14 posts tagged “tonami”
Video from the Yotaka Festival a while back. Best part of June in Tonami.
Toyama has a problem with people being attacked by bears. Now, my town specifically apparently has a problem with bears climbing buildings, making a hole in the wall, climbing into the attic, falling through the ceiling, and then escaping.
City officials on the hunt for honey-loving bear in Tonami
"Bears are not that uncommon, but I never thought it would come in twice. There's got to be a limit to liking honey," the 78-year-old said.
Residents are being asked to refrain from going outside.
砺波市で庄川の午後リラックスタイムだ。
While sitting in the office this afternoon, the guy from the bookstore, who makes several visits to the school each week, appeared. But instead of his normal green coat and khakis, he was dressed in a rather formal kimono. "Why, Bookstore Man!" one of the teachers exclaimed, "Whatever are you up to?"
And then there was a conversation I didn't pay too much attention to, beyond the fact that something was going on near his store today and tomorrow, and he was involved handing out information and generally helping out. I didn't think much more of it.
As I walked to the supermarket after work this evening, though, I noticed quite a crowd of people near the bookstore, and stilted Japanese, as spoken by someone trying to speak with a lower voice than they possessed, over a loud speaker. "Why, it's not really out of my way," I mused, "and it's a beautiful warm day... maah, let's go take a look!"
Turns out that this week is Children's Kabuki week in my city. It's an event with a very long history. On the 16th and 17th of April every year, children perform kabuki at a variety of outdoor stages in the centre of town (or rather, the same outdoor stage that just moves up and down the street between performances). Bookstore Man saw me and gave me a pamphlet. I realized that I taught some of the kids performing this year (and recalled that many of my current and former students had been involved at one point). It was very interesting, but I was a little dismayed that I hadn't known about it -- I only had my cell phone with me, and couldn't take good pictures. Took a skippy video though.
When the performance had finished, and the shamisen group took the stage (again, I knew most of the performers because I had taught or am currently teaching them), I skedaddled off to the store to finish what I'd set out to do when I was sidetracked. Now, don't get me wrong -- I like the sound of the shamisen. One shamisen. Several shamisens together, playing slightly out of sync, and all slightly out of tune with one another, piped through dodgy microphones into even dodgier speakers? I'll pass, I'm sorry.
Looking at my pamphlet again when I got home, I realized that there was another performance at 7pm that I could catch, and decided to do just that. There are performances tomorrow, as well, but it's supposed to rain, so they may be inside a not-well-lit local temple. I was told that I should definitely attend the final performance tomorrow if it's raining, so I can throw mochi at the actors...? Yeah I don't understand, I think I missed something important in that conversation.
I left really early (i mean, 40 minutes before the performance, despite the stage being, I kid you not, a 90 second walk from my apartment), so took some random pictures.
Tonami is famous for tulips. It's our gig. The Tulip Festival starts soon. I got my free tickets from the city earlier in the week. Maybe I'll actually go this year?!?!
Soon, the stage was moved to in front of the Shimakura Sweet Shop, and I claimed a stool for myself.
Anyway, it was a good time, and I definitely plan on checking it out again tomorrow.
... happens in early June. Light up floats are rammed into each other, and it's all good fun. Only 4 months to go!
After the fun I had yesterday on my mini-road trip, I figured I'd do one again today. I got a bit of a late start though, and it was cloudy and boring everywhere, so I didn't end up going too far, but it was a good day anyway.
I headed up into the mountains. If you follow the road to its terminus, you end up in Nagoya, but clearly I wasn't going that far. At one point, I got behind this retard who was doing 25km/h UP A MOUNTAIN. Now, if he was a big truck, or a bus or something, he'd have an excuse. Nop, it was a little compact car (but not so compact that it gets the yellow k-car plate). Same class of car as mine, and the most he can manage is 25? GTFO, jackass, learn how to fucking drive!
Fortunately, I was only behind him for like, 2 minutes when I reached the entrance to the Taira Rest Stop, and decided to dodge in there for a little bit. Took some pictures, bought some omiyage for my office and some stuff for me, then headed back out to the car.
So, at some point (recently, I'd assume, since I've had the car for three years, open that door several times a day, and only noticed it just then) a tiny lizard somehow got squashed in between the door and the frame. I don't know when, I don't know how... I don't know where, because I've never seen tiny lizards here ever (except for that one last week at the supermarket that was hiding in a potted tree -- but it was smaller and no where near my car). It made me feel sad :(.
After I recovered from that, I got back on the road and headed further south, deeper into the mountains, towards Kamitaira. At the rest stop in Kamitaira, I took some more pictures and did a bit more shopping. As I was perusing the goods at the souvenir shop there (they had some awesome little wooden shot glasses/sake cups, but man, wood products are so expensive), the woman who worked there kept leering at me. When I finally went up to pay, she rang me up and then was like, I'VE SEEN YOU.
O_O what?!
YOU WERE AT TONAMI HOSPITAL! I SAW YOU!
Ahh, yes, I sometimes go there.
IT'S A GOOD HOSPITALHOW CLOSE DO YOU LIVE TO IT?!
Um, a few blocks?
I SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
Okay crazy mountain lady, let me go, so you can return to cooking your bear stew and dancing the Mugiya.
And now for something that I plan to make a bit of a thing for the next, oh, 116 days or so, video time! I've taken bunches and bunches of video with my camera, but since YouTube permabanned me, I don't really have anywhere to show stuff soooooo let's enjoying it here. You guys will appreciate it more than the YouTube crowd would anyway. :)
(Note to those readers on LiveJournal or Facebook: click through on the video images to watch the video, or join Vox and add me to your neighbourhood so you can enjoy it directly.)
(Note to Vox: See how well I pimp your goods?)
First, four videos I've taken recently, all of driving. Most of my videos are driving vids. Yeah, maybe it's a bit bleeh, but you can see some typical scenes of life in Japan maybe, sooo that's cool yes? These first two were taken yesterday on my way back from Nanao.
... nono, the morrow, not the marrow. No I didn't say I was going to break your bones and suck the marrow out. Yes I did say that marrow is the most delicious part of the cow, but... no no, it's not vile, I assure you.
What? Another photo post? Am I that unoriginal? Yes. Yes I am. Really the only things I've been doing lately are taking random pictures around town, and playing Disgaea. No commentary today, because I don't feel like it.
えっ? 写真、再び? そんなにおもしろくないか? はい。 はい、俺はそうだ。最近、俺がするのは、写真を取って、テレビゲーム（Ｄｉｓｇａｅａ）をすることです。今日、論評が全くない。 写真だけ。
I went to the Yotaka Matsuri (夜高祭) here in Tonami tonight. It's late, though, and I have to be up early, so not a lot of time to write, but here, l'll share some pics I took today. :)
