shabu shabu

Tuesday was a big day for us. They let us sleep in and then our drivers picked us up and took us into town for the day. Our hotel was 30 minutes away in a neighboring town called Naruto. Everytime they picked us up or took us home, they drove an hour from their homes to the hotel. They would pick us up and drive 30 more minutes back into town. Then at the end of the day, they would take us home and then turn around and drive an hour back. They were so incredibly kind.

We went to lunch at an all you can eat shabu shabu restaurant.  Matthew was so excited to eat all the meat he wanted.  We have had lots of vegetables and noodles lately, so endless meat sounded pretty good.  He didn't feel so great afterwards though.

There are those yummy Fanta drinks again!

After lunch we went to a Buddhist temple in town.  There are 88 temples on the island of Shikoku that are part of a pilgrimage people take.  Our host said he has taken the pilgrimage twice.  Once in a car, and once walking.  

They have beautiful koi ponds.  Many of these fish here were over a hundred years old.  Wow!  They told us that if were to sell one of them to someone back home, they would be worth around 30,000 dollars.  Of course that would be illegal, so we left it at that.

Don't you just love those lanterns??

We joined more of our hosts at a special performance of Awa Odori dancers.  We came in the hot, humid summer to Japan, because of the Obon festival.  It is a holiday held every August.  The highlight of the holiday is the Awa Odori dance festival.  It is three nights of dancing and festivities.  The interesting thing is that over a hundred thousand dancers in the festival are dancing the exact same dance.  The parade consists of large groups from different companies and professionals, but they all do the same dance (with a little variation).  The dance itself has only two steps.  We watched You Tube videos before we came and it looked very easy.  However, after watching the demonstration of professionals, I became a little nervous about actually learning it correctly.

These are the musicians.  The instruments they use include the shamisen lute, taiko drums, shinobue flute, and kane bell.  The song is the same for every group and they play it very loud.  It is exciting.

The women wear special kimonos with hats and gets sandals.  The kimonos vary according to the group, but the hat and sandals are the same.

The men wear little shorts and kimonos.  

We were excited to be a part of the dance the next day, but a little nervous about doing it correctly.  They are very particular about their form!