The Weekend Update 2

Well this weekend was pretty busy. I don't think I have had a day of nothing for the last 2 months or so. Well on Saturday, I was up to nothing and Megan called up saying she was bored. She had checked out the orientation guide of Gifu that we got three months ago and read something about a place called Tarui and how it had hiking, a shrine and a kick ass bakery.

After a bit of research, we found that Tarui was only 1 train station away from Ogaki. So we thought that we would give it a shot. Darkness falls really early here (maybe 5.30), so apologies for the dark photos... we spent a bit of time at the bakery. It was a really nice bakery (sorry, no photos), and I had a really yummy hot chocolate. It was a little chilly outside so it was really comforting. After the bakery, we went through a really quaint little town to find a shrine.

The walk up to the shrine was really fun. A few of the houses had these funny little rock statues out the front. They were just simple rocks that were dressed in matching aprons. It reminded me a little of The Three Bears or something....

The shrine looked really cool at this time of the evening. The red/orange paint really stood out against the gravel and the greenery in the background. We walked around the inside of the shrine, and took off our shoes for good measure.

Across from the shrine was a wall of prayers and other little knick-knacks. It looked pretty cool.

On Sunday, we went to a traditional Japanese dance performance. We got the tickets for free, so there was nothing to lose really. It was a strange experience. I felt both bored and excited at the same time.... The actual performances were really boring because the dancers would hardly move. However, the costumes were marvellous. They were really intricate and beautifully embroidered. We sat through half of the performances and then left before we fell asleep.

The dude sitting behind the dancers doesn't actually take part in the dances. He sits there and helps the dancer out with costume changes and hands them props. The last photo shows a dancer in her first costume. The next photo below shows the same dancer after a costume change. The guy in the background just about tore off the outer layers of the first costume.

The second last photo shows the musicians. They played pretty slow music. The singers were really funny because they kept on making whooping noises. The drummers were funny too. They kept on licking the bottom of their drums. The facial expressions on all of the actors and the musicians never changed. They all looked so bored and serious. That is except for the dude with the sword above. He made really cool facial expressions, such a character. There were a lot of really old ladies in the audience. They also seemed pretty bored, and some of them were asleep. They look really funny when they sleep. It's like they're convertibles because they all fold up.

OK, that's it for me. Keep up the comments because then I know you're checking out this blog! Thanks to everyone for the comments so far!