Utsunomiya Matsuri

(A portable Oomikoshi in the streets of Utsunomiya)

I returned to Oyama around 3PM so I could take a shower and get ready for the Utsunomiya Matsuri with Mitsue. Normally, I wouldn't bother with such things as taking a shower, but seeing how this is a girl I like and the weather in both Ashikaga and Oyama was like 88F with 80% humidity, I was sweating like a dog in the heat of Japan.

I stopped by Keleih's to meet up with Shirida, an IUPUI student that is thinking about taking the Hakuoh program next semester. We talked with her for a bit and she gave me two things of pop-tarts from home. It's the ONLY thing I can't find here in terms of food here. But, Shirida and I had to leave pretty quickly and I wasn't able to answer personally all her questions. Maybe, I might see her again in Tokyo before she heads off back to America.

I went home, showered (after putting at the lowest temperature setting I have ever put the thing), and left. I arrived just at 6 and waiting for me outside the gate was Mitsue, her mom, and Mitsue's friend Miki. I was surprised to meet Mitsue's mom (and her cute miniature dog), but apparently I asked later and Mitsue said she's a "big fan" of me and wanted to meet me. Whatever that could mean?

If the humidity was worse in the day, there were so many people packed into the streets it was unbearable sometimes. We saw some dancers and Mikoshi, then we decided to go to a shrine up a long flight of stairs. I wanted to get some sort of fortune, but we decided to head back down and eat some Matsuri food. I am notorious for picking the things I normally like and eat, rather than try new things like most foreigners do when they come here to Japan, but I had a bit of 大阪焼き　which was Osakan take on okonomiyaki (which was called something else in the form it was, but I forgot what it was) and it was good. It was so packed in the streets that we had to go into a shopping mall several floors up to get the peace and space to actually eat.



(It was this packed around the streets and up to get to the shrine on this hill)

After dinner, we decided to go and take　プリクラ。　プリクラ is short for (picture club). We had fun doing that as we had some funny shots. However, the mail message picture you can receive on your cellphone never came (Mitsue's mail address is really long, so she could have made a mistake) so we were out of luck there. Later, we went into the open-air mall and got snowcones. As usual, I have two main enthusiasms here (with still more to probably come). My first is sampling all the different types of 自動販売機　(vending machine) and コンビに coffee there are, but the other is playing 太鼓の達人　(taiko no tatsujin) and trying to get at least one high score for a song on each machine I play on. I have at least one record on EVERY machine that is in the immediate Oyama area, so I wanted to spread out my bases. Figuring that Utsunomiya's population is like Indy's and such, places like arcades, ESPECIALLY in the open-air mall, would be frequented daily. And here it seems, you are either really good at the game, or you don't play it (and consequently suck) at the game. But, it's something interesting when a foreigner begins to play it. I am no wear near good, but I like playing it (the DS games help me out with rememberization). So, I played Taiko for Mitsue. I chose my usual pick of songs, but because it was a summer matsuri, I decided to start with the aptly named ”夏祭り”　, followed by リンダリンダ　and then ドラゴンメロディー.　I did alright at all the songs, but I felt I wasn't at my best.

After that, we sat down and admired the 七夕　decorations that were strung up for the approaching festival in Sendai. I was going to take Mitsue and some other friends too, but a lot of my friends were either low on cash (It's like $80 one way by Shinkansen) or were vacationing/working/returned to their hometown temporary. I could probably still go with her to it, but I might decide to spend Thursday with Shirida before she goes back to America. I don't know.

In short, Utsunomiya's Matsuri was fun, but packed. I was hoping to see the normal, crazy traditional loin-cloth-wearing dancers, but that apparently was for Saturday and not today. Oh well, those matsuri are more amusing and interesting in the winter anyway.



(Me and Mitsue at the shrine)