Himeji Oshiro Matsuri

Growing up with anime gave me two things: a completely unrealistic concept of romance and a burning desire to attend a traditional festival. You know, walking around in my yukata, stuffing my face with takoyaki or yakisoba, paper lanterns, fireworks, koi netting... Age (read: maturity + a couple of actual relationships) has since removed the hot omg-she's-too-good-for-me childhood sweetheart from the picture.

Actually, scratch that. It was my ego that did the erasing. Too good for me? psssshhhffftt.

But I digress. Behold the Friday omens for the weekend: Crystal clear skies, a smattering of awesomeness, and the cool, refreshing breeze that is group B. (the OTHER 400 jets)

Since I haven't done very many schedule/photo essay updates, and the weekend is too far in the past for me to accurately remember and describe how much fun it was. So I'll just post the schedule from last weekend, and comment on the highlights. ^_^

Saturday
11:00 am ............ Wake up. "oh crap nate's waiting for me at the station"
12:50 pm ............ Show up to the meeting point fashionably (20 minutes) late
1:00 pm ............ Okonomiyaki lunch
3:00 pm ............ Check out festival stuff
4:00 pm ............ Bored. Check out castle
5:00 pm ............ Matsuri parade!!
7:00 pm ............ Dinner at 280 (where EVERYTHING is 280)
9:00 pm ............ Karaoke, baby!!!!
12:00 am ............ @ home with Nate, we end up watching 40 Days and 40 Nights... don't ask
Late ............ PTFO
Sunday
12:00 pm ........... Lunch at ramen shop next to station
1:00 pm ........... Send Nate off, shopping at Himeji station
2:00 pm ........... Christine shows up... eh... 50 minutes late
3:00 pm ........... Baller koi skilz
4:00 pm ........... Locked out at home cuz Nate has my keys, koi start dying x.x
5:00 pm ........... Sketch/ninja climb in through my unlocked back window. Negligence 1, lock 0
Night ............ Random shenanigans at home... it's Sunday night...

First off, apparently okonomiyaki is THE thing in Kansai. Like... I've been craving okonomiyaki ever since ep 2 of Hana Kimi, getting it every chance I had in HK, and telling all my friends how awesome it would be to cook my own at those tables. And now, I'm already kinda sick of it cuz we've been eating it so much. >.> BUTBUTBUT each region also has their own distinct style of okonomiyaki, so I guess what I'm saying is I'm just sick of okonomiyaki... in... Himeji...

Nevermind >.>

Best place in town for okonomiyaki... if only I can find it again XD

So... we made the mistake of eating lunch before going to the festival. And thus, we missed out on the delicious festival food. (including oden... T.T) And got bored really quickly cuz there wasn't much else to do. Thankfully, Himeji Castle was right next door!

Himeji Castle (Himeji-jo) is one of many famous castles in Japan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and apparently a REALLY big deal in Hyogo. It's literally only one stop away from where I live, right in the heart of Himeji city. Except it's being renovated until 2014. And while the keep reopens in April, the scaffolding isn't coming down for another 4 years; awesome timing, eh?

I hear the view's much nicer without the metal crane

Artfully framed, even if I do say so myself

At least the interior is still nice

As for the festival.... just read the captions ;)

Shiromaru-chan wa kawaaiiiiiiiii *chuu*

I get the thumbs up from a ninja...

Miriam's too distracted to look at the camera...

Taiko drummers rocked the street out...

But not that many people were paying attention to the parade...

So these guys got called in to restore order...

Christine eats... uh... something...

Fishes for koi...

And I do both, at the same time. omnomnom

Ok, so I didn't. BUT I did catch 11 koi (and two rather large ones) before the net broke. On my first try ever! Then I decided to go for one of the gigantic ones, and... failed spectacularly. Could've totally gotten more fish otherwise. Sadly though, only four survived the trip home. (which included a train ride, a balancing act getting my four bags of shopping home, and being locked out for half an hour).

Oh right, yeah. I got locked out cuz Nate, who'd stayed with me that weekend, accidentally took my keys with him on the way home. Thankfully, for the fish, Kyle apparently left the back window unlocked, and I never checked. Soooo I climbed in. And because I'm Asian and NOT a Harvard prof, I didn't get the cops called on me.

Unfortunately, all of Christine's died, so I stole her fish food, and I'm signing off on that bombshell. XP