Day 7 - A little lost

Today started off nice and quiet, getting ready to meet the other students in the group at Waseda to pick up ids and train passes. I chose today to wear some nice clothes, and unfortunately heels. I guess I forgot my plans to go to the festival in Kanagawa. Oops! By the time I got to Waseda, I also realized the socks I was wearing sucked, and that recruitment for clubs was still going on, so it was crazy busy on campus again. I managed to get some pictures this time:

 

Getting the student id and train passes was easy enough, but getting to Kanagawa was a whole other matter. Mainly because we actually needed to go to Kanagawa Daishi and didn't realize that until after at least an hour of wandering around. Tamarra, Colleen and I aren't the best Japanese speakers in the group, didn't have internet, and didn't actually know exactly where we were going… Still, got some interesting photos, the the entrance gate for the main street at Kanagawa. It seems like they're everywhere… I especially like the guy drinking on top. Also, for some reason, I didn't expect there to be a Krispy Kreme in Japan, but there you go…

Also, some interesting hamburgers on "spring-colored" buns.

We did finally get to the right station, after asking the same guy twice… (〃￣ω￣〃ゞ And there was a gate here too! 

After following the sound of cheering, we found our way to a shrine, or rather a group of shrines, and thought that was the festival. That was also wrong. But we didn't realize that for much longer. Meanwhile, many more pictures were taken. The entrance gate with it's two stone guardians:

The main inner shrine…

Another beautiful korean-style shrine inside…

An adorable wild cat sleeping on a prayer stone…

And food. My first takoyaki! And probably my last. The octopus inside was huge, and very chewy. Too difficult to eat. I'll stick to okonomiyaki, thank you. 

Finally, after talking to one of the many foreigners (it's a popular festival), we realized we were in the wrong place, again, and struck out to find the real festival. At this point, any family reading this can assume I went to the festival, and it was beautiful, and I had a good time. I found this cute sign. Didn't know there were actually five monkeys…

And a tengu!

After getting home I got some tv watching time. There's actually a Japanese sign-language show that was pretty neat. I recorded a little bit of it, but I don't know if it's legal to post recorded television on the net, and don't wanna get sued… if anyone knows, tell me, and I might end up posting it.


Then Mama came home and made some Yakisoba for me. Soooo good!

The End

EDIT 11:09pm: P.S. JUST FELT MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN. It was just a little shake, didn't knock anything over, or make any noise, but scared the shit out of me… A little afraid to sleep now.


























































































But really, family should probably stop reading now the next part is a little less… PC? Did I mention this festival at Kanagawa is a fertility festival? No? It's called the Kanamara festival and is one of the most rowdy/famous in Japan. Anyway, here's some penises:

It was getting pretty late after that so we did actually head home. I have blisters from my shoes, and my feet hurt soooooo bad, but I think it was pretty damn well worth it.