ALT Adventures in Japan: NagaYES and Illuminations Festival

Hey everyone!

So, a few weeks ago, I went to my first NagaYES event! What's NagaYES? And why is the name/pun so lame? Sorry, I can't answer the latter, but I CAN answer the former!

My prefecture is one of the biggest prefectures in the country, so we have a lot of JETs and direct-hire ALTs. Because the prefecture is so big, the community of JETs has divided into four different regions (also called blocks): north (Hokushin, 北信), south (Nanshin, 南信, that's my block), middle (Chushin, 中信), and east (Toshin 東信). The entire JET community has a competition each year between the blocks, and each block hosts one event. The first event was a swan-boat race held by Hokushin up in Shinano-machi. This time, it was a capture the flag event held by Nanshin in Oshiba Kogen (a beautiful park with many trees, sports fields, picnic areas, and even an onsen!).

Here's a pic of a lake in Oshiba Kogen:

Before the event was held, Catie, and I went for a run with Emma. Emma was training for a half marathon, and we ended up jogging 7km! I wasn't too tired, but I sure was sore after the run. My mind still thinks that I can run a long ways, but my body might need a little more heads up before I suddenly spring so much activity upon it. My hip-flexers weren't too happy with me...

After that, Catie graciously offered to take me to the onsen to clean off and relax. Onsens are amazing places...they have a few rules and etiquette to follow, but they aren't too difficult. You enter the area, undress, and then clean off in the showering area before sitting in one of the many different pools. There are jacuzzi pools, outdoor pools (gated off from the public and men's pools, of course), a milky pool (that was supposedly good for your skin), a freezing cold pool, and a sauna. It was very relaxing. :)

The NagaYES capture the flag event was held inside the park...it was very confusing. There were many ways to earn points. We were given tags. These tags could be pulled off an enemy for points, so it ended up being kinda like flag football mixed with capture the flag. The main goal was to try to steal each others big flag, hidden somewhere in our area. The map below makes the place we played in seem small, but it took maybe 5 minutes to run the perimeter of my territory (area 3).

It ended up being fun for the offense, but really boring for the defense, since most teams didn't venture into our territory. ...Guess who was on defense?? :/

While capture the flags really wasn't too interesting for me, the Illuminations Festival held right after made up for it entirely. When I first heard about the Illuminations Festival, I thought it was going to be more tranquil and Chinese-esque (not sure why I thought this when I am in JAPAN...) with lanterns, but I was totally wrong. It ended up being more like Christmas light decorations on crack! There were lights from different animes, movies, and even holidays (not just Halloween, which was the closest holiday to the festival at the time). I took lots of pictures, which you can see below:

This is what I expected all over, but this ended up being one of the few Halloween displays

This place was a mecca for One Piece references...

One difference between Japan and America...kids are actually allowed to touch the displays. Although, a lot of kids ended up breaking a few of the displays. Pros and cons to each culture, I guess lol