Day 70 in Japan - Pensioner Stampede!

Today we explored Akashi a little more - I still hadn't been to the huge park on the north side of the station, so that was our goal after our Japanese lesson with the lovely Kojima-sensei (who even took us to the supermarket to teach us the names of different kids of fish when our lesson had finished). First, we went book shopping, and I bought a very basic manga comic to start to translate in English as a part of my study. I went with Yotsubato, because I had read it before in English, because it's fairly simple (being aimed at young kids), and mort importantly because it makes me laugh (being aimed at young kids). We also saw this impressive series at the book store:

DRAGONBALL

The rest of the day was spent wandering in the park. There was some kind of garden show on, so we watched kids playing, saw a heap of school baseball and track-and-field events being played, and eventually sat down next to the lake to do some study. There were some mean swans, some friendly turtles, and some aloof herons.

We walked up to the battlements and the ruins of Akashi Castle as the sun was setting, and then back down again into a throng of senior citizens. Turns out there was a free performance of Japanese music on in the park, and we had managed to wander into it exactly in time to see the frenzy of the over 65's set trying to push each other out of the way for front seats. We decided to hang around to see the show as well, and it was well worth it. The first act was one man and two flutes, and it was a lovely performance of traditional Japanese bamboo flute things. Then a bunch of ladies dressed in brightly coloured clothes dancing and clapping these hand percussions things. Then there were a few acts that I didn't really get - ladies were kind of dancing (but really just posturing very slowly) on stage while a few dudes played very Noh-ish music. That was a long hour. But then the last act made me glad we had hung around - there were 21 performers on stage - 9 choir, 1 or two flute, and the rest on koto, and they played lovely music as it started to gently rain.

After the shows, we headed back to Okubo for some dinner. We ended up eating at the new Indian restaurant that has opened near the station, and OH MY MY GOD LOOK AT THAT NAAN!

Can you see Sam behind the naan?

Food Highlight of the Day: Enormous and delicious fresh naan bread from our new local Indian restaurant (butter chicken was decent, but the naan was the star of the show).