This weekend I stayed with a friend almost two hours away from school...it was a refreshing break from the monotonly of study, class, eat, and repeat. We spent Saturday window shopping and catching up, and on Sunday we went to a Japanese festival, where among other things, I was able to sample some green tea ice cream and see the display of bonsai trees (pictures above). There was also classical Japanese music, puppet shows, kimono displays, a bazaar, and the opportunity to play traditional Japanese strategy games such as Shogi (Japanese chess).
Another pastime we engaged in this weekend was sampling snacks from different countries. Here are some that we tried:
Maynard's Wine Gums: British chewy fruit-flavoured candies. They aren't as sweet as gummy worms and such, and have an understated unique flavour. Black is my favourite.
Scottish tablet: Basically chocolate-less fudge.
Chilli Chatka: Spicy cheese-puff-like Indian snack. They start out a crunchy, salty snack but quickly make your mouth start to burn!
Tenkei marshmallows: Just soft marshmallows with fruit jelly in the centre. Ours were blueberry.
Ramune soda: Japanese soft drink in interesting little glass bottles. The tops contain a glass marble that you force into the bottle by pressing down on the lid. The marble then rolls around in the pinched, top part of the bottle while you drink. We had trouble figuring out how to open the bottle at first. When we finally got it open, we had fun watching other people trying to do the same.
Overall a fun weekend. My yosakoi team performed at the festival on Saturday, and I was sad to miss the performance, but apparently it went very well. Someone in the audience was even brought to tears! Next performance: our homecoming parade. Hopefully I'll be able to join in!
1 comment:
You need weekends like that every now and then. Nice to have you dropping by. Feel free to do so more often.
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