Monday, October 02, 2006

Hannah, Judy & Pia @ IzumoTaisha


Hannah, Judy & Pia @ IT - 1
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

I met up with three new JETs on August 19th, in the early afternoon before the start of the Taisha Town Summer Festival (Goen Matsuri) later that same day.

We walked around Izumo Taisha shrine and then took in all the sites and smells of the town festival.

Pia, from Finland, and Judy, from California, are both new CIRs and work at the Izumo city hall. Hannah is a new ALT working at a Jr High in Izumo. Judy & Pia brought along one of their Japanese co-workers and she brought along her young son.

Since we saw many of my students all day long, I got the inevitable questions I get anytime my students see me with a female - is she your girlfriend? your wife?, and one student even asked if the Japanese boy in the stroller was my child!!!??!!.

We had a great time walking around the shrine, despite the heat, and then later in the day we got to sample all that the festival had to offer -

We ate vendor stall food, watched a parade, saw traditional and modern dance troupes, and even played a massive game of bingo.

And we saw MANY of my students, many of them dressed up in colorful summer yukata (pictures to be posted soon). In fact, the sound of Japanese young people saying "Jason da!" (It's Jason!) or "Jason sensei" became almost a running joke to Pia and Judy and Hannah since we heard it so often.

so, enjoy these pics and more to come very soon

-Jason

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