Paulina's Farewell
Our friend, Paulina, is going home to Mexico right away, so we had a going away party for her on Wednesday (National holiday on Thursday). We went for dinner and then to Karaoke (of course, stopping by the river for a bit). But, the exciting part was that halfway through Karaoke a group of Japanese people came in-- it was a Wedding party, complete with Bride and Groom (well, with Groom, the bride was elsewhere, although she later joined us). The picture of the two Japanese people with the small Mexican is the bride and groom with Paulina, ON THEIR WEDDING NIGHT, at Karaoke, with US!
Sites of Kanazawa
These past few days my friend from University was visiting me, so we took the opportunity to play tourist and see some more of Kanazawa. There are just some random pictures from the three days. The first is fish drying in the Higashi Chaya (the Geisha district) that I thought looked really neat! The second is a picture of a room in one fo the Geisha houses. it was built over 185 years ago, and was considered one of the most luxurious houses in the area as demonstrated by the fact that it had two stories at a time that this was not allowed, except at places the Feudal lord visited a lot (okay, there were some excpetions, I don't know if that was the qualifications but I infer). The third picture is the main streen in Higashi Chaya-- the street is lined with contemporary as well as ancient Geisha houses. Apparently at night you can still see real Geishas (at least, if you have the relative wealth of the feudal lord), but sometimes they are in the street walking places-- they are people after all. The fourth picture is a gold leaf wall-- the wall is made of gold and is the only outer gold wall in the world!! (99% of Japan's gold leaf is made in Kanazawa!). The last picture is just me with a traditional wooden umbrella. One of the last people in Japan who still makes the umbrellas lives here in Kanazawa, and he made this one. It cost approximately $300 to buy, but we posed with it free at the Samurai rest house!
Halloween
These pictures are from the Halloween party that we went to in Nanao, a city two hours away by train, last weekend. The party was held in the house of a JET, which was the most ridiculous house we have ever seen! It used to be a grocery store (and still has the marquee from this time at the front), was then converted into a tacoyaki restaurant (that is octopus, not tacos!), and now into a house! It has twenty bedrooms!!!!! Plus, a huge library upstairs!!! We had a lot of fun, although the last picture of the train ride home the next day shows just how much fun!
