Mall in Japan

Here is mall in Japan, almost the same as the US.Decorations hanging form the celling.Only difference, no size 12 shoe, or JPN 30...Largest size is usually 28cm.

Tsutsui Festival

This past Friday I was sitting at home, resting after work when all the sudden at 8pm I started to hear drums and flute music. And it would not stop, so I put on my shoes and walked a few blocks from my apartment to find a large out door festival with floats. It turns out the it was the start of a three day long party taking place all around my apartment. I think this happens yearly but this was the first time I happen to be home. All the noise was being made by these kids inside the floats. It seems like lots of work, but they played non-stop for about 10 hours a day.Tsutsui is my hood, a section of the ward of Higashi. Tsutsui has two floats, these old guys were running the show I think. Telling each float where to go and not sharing little beers.The floats are very tall and very old. You can see the puppets on top, they dance around and are human powered. The floats were made before the time of over head wires I'm guessing.To get under the wires, they have since been modified so that the little house on top can be lowered. But that's not good enough and someone has to push over the wires too.Saturday evening the two floats come to an intersection in the middle of tsutsui, it was like when the two gangs confronted each other in beginning of the beat-it video. Below is the start of the square-off.Then the dance. You can see the massive crowd, it went down each of the four blocks.Most of the lanterns were candled powered. When it's time to blow out the candle hanging off of the floats, you just have to smack the bottom of the lantern. Air rushing through the lamp blows out the candle.After the square-off in the center of town, both floats took off down the road and parade around for a few more hours.Here is a video from Saturday evening, enjoy!

Busan

Okay, one more beach post before moving on... I made my first trip to Busan, the second largest largest city in South Korea and on the southern coast of the country. I was lucky enough to stay at Haeundea Beach, a very popular tourist location. But this was a business trip, so not so much time for beach fun. Below is a new art installation, the signs around it said it was installed so you will a nice place to take photos.This is the beach looking west, it is the off season but many people still enjoy walking around at night. Kids were shooting off fireworks too.I had time to walk around a little bit the morning I was returning to Japan (Busan is 1.5 hour flight from Nagoya). Here is another view looking east, there are a bunch of restaurants over there.One funny thing in Korea, there is no place to park. The two cars below are just parked in the middle of the street, which makes a problem if you need to pass another car through there or something. But there is a solution.On the dash of the car is the drivers phone number. You can call the driver and he or she will come out and move their car for you... Of course this is an issue if you can't speak Korean.

Australia vs. Korea vs. Japan: No-Smoking Signs at Beaches

Above Bondi Beach Australia. Below Haeundae Beach, South Korea.Above Haeundae Beach, South Korea. Below Utsumi Beach Aichi, Japan.(turns out the sign on the Japanese beach is not a no-smoking sign, it just list other things you can't do. I will have to go look for a sign at Japanese beach, Atticus thanks for covering the USA).
Winner: Korea