Ohara Matsuri, Nov. 3, 2018

Saturday was day 2 of the Ohara dance festival, but from past experience I knew that the first few hours were going to be of school marching groups and brass bands. So, I wasn't really in much of a rush to get out of the apartment before going to work. I had lessons from 2 PM to 6 PM, and my main goal was to have an hour to get to the bookstore in Maruya Gardens to get English newspapers for the school, then swing by Shochu Street before going to the boulevard in front of City Hall for a satellite event there.



When I got to Streetcar Street, the area was packed. I had to find gaps in the crowd to see what was going on. At this stage, it was still just motorcades with politicians, event officials and beauty pagent contestants waving at people in expensive cars.



Only a few of the cars were "classics." The rest were more modern.





Omottesando Street (in front of MOS burger) was closed off to hold most of the food tables, and the main event stage. The Southern Cross girls were performing AKB48 covers again.



The only schedule I could locate listed 3 separate dental hygiene seminars. Weird combination.



And they even had a "Tooth Land" area nearby, but very few people really wanted to have their teeth cleaned when I was there.



Next door, Cross Music had a small stage in front of the store to let their students and teachers show off to anyone that wanted to listen.



The police had the streets blocked so I couldn't cross through the parades and motorcades to get to the other side of Tenmonkan to get to Maruya Gardens. So, my plan was to just walk down along the parade route to City Hall and cross down there and then double back. But, as I got to Izuro street, this bus came up and the crowds got really excited. I only had a few seconds to take this photo before the two guys turned around and waved in the other direction. I'm guessing that they're two of the main actors in the NHK Saigodon taiga drama series (Saigo, and his partner, Okubo, are local heroes, and helped ignite the Meiji Restoration in the 1860's.)



Then I really did get to City Hall, and the other events area.



Lots of food, games and travel booths. The main stage event at this time was a Kamen (masked) Riders ring toss for children. The actors not on the stage were out in the crowds for photo ops.



I assume this is one of the villains.



Pink Rider was positioned at the end of the stage to help children down the stairs so they would keep moving out of the way, and not trip.



Essentially, the stage event was a ring toss. The children had three chances to get the rings on the pegs of a target board a few feet away. I think most of the prizes were bags of snacks or sheets of stickers.

At this point, it's close to 2 PM, so I go in to the school, which is just a little ways away from the parade route. I could hear music, crowd noises and PA announcements all during my lessons, which was annoying. Finally, Ohara ended at 5, and my last lesson ended early - at 5:20. Still a bit too late, though...



After I got out of the school, I returned to Shochu Street, which would keep running until 8 PM. The only stage event, though, was a Nanko tournament. Nanko is a bluffing game played only in Kagoshima. In the adult version, the two players try to guess how many sticks the other one is holding in their hand, and the loser has to drink a shot of shochu. In the later rounds, both players drink.



The bluff, the guess...



and...



The reveal.



Eventually, the Masked Nanko Man himself got on stage to lead a round of rock-paper-scissors.



I'd started the day with my voice shot, and having to teach for 4 hours didn't help my throat any. I stayed away from the shochu, but I did want to get something to eat from one of the food tables. There's a Sri Lankan place in the arcade, and they were selling curry and a huge piece of naan bread for 500 yen. That was a decent price, so I got that. Afterward, I walked up to Kotsuki River.

I'd mentioned a few days ago that the area along the river is being used for the Meiji Restoration Anniversary event, from Oct. 27th to Nov. 4th. I did get back there on Friday to see what paper theater (kamishibai) or Kagoshima dialect lessons were going on during the week, but I'd arrived between shows, and just gave up and returned home early prior to teaching more lessons and then watching the first day of Ohara. But, on Saturday, after eating my naan and curry, I returned to the river. This time, they had a laser projection mapping show on the front of the Meiji Restoration museum. Unfortunately, it's a short building, and the projection wasn't that good. That ended at 6:30, and there wasn't much else going on, outside of some food and drink tables. So, I went home for dinner, and to rest my throat.

Ohara Matsuri, Nov. 2, 2018

I was out at the streetcar yards, as the Ohara lights car was preparing to make its rounds of the city to advertise the festival the following day.



Ohara is the big Fall dance festival that usually runs the first weekend of November. The night portion was on Friday, from 7 to 9 PM. I'd been planning on getting out to Tenmonkan right after dinner, passing through Shochu Street on to Streetcar Street for the dancing. Dinner finished at 6:30, and everything was looking pretty promising, except...



I'd been showing allergy symptoms for a few days right after Halloween, with a lot of mucus build up in the back of my throat, resulting in some very serious coughing. The coughing got so hard that it was messing up my voice. I had a couple lessons Friday morning and afternoon, and the students all commented that it sounded like I was coming down with a bad cold. I reassured them that it was just allergies, and that I didn't have a fever, but they all made sure to sit as far away from me as they could. But, still, everything was fine right up until dinner, when I actively started losing my voice. Because I needed to teach 4 more lessons on Saturday, I had to make a choice. Which was to avoid any more alcohol, to talk as little as possible (if not at all), and to take throat lozenges as soon as I could find a stronger American brand (the Japanese throat drops I'd gotten Friday afternoon were really weak). Plus, I swung by the grocery store to pick up a bottle of honey for mixing with hot water. Fortunately, the weather is good right now, with temps maybe between the 50's and 60's. I couldn't quite justify putting a scarf around my neck, but I kind of caved on wearing a zipped up windbreaker.



As it was, I ended up running into a couple people I knew, and they insisted on talking with me even after I told them I had no voice. At one point, I was able to get to a place that was quiet enough that they could hear me whispering. But, still...



Anyway, I had fun walking around the 1 mile parade route, looking for stuff to take photos of, and I ended up with about 25 minutes of sampler video to put on youtube.



Weird costumes aren't all that common on Friday night, but they are a highlight when I can find them.



"Where every night is Halloween."



There were only 4 or 5 foamhead mascots this year, which is down from last time.



It's rough work, having to wear something like this for 2 hours straight, while dancing along a one-mile circuit route.





Any night you can walk away from is a good night.

Direct youtube link, sampler 1


Direct youtube link, sampler 2

Shochu Street, Nov. 1, 2018

Shochu Street is an advertising campaign put on by the local distillers to promote the new releases using the year's new rice and sweet potato harvests. It ran from Nov. 1st to the 3rd, partially overlapping with the Ohara Dance festival on the 2nd and 3rd. I had to work Thursday until 6 PM, and the official opening ceremonies weren't scheduled to start until 7 PM, so I went to Mos Burger for some coffee to kill the time. When I got back out, the politicians and promoters were just finishing their speeches. Oddly, there were close to two hundred people in the plaza in front of 7-11 watching this, and I have no idea how many of those were press camera people. I was trying to figure out how to get a clear view of the stage to take a photo when the talking ended, and the politicans walked off. The second that happened, all the camera people disappeared, just leaving a fraction of the crowd of people there to do the real drinking.



The MC spent most of her time telling people how to drink shochu (mix it with hot or cold water, or on the rocks). Seriously, these people have teaching videos on how to pour alcohol into a glass of hot water.



One of the distillers really wanted people to know about his brand.



The main entertainment Thursday night was a "talk show" with a Kagoshima United soccer player, and one of the 2016 Olympics swimming event bronze medalists. Basically, it was just the MC asking a few softball questions and then letting the guests ramble.



Yes, the plaza was crazy crowded.



Why bring a camper to a shochu event?



Japan has the cutest little port-a-potties in the world!



I ended up running into two guys I know and hadn't seen in close to a year. One is an American who works as a baker for a place that makes Japanese-style steamed cakes, and the other is a Frenchman working as a chef in one of the restaurants in Tenmonkan nearby. (Note that you had to buy tickets for the shochu, 500 yen for 5 cups.) We tried different shochus and caught up on what everyone is doing, then with the announcements that the booths would be closing at 8, we split up to spend the last of our tickets.



There were a couple of odd moments along the way. When the three of us were still together, a camera woman came up and introduced herself as belonging to the shochu promotional society, and she wanted to know if we'd be willing to let her take our photos and post them on the society website. We said yes, and I still haven't been able to find where the photos are supposed to be now. I should have asked for a business card or something.

The second thing was that I'd gone to the new brews table to find something to spend my last ticket on. As I was standing there, an older Japanese guy started asking me where I'm from, if I like shochu, and so on. He was wearing a business suit, looked like he was in his 70's or 80's, was almost as tall as me, and had a little pin in his lapel that I think marked him as a politician. Now, I really wish I'd gotten that photo of the people at the opening ceremonies, because for all I know, I may have been talking to the governor of Kagoshima, or the head of the shochu society, or something.

Anyway, things ended after 8 PM, so I went home for dinner.



For several days during the week, my allergies had been acting up, giving me a runny nose and fluid build up in the back of my throat that led to some very heavy coughing. The result of this was that the coughing began to rip out my throat, making it harder to talk. I could survive this on Thursday, when I was shouting to  be overheard over the crowd. I had a few classes Friday morning and afternoon, and the students commented on how much I sounded like I had a bad cold. My voice kept cracking when I had to talk louder, but again, I could survive this.

However, around 6 PM as I was preparing to eat dinner before getting ready to revisit Shochu Street before heading to Ohara Matsuri, my voice gave out entirely. I wasn't exactly at the laryngitis stage, but with 4 classes to teach on Saturday, I feared the worst. I started drinking lots of vitamin C, and hot water with honey, and generally just trying to do everything I could to protect my throat. That included not drinking shochu on Friday or Saturday.

Anyway, the only live events on the Shochu Street stage on Friday were two female vocalists, neither that I really had any interest in. I took a photo of the above woman as she was doing a karaoke pop song over a recorded CD, then kept going to Ohara (to be continued tomorrow).

Amu Plaza Halloween, Oct. 27-28

The last couple years, Amu Plaza has hosted some really fun live music parties for adults for Halloween. This year? Not so much. They had some food, and make-up booths, but most of the activities were for really young kids. I had to work on Saturday, and I didn't get out of the school until 7 PM. I got up to Amu a bit before 7:30, and the place was almost deserted.



I'm not even sure what the point of the stage was. The fliers didn't say much about what stage activities there'd be.



Not quite a ghost town, and nothing at all like one.


Sunday


And yeah, Sunday was all about children dressing up and getting a chance to have their photo taken with local radio personalities. There was supposed to be a "Halloween costume parade" through Amu at 3 PM, but I didn't see any indications of that. I'd just come up from the Volunteer Center at the other end of the city, on my way to the Meiji Furusato event at Kotsuki river, and I was just stopping by Amu long enough to take a few photos.









The Furusato event had live jazz music at 8 PM, so I ate dinner at home and got back out of the apartment at 7:30. I swung by Amu just to see if I'd get lucky, and the construction crews were finishing up taking out the last of the stage planks.

Yeah, this was one of the worst Halloween weekends in terms of entertainment in the last 5 years. Sigh.

Wine Picnic, Oct. 27, 2018

Ok, this was easily the most disappointing part of the weekend, in part because of how Maruya Gardens advertised it. Back in September, Dolphin Industries and MG teamed up to promote DI's "Craft Beer Spray," which would be a few local breweries offering their beers at MG's rooftop garden. There were a few posters set up at MG's entrances for a week or two, then as the date got closer all the advertising disappeared, to be replaced by ads for the Wine Picnic the following week. And this happened as typhoons were coming in and causing other events to cancel in advance. A few days before the Spray, I discovered that MG had an events booklet, and the Spray had been moved to the back page of that, while the Wine Picnic was on the booklet cover. To me, that showed me where MG's priorities were. Anyway, the Spray weekend comes and goes, and I'm still unsatisfied, partly because the food was so over-priced, and partly because I didn't like the beers that I bought.



One week later, the Wine Picnic starts on Saturday, when I have to work. I have a one hour break in the middle of the afternoon, and I hop over to  MG to check it out. Lots of people lounging about, curry rice for sale, along with some other foods, and again, everything costs too much ($9-$10 for a small plate of something). What bugged me the most was that to get the wine, you had to buy tickets. The food was cash, but the wine was ticket-only, $7 for a set of tickets that would get you three glasses of wine. I'm there on my own, and if I only wanted one glass, I'd be out of luck. Granted, $7 is not that bad a deal if it's good wine, and you want to drink a lot of it, but I'm in the middle of a break, and the event would end before my last class finished. Obviously, I'm not going to get wine right now. Not if I want to keep my job.



The band is Vacation Three. They did soft pop, which wasn't worth recording. So, Sunday, I'm walking all over the place. I start at the Volunteer Center, down at the other side of City Hall, for the Jiman Ippen Fair. I walk the 2 miles to Amu Plaza for the non-existent Halloween stuff, then continue to the Kotsuki River for the Meiji Restoration Fest stuff, and cutting through Tenmonkan to see if anything is still going on there (it's not). I've had three cups of sampler beer at Jiman, and that's wearing off. I've skipped the food and drinks at Amu and Meiji because I have decided to commit to getting the wine, and something to eat, at the Wine Picnic. I arrive at Maruya Gardens at 4:45 PM, and I'm told that they've stopped selling the tickets. Actually, I could buy one strip, but it's now last call, and I'd have 5 minutes to make my choices and place my orders. And then I'd have to leave at about 5 PM or so, so that they could tear down the tables. Absolutely brilliant planning. Shut down things just before dinner, so that... what? People will go somewhere else and not spend money at an event selling food and wine? Stupid.

Anyway, with all the build up, the screwing around with the advertising and then killing the event that early in the afternoon, especially when the weather was near-perfect for being outside, I was glad I hadn't given them any money at all. I went home, got dinner, then returned to the Meiji fest to watch live jazz music at the river, and I spent my money there on shochu. And, it was a much better deal (to be honest, I prefer craft beer and distilled spirits over wine anyway).