More sunflowers...

In my last post, I forgot to include the video I took at the sunflower festival, so here it is:

The original was in HD video, but the file was just too big to upload smoothly, so you'll have to imagine better quality...  ;-)

(Video is offline.)

Sunflower Festival in Mashiko

About 45 minutes outside of Utsunomiya there is a small city named Mashiko. It's most famous for ceramics and it has many shops that sell pottery in many styles ranging from inexpensive cups and dishes to collectible pieces from famous ceramicists.
Nozomi & I noticed information about a sunflower festival, so we decided to visit. It was amazing. I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of sunflowers. There is a small, elevated observation deck next to the field that blooms first in the season. That field was mostly finished already, but I'm posting two pictures that I took from there just to give an idea of the size of the fields. Nearby, there was a section with marigolds and other flowers. The other fields had different kinds of sunflowers, including red ones, which I had never seen before. We had a great time, even though it was VERY hot: around 35 C / 95 F!

Ice Cream!

It has been CRAZY hot the last several days, so ice cream has sounded especially good lately. Yesterday at Utsunomiya station, Nozomi bought some at Baskin-Robbins. I didn't realize until checking on Wikipedia what an international brand it is. From what I've noticed here, people mostly call the store "31" ("Let's get some ice cream at 31"). In the States, I always called it Baskin-Robbins. What do you call it?
They included a small pack of dry ice in the bag to keep the ice cream cold, so of course, I had to play with it, and took a video...

(Video is offline.)

Light House Concert Summer 2012

Light House is a musical outreach that connects people from Minemachi Church with the community in Utsunomiya. Our big event this summer was held on August 3rd. It featured many guest musicians and bands along with the music team from Minemachi Church. The focus was on high school/young adults, but anyone was welcome (and I saw some "older folks" having a fun time too).
This video was made using a new application I have on my android phone that takes time lapse pictures and then puts them together as video clips. I used the application throughout the evening, but I couldn't get pictures of all the performers-sorry! During our set, I put the phone next to me on stage to get a different point of view. While I was editing the pieces together, I realized I didn't have a recording of our band, so I chose one of my favorite songs that we play and made a new arrangement of it. Almost three hours of music in about three minutes of video...

(Video is offline.)

"the rhythm is gonna getcha...tonight"

August is matsuri (festival) season in Japan. Last night, Nozomi & I heard traditional style drum music that sounded like it wasn't too far down the street. We decided to take a walk and see if there was a neighborhood festival happening somewhere nearby. As we approached the elementary school that's about three blocks from our apartment, the music became louder. We walked onto the school grounds, and could see a group of students inside one of the rooms practicing. Nozomi said it probably wasn't a problem for us to go into the building, so just as they started to take a break, she stepped inside and asked if it would be OK if we watched their practice. The leader said it was fine, so we had an upclose view of them practicing for an upcoming festival. The students were in lines behind different drums, and took turns playing. It was interesting to see them trading off without missing a beat. The video I took is about a minute long, but their practice session was actually about 25 minutes! The youngest student looked like he was maybe a first or second grader; I was impressed with the students' endurance and concentration.

P.S. You get bonus points if you know who sang the song that I referenced in the title of this post ;-)