This post is a little overdue.
Our school had a festival! If you haven't realized, Japan throws awesome festivals for anything it seems.

 Cloudy and windy. Rained on and off throughout the day, but it was so much fun! There were so many stalls from different clubs and groups selling so much food. I ended up getting yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick) and tamago senbei which is like a fried egg on a cracker sandwich thing with mayo and sauce and it probably sounds awful to you but it's great. I had it twice.

The festival was two days long, over the weekend and everyone got involved! I really wish schools in America could care enough to do this sort of thing. Student clubs are so independent here and are able to do so much!

 Our club, Xiao sold Peppermint Bark! I was so surprised no one knew what it was. No one knew what peppermint was! It's never too early to get into the Christmas spirit. We ended up selling out early the first day and early the second day! We did so well!

That's not all we did though. We also did a Free Hugs event where we literally just walked around hugging people. Yay hugs! 

 The festival continued into the night time with firewords and music performances including the taiko group. Poor things must have been so cold! Without the wind it would have been tolerable.

We went to a school performance which featured multiple dance and drumming circles on campus.

荒馬緒 arauma-chiyo: Is a circle (club) whose dance is a Japanese traditional dance called Arauma from Aomori prefecture. It shows gratitude to the horse for helping with cultivating a field for harvest.

エイサー団いちゃりば eisa-dan ichariba: Is a drumming group originating in Okinawa. Eisa is a form of folk dance whose origin is a Bon dance. It is commonly seen during Bon festivals to honor ancestor spirits back into their homes! Please fast forward past the talking.

よっしゃ虎威 yossha-koi: A traditional dance from Kochi prefecture. This group has made it modern, makes their own costumes and songs. They performed twice but the second time was my favorite.

 

I had to turn the shutter speed up they were moving so fast!

和太鼓"楽" wadaiko-raku: Is the taiko drumming group on campus. They are very intense and taiko can ware you out! My friend is in it and her practices take up most of her free time!

June 23rd was the start of my 48 hour birthday.

The club I am in gave me a wonderful surprise present with so much candy, cute fans and a dancing flower. I got party poppers in the face and they sang to me! So cute.

I then had cake with the Americans, the usual gang from around the country, but I didn't take pictures.
All in all it was a fun birthday with many friends and a lot of candy! I can't wait for the rainy season to end so I can go enjoy the sun again.

This is also a good opportunity to show you some Japanese candies and sweets!

Chip Star (Pringles): Pepper and Bacon!

Pure: Green Apple and Soda flavored gummies. They feel carbonated.

Shittori Choco (In the red bag): Little chocolate rice crispy type thingies.

Cookies in the green and white tubes.

Choco Brownie.

Baked Potato French Fry things (in the green circle container).

Peach cake (The picture... it's in my freezer right now).

A huge bowl of assorted candies.

Senbei, the packaged crackers. (Rice crackers, sweet and salty. There are so many kinds.)