Last Saturday, as I was walking home through Tenmonkan from the school after my last lesson ended, I noticed some stage materials piled up at the corner of the intersection in front of 7-11. There hadn't been anything there when I went by earlier in the day, so I assumed there was going to be some kind of an event on Sunday. The next day, I came back, and found the stage fully set up for the Tenmonkan Kids Market Waku Waku (excitement) Festival. There were a few jewelry and crafts tables also in the area, but those were completely unrelated to the fest. I think it was just the stage show, and a signing by a children's book illustrator. The stage events alternated between some kind of promotional stuff, and music by groups that either do children's entertainment, or religious songs. I suspect that this was sponsored by some church group trying to recruit more members.
The artist was Satoshin, author of "Ma, Ikka" (It's Alright) and "Unko" (Turd). The plush Unko thing next to Satoshin is actually a hat. There was a short line of mothers and grandmothers waiting to have their copies of the books signed by the artist, and to pose with him for photos in the unko hat.
As I was standing around watching all this, waiting for the next stage act to start so I could find out what the event was for, an old man with no front teeth told me that Satoshi is one of the most famous children's books writers from Kagoshima. He also showed me his personalized copy of "Ma, Ikka", and told me the title is in Kagoshima dialect.
Finally, the MC got on stage and started talking about the music acts scheduled for later in the day. That seemed to be the only thing she was going to do, so I left to see if anything was happening at Amu Plaza. Unfortunately, there wasn't. Instead, I sat in Seattle's Best Coffee and read archived newsletters from the American Cryptogram Association. It was a good day. Next time, I may try on the hat.
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