thanksgiving in japan

i went out to fuji to stay for the weekend. on friday night we went to this cute little restaurant in the "Arabian Nights Build" complete with Aladdin and Jasmine on a magic carpet ride.

we stopped by Seiyu which is a store owned by walmart. you can find "great value" food just like at the walmart in lincoln. it's just like being home except the great value products are apple tea and kaki.

on sunday (following our thanksgiving meal of chicken and mashed potatoes on saturday) we went to the park in town. it is a nice park made for viewing fuji-san and it just so happened that it was a clear day.





i was blown away (again) by how different fuji is from kurihama. andrea and joe live in this neighborhood where a lot of people have traditional japanese gardens complete with trees that have to be trimmed nearly everyday.

it wasn't home. but it was as good of a thanksgiving as one could have when they are 6000 miles away. i was just happy i had some friends to hang out with and eat "japanese turkey" with.

my first wedding party!

my coworker invited me to come to her and her husband's second wedding party. (i would be lying if i said i understood exactly which of the many wedding-type events was what...) it was one of the most fun nights i've had since i moved here. a party with a lot of food and drinks, bingo with crazy prizes (like a coach purse, psp, and ds lite), coworkers, and really nice people. it didn't even really matter that i couldn't speak japanese!

mikoshi parade

this is a long one...sorry.

last weekend was the mikoshi parade. a mikoshi is a portable shrine that houses a shinto god. they are then put on poles and groups of people dance around carrying them (after drinking a bunch of beer...then doing little stunts like throwing the mikoshi and trying to not drop it...which doesn't always work out). before the mikoshi they have these "floats" that are pulled by people and there are people playing taiko drums and playing japanese flutes on them and people wearing masks and dancing. needless to say it was full of energy and i was tired just from watching. a good way to spend a sunday morning.

p.s. if you don't like to see men's upper thighs or lower buttcheeks...you have been warned.