Ritsumeikan Gakuensai

The 立命館学園祭 (Ritsumeikan Gakuensai) occurred over the weekend. This is a really big school festival, and when I say really big, I mean huge. Basically, every organization sets up a stall and does something for the festival. Here we have the SKP buddies (Study in Kyoto Program) trying to sell their delicious corn soup. Business was a little slow at the time, so we have Juri posing with a Free Hug sign if you buy the soup. Keep in mind it's really cheap, like 150-200 yen. The idea was for all of their foreign friends to hold these signs because "Ooh la la. Free hugs from foreigners." Amazingly, it was a superb market strategy and the soup sold quickly.

Organizations like the wrestling club and the judo club were also present. Remember the previous post? Yeah, they got their rink set up and wrestled for days. The judo club did demos and taught some.

I enjoyed the a capella circle though. They were really good!

And to top it off, we had some serious dancing going on a gigantic stage. I was only here for like 2 minutes though because I was getting hungry.

Here are some pictures of the stands and an advertising duo in Stitch and Tigger costumes.

Other cool things included crafts like making your own pottery, caricatures, and live spray paint art.

In other news, the leaves are beginning to change color. If the weather stays nice, I'll load some pictures of that up soon.

Also, unfortunately, not all news can be good news. Due to the recent attempted terrorist attacks on the US, Japan is having to take some fairly strict measures. Getting in and out of Japan is getting to be a little more difficult. The screening process is taking more time than usual, even for native Japanese and permanent residents. Packages cannot be shipped to the US if they weigh more than 1 pound now as well. This is surely a temporary measure, but no one is sure how long it will last. So I apologize to anyone who wanted something. I currently can't ship anything to anyone in the States.

Michelle