Thursday, November 04, 2004

Ibaraki Christian Culture Festival

Just in case you folks were worried that I am working to hard out here (ha ha), yesterday was yet another national holiday! This time it was Culture Day. Since I haven't actually celebrated any of the holidays so far, I thought I should celebrate this one. So yesterday morning some lovely ladies and I met up and went out to Ibaraki Christian University/High School/Junior High's culture festival. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be great fun. Several people from the Taga church either attend or teach at the school, so we wanted to show our support and head on out there. I think the best way to describe it would be as a carnival. Each of the homeroom classes had booths set up with different games or foods. One of our friends was performing in the hand bell choir so we went and saw that. Some students who visited Abilene Christian University this summer performed some of the devotional songs they learned. I got to make a balloon animal, although it did turn out very poorly. Overall it was a great day and I'm so glad I went. To make things even better, the weather was completely cooperative and beautiful!
Oh yeah, here's one little tidbit from today to help demonstrate a strange part of living in Japan. Sometimes you'll hear foreigners here say that they feel like rock stars. That is not some kind of ego trip, it is just fact. For example, one thing that happens is that people like to take your picture. Today as Judith and I were standing around eating lunch, a little old man with a camera about as big as he was got up pretty close to us and stood taking our picture for several minutes. Unnerving, but oddly flattering. :) I'll try to put some more "Look at the Gaijin!" stories on the blog periodically.

Tour Guides - these 3 sweet girls were kind enough take care of us all morning!

Traditional Japanese Percussion

Hand Bell Choir
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