Kita Shogakko Fall Festival
(Warabe Donguri Matsuri)

So this is the festival that canceled all English classes from the time I arrived until November. It was pretty fun, but I had seen a lot of festival by this point. The main event, a play from old Japan, was too dark to take pictures of and I didn't understand much but it was fun to watch. That meant, for me, that the main event turned into the mochi-making part. We made our own mochi! Pretty tasty and fun, until we had it for lunch. I mean, I like mochi, but that *was* the lunch. Like, just mochi. And a banana. That stuff doesn't exactly sit lightly in your stomach. Pretty cool to watch it made though.

They had the usual array of funky games and races which are always amusing, but I can see why a lot of the parents zone out. I mean, how many times can you see the same thing with different kids. Huh, Mom and Dad? I'm impressed with your endurance. Maybe it's different when they're your kids, but I kinda suspect there are some really boring parts.

For some reason I took a lot of movies here. I guess the mochi-making was pretty cool to watch. Instead of putting all 7 of the movies on the movies page, I'm going to put them here.

Pounding mochi videos - Things to notice include the woman adding water and turning the mochi, solo-pounding style, two-man grinding style, and the steam coming up from the rice. Also, I apologize for the bizarre sideways video. movie 1, movie 2, and movie 3.

Making mochi videos - Things to notice include the constant chatter in Japanese (read - translation nightmare), the super-skilled way some of the women make perfectly smooth little mochi balls, and the three different seasonings. movie 1, movie 2, movie 3, movie 4 and movie 5.

Hayakawa dance - I happened to pick the most boring part of the song (easiest) to film, but maybe you'll get the idea. The little red-clicky things, the adult dancers preoccupied with seeing if the kids are dancing properly, bouncing around, etc. Here's the video.