Asakusa + Kyudo

This past Saturday, I went with Matsuzawa-sensei to this kyudo thing in Asakusa. I still don't exactly understand what was going on, but it was for some kind of matsuri (didn't catch the details).
At any rate, it's an annual event--I guess you'd call it a tournament, although there's no "winner" in that sense. The tournament goes over 2 days, with people showing up at the dojo all day. You sign up when you arrive, they give you a number, and then when your number comes up, you get to go and shoot 4 arrows (in kyudo, called 四つ矢 yotsuya). Like in Western archery, the arrows are scored based on where on they target they hit--although this is rather unusual in kyudo, where it's usually a question of if you hit the target, not where. Then, the people with the several highest scores (I'm not sure how many, really) get some sort of prize, and you can win a kendama if you hit the bullseye.
I met Matsuzawa-sensei at Ohkurayama, on the Toyoko-sen, and we went together from there to Asakusa (cause I would've had no idea how to get there). We arrived at the dojo a little before 3pm, and were given #406 and 407, respectively. Since they were only on #300 when we got there, we didn't actually get in to shoot until a littlel after 5. I did pretty well. It was a really small dojo, and they were shooting 6 at a time, so it was more cramped than I was used to and I kept hitting the people in front of and behind me with my bow (lol), but I managed to get 10 points! The scoring went: 3pts, 5, 7, and 10 for the bullseye--I got two 5's, first and last arrows!

After we finished shooting, Matsuzawa-sensei took me to this really amazing restaurant in Asakusa to have どじょう dojou, which is apparently a bit of an Asakusa 名物 specialty, that you can only get in a few places. This restaurant is called 駒形どぜう Komagata Dozeu (dozeu being another name for dojou), and it's been around since 1801, specializing in dojou--it's actually all they serve. It's a very nostalgic-feeling restaurant, with low tables, where you sit on cushions on the straw-mat floor. And the food is nabe-style, where you cook it over a burner at the table.
Speaking of the food, I didn't really understand what dojou was (Matsuzawa-sensei kept saying that it was "like a baby eel," but I didn't understand if that meant it was a baby eel, or just looked kind of like that...). At any rate, it tastes very similar to unagi, which I LOVE, it's one of my favorite foods, so that was enough for me. For those who are curious, I've since found out (thanks to Wikipedia, both English and Japanese versions--Japanese wikipedia is just as cool, btw) that dojou is actually a type of loach, which is a small freshwater eel.
At Komagata, they bring you a small skillet filled with dojou, which you place over the burner and then cover with negi-onions, literally to the point where there's a mountain of negi on the skillet, and you can't see the fish at all. You let it cook for a while, pouring this sauce over it, and then eat! It was really good, and I'm soooooooo thankful to Matsuzawa-sensei for taking me (and treating me). She's seriously the sweetest person ever, and has really become like a second grandma to me here, always treating me to things, giving me food, checking to make sure I'm eating properly ("not just パン bread"). ^_^

We also walked by the famous Asakusa temple on our way to the restaurant, and it was huge and really beautiful. It was night by that time, so I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I'll go back sometime, and then I promise lots of photos.

Matsuri!

So, the Hakodate Minato Matsuri is so amazing that it gets a whole post all to itself! Seriously, the Japanese *really* know how to do a festival up right. In Hakodate, the matsuri goes for three whole days with parades and fireworks and food, and they basically shut down half the town to make room for it all.
The first day began with an 1850s costume parade, which the HIF students got to be in, as various samurai or townspeople--two of the guys even got to appear as Goronin (some Russian dude?) and Commodore Matthew Perry! I did what was called "futon danjiri," which means I got to help push this big shrine thing down the street, which was lots of fun but very unwieldy. Afterwards they had a party for all the parade participants, at this really neat restaurant near the harbor. Then, later that night, I grabbed some drinks and a blanket with some friends, and settled down to watch a truly amazing display of fireworks--it went on for a solid hour! And of course, afterwards I had the most difficult time getting home! (imagine hundreds of people all trying to get on the same streetcar all at once...really, I was having flashbacks of the buses after Yale-Harvard)

The next day was the first day of the "Ika Odori" (squid dance) parade. The parade route went from Juijigai all the way to Matsukaze-cho (about a 15 minute walk, when there's *not* a parade going on). I met up with a friend at Matsukaze-cho, where they had a whole bunch of different food and game stalls set up. Takoyaki, yakitori, corn on the cob, crepes; and those fun little Japanese fair games, like the one where you try to pick up the goldfish with the paper spatula-thingy (I don't know how else to describe it...). I had okonomiyaki (おいしい～). That day, I also wore the yukata that I had bought for the festival. Turns out none of my host family really knew how to tie the obi, but we had learned how in the kimono culture class and I sort of remembered how, so...it wasn't quite right, but I managed to do it well enough that nothing was going to fall out. ;-P
There were various groups who appeared doing different kinds of dances and things in the parade, but then at the end it pretty much devolved into everybody jumping into the parade and joining in one massive Ika Odori (which of course, I also took part). The ika odori is Hakodate's signature dance (they claim to have invented it) and is a really simple dance which basically involves everybody jumping around and wriggling in a (sort of) squid-like fashion. The sort of thing that's the most fun if you're either a little kid, or have been drinking.
The next day was pretty much the same thing, but the parade was around Goryokaku Park area--which, incidentally, meant that I had a surprisingly hard time getting home, as the streetcar only went as far as the station because of the parade route. I managed to find a bus, however, that took me reasonably close to my house. I met up with friends that night too, and we made it a fun-filled evening of parade food, ika odori-ing, and some karaoke.
All in all, really the best matsuri that I've ever been to!

Stress!

So this past week has been both amazingly fun (matsuri) and incredibly busy (speech contest, tests, project presentation), and this week promises to be more of the same, with perhaps less fun and more work.
In other words, I barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone post onto a blog, but I promise I will remedy this as soon as possible, and treat you all to a detailed update on my last two weeks in Hakodate!

Tanabata

In Japan, July 7 is a holiday called Tanabata, which in Hakodate at least is sort of like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one. First (and this is common all over Japan) you take these strips of colored paper and write out an お願い、or a wish, and then hang them from a bamboo stalk which is placed in the entryway. That's the Christmas part. The picture to the left is my Tanabata wish. For those of you who can't read Japanese, it says "I want to become good at kanji." ;-P
Next (the Halloween part), on the evening of Tanabata the little kids all dress up in yukata and go around from house to house singing a Tanabata song, and they get candy (sounds familiar, right?). Apparently, though, this tradition is really only in Hakodate (too bad for the other kids, huh?)
Here are some pictures of the kids all dressed up (kawaii!), and onw of my host mom handing out おかしい (sweets).









Below is a short video I took of the kids singing the Tanabata song!