I left school two hours early today to go to Kanra, a neighboring town. K, the ALT there, had invited a bunch of ALTs to be in the the samurai festival on Sunday. As promotion for the festival, NHK was doing 5 minutes live filming in Kanra. So I got to be on tv at 6:40 pm! K did all the talking in Japanese and I stood in the background looking very foreign. The street was lined with sakura outside, very beautiful! We were there from 3 pm to 7 pm. After getting dressed, we had rehearsal on what to do. There was also a group of six graders in kimonos with staffs, another girl, a group of older samurai guys, one of which would ride a horse on Sunday, and a bunch of preschoolers wearing costumes that their parents made. So cute! It was cool to see how they filmed it too, lots of rehearsal runs, with and without the camera. The camera guy was really good. He walked smoothly and even crouched and stood back up with that heavy thing! I was really impressed. I’ve never seen or been in live filming before. After we got changed, they even gave us dinner (a bento) and tea for free.

I had to rush off to catch my train in Takasaki as I was spending the night in Saitama - near Omiya - at my Japanese friend, K’s, house. I realized I had forgotten my omiyage at home though so I had to hurry back and grab it. I managed to find the right parking lot with cheaper overnight parking and speed-walk to the station. Caught the 8:07 train with minutes to spare, whew, but no time to eat dinner. The food sat, warm on my lap, emitting delicious smells. K picked me up at the station and we walked to her house. I met her dad and finally got to eat dinner at 10 pm. She even had yummy miso soup for me. I ended up in a comfy, warm futon soon after, before her mom came home. Their house was really nice! A cool mix of traditional and Western.