30 May 2009

We slept in this morning since we were all tired from the long day yesterday. By the time we got up and moving, it was already lunch time. Norio’s mom had prepared a soup-like meal in a pot with tofu, pork, mushrooms, and many greens. It was really good and complimented the plain bowl of rice very nicely. I ate until I was completely full, but I still wish I could’ve eaten more. It was so good! We already had plans for the evening since today was supposedly a special day of celebration for the welcoming of summer to Japan. There was going to be food vendors set-up along the river in Tochigi, and the city was going to set off fireworks if the weather permitted them to do so. It was steadily raining all day, so I hoped it would stop so we could go out and enjoy the festivities. The three of us worked on our studio design project for most of the day since the weather was poor anyways.
Norio’s mom’s friend Mina came over around 6pm, and she brought with her one of her old kimonos and hair styling supplies. Norio’s parents had additionally bought Derrick a new yukata from the store since he was too large to wear anyone else’s. Derrick, Norio, and I were going to dress up in celebration of the festivities tonight. Before getting dressed, Mina offered to do my hair since I did not know how to do it properly. I just assumed I could sport the pony tail, but I guess she wasn’t going to settle for something so casual. She gave me two different hairstyle options, and I decided on the bun since it seemed like the least amount of work. She put tons of hair product in my hair and pulled my hair back tighter than I’ve ever had it pulled back. I could feel the skin on my face become completely tight on my face. It was a weird feeling. After finishing my hair, which I liked a lot, Mina dressed me in the kimono she brought. It was a beautiful teal green with white butterflies on it. She even had a golden yellow obi with butterflies on it to match. It was the first time I had the complete look, and it was really neat. It turns out that the kimono and obi were ones that Mina had worn since she was a young girl, so it had even more meaning for me to be wearing it. I was completely overwhelmed by her generosity when she even told me I could keep it. It was instances like this one where I wish I could’ve spoken Japanese. I couldn’t possibly imagine taking something of her’s which she had had since she was a little girl, and especially a kimono and obi. Wow! I told Norio to tell her that I couldn’t except such a generous gift, but she already had her mind set. Norio said I was just lucky, and I eventually had to just accept the gift. I still wish I could’ve thanked her even more, but due to the language barrier, I just kept repeating the same phrase of arigato gozaimas. Norio’s mom dressed him and Derrick in their yukatas, and we were finally ready to go.
In order to get the best view of the fireworks, we had plans to go to Mina’s mom’s house since she lived right by the river where the vendors and fireworks were. Even though her mom only lived about 10 minutes away from Norio’s hosue, it took seemingly forever since traffic was so backed up. The three of us went in Mina’s car, and she was a crazy driver! Norio said she had gotten much better, but Derrick and I were definitely scared. We arrived safely though, and once inside, there was tons of good food already prepared. It felt very similar to when I go to my grandparents for any special occasion. We sat upstairs on the tatami, ate the great food, and enjoyed the view of the fireworks. For dinner, we had homemade udon, fried squid, maki sushi, inari sushi, cucumber rolls, and pickled veggies. It was a really filling meal. We walked around the river and vendors after eating, and it was only slightly raining. Many of the younger people were dressed similarly to us, but the older people were casually dressed in everyday clothes.
We spent the rest of the evening at Mina’s mom’s house playing the taiko Wii game with one of the grandchildren. It was so much fun! I wish they had that game for the U.S. Wii. We met many other extended family members during the night, then we finally headed home around 11pm. We took our shower and bathes again, then stayed up late working on our project. I will definitely be really sad to go back to Tokyo tomorrow because I am having so much fun here in Tochigi.