aide | Happy Thanksgiving~

It's early... for everyone but we're celebrating today so we can have tomorrow to rest up before a new week. It's going to be a full house tonight... I don't even know how many people are going to come. It seems like we invite new people daily. So far, I've counted 13 people and I'm sure there are others I forgot/didn't know were invited. I just realized Christian is coming but I also invited Sachiyo... but she's so flakey I don't know if she's actually coming. But Amanda and Nikki are and the three of them are attached at the hip. Could but awkward but I couldn't really care less. Grow up already.

Sawara was so freaking cool!! It was a bit of an ordeal making our way out there. I missed my transfer at Abiko so I had to wait 30 minutes for the next train to Narita station and Andrew and Bruno were late too. The Keisei line kept stopping randomly. I feel terrible because Leigh waited in Narita for an hour before I showed up and she came all the way from Goi. But it worked out... it was kind of shitty and rainy so we went for coffee and waited an hour for the next train. Apparently the station master said there's only trains every hour because no one goes to Choshi. LOL

The weather was shit when we arrived but ended up clearing up by mid-afternoon. The historical district is so beautiful! The Ono River goes through and you can take a boat tour for 1000 yen but we thought that was a bit steep so we just walked. There were people in festival garb everywhere and huge carts with figures on top where the musicians rode. They were covered up with plastic to keep them dry at first but luckily we could see them without later on. When the festival actually seemed to get going around 3-4pm everyone was dancing in the street. I took some video but the sun was right in front so it's a bit glarey. Even little kids were dancing! And festival food... YUM. I binged a bit (meaning I had some and not none like usual because I'm cheap) because this is likely the last festival of the year that I'll go to.

We saw a kimono shop on the way in and stopped on our way back to the station and spent nearly an hour in there! There was a resale section on the second floor and two ladies working there were so kind when we bombarded them with questions and asking for suggestions about colours and stuff. I found a green kimono (!!) and got a dusty pink obi (though it's more for yukata becuase it's the half size one) and a black haori (short jacket) with a chrysanthemum? design. All for 3500 yen! Andrew got a few haori and a little bag for Christmas gifts and Leigh got a kimono for 2100 yen. I am going to make sure to go back there before I leave Japan.