Week 19 in Japan: Snow Festival and Taiko Drum Arcade Game

       This week there was a cool snow festival in Akita City. I think a lot of different snow festivals take place in February in Japan. A couple famous ones that come to mind are the one in Hokkaido Japan that is just called Yuki Matsuri or Ice festival, also one called Kamakura Festival that is in Yokote. These and also the one on Saturday in Akita City are all in Februrary. I was going to meet my friends Yutori and Ayano two Japanese girls from class and I saw the festival going on. After we ate and went to the arcade I suggested we check out the festivities. They didn't even know it was going on so I'm not sure if it's advertised much. Regardless of how much publicity it had there were lots of people at the event. There was lots of different thigns to do. I like that there are often events like this in the city. Seems like a great place to be a kid because there are things I know would be even better as a kid. For example they had constructed a hill for kids to go sledding down. Another thing they had for the kids was a pony pulling a slay that the kids could ride in. Plus everything except for food was free. They had other things too like snow sculptures, a place where you could help make mocchi, and some free amazake. Amazake is a slightly sweet fermented rice drink that was served warm. It wasn't my favorite thing ever but it was fun to try.
        That's already about it for this week but I can give you a quick view the other days of the week really quick. Monday there was a meeting about classes for next semester and which ones to pick. A couple interesting things for me are that I think I'm going to take a Judo class which is like martial arts, also I'm going to try to get into some classes that are strictly in Japanese (but not a Japanese language class), I'm supposed to be a level higher in Japanese to enter them but I'm going to try to get in anyways. Tuesday I met with my hostfamily for the second time. We had a good dinner and they always like to serve lots of drinks. On Wednesday there was a graduation celebration party for international students graduating either from a 1 year program or longer. There was lots of good food and drinks and it was fun to chat with everybody but kind of sad too. Sad because they are leaving and sad because I'll be in the same position in around 6 months. Most of them are staying for at least a couple of weeks before returning to their countries so I'll try and hangout with some of them a little before then. Thursday I had class until almost 6pm and Friday I had a final exam.
        I think that really is it for this week. I'm studying for my Kanji test now and I just took a break to write this. I've got a few pictures and as always I'll write a little along with them. Thanks for reading!

 Here's a picture from Tuesday night at the host family's house. On the left of the table is Ryouen and the one with glasses is Asahi. To my left is an American from New Mexico who I met that night... though I can't remember her name I do remember that she is from Akita International University which is a university maybe 45 mins from the city kind of out in the sticks. I've heard it's a nice univsersity. The little girl in the picture is the host families granddaughter Nao.

 On the left is Yutori, on the right is Ayano, and in the back is an ice pegasus. This was at the snow festival in town.

 This was a fun game at the arcade. I think it is called something like Taiko Drum Master. Its a rhythm but unlike most rhythm games it's fun even when you are a very beginner. I played it for the first time and had a blast. It's really cool because Taiko drums are actually an important traditional instrument in Japan and now because of the arcade game it is still very popular and known about. For the song I was playing with Yutori in the picture she didn't miss even one note! It wasn't on a difficult setting but that is still pretty impressive. I definitely recommend this game.

 We also took purikura pictures. It's always a good time.