Thursday
Cooking ended up not being cooking, but "desert making" instead that involved no ovens, heat, or a kitchen really. We made mochi, which goes with green tea. I made those beauties in the picture below.












When we ate these it sparked a spontaneous tea ceremony, which I messed up horribly because I A) don't understand Japanese and B) Had no idea how many traditions went along with it. The woman in yellow is my mom for the trip! She is teaching my brother's wife how to do everything.

At school we went out and interviewed random Japanese people, it was the best day so far! While interviewing we stopped in a few stores as well and I found these shirts...









After dinner and the tea ceremony we went to the on-sen and then to a big festival ritual. People walked down the street chanting, following Buddhist monks. Then the monks did lots of strange things to ward off demons and created a big fire.






























There was also a taiko drum show... and PS some of these pictures were taken with my phone and infrared to my computer, gotta love Japanese phones! Thats it for now... this weekend is a huge festival and my brother is holding me a big bbq... ja!!