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There are a lot of different events and celebrations throughout the year at all the schools. Today it was Bunkasai at my favorite base junior high school, which is like culture day. I had lots of fun joining in the different performances with the students, teachers, and parents. It really made me feel like I was part of the community. Everyone is so welcoming and really try to include me as much as possible.
One day during normal school hours we all lined up outside in a formation in what I understand to be joining hands. No one told me prior to that day that I had to come wearing a white shirt and black pants... I ended up wearing the opposite, white pants and a black shirt. So, one of the teachers lent me her cream color sweater. If you look closely, you can tell I stick out like a sore thumb. HEHE. A plane overhead came flying across the sky to take an aerial shot of us. I have never heard such silence with that many students before. They all had to stand in formation at attention for a good 5 minutes, it was amazing.
For the past few weeks Minami J.H.S. PTA and I practiced singing the songs Ikimonogakari "Yell" and "ohanahan" which is a old song used in a drama that was filmed in the 1960s on the NHK channel. We finally performed on Bunkasai day for the students. It was awesome getting to be part of that group.
This is us before our actual performance, people were starting to get nervous... hehehe.
I thought this was an AMAZING mural. It's a huge compilation of mini pictures organized into a huge picture of Ichiro and Ryo Ishikawa (famous Japanese 18 year old golfer). I couldn't believe how neat this turned out to be!
I absolutely love the students at this school. It's so much fun seeing them during class time, during passing time, break time, after school clubs, and seeing them randomly throughout the streets of Ozu. They are always shouting, "Stacy!!! HELLO!" which absolutely makes me feel so wonderful.
The teachers are also amazing. I find these teachers at this school are the funniest and have the best sense of humor. They are always cracking jokes, and even though I don't understand half of it, their laughter becomes contagious. :)
I loved this picture because one of my favorite teachers drew it and it's about her grandma... it just made me smile. I also bought a tea ceremony ticket which the tea ceremony club performed for us and gave each of us very beautiful looking okashi and tea.
Later that night the PTA and teacher dinned and drank our hearts away with good food and lots of alcohol. Man, do the teachers and parents let loose when they have had some stuff to drink! 
Today was pretty amazing. The day turned out to be good weather and I was able to enjoy the Ozu Matsuri during the day and fortunate to go to my base school's principal's house for a home cook meal of a specialty fish in Ozu and watch the shi shi mai dance at dusk and in the dark. I started the day at 9 AM where I went to the Ozu Castle and helped out Ozu Rotary International club with the tea ceremony and meet new people. It was pretty awesome because they asked me to go on a fork lift really high up with the Rotarian President and this other important person and speak on the local Ozu radio station. Although it was all in Japanese it was awesome getting to be on the radio! Because it was the day of the festival, they allowed all the people to go into the castle for free. Usually it's around 5 dollars, but today was all taken care of and they even gave us a sticker! :)
After, one of the ladies "Kame-chan" in Dawna and my Ekaiwa (adult English class) and her family took Nathan and me around the festival. They were really nice people, and I got to meet their daughter, who Kamechan told me I HAD to meet and become best friends. HAHAHA. We visited Ohanahan Street, which is famous for a drama that was filmed in Ozu in 1966. I found out from Kamechan that they played the drama for a whole year when she was young for 15 minutes on the TV Monday through Friday. The song from the drama is famous in ozu and I will be singing with my teachers at Minami Junior High at their Bunkasai (culture day) this Sunday. We ventured the streets playing some games and then we had free kanimiso soup... which I was glad that I didn't break out because it had crab in it (side not: I am allergic to crab for those that don't know.. hahahaha).
After coming back to the castle, we switched shifts with Dawna, Wendy, and Tim to serve tea. I felt all self conscious because we had to be all proper in our presentation of the sweets and tea. The women who were the professionals wore beautiful kimonos and served with such grace.
While serving tea, they asked if I wanted to dress up in a kimono and throw candy and mochi out to the people. It was an experience, they even had me wear a wig! A group of us got to ride the fork lift again and throw out chips, candy, and small packages of mochi that were pink and white. 
I was getting nervous towards the end, because I had to be at the parking lot of Minami Junior High to be picked up for the dinner at my Principals house, but it was already 3:15! I was freaking out and ran all five blocks to try to make it after taking a group picture with the Ozu Rotarians and the tea ceremony ladies. 
Once we got to my principal's house they were already partying and drinking. I had SOOO much fun, I love these teachers so much and they really know how to party. His house is brand new and gorgeous that's located in the country side. The whole night was hilarious because there were activites within the community all night. There was the Shi Shi Mai dance that we watched and participated in. Kouchou sensei was just way too funny. I had a really good day and I was very happy that I got to participate in the festival.
