World Traveler: Sunday - Sakura Matsuri

Sunday we got up earlyish and got ready to drive to Kitakami. They were having a Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Matsuri and in that Matsuri was an Oni Kenbai (Demon Sword Dance) performance. The drive to Kitakami (2 hours) was really fun. We talked and listened to music and sang.

In Kitakami we went to... Tenshochi! (That's where I went last weekend) - the trees were more in bloom this time. I got TONS of pictures that I'll put up. We found the place where they were performing by following the performers there. Limor and I even got pictures with them! :D First one did the Kitsune (Fox) Kenbai and then the did the Oni Kenbai. It was SO awesome. After we saw that we wandered around the booths for a while then got back to the car. Limor's Oni Kenbai groups leaders in Australia always go to the Oni Kenbai Matsuri (In August - and I hope we'll go too!) and they buy costumes and masks here. So Limor was determined to find those shops. We went all over town - including to American World. AHAHAHA! They had a giant bookstore and Jake and I went all glassy-eyed about having books, but they only had TWO SHELVES of books in English. At American World. Sheesh! In any case, we walked and walked and drove and drove. A lot of people helped us. We eventually ended up at a museum near the fairgrounds. It had restored ancient housing and it was SO COOL. I didn't dare take pictures in the museum but I got pictures around the village. We also ran into two missionaries. :) That was fun for me. Sorry -- the weekend is sort of blurry and I'm quite tired! (We were a bit .. lame? Saturday night. After the long day of the Taiko Matsuri, we went back to Limor's place and just crashed. We talked and went to bed. But then we stayed out forever on Sunday.) We did eventually find some shops and saw some really amazing masks and costumes (ridiculously expensive of course because they're handmade - carved and painted). Limor got a bunch of stuff and I got 2 little souvenirs (later I felt really bad - I kept forgetting it was Sunday). I actually had a migraine most of the day. It was so bad I was extremely nauseous. I think I worried Limor and Jake as they kept asking how I was feeling. We stopped and got me some pain pills (OTC - which in Japan is a bit of a joke as it's like buying children's tylenol) but I took a couple and by the end of the day I was actually hungry for food - much to the relief of Limor and Jake. Oh! Also a bug landed on my face before the Kitsune Kenbai and I cried. Poor Jake was like.. "Uh... I'm not here." I didn't mean to cry - I just really scared me - it bit me and latched onto my face so it took several swipes to brush it away and ... (tmi warning) my period was coming. Anyway (and sorry about the run-on paragraph) we crashed at James' place for the night (he left us a key - he wasn't in town). We talked for a little bit then went to bed. It was a weird day for me because I was sick and I got to see incredible Japanese history and I missed church... just strange. I got tons of pictures though so they can tell the rest of the story: