Halloween and the cultural festival

Thanks to the Kanazawa University Cultural Festival (or Kindaisai, as everyone usually calls it) we got no less than five days’ holiday. To celebrate the newfound freedom, they threw a Halloween party in the common area of my dorm on Thursday night. It was rather similar to the one I had attended earlier, only this time with costumes. Some people had really gone all out on the theme, and there were a lot of interesting costumes. I just went with the classic black clothes + yellow accessories + the witch hat – however, that was enough for me to fit right in.

The party was a lot of fun and my bed was literally within 50 metres’ radius from the common hall, so I didn’t bother going to sleep until around five in the morning. Friday was spent mostly sleeping and drinking tea while watching various TV shows online and eating mainly cup noodles and other quick fix meals  – a very successful day, indeed.

 

Saturday and Monday were reserved for the actual festival (Sunday was mainly shopping and lazing around in my neighbours' houses eating and bonding over silly things). Those who have watched school-themed anime series probably know what goes on: the campus is filled with food stalls and stages, most classrooms are turned into cafés and exhibitions etc. Student clubs or “circles” each arrange some sort of performance or sell street-kitchen type foods to raise funds for their activities. I visited two different art exhibitions, saw a juggling show, bought some manga from a second-hand bookshop, tried shooting with a beam rifle, enjoyed a kimono fashion show (some of my favourite ones below)…all the while buying several helpings of delicious foods. Of course there were plenty of other things I didn’t have time for, from volleyball tournaments to history lectures to miniature train displays – plus at least two live band concerts going on in different locations practically nonstop, for three days.

 

  

One of my favourite performances was right at the end. It was a dance group who mix traditional Japanese dance with more modern elements and they are very, very cheerful about it. The whole show just put me in a really good mood and their costumes were simply amazing! I did actually manage to take decent video this time, but am experiencing technical difficulties uploading it... Hopefully it will be up in the near future.

The dance group "Irodori"

The weather was cold (for the first time since my arrival) but the food was delicious!
The picture is from Monday, and there were clearly less people around already.

EDIT: Finally got the video to work...somewhat. I had to take a tiny little clip and the quality of course became pure rubbish in the uploading process....... Well, it's better than nothing, I suppose.