It's story time...
A few days ago we decided to run down to Tokyu (our favorite grocery store) to buy some groceries. When we got down there around 4:00pm the street in front of the store was closed off and we soon realized a summer festival was in the works. There were beer and food vendors along the sidewalks, two tall towers in the middle of the street set up for the musicians, and over our heads zigzagging across the street were multicolored streamers. Although the festival had not started yet we new it was going to be a night we didn't want to miss. So we decided to buy our groceries, take them home, and come back for the festival. We thought it would be fun to find some dinner at the festival, taking our chances with the local festival food.
When we got home after grocery shopping we were both pretty tiered and talked about staying home, however Kellyn insisted on venturing out and eating dinner at the festival. Well, when we arrived this is what we saw.
Basically, both sidewalks were lined with people eating, drinking, and watching the dancers. Apparently, the entertainment at this festival consists of a giant circle of people repeating a traditional dance. At this time, it was mostly children dancing with their parents helping them along as can be seen in the picture. We were standing at the end of the street where the line of people turned to go down the other side (they put that yellow crate there so the kids would keep the circle). After watching the dance for a while we decided to wander through he vendors and find our dinner. Within a minute of walking through the crowd we were stopped by an older Japanese man who handed us two robes and lead us out onto the street. He spoke no English but made it clear that he wanted us to join the line of dancers. We had no idea what to do so we put the robes on and followed his every move.
Thankfully, the dance wasn't that hard and we repeated the same moves over and over again. The foot work was a little tricky, but at least we were smart enough to figure out that as long as you take a step forward on beat we'll survive. At the center of this group of dancers was a tall tower with the musicians, mostly Japanese drummers, pictured below.
This is the man that gave us the robes and lead us to the street. He started out in front of Kellyn but after a lap or two moved behind Joe and left Kellyn to copy the woman in front of her. He put us in between a group of women that had the same robes on as us. We still don't know why they were all wearing the same robes... maybe some kind of club. We have no idea but for the rest of the night we stuck real close to them and pretended we were a part of their group.
Eventually, the dancing stopped. We thought the whole thing was over and started to take of the robes. Our mistake. The man motioned to us that we were not done yet. The break was for the the children to receive their treats. All the kids sat on the ground and waited patiently for an adult to present them with a bag of what we assumed was candy. While this was going on we stood in the street and waited for our next instructions. After a few minuets we decided it was okay to once again try and find something to eat. We noticed one of our clan was waiting in line at a booth so we thought it was fine for us to do the same. We were wrong, the man stopped us again from breaking loose. A moment later, a woman (one of our group) handed us two cups of beer then gave the change back to our friend. We thanked him very kindly for the gift but were once again confused as to what we were suppose to do next. So we moved out of the way of onlookers and drank our beer. Eventually, the dancing started again. Only this time no kids were involved and all the dancers appeared to be wearing some kind of traditional dress. However, the dance was the same. Well, we weren't even halfway done with our beer when our friend motioned us to join the line of dancers once again. So we ditched our beer and began to dance.
After a few laps another Japanese man approached us and made the universal sign to us for camera/taking a picture. What did we do? We handed him our camera and proceeded to dance while he followed us through the crowd of people trying to get that perfect shot of us dancing. Success. Full success! Every so often the music would die down and someone on a microphone would make an announcement in Japanese. Each time we hoped he was saying the dancing would stop but that didn't happen. As before we were placed in between our club with our friend dancing two club members in front of us. At one point, our friend tried to step out of the dance but the woman behind him had perfect reflexes and grabbed his robe swinging him back in line. We think its safe to say she was looking out for us and didn't want him to leave the foreigners to fend for themselves. We have no idea how long we danced (the same repetitive dance) but we think it went for about a half an hour. Imagine doing the Electric Slide for a half an hour and thats kind of where we were. After a while we gave up hope of this dance ever ending, but it finally did. Our friend approached us and motioned for our robes. We handed them back and assumed the night was over. We were wrong. As we started to walk away, he stopped us and had us wait until he handed off the robes to another member. He motioned us to follow him. Again, we had no idea what to do so we went with him, thinking we were going to end up on a Japanese game show or something of the like. Thankfully, we didn't end up on a game show, but we got pretty close. He led us down the street to a small bar where a couple of his friends were already waiting. By the end of the night the bar was filled with his friends/acquaintances with us as the center of entertainment. Of coarse as Japanese hosting goes, our friend bought us a round of beer followed by a plate of Japanese bar specialties. The plate included a slice of watermelon, some kind of deep fried bean, and squid. Thankfully, we were able to eat everything on our plate (and finally get some food in our stomachs). After we were done eating the bartender put a little gadget in front of us. It looked like the credit card machines grocery stores have in the States, only we knew right away thats not what it was. We pretended to play dumb for a while but after the entire bar insisted, Joe embarked on his first karaoke experience. They figured out how to find the songs in English and Joe sang "All You Need is Love" by the Beetles. Kellyn of coarse was terrified and only sang on the chorus. There were three screens through out the bar with one directly in front of us.
After Joe sang his song, he passed the microphone to our friend who initially refused but the bartender (who seems to be friends with this group) insisted. Needless to say, our friend got up and sang a song in Japanese. We didn't get the memo that when you sing karaoke you stand up so everyone can see you.
Through out the rest of the night various people sang, usually after being prompted by a friend. One guy actually sang a song in English, we didn't recognize the song but he seemed very pleased with himself. One of the best parts of the evening happened when they were trying to make conversation with us (the bartender and another man had a decent amount of English and were able to translate a little bit). Apparently, the group thought we were brother and sister. To communicate that we were married Joe gave Kellyn a kiss on the cheek. They crowd went wild for this, then our friend did the same with his wife sitting next to him. After this they made us slow dance while someone sang a love song. As the Japanese way goes, they kept offering to refill our glasses. We were able to refuse a few times but they were quite persistent. One gentleman who joined the crowd a little late ordered us another round, to which we said "we're okay." The bartender said, "It's a gift" and poured our glasses. Turned out, we saw this man at the festival. He was wearing a gold sequined kimono with no undershirt. It was awesome! This should give an idea of what kind of people they are.
Well, after another beer and many refusals at sake we decided it was time to go. Joe had the bartender explain that he had work in the morning so we must be off to sleep. But, before we left they wrapped up some watermelon for us and made sure we understood to come back tomorrow at 7:30 to meet up with them. We said goodbye, bowed, shook hands, and left. We were to scared to return the next day, we're pretty sure they would have put us on a game show if we went back.
By far one of the craziest experiences of our time here. But, it makes for a good story.
All of our wildest dreams have come true. We're talking peanut butter, salsa, muffins, and Costco pizza. It was strange wondering through the land of bulk foods, we really almost felt like we were back in Kirkland yet there was something distinctly different. For starters, the place was rather empty and very quiet, we were still the only white people in the building, and there were no samples. We were so thankful when we got off the bus and saw the big, block, letters that read "Costco." However, this all came at a price and we're not just talking yen (although our total was pretty chu-ching). We were very proud that we were able to find it. The subway ride was rather complicated and the bus ride took over a half an hour. The return excursion was a whole other story.
After we had our dinner (the pizza taste almost exactly the same) we packed up our goods into our backpacks, with the exception of a pie and box of macaroni that wouldn't fit, and headed out the door. Now this night was our first night riding the bus, since we were so excited to get to Costco we didn't stop and think about figuring out the rules and routes for bus riding. Turns out this was our first mistake. 
Basically, we got on a bus that headed in the right direction to start but within a few blocks had us going in the opposite direction of our subway destination. We made the decision to get off the bus and walk to a route we knew wouldn't fail us. This walk turned out to be a hour hike, in the dark, and carrying our Costco sized groceries. In addition, not only we were weighted down but strolling at a leisurely pace was not an option. We were concerned that if we didn't move quick enough we might not make it to the subway before it closed for the night which meant either spending a lot more money on a cab or walking four hours to get home.
At one point, while walking through a dark and quiet neighborhood a cabdriver spotted us. At first we kind of laughed because he clearly was trying to get our attention by slowing down and waiting for us to catch up with him. We were not interested in paying that kind of money so we walked passed. However, this guy was persistent. He drove up and down the street maybe three or four times and each time waited for us to catch up to him. One time he even turned around, drove down a driveway, waited at the end of the driveway until we passed, and then drove back out on the street. We both were a little freaked out by his aggressive approach but he eventually got the hint and took off.
In the end, it was all worth it. The little jar cost us almost $5 on sale at the foreign food store whereas the larger jar is about $8 and almost four times as much. What a great deal! It's a little embarrassing how much we love Costco right now.
