Spirited Away

Yesterday I had a long break so Colette and I braved the semi-warm weather to bike to nearby New Reomo world, a theme park 5-10 km away. Here's Colette in front of the popular "Anpan man", Anpan is a bread filled with sweet bean paste. I haven't really been able to develope a taste for it the few times I've tried it, it's too strange I guess to eat sweet beans.
An ominous figure guards the gate to a roller coaster.
The place reminded me of "Spirited Away" because it was nearly empty and felt kindof eery. There were restaurants lining the entryways and the main gate after the restaurants was just over this bridge over a river. I kept expecting to see "No Face" (the black cloaked character with a white face mask) to appear at any moment. . . "Uh . . . Uh Uhn . . "
Colette rings a bell.
There was an enormous escalator leading up to the zoo part of New Reomo World. I thought it was interesting to ride an escalator cutting through a forest.

Yesterday morning I had the privilege to witness a Japanese kindergarten graduation. It was amazing . . . from the presentation you'd think that practicing for this day was all the kids did all year, they were very talented, but also robot-like. They played drums, pianos, keyboards, xylophones, cymbals, sang, chanted, danced, all with near-perfect unity. At certain times during the very formal ceremony (I was told to wear a suit, everyone there was wearing either suits or kimonos) the kids, dressed in their little graduation caps and school uniforms, would respond and bow all together "a-ri-gato goz-ai-masu!" very slowly and loudly. The graduation lasted over two hours, with many songs, speeches, and presentations, as well as the main school principle awarding each student with individualized diplomas.
When I walked in a man asked me if I spoke Spanish (of course nobody spoke any English) and it turns out that he and his wife (the main principle lady) both lived in Spain for many years. He gave me his card and we talked for a long time. Funny how many times Spanish or Portuguese has been the lingua franca which we communicate in here.
Later while driving home from my last class I heard clips from the graduation ceremony on the news. Apparently Kogaku kindergarten is known for its music program. I couldn't believe what these 4, 5 and 6 year old kids were doing in sinc, sometimes they sounded better than my old high school marching band!