Silver week:

This past week was silver week (9/19-23), a nice 5 day holiday for no apparent reason. Many Japanese people take this time to visit relatives and travel to shrines and other small villages throughout Japan. I had no plans for travel, so I hung out with the other JETs from the area who had also stayed around. On Saturday, I made my first visit to lake Inawashiro which is the 3rd largest lake in Japan, and the birthplace of Hedo Neguchi, the famous Japanese physician (discovered the cure for syphilis, and researched snake venom) and face of the 1000 yen bill (this guy is the entire area's claim to fame, the locals are always asking if I know about him). The lake is about an hour's drive from my apartment, and is huge.(difficult to see across lengthwise) From the lake one can see a quite stunning view of Mt Bandai (which I cannot show you b/c I forgot my camera haha Andrea!) The trip to the lake was actually a JET organized event/ BBQ, and we arrived to an interesting scene. The guys who had organized it chose a pretty cool spot on a beach head, with surrounding trees and a little island. They had also set up turntables and had a DJ bumping high-speed rave-techno beats at full blast...at 2pm. The lake was fine though, and we met some cool people from the area.
From the lake, I got a ride with a few friends to to Fukushima city where I stayed at my “super sempai's” house (he has been in Japan for like 5 years) Fukushima is the largest city in Fukushima the prefecture, so we spent the night wandering around, going to various bars and such. The next day, we went to Japanese Denny's for breakfast and ate rice omlette things. They were good. It was a very nice day, but it was already around 3pm by the time we left for the river, due to the excesses of the night before. “A 20 minute drive” was actually around an hour, so by the time we got there, the sun was beginning to set behind the large mountain range that surrounded us. The river was a ways out of the city, and was a really interesting place to explore. The river had cut through a series of jagged rocks that were mostly flat on top, and therefore negotiable. This also meant that there were plenty of places to jump in from, which was a lot of fun since it was a warm day. I had made the trip with two other guys who knew the area. We were enjoying jumping into the river late in the afternoon when two highly intoxicated Japanese men accosted (maybe too strong a word, since they were friendly) us. They began by stripping down to their underwear and jumping in after us. Then, after much mooning and drunken banter, gave me the nickname of “Tom Cruise” and my scottish friend “Wayne Rooney” (whom he actually does resemble in hair color and coverage). They were quite excited and animated, and seemed fascinated that we were foreigners. It was actually a bit uncomfortable having them so interested in us for no other reason than that we were foreign, but thats how it is when you are in the overwhelming minority I suppose....On our way back from the river, we happened upon a "fertility shrine" on the side of the road, that consisted of numerous wooden phallus carvings. No real story to this, it was just weird to find a bunch of giant wooden penises on the side of the road....

On Tuesday of silver week (Sept 22) there was an Obon festival in Wakamatsu, along with a dinner party for JETs in the area. Several people, myself included were having our birthdays that week, so the dinner party doubled as a joint birthday party. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to find around 40 people (mostly JETs) there. The event had been organized by a Japanese friend who had invited us all out, and then to a party at his house. The food was an all new experience for me, as several platters of fresh raw fish were brought out. The dishes were elegantly crafted, and offered various types of sashimi (sliced raw fish...not too bad actually). The middle of each dish was elevated, and in the centerpiece was a whole fish, cut so that its head and tail stuck out of some kind of top dressing. While the presentation was appealing, the food instantly became less appetizing when it became apparent that all the centerpiece fish were still alive. While they were not flopping about the table, they would frequently go into small scale body spasms, flapping their tails, and opening their mouth and gills.
After leaving the restaurant, most of the group walked a few blocks to the main strip in Wakamatsu where the Obon festival was taking place. The “festival” was essentially a huge line dance that went on for several blocks creating a long oval shape. The dancers all moved in uniosn to a high-pitched song about Mt. Bandai that was on repeat over loudspeakers. I had actually participated in a smaller Obon festival in Kitakata already, so I jumped into the line, since I already knew the dance (its very easy) A complete circle around the entire festival took about 45 minutes. Several other JETs joined and it was a pretty fun time. The rest of the night was spent in and around Wakamatsu, and then my Japanese friend's house, as he had invited our group over to hang out at his place afterwards.