桜岡祭り！！！Sakura-oka festival!

Yay for sunday the 2nd of August and the day of the Sakura-oka festival! Sakura-oka is the name of the lakeside resort next to Kenbuchi. It's the area that's super green and beautiful! And the lake is man made, but it still takes your breath away to see the greenery plus a huge thing of water. Breathtaking.

Anyways, so I had expressed interest earlier that I wanted to check out the Taiko group they had here. It's also called Wadaiko. And the man in charge of it works in the town hall. He just so happened to be in the BOE office and Su told him about me. So he told me to go check them out at practice and he will take me with him to the festival where they would be performing. There were two little kids there who were soooo good! I was like "I have to play next to them? I'll look stupid and inept!" lol Then one of the only guys in the group also came in. Su told me he works at the town hall as well. (i have a feeling that everyone I know or will come to know works at the town hall.) She also told me to be careful of him and never go home with him in his car, which by the way, is one of those sexy Audi sportscars that I so wanted. It's because he's known as the player here. He's not really that good looking. He just thinks he is. Anywho he did try to be suave with me for a little bit. But I just kind of ignored him...lol Well, not really ignored as I didn't want to be on bad terms with him, just didn't acknowledge what he was doing. =P

So the Taiko leader, Tanaka-san, who resembles and reminds me of that one french actor dude who's in a lot of American movies, like say Godzilla, piled Su and I into his car and one other man. They were both so nice to me! The other man complimented me on how pretty I was o*.*o, and has a daughter the same age as me. Both of them were fathers, actually. And they were just such wonderful men that I started having a strong affinity for the both of them. At the festival it was kinda rainy/misty. But everything still continued.There were some okay looking guys there, but I wasn't really interested. The mayor noticed me walking around and called to me. I was still alittle unsure of what I should do when around him, so I just stood there quietly and let Su talk. I swear, the people here believe I know nothing of Japan and even though I've been speaking Japanese to them they still think I can't really speak it...it's really kind of funny actually. Anyways, we watched the taiko group perform. They were wonderful, although not as good as ICU's wadaiko (I'm a little biased), but still good nonetheless. After it was all over the player dude came over to Su and I and told us to go eat with them as my welcoming party. I was like "What?!! Welcoming party? I haven't really even decided on joining yet!" But gave up and decided to join them anyways. I do like Taiko.

We went to eat at Yamatake sushi-ya-san. It was sooo good! AND OMG THE UNI!!! THE UNI!!!! I guarantee you'll never have uni this good anywhere besides Hokkaido. Damn that was like the best uni I've ever had! The Taiko people knew I liked it and so let me eat majority of it. I tried to leave some for people but everyone was like take it take it. So far, the people in this group are super friendly and open and wonderful people. Tanaka-san and the other man who was in the car with me sat across from me and talked with me majority of the time. If they weren't talking to me, I kind of just sat quietly because I wasn't exactly sure what to say to people. I'm still in the period of adjusting. If anyone can help me with conversation topics, please tell me!!!! So they started talking about me getting married. And since they were both fathers, they told me that I shouldn't get married until after 30, which was so cute of them. And it endeared me to them in some weird way.

At the enkai there was also a cute toddler there named Takenoshi who belonged to one of the mom's in Taiko. IT WAS SO CUTE!!! WAAAA!!! It had a fat little tummy and the softest skin that I just wanted to rub my face on his butt and against his face cheeks!! At first he was like, who is this weird girl smiling creepily at me, but then he started warming up to me and would come over to me to give me low fives and slap my face, throw his mom's cell at me, and push his way onto my lap and eat my food. He even called me onee-chan!! AWWW! I melted. I love little fat babies just like I like the fat little sheeps here. And Su made the comment that I like animals and little kids...and i thought, they're technically the same thing. lol =P I'm a bad person, I know.

Then people started noticing my diamond and blue zircon ring that my mom made for me and asked about it. I told them about my mom and then about my dad, and now every one thinks I'm some super rockstar girl whose mom is a designer and dad a huge restaurant owner....I didn't say it like that, they just assumed. '>' Alot of them then started pulling out their phones to take pictures of me...it was kind of weird. Soon after, we all left. Oh, btw, Tanaka-san's son who is in Junior High was also there. He will be one of my students but he totally didn't know I was the teacher until after dinner. He's a really good kid though. I look forward to teaching him actually. Afterwards, Tanaka-san actually invited me over to his house to meet his wife who makes bead jewelry. IT was the coolest thing ever! This lady is so ridiculously talented and good at it and she uses the swarovski beads! It was amazing! And she was so nice to me and motherly. She worried for me about winter and wondered if I would be okay or anything. I told her I'll be fine, but she says that whenever I need anything or if it gets too cold and lonely in the winter I'm always welcome to stay at their house. I htink they're my new host family. They're so sweet and funny. And their son really is a wonderful kid. I'm really starting to like this place a lot. At first I was like. Oh no, where am I? But now it's just an amazing and cute place. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to love the city areas as I once did now that i've experienced this place. Rural life has so much more to offer.

Aug. 3rd: Some people came in to the office just to get a picture of me on the cell phones...lol I feel...popular. After work I decided to go and get my bike tricked out so that I don't kill myself on long bike rides. I got new wheels, a new cushier saddle, and tune up. My bike's still old and crappy though, but at least my butt won't cry anymore. I took it out for a ride to the lakeside, which is without a car, it's a hell of a long ride there. I left at 1 and didn't come back until 4:30pm. I did stop at some areas to sit and rest though. I loved the scenery as I was biking although I didn't like the butterflies that kept coming straight at me and flying down my shirt. I loved saying "konnichiwa" to all the old people I passed. I actually scared one old lady when I said that too. lol Anyways I finally actually get to the lakeside and I rode around the entire lake, through the forests, and back onto dirt roads. I got lost a bit, but then finally found the main street and took it to the 道の駅 (michi no eki-roadside station)。I wanted to take a look at stuff in there because it's specifically Kenbuchi's 道の駅 and they had some interesting things in there as well as おみやげ。And of course I had to eat the soft serve again. Damn, good and creamy. It was half vanilla and half 紫蘇perilla(beefsteak plant)? I wasn't exactly sure what it was. But it was good nonetheless. I finally then made it back home with my ass still hurting because even though I have a much cushier saddle, the ride was still pretty rough and there were a lot of bumps along the way. But I have to tell ya, it was the most invigorating and longest ride of my life. =P So I will have pictures up for all of you soon as I am now uploading them onto my facebook. I'll caption them so you all know what's what. Cheers and loves!