Tivoli Party

Last night Shoko threw a party for about 20 people, most of whom were kids. Some of Tom's friends from Australia came, as well as Shun's friends from school. Andee and I watched the presidential debates before the party started on CNN-J. At the party I was able to speak a good amount of Japanese, and after we ate the kids played Goldeneye, Mario Smash Brothers, and a soccer game for the Nintendo 64. Japanese people also really like magic tricks so Andee and I did a few to please the crowd. Shoko served the most delicious sushi which was my favorite part of the evening.

Today Tom, Shoko, Andee, Yamashita-san (Shoko’s friend from Kyudo), Soichiro (Yamashita-san's grandson, everyone calls him So-chan), and I went to Kurashiki for shopping and evening entertainment. I had been to Kurashiki before so I knew my way around, and bought a few Japanese gifts. While we were shopping we ran into Sam, Tom's friend who was at the party last night. We shopped for a little while and then said goodbye in the evening to go to Tivoli Park, a Danish themed amusement park in Kurashiki. Apparently 10 years ago relations between Kurashiki and Denmark were very good so the park was built. It's sort of a garden and amusement park, with a few small roller coasters, a water ride, Ferris wheel, and other rides that could be found in any amusement park.

The park happened to be hosting a large dance competition in the evening, so we got to catch a bit of the dancers performing. As usual, since most people in Japan seem to know how to dance, the dancing was quite good, and the music selection was familiar. The park rides were also amusing. There was a cage battle game called "HELL BLASTER" where one driver and one shooter get into bumper car type vehicles and shoot high speed balls at each other. There was also a Danish themed haunted mansion that wasn't that scary but did provide for a ton of laughs.

I fell asleep in the car on the way home, of course.