とうかさん (Toukasan Festival)

Starting with the kick-off of Toukasan on Friday, summer festival season officially commenced in Hiroshima!

Toukasan is ( I believe) the first summer festival in Hiroshima, honoring the god Touka Daimyojin. If you're interested in the history and activities of Toukasan, you can read about it here and here. Or, if you just want the basic jist: It's a festival that includes tons of food and game vendors lining the narrow sidewalks of Chuodori (one of the major streets, if not THE major street, of Hiroshima's downtown area). Tons of people crowd the streets, many wearing yukata. It's not a great setup if you're in a hurry because there are so many people packed into such narrow walkways, but it's great if you want to experience a Japanese festival!

Unfortunately, BECAUSE there are so many people it's almost impossible to take any good pictures of the actual event. However, I did manage to take a few from last night when my roommate and I wandered around in Yukata of our own after work. 

We ran into a few friends of ours, including Serika from an izayaka we frequent~ We talked for a few minutes before her friend Kanako joined us, and then we all decided to take some puricura together! :)

After taking puricura , Lie and I wandered off. We were walking to another part of town when all the sudden we were ambushed by the staff from Big Boss, a music (especially guitar/bass) shop we've been to a number of times. Now that they were no longer restricted to the constraints of professionalism, they goofed around with us for a while. Eventually, one of them dragged me into Donki to take puricura. He was a little tipsy, but absolutely hilarious! I motioned for the others to follow as he dragged me away. 

The puricura turned out to be absolutely PRICELESS, but unfortunately he said we weren't allowed to post them for the sake of job security. It's really too bad because they're probably the funniest puricura I've ever seen xDD

After that, I walked Lie to a bar where she would be drinking for the night (I have work today). 

Tonight we're planning to attend the festival with friends, so hopefully the few, sad pictures I took yesterday will be replaced with much better ones! See you soon! <3

HIROSHIMA: The Introductory Puricura Post

Because this is Japan,  and awkwardly sneaking Puricura ("Print Club") throughout every post is what we do ;)

❤ Hey Guys and Gals ❤ It is now time for another round of Guess When the Next Sporadic Post will be! Any bets? Haha! Seriously, sorry for failing at timely posts ;) I figured I should post a little debrief about my time in Hiroshima so far, since I've contributed absolutely nothing to the topic since first announcing that I moved here!  I started work mid-July in the heart of the city, and have been loving my life here ever since I arrived. The city is certainly much smaller than places like Tokyo or Osaka, but it has a very relaxed environment and the people are incredibly kind and fun to be around. The city itself is beautiful--green rolling mountains, a beautiful bay, and colorful neon lights at night all contribute to the unique atmosphere of the place. In many respects, it reminds me of Seattle. :)

Work has also been fun! I enjoy working with my students, and I have the most adorable co-teacher/roommate/buddy in the universe to share all experiences with! It's startling how well we get along. We have all the same interests, but just enough variation in taste that we never feel like we have to compete. For example, we both love Japanese fashion--but whereas I tend to go for elegant, glamorous styles, Rai rocks the cutesy pop look. Our personalities also click perfectly, even though we're almost polar opposites in that respect. When we had only known each other for two days, everyone we met thought we had been friends for years. Getting along with her was by far my biggest concern before moving here, but now that we've met it's sincerely the most effortless thing in the world to adore her. xD

Also, Hiroshima boys are weirder than either Lie or I can figure out how to deal with, but that is a long, long story (rather a series of novels) that may or may not ever be told xD All in all, life here has been phenomenal so far. Now that things are starting to settle down here and there, it's been nice having moments to appreciate where I am and all the incredible experiences I've had so far <3 I don't know how often I'll have time for diary-like posts, but I'll do my best! In the mean time, I'll try to post outfit pics and at least weekly one-picture posts of things in the city--starting tonight! ;) Thank you all so much for your patience in dealing with my lame, sporadic posts!  I hope I can manage my time better and make it up to you someday ;)