The Arita Pottery extravaganza!

So on the last weekend of Golden Week, Sumire and I ventured out of Sasebo and forth to Arita which was...really not that far, only like half an hour by train. The Kyushu region of Japan, and Nagasaki in particular, is apparently well-known and revered for having beautiful property. The Arita festival is one of two that I know of, and is apparently the bigger and slightly more expensive of the two - but with nicer wares. I was actually rather excited about going, even though this is the kind of thing I have pouted over and opted to stay in the car instead of going to when I was a kid. It was raining a little, but not heavily, and the temperature was warm so it was not unpleasant.

When we arrived off the train, the market was spread out in front of us, with what Sumire guessed was traditional Arita music playing from the speakers. It sounded like old dance music and was very tinny, but it gave a very cool, traditional feel to the place for this little gaijin.

Walking around, there were just too many different kinds of pottery to describe them all, but they ranged for 100 - 1000 yen ($1-$10) cups and dishes, to 100, 000 yen+ ($1000+) works of art. I loved these amazing white incense burners, which were incredibly elaborate - aaand expensive.

Never will there be a Japanese festival of any kind that is not well eqquiped with various food stalls, and so Sumire and I each bought a daifuku - which is essentially mochi (soft rice cake) with red bean paste and a fat, ripe strawberry. Delightful!! As seen here in this cheesy picture.

So we continued to tour around, seeing all different kinds of stalls and things for sale, the bags in my hands slowly increasing as I bought presents for my family. The day we went happened to be the very last day of the faire, so not only was everything cheap, Sumire encouraged me to haggle!! I learned how easy it is to haggle in Japan however, when I did it by accident. When walking by a stall I spotted a mug that absolutely screamed my name, and then along with it a bracelet with a similar design. When I asked the clerk how much they would be, she punched numbers into a calculator and offered 3, 800 ($38) yen. I winced a little and said to sumire in English, "Oh they're more expensive than I thought." Next thing I know the woman hurriedly punches other numbers into the calculator and then shows me 2000 yen!
Woman: "2000, okay?"
Me: >.> <.< "Uh...yes!! OK!" So other than knocking off 50 yen from the price of a kercheif later on, that was the extent of my haggling. *laughs* After a good couple hours of walking around and shopping, the rain started to come down more heavily and Sumire and I returned to the train station. One thing I love about living in Nagasaki prefectu - the mountains that surround us everywhere make me feel lucky to have been placed here on a daily basis. So - the landscape is my favourite pro of living here.

My favourite con? Behold.
Oh Navy. Stop giving me reasons to make this face: -_- (I keed. Kinda.)




Next time, my solo trip to Nagasaki city and the quest to find the peace park (it shouldn't have been a quest, I just kept taking the wrong trams).




Edit: We now have you-tube action, folks! I have only uploaded three videos so far, but now that I know this works, I'll start taking more. Let's enjoying youtube!! :D

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=wyvkate