Town of the dolls...

Hi guys, sorry for the really long delay again. Good news is that I'm using my laptop at school again, so when I have free time I can use it to update on here. Its a pain to take to school all the time but its handy to have all my stuff in one place.

So I'll recap, starting back in March. As you can see by that picture up there, I went with a small group of Sasebo ALTs to a University about an hour's drive away, where they held a Taiko workshop! It was all beginner stuff, and thanks to my (meager) experiences with my school Taiko, I had a bit of prior knowledge, but I still had a great time. In this pic you can see me playing a floor drum, which were HUGE bass drums that had arm-sized sticks (clubs more like it) to hit with. They are apparently very traditional style drums, where you sit and lean back as far as you can while playing. It gave you an insane ab/arm/leg workout.

So that was one weekend. On another, Claire and Jenny and I went to Hirado. Nagasaki prefecture is surrounded by a lot of small islands, and Hirado is a city on one of them. There's a big bridge that carries you there, and we could see some lovely views of the ocean. In the pic on the right there, you can see where we parked, which was a little harbour area, and up on the hill Hirado Castle is in view. Though we didn't go that day, check back a few journals ago to see Alex's trip to that castle.

The following weekend a group of us from my once-a-week Japanese convo class went back to Hirado, but on that day it was rainy and cold. We were there to check out Japanese dolls, because March 3rd is 'girl's day', when little girls are given a doll. Sometimes its new, sometimes its a family heirloom, and the richer the family is the more dolls she gets. The truly wealthy familes have entire sets, which involves an Emperor, Empress, and their entire feudal court, its pretty impressive, and we're talking thousands of dollars (sometimes tens of thousands).

On the way to some of the places where the dolls were waiting, we came across an outdoor onsen! An onsen is a hotspring, and Hirado had this one downtown just for your feet! The water was really lovely, and silky, and it was amazing how much warmer you felt after sitting there for a while. There was also a place for your hands, and I stole a shot of an elderly woman who was taking advantage of that one.

Outside of the first mini-museum with the dolls was this photo-op, so here I am, ladying-it up, with one of the Japanese guys who came along with us. We visited two museums, one that was a big open space run by older women, with a huge collection of donated dolls, small and large sets, and other pieces (like this...paddle?), and then another was in a more private little building, with a few really large, complete sets instead of many different kinds. Hirado is also 'famous' for its kites, that usually have these big faces on them, they're pretty sweet. This one was hung in an upper corner at the second museum.

While in Hirado we also visited this building, which was....a museum I believe, with a gift shop...frankly I'm not sure, but either way it had a really nice little back garden and tea house, where we partook in a tea ceremony for a couple hundred yen.

On the way back I drove in a car with one of the women from the Japanese classes, with Hitoshi and James (another ALT) in the back-seats. Poor little darlings were all tuckered out after their big day though. Just lookit dem faces.

So now we're more up to date! Though a lot has happened in between, my camera seems to be eating a good portion of the pictures I take along the way. Well, at least I can talk about this last weekend all the faster now! Which I will do.....in a few days! :D

In the meantime, here's a preview:







Thanks for reading again guys, comments are always appreciated. Till next time! <3