Jazz Festival

Over the past weekend (November 4th and 5th) Okazaki had the Jazz Street Festival and it was exactly what it sounds like. There was music being played at every corner of the streets. There were solo artists with their guitars, school children with violins, or older gentlemen with saxaphones, drums, tubas and trumpets. One of the main stages happened to be behind my apartment in the park which was where I saw a really good jazz band perform. One of the guys in the band said that he noticed me right away. I guess I never really thought about being noticed in a crowd like that but being tall, with blonde hair and wearing shorts and a tank top when everyone else in shorter, with black hair and wearing fall clothing, it's not that hard to see how I get picked out of the crowd. Over at the castle they had other performers and the flower of the season, chrysanthemums, on display as well as children performing dance numbers. It was a beautiful day and it seemed like everyone in the city was walking around enjoying all the sounds and food of the weekend.

The day after that I went to watch a Japanese teacher from Peppy Kids perform flaminco dancing with her club at an arts centre in Anjo. It was neat to see all the costumes and the music was great but the performance was about three hours and some of the material seemed a bit repetitive. After the show I went out to diner with other english teachers and some Japanese teachers as well.

Apparently Okazaki has a lot of festivals so I will be sure to update you about the next one that I visit.