No I’m not Brazil. This is Japan trust me. But I really don’t know whats going on here. I was walking to Yamashita Park one Saturday morning like I always do. On the way there I heard some blaring music and drums and what not. Once I found the source of all the ruckus it was this…

What I do know is that they are Samba dancing. A Brazilian originated style. That’s about all the facts I can give you. Literately every weekend some crazy event is going on in this area. And most of the time I just so happen to find it while I’m out on a walk or something. So this will be my first post in the “Just so Happened” category. Hope you enjoyed the video;)

おひさしぶり(ohisashiburi: long time no see)!!! Sorry for being absent for the past month. The internet at my dorm has not been very reliable, ｓo I have been waiting for it to be repaired. Now that it is fixed I will continue where I left off. I have many photos, videos, and content just asking to be upload. So everyday there will be something new for you guys and gals… I hope. Well, on with today’s post!

Around mid August I was invited to participate in a summer festival or natsumatsuri as it is called in Japan. If I could somehow compare a natsumatsuri to something in America it would be a summer BBQ. Even still that comparison can’t justify what a natsumatsuri is. Not even this blog post for that matter!

The particular natsumatsuri that I participated in lasted over a course of 3 days for normal people. But I was V.I.P so for me it lasted 6 days. What did I do over the extra 3 days that the general public didn’t do? I helped build the 御輿(mikoshi: portable shrine). What is a mikoshi? I will tell you later;)

Mikoshi

The festival was a really unique experience. The first 2 days of the 3 open to general public were filled with lots of free food (free is always nice) and meeting lots of new people. But day number 3 is when all the magic happened, I mean pain, I mean soreness, I mean… Err just keep reading.

On day 3 everyone geared up in their traditional Japanese clothes. Everyone was pumped for this day. What did we do? Remember the picture of the Mikoshi up above? We carried it around the neighborhood for 6 hours on our shoulder in blistering heat! But the heat was not the problem. My height was. Will explain more about that later in this post. But all in all it was a pretty cool experience. When passing someones house if they were sitting outside on their porch we would turn and face them and jump as high as we could causing the Mikoshi to swing to and fro every which n’ way. If we encountered another group of people carrying a Mikoshi we had a battle I guess you would call it. But we would get face to face very close to each other and just get as rowdy as possible. Was pretty cool!

Another Mikoshi that some other guys were carrying

This lady kept us on pace and ryhthm by whacking those 2 wooden blocks together that she is wielding

As you can see I look very lifeless right here. The reason being is I am a 6'2" tall. Quite a few inches taller than everyone else. So if I were to stand all the way up i would throw the whole thing off balance. So for the duration of carrying this I was squated, knees bent at 90 degrees. Imagine doing that for 6 hours. Yea you better believe I was ready to quit. But its a pride thing. Old men all around me kept going so I had to keep going as well.

Luckily no one was standing on top of the Mikoshi that I was carrying

The guy with the speaker phone kept calling me Usain Bolt

That guy shoulder hurts. Can't you tell?

Here we are in front of someones house giving them a "show". After we are done we raise the Mikoshi in the air and slap it on its sides. I promise you this thing wieghs about 200lbs

The thing here pictured to the left is for the kids. They cant carry the heavy Mikoshi so they pull this thing using 2 big ropes that will later be tied to it. There is a smaller Mikoshi on this and a big Taiko drum

The video below is of a game that features Taiko Drums and Mikoshi. Its pretty fun. Plan on playing it this weekend!

If you don’t think that the Mikoshi is heavy then this next picture will win you over. This bump is seen as a medal. You only get it from carrying Mikoshi way more than I will ever carry.

Last but not least a video I made of some of the things that took place at the Summer Festival. Hope you enjoyed this post

If you want to know more about Mikoshi click here, click here for more info on summer festivals. If you just go to google images and type in Mikoshi you will see some that are waaay bigger than what I carried.

Last Sunday I went to Yamashita Park. It is a public park in Yokohama that lies directly beside the Yokohama Bay. If you love scenic views and the ocean then this place is it must see. Pretty cloudy day but was still beautiful.

I came here to only do some reading but I ended up getting a free show as well! I was talking to a random guy and he told me that people are always here performing. Some video of the performer in action below.

Many boats and what not that you can ride, for a small fee, that will take you around Yokohama bay.

Factories on the far side of the bay

Last bit of this post, a video of the sun setting in Yokohama that I recorded. Was beautiful!

A field trip (しゅがくりょこう） already? Ummmm.. Is this real life?

We have only been in school for 3 weeks… Count me in!

Today we went to Fuji-Q Highland (富士急ハイランド）. It’s a theme park at the base of Mt. Fuji (富士）. The original plan was to go up Mt. Fuji  first, then go to the theme park later. But unfortunately on the way there a really bad car crash had traffic stopped for about 3 hours. So we ended up only going to the theme park.

On the bus to Fuji-Q Highland. Can see Fuji-San in the background, but was a really hazy day so not that spectacular looking

We made it there safe and sound..

行きましょう！！！

I love roller coasters but I hate the long waits to get on them. Stand in line for 2 hours, have fun for 3 minutes. Woow….

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

If I were to get lost you could easily spot me.

The only black guy:)

Hehehe

Can someone say Goliath?

This one was fast. You take off at 70mph. Woohoo!

I remember seeing one similar to this next one in the states.

This was insane. That's why i didn't ride it. *Ahem* chicken *cough*

My teacher is really nice. But she was scared to ride anything. All she rode was a kiddy coaster, and she was screaming on that one!.. “Oh sorry Miyao Sensei didn’t know you were reading this”

Miyao Sensei.. Kawaii!

Green Tea flavored ice cream. One lick, my taste buds rejected it.

ごみです！

Got a better view of Fuji-San on a Ferris Wheel.

富士

Group picture before we go home..

チーズ！！！

Had fun at Fuji Q. Life long memory:)

さよなら富士急ハイランド！