November 5, 2006

Last Friday was National Culture Day, yet another glorious excuse to miss school and embark on some sort of cultural adventure. This time there were parades, open houses, and festivals lighting up the surrounding communities, so that morning Whitney, Than, Gerard and I set out to enjoy the festivities, starting with the parade downtown.

The Japanese spend an awful lot of time working very hard, so when they get a holiday, they take it seriously. Yamaguchi is not exactly a huge city, but it seemed like just about everyone turned out to watch the parade, which lasted for hours. Waves upon waves of kimono-clad men and women performed group dances and pulled floats and mobile shrines to a clapping and enthusiastic crowd. It was a festive atmosphere, full of bright colored cloth and headdresses, elaborately choreographed and synchronized dances, wagons carrying bands, beautifully staged sword fights, and, on one occasion, the incredibly incongruous appearance of a very European dance troupe. It seemed like every schoolchild that wasn’t watching the parade was participating in it; huge groups of identically dressed kindergarten and elementary school students were out in force, dancing or cheering or attempting rather endearingly to walk on stilts. As a celebration of the national culture, it was quite impressive, and definitely entertaining.

Following the parade, we embarked on what might have been an epic journey to faraway Ajisu to attend the Opening Ceremony and see the Crown Prince. Unfortunately, it was only after we stood in a huge line for twenty minutes or so that we realized that something was wrong: everyone else had tickets. Also, the next shuttle bus back to the train station was after the ceremony… three hours later. To make a long story short, we spent a great deal of time huddled up in the