Orientation, Shan Shan, and the Beach Round 2

After coming back from Kyoto, I went to my prefecture orientation. This orientation outlined more specifics about my contract and job, but also gave me the opportunity to meet many of the other JETs in the prefecture. The first evening we went to am all you can eat/drink beer garden, was then followed by very rambunctious karaoke. While I didn't sing myself, I was impressed by the playlist selection. They had songs by Dream Theater, Kamelot, and I even found a song by Protest the Hero.

The second day was a fun day, where the prefecture board of education set aside to show us some touristy sites around Tottori. It started with a boat tour around the cliffs near Tottori, which was a fascinating site to see.

Then we went to the sand dunes, Tottori`s main tourist attraction.  It is just a random, massive sand dune right next to town. There were lots of people wandering around, a paragliders, and some more adventurous people running down the dune.  So after 3 weeks of not training at all, I figured I would throw something I have never landed, and did a very poor kart side down the hill. (Parkour people, I am sorry for the disappointing execution).

 Tottori is well known for growing pears, so as we left I grabbed some pear ice cream, which I liked a lot more than actual pears. We didn't spend too much time at the sand dune, so I think I will go back there again sometime.




That evening was Shan Shan matsuri, Tottori's big festival. Historically this festival is based on a monk who danced with an umbrella for rain, so the whole city does this for hours on end. It was very fun, the main street in the city gets turned into a parade of parasols where 4 songs are played on repeat and groups dance as they proceed down. It ends up being somewhat repetitive after a certain point, but each group had different routines for two of the 4 songs. So at a certain point we began to look for the "best" team of performers. The most impressive group we saw was the "All Blacks" who added a shuffle to their dance. It was a lot of fun and the city really came to life with tons of people along the main street. The next evening the festival drew to a close with a fireworks display. While fireworks are equally impressive in scale in the US, the length of the shows is much longer in Japan. There was an hour of fireworks, which was broken up by songs played over speakers along the riverbank. Much like the main street the day before, the whole city seemed to gather at the riverbank to watch the fireworks, which were a ton of fun to watch.

The next day I joined in on plans to go to the beach. Erika, a Tottori native I met at the beer garden, was visiting town during Obon and organized the event. I joined her and her friend and went to a beach in Iwami, close to where I was earlier. This beach however, had cliff diving! I am glad I took the time to go to the beach again.

Also, here are all the photos from the trip, including meals and friends if you'd like to see things in more detail.