So, first up is a quite interesting festival here in Japan. When someone invites you to this festival.......the only thing you can do is laugh and say "Oh heck yes I will." Because anything less would just be disappointing. :) And here are my pictures from the (and I quote) "Festival of the Steel Phallus."
These are some lovely fake flowers that were hanging from street posts.
This was one of the many banners hanging up around the festival area. Doesn't leave much unsaid.
So, in the middle of all of these people come for the festival milling around and staring at booths of plastic penes, there were some very done up drag queens doing hanami. So of course I took some pictures for you.
These are the kids helping out for the festival. There were also kids singing Michael Jackson songs on stages, because that's what I want to heat at a festival of this type....
So, next time you're in Japan early April, don't miss that, whatever you do!
These next pictures are just fun stuff that I've snapped pictures of around.
This one is an advertisement on a train. They sure know the way to my heart! The perfect addition to happy hour!
This is on a building. A giant building. I don't know why, and frankly, I'm scared to ask. But apparently pigs are what's selling CD' and DVD's. Get on that Best Buy.
This guy moves. MOVES. And he's gigantic. Up on a building of course. Because that's where he belongs! What other animals can they put on buildings???
These ones!!! Doesn't it just make you want to buy pets? This is a poster above a door in Shibuya area. It just made me laugh!
Ignore the terrified Japanese men. I just thought this was a fun ad and they thought I was taking pictures of them....Awkward!
What blog post from me would be complete without food?
So, we went out to eat, and one of my Swedish friends made his own twist on sushi. See, even if you don't like fish, there's a sushi out there for everyone!
This is takoyaki.I don't care so much for this, but it's a popular food to eat in Japan. It's balls of octopus, basically. Those flakes on it are called katsuobushi. They're made of fish and the plate is really hot when it comes out, so the flakes look like they're alive and dancing. It's pretty neat!
And of course. cherry blossoms! You didn't think I'd be in Japan, during the spring, with a camera and not post some cherry blossom pictures, did you?
These two next ones are right by my house. Gorgeous!
This was some of the food that we had at the hanami, but it was so windy so everything got covered in dirt! We weren't as smart as some of the professional hanami-goers who had up covers to block the dirt, but at least we ate most of it before it got too dirty! :)
I had the opportunity to go on a trip with the incoming 7th graders at the school I'm interning at. It was so much fun, and the place we stayed was AMAZING. It was up in the mountains, so I got to do a little bit of hiking with my co-intern, Andi, and one of the teachers, Susan. It was a blast and I got so many great pictures. I'm not going to caption each and every one of them, because I'd be here for ages, but here they are in all their abundance (because, let's face it, I'm not great at editing down.)
These were the facilities:
Even in Japan:
This was the hiking trail we took:
If you look really hard in this next one, you can see Fuji! It was more visible in real life, but the pictures didn't come out very clear. :(
So, I hope I've made up for the last couple blogs, slacking on my pictures! I'm going to try to keep up with taking lots of them! :)
-Aly
