What a spiffy weekend!

And it ain't even over yet!

So yesterday (Saturday, the 7th) was our aniversary. We spent the day relaxing and doing things we enjoyed. For dinner, we went to this sweet little bistro downtown and had a romantic and very yummy dinner. Then we got some parfaits and giggled to each other over them. Also, very tasty because of all the yummy whipcream!

The giggling actually came because there was a young daddy eating dinner with his two daughters. One daughter was around 5 and the other had to be no older than 3. Daddy had to get up to get a drink at the drink bar. While he was gone, the littlest one decided to eat her plate of french fries. But...she's 2, so she doesn't really 'get it'. So he picks up her plate and tries to shove the entire plate of fries into her mouth. She manages to get 2 of the 20 fries into her mouth...the rest? Dumped on the floor. The older girl tries to get Daddy but neglects to mention why she wants him. He just sighs (like only a parent with small kids can do) and continues to get his drink. While he's doing this, the littlest one sees that she's out of fries...sooooo...she simply drops the plate to the ground. When the daddy finally gets back he sees the plate and makes a frustrated 'oooh!' sound. The little 5 year old was more than happy to point out the fries. When he sees the fries all over the ground he makes an even louder and grumpy noise as he has to pick up a bunch of fries. Heh. It was just really cute. Cute family. It's rare to see daddies out alone with their kids without mommy around. Just a sweet family.

Anyways, after the parfaits we rented some nerd movies and came home and watched them. All in all, it was a very nice aniversary. :-)

Sunday was neato for a different reason. We were invited to dance in a parade for the Izumo Dream Festival. It was so cool. They dressed us up in yukata and taught us the Orochi Odori (Dragon Dance). There were several other ALTs there. It was a trip though.

First, they had to put us in the yukata. Now. The yukata, much like every cultures fasion, were MUCH more comfy for boys than girls. The boys tied them around loosely and their obi (belts) were worn loosly. For the GIRLS...we had to get the yukata tied tightly around us, they were then folded to make them the exact right length (except mine because Im a tall lady), then they tied various small belts around our waists very tightly, and THEN put the obi on us. The obi were just mean. They pull them really tightly around the waist (they are wide too) and then put into a cute bow (which I forgot to get a picture of) and THEN a piece of cardboard is slipped in the folds to keep it stiff. You cant bend. You cant sit. And you are forced to remain in good posture. Boo! They were uncomfortable. But still...it was cool.

Chris and I in our yukata. There was also a red sash tied around our shoulders and backs to hold the wide sleaves of the yukata out of the way.

This was taken after the parade. I was hot and very tied. But wow do my boobs look big. (inappropriate comment!) Unfortunately, my obi was tied tighter than most people. It's a one size fits all obi and I am on the bigger end of the Japanese scale. Crap. It was uncomfortable. When tying my obi, the women were clucking frustrated and talking about how my obi was going to be difficult because I was wide. Boo. Oh well...Im just a curvy lady. Also, I didn't get to wear the cool shoes and socks because my feet were too large. While all the other ladies wore tabi (socks with indent for the thong to go for a flip-flop) and getas (uncomfortable wooden shoes), I got to wear my normal shoes and socks. It looked kinda dumb. Oh well. I was more comfortable most!

Here are some more pictures:





This was a big dragon that they ran around the street. It's eyes flashed and it even roared. It was really cool to see them running it around. It seemed so strategic...and heavy. This was at the end of the parade. After we had already done our dance.



These are just some random pictures taken before we had to do the parade. Just to show some different outfits of the dancers. Each group was dressed differently, but we all did the same Dragon Dance. We were with the City Office group. The boys wore yellow and the girls wore blue.

The parade was cool but long. It was only two blocks long, but it was sooooo slow. It took everyone about an hour to get down the two blocks. Because we had to dance down it, and it was a slow dance. The second half, you didn't even move forward. During the dancing, a lot of attention was tossed our way. We were the only group who had foreigners in traditional dress, doing a very traditional dance. I had so many pictures taken of me. Not to brag, but I think I stood out a lot because of my hair and very un-japanese like appearance. Everytime I looked, there was a camera in my face snapping pictures.

Chris and Ewan were also getting a lot of pictures. Ewan is one of the newbies and he is a 6'3" sctosman. He definitely stands out above the rest. There were also drunk men yelling at him 'helping' him do the dance. Counting for him and whatnot. Fun times.

All in all, we ended up standing around wearing the yukata for about 3 hours. We were definitely tired when we managed to take them off. Up in the women's room, everytime someone took off the obi and the little belts, you could hear a great sigh of relief. Why is women's fasion always more uncomfortable than men's clothes?

And now, for the grand finale, I reveal Mihara-san!

This is Chris's supervisor and the woman who has gone far out of her way to help us out since we have been here. She's the person who got us married, who gets us cars, fixes our apartment screw ups, and takes care of every other detail that we can't do because of our lack of Japanese or the knowledge of how things work in Japan. She is one of my absolute favorite people here. She's very small but impressive. She speaks fluent english, has four kids, and has a job at the board of education that is way more than any ONE person should have to do (she's in charge of a lot of the english programs in the Izumo area AND in charge of baby-sitting all the foreigners who come to be ALTs and their spouses (me!)). Please, a large round of aplause for Mrs. Mihara. I also thought she was a good example of what you are supposed to look like when dressed up in yukata. Heh.

So thats that. After the parade, we came home and took a super long nap and then watched some more movies. What an interesting day!