So this week in our lovely town of Sendai, there was a tug-of-war festival. Actually, it's called Tsunahiki Matsuri, because we're in Japan, but it's basically a giant game of tug-of-war. The rope is absolutely HUGE. I mean it's probably a couple of meters in diameter (that's right, I think in metric now). And it's probably about a football field, okay so maybe half a football field, long.
There are two teams of men dressed in those sumo wrestler diapers you've seen, who have obviously been drinking way too much sake (that's alcohol by the way) and they do tug of war. There are about zero people on the streets in Sendai, but on the day of the Matsuri, the roads were packed. It was crazy. It's like everyone came out of their little holes and appeared. Plus people come in from all over Japan to see it. As missionaries, that festival is kinda not allowed. Something about half-naked men, too much alcohol, and it's late. But we rode our bikes down the road for the festival before it started, and I took a picture of the rope.
It's so big that people were just sitting on it. Last year's rope is in the Eki (train station) and I took a picture of it too. Only Japanese people would get a giant rope to play tug of war. They're crazy.
In our apartment, we have this extra spare room off the kitchen. We had a similar room in Fujisaki, but this one is a little different.
See, this one is full of trash. Japan culture is pretty much based off their trash system. They have burnable trash, non-burnable trash, and recyclables. When I tell my English class that in America we bury a lot of our garbage, they were shocked. Japan really is small and compact. So, the burnable trash goes out twice a week. You can't take it out early - that's way bad Japanese manners. If you have a lot of trash before that then you have to store it somewhere. Twice a week isn't too bad with just two of us. We just fill about a bag each time, so we take it out. However, the non-burnable trash and the recyclables just go out once a month. So in this spare room, that we have named Outer Darkness, we have non-burnable trash (like metals) and recyclables (like plastic bottles, milk cartons, etc) filling the whole room. See with once a month you forget, especially with transfers and new missionaries, so it just sits for another month.
There is probably 3 months of garbage in Outer Darkness. In the middle of Outer Darkness we have a box of Japanese Book of Mormons.
My goal today is to organize that room. Haha. You know how much I love to organize. But don't worry, I took a really awesome video of Outer Darkness. But I don't think Gmail can handle a video, so you will have to wait about a year.
The BUGS in Japan are a totally different breed of HOLY COW THAT IS HUGE. I have about 20 pictures already of big bugs. I just can't help it, you know. They're just so massive. Outside our front door is about 1000 of Charlotte's children. I got a broom (at the dollar store) and whacked them all down, until I got to the light. There is this light outside, with a little pull string on the bottom. However, the pull string is defying the power of gravity and is at more than an angle. It is now part of a spider's web. It's too soon to tell if I can whack those all down with my 100 yen broom, but I will try later today.
I've noticed a lot of cars in Japan that are the most interesting color. I think maybe the 2011 cars just got released. Everyone has about the same style car, but in a dozen different 1970s colors. We have burnt pink, orange-pink, burnt orange, sea-foam green, the brightest green you have ever seen, golden yellow (that one's not bad), and brown. Have you seen funny colored cars in America? Maybe it's just Japan. And I've learned about Japanese license plates.
There are yellow and white. The yellow are for light-weight vehicles, and there are certain limitations about the free-way and speed and such. Everyone here has yellow license plates.
P.S. I hope this email sends.
Sarah
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