Friday, April 30, 2010

Thursday, April 28 – Saturday, May 1, 2010-

How is it already MAY?!?! That absolutely blows my mind! I can’t believe I’ve already reached this point on my exchange. I’ll say it once again, time is playing tricks on me over here.

Seeing as it’s already past midnight here I’m feelin’ a bit too tired for much more than a nice reel of photographs. Hope you enjoy this daytrip I took to Nikko’s Edo Mura (Edo Period village) with my host brother, Yasu, and his wife, Rumi. Very entertaining place! I saw six or seven different performances, played old-fashioned samurai and ninja games, and even ate beef & giblet donburi rice in accordance with the era; definitely a fun way to spend a day off of school. Golden Week, the famous Spring holiday week during which Japan practically shuts down for vacation, is finally here and I plan on spending my time quietly relaxing here in the countryside. I’ll try to fill you in soon.

PS. ONE WEEK UNTIL MY COUSIN, ANDREW, ARRIVES FOR OUR TRIP THROUGHOUT JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!

One of the multiple performances with incredible kimonos and hairstyles!
Just one of the crew
The Edo period is best known for it's black tiled roofs and whitewashed walls
Actin' tough
These little four year olds were part of a youth program where they got to dress up like Edo police and chase a fake criminal across the town! So funny watching them try to blow a whistle while sprinting as fast as they could on their short little legs! They looked like they were having a ball
An entertaining Japanese water performance unlike anything else I've seen yet
The morning was a little damp, raining for a couple hours. It only served to give the hills a sense of mystery, shrouding them in mist
As soon as the rain and mist cleared up the village was a quaint little scene
More impressive dancing and kimonos
Two youngsters dressed up as ninjas enjoying feeding the koi
Bamboo, Mountains, Rock Gardens, Koi Ponds = 100% Japanese
This was hilarious, that same group of ninjas in training got to practice using the Force, or something, because they all counted to three, shouted at the top of their lungs, and pretended to use their ninja mind control to do this...
Knock their evil enemy off of the top of that tower. That's a real person falling from the sky, I'm assuming there's a big pad lying at the base...tough day at the office if there isn't!
Rumi and Yasu exploring the ninja house of tricks
Actual ninja throwing stars. Ninjas are an actual part of Japanese history, trained assassins who lived in the hills (much like those around Nikko) only descending to carry out their work late at night, never to be seen again...
Yasu, Rumi, the Ninjas, and I...you know, the usual gang
The ninja show was even cooler than this short clip but none of the video I took turned out very well! Just imagine this part, but ten times cooler!! Best part of the whole day!!
A reenactment of a traditional wedding ceremony. Check out the shoes on the bride! They've got to be over 10 inches, must weigh a ton too
Nippon
A very cool jester of sorts, she taught me how to use these old fashioned bamboo sticks to make different shapes like the one you see above!

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