Sunday Fun-Day

It was a long day today but tons of fun!! We got up early today to go with Hiro to Toyora (sp?) for their festival. Hiro was dancing with her Yosakoi group and invited us to come and watch. There were several performers at the festival and we enjoyed watching some traditional Japanese drummers and the dancers. There was a raffle that Hiro bought us tickets for - they were raffling off cases of potatos, bags of rice and whole, fresh salmon. Hiro won a box of potatos and Phaedra won a big salmon! It was probably 20lbs! We were able to get it cleaned and cut up while we were there and gave half of it to Hiro since she bought the tickets.
We were a little concerned when we got there because we were pretty sure it was going to go over lunch time and we are completely out of money from our shopping trip yesterday but there was free lunch! There was a soup made from fish, tofu and vegetables and another dish with salmon and onion and eggplant - fantastic! Just at the end of the festival they had an event where they brought in two containers of live salmon and released them into a make-shift rectangular wading pool. People then got in and waded around trying to catch them - if you caught one you got to keep it. It looked like fun - but very wet too and the fish were looking a little close to the end - they reminded us very much of the fish we would see at Goldstream right about now - all purpleish and tired. Joisan tried to have a go but she needed to have gotten a ticket earlier and they wouldn't let her without one even though there were fish left. We got home in time to have a visit on Skype with Phaedra's mum before she went to bed and we all really enjoyed that.
This evening there was a small welcome party for us - a potluck supper. It was fabulous food and awesome fun! We really felt like honoured guests and enjoyed watching all of the interplay between the people who were there. There were about 20 people altogether and enough food for 30! We ended up bringing lots home for breakfast and lunch. Funny highlights included meeting Hidenori who is quite a character and arm wrestled with Taran and wanted to sing to Phaedra. Ian got teased a bit about his name - which can be pronounced in a way that sounds like what the Japanese say when something is distasteful. Kyokucho (the postmaster) and Kimiko and Sanae were all very keen on finding out which Karaoke songs we would sing for them next time. Kimiko and Sanae agreed to give Ian cooking lessons and we are all going to play badminton on Tuesday and Friday nights at the community centre. We had a marvelous time today and we're looking forward to what will happen next! We'll keep you posted - Phaedra starts work in Date tomorrow!