足助 and others

friday was such an amazing day on so many levels! my title says "asuke" as that was the area we went to. it was about an hour away from school, but it was so amazing. an old style city in the middle of the forest and hidden deep in the mountains. the trees were just starting to change and most were ginko or maple trees. the maple trees near the river that cut between the area we mainly stayed were hand planted by a Buddhist priest who chanted sutra's as he did so back in the 1600s hoping to bring beauty and prosperity to the area. there are a lot of shrines and temples in the area so it looks amazing. the houses were filled to the brim with authentic and handmade items from the area and i....HAD NO MONEY! i forgot to pull some from the ATM before we left and no where took credit cards and there were no ATMs in the area. go me go... luckily, i managed to ask my friends to help me out and they agreed. :)

i tried this AMAZING food called "gekeimochi" (i think) that was mochi (pounded rice to be like paste pretty much) covered in a sauce that reminded me of bbq sauce but was ubber sweet and such. it was GREAT!



for about an hour and half we got to walk around the entire area, but i was worried we'd get lost and most of us were hungry. we were ok and all and thankfully i knew the map well enough to get us to see so many sights. i wanted to see the damn temples, but oh well. it was still loads of fun walking around.

it was then time for the activities to start. i was doing hattaori which is cloth weaving. it starts off with a giant loom that already has yards of cloth all ready and since there were just three of us, we got our own personal little lesson.

here are pictures of the process:


here's the loom. not the one i worked at, but one near me

the pedals i used. you press the middle ones to switch the pattern up and down

this was the material i used at my loom and the yards of fabric waiting for me

now behind the tool there used is the finished product. once done, you use this tool to tie the string 7 times around the bamboo and cloth


when it was done we use this glue across the cloth to keep it in place


the end result! aren't they so pretty?! look at that piece of work! all handmade, baby!

before i made that loveliness, i also wandered around the town and took quite a lot of pictures of the area. here are just a few lovely shots of my time in this wonderfully peaceful town.



















































































































































































































































also, there were school kids there. they were all about 8 or 9. they couldn't get enough of us, especially my senpai (older classmate) r-chan, as she's really tall and they thought her touching tree branches like godzilla was amazing! haha!

now, over the weekend i was EXTREMELY busy with halloween parties, UN/hetalia day, and the school fesitval. the school festival was awesome and i really loved attending my first one. i especially liked seeing the boys up on the stage dancing! :D
but i was also a part of the foreigners who put on a play. we did the lion king! i have included the links below to the videos. if you want to see more pictures from asuke and from the halloween party i went to on saturday, check out my facebook!

starting midterms next week, so don't expect updates for awhile, although next tuesday i have a random holiday and plan to go out with my friends, so there might be pictures or so

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy6ZR16qSSs
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXt-dTiIXJQ
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQcTIrxbALU

thanks you all!

~星子☆