It’s June already, and the weather is really heating up for summer. The rainy season will come in about two weeks. I can feel the summer humidity in the air now. When I first heard about the rainy season in Japan, I was expecting a lot of rain to fall for about a month. When it came around, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Ireland is quite a rainy country, so I’m used to it!
Festival season will kick off soon, too. The Yoshiwara Gion festival is on June 11th, and it’s one of the biggest festivals in Fuji. It has a very traditional feel to it, groups of people from different neighbourhoods drag giant floats, or “mikoshi” around Yoshiwara. It sounds great too, with taiko drumming in the giant floats. It’s a great Japanese tradition to hold festivals during summer. Every city has their own festival and it builds a good community spirit. I’m looking forward to visiting some of them this year.
At Hario this week we are collecting the speeches that our students have written. I have seen some interesting speeches already and am looking forward to hearing the students perform them. The speeches are in the process of being translated now, then they will be produced into CD’s for the students to practice with. I bet they can’t wait to get started!
Alan