This week is Silver Week here in Japan. Basically, Silver Week is what would happen if in the States they moved holidays around so that Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and President's Day were on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. Several minor holidays in a row set up so that office workers get a 5 day weekend.

Because I haven't been able to find a job yet, we've spent Silver Week near to home, instead of heading to Kyoto or something, but we've still found some interesting things to do. On Sunday, we headed to Tokushima to go to a Stuff Swap, where I picked up some clothes and we got some books, then we went to eat at a hotel cafe called The Agnes for our one-year anniversary dinner. The food was decent enough, but the service was amazing and the bread they kept bringing was unbelievable.

Today, Tuesday, the two of us and one of the other Naruto ALTs, a girl from Portland, biked out to the Naruto German House to attend the German Festival. The festival itself was a bit disappointing, but we could have been there at a bad time. It was mainly food vendors selling German products. They were, however, giving away free samples, so I got to taste some German wheat beer, some mango sparkling wine, and a variety of snack foods. We also picked up a jar of bratwurst that we took home and cooked. Delicious! I never thought I'd have bratwurst in Japan.

After the German House, we biked a bit further to the big Shinto shrine in the area, Oasahiko. It was amazing. The tree the shrine is built around is gigantic and really interesting looking. The thing that sticks out the most, though, is the number of giant spiders we saw. They are everywhere and they are huge.

We have one day left of Silver Week, but we don't have any plans so far. However, we have plans for early in Octobor to head to Himeji, and possibly Osaka. Really, I'm out of things to say, since this post was mostly just to post some pictures!

Silver Week 2009 online photo album

Information for those curious about the area in which we are living:

We will be living in Naruto, a town of just over 60,000. Naruto is located in the prefecture (basically Japan's version of a state) of Tokushima. The capital city of the prefecture is Tokushima City, our closest big city neighbor. There are about 260,000 people in Tokushima City. Tokushima Prefecture is located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four major islands.

We're living in an area called the Inland Sea (Naruto is labeled in red.)The Inland Sea is supposed to have the nicest weather in all of Japan, with low rainfall, moderate temperatures, and little snow.

By crossing a few bridges, and the island of Awaji, we can get to the Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto metro area. It is about an hour and a half of travel time by bus, and takes us across the world's largest suspension bridge. There are over 18.5 million people in this metro area, making it second in size only to Tokyo in Japan. A bit further away is Hiroshima (about 3.5 hours away).

Some notable things in and around Naruto:Naruto is famous for it's whirlpools, which can reach up to 20 meters in diameter.

It is the start of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, a journery around the island to visit 88 Buddhist temples.

Naruto Kintoki sweet potatoes are famous around Japan.　　The picture is the regional Hello Kitty, where she is dressed up as a sweet potato.

Every summer, Tokushima City hosts the Awa Dance Festival, where people do choreographed dances while parading down the street. Many places in Japan hold dance festivals during this time, the traditional Buddhist Obon festival, a time for honoring one's ancestors. It's fairly similar to the Mexican Day of the Dead. The festival in Tokushima seems to be a little less serious than other dance festivals of its type, and Awa Odori is sometimes translated as "fool's dance." This will be our first major festival during our time in Japan, so I'm sure we'll take pictures of it.