Matsuri!

I went to my first Japanese festival this weekend. It was a lot of fun. I went back to Tasaki, which is the biggest city in Gunma. The place was packed. It kind of felt a little bit like Night Market on a REALLY crowded night.

I got to meet a lot of really cool and interesting people from all over the world. It's funny because all of the foreigners in the city seem to hang out at this one bar, which is about the size of someone's living room. Everyone just drank and danced--apparently this is what they do every weekend. I wish I could come more often, but I know the commute is gonna get pretty expensive in the long run.

Japan can be so random sometimes. After leaving the bar, we were walking down this sketchy street that's kind of like the red-light district. In the middle of the street, there were suddenly these two blow-up kiddie pools. Inside the pool were these blow-up dolphins and watermelons--REAL watermelons! I have no idea what purpose they were supposed to serve. My friends were a little tipsy and decided to jump into the pool. One guy even stripped down to his underwear. The Japanese just stared at them in shock.

I think I'm starting to settle in more now but homesickness still strikes once in a while. The sucky part is now I have two homes to miss: Vancouver and Ottawa. But time is starting to fly by, and I'm sure that the year will be over before I know it...