetables, partly from the garden there (kinderGARTEN!) and partly from one of the kids' grandma. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with that.