As I promised, today my post is about Wakkanai's festival. The right title is the 53rd Wakkanai Antarctic Port Festival. It was held on the 3th of August, and approximately 1000 people were dancing 2 Japanese dances: "North Sea top dance" and "Antarctic dance". We had learnt those dances a day before the fest, but anyway we mixed up watching at other groups dancing something their own. Talking about the groups, let me explain you the organisation. People are divided for the groups: a group of Wakkanai administration, a group of the hospital, a dance band, a group of pupils and etc. We were with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Wakkanai and Russian probationers. Every group had each own name board and each own style. In the end I learnt it was kinda contest, so there even was a winner group. Moreover, a group could dance its own version of the dance. All groups were settled in a big column, we moving up and down the streets, music being around. Each dance was about an hour, we had some 10 minutes breaks. Nakai-san hold our name board, but in the end I took it away and brought by myself.
Me, Nakai and Lera
The inscription reads "Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Wakkanai, Russian probationers and "Russian Terem" band".
Group of Japanese pupils
Russian street
Some of people wore really odd clothes, and it was amazing!
I adore this giraffe
~Time of awesome stories~ That day in the morning we sang at the railway station, and I met there a girl from Hong Kong and invited her to listen to our performance. She liked us and even took a photo with us. And in the evening she met us at the festival by chance! So cool! We took photos again, though my pictures of her became not so good. I asked her name, so the girl is Enjole, or Enjore, or maybe just Enjoe - I couldn't hear with those loud music. Anyway, for some reason I was glad to see her again, she's nice.
I wanted to take a photo only with her, but no - other participants decided to do it too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To sum up, I fell in love with the festival and would like to be there one more time. And more.
Me holding our name board
The interesting thing is that Wakkanai's elite participated in the fest as usual people too. They didn't need any body-guards, officials enjoyed the fest with "mere mortals". Russian authorities wouldn't do it, I'm sure.
There's a mayor of Wakkanai in the red clothes
To continue the theme of Japan, the song of the day is gonna be "Made In Japan" by Ysa Ferrer. Oh yes, it's a very old song, but it still stays cool.
My parents cannot believe I'm home for a long time. And so neither do I, because frankly speaking I'm a little bit tired travelling the world this summer. Doesn't matter how much I love to travel, anyway everything can weary. But let me tell you about my Japanese work.
In spring I was asked to join my header's band as a singer to Japan. I said yes, and I was bothered about the trip even when I was in the USA! But everything came to the conclusion, and here were we going to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Our way to Japan was pretty uneasy. I hadn't almost slept the night before, and my cat had hurt my thumb, so it was ill till the end of the travel. I went to our port town Korsakov with the headache and nervous condition. Then the sea was restless, and we were stormed a little during the sailing. But it didn't stop me from takimg photos. Actually, talking 'bout photos, I started using my camera only in the end of the travel LOL So in 5 and a half hours we came to Wakkanai.
We did a lot of performances - 36 concerts during 10 working days. Even if one performance could last 15 minutes, it was still something that took our power. We sang at the port, the airport and the railway station advertising rest in Wakkanai and the south of Sakhalin. To tell the truth, Japanese advertise the south Sakhalin more than Russian.
The most interesting performances were at open deck of the ferry. We were on our way to small island Rishiri and Rebun; and when we were sailed from Wakkanai to Rishiri and from Rebun back to Wakkanai, we sang to the afloat people. We sang very early - at 7:30 am! Also we came back to Wakkanai in the twilight, so we chanced to watch the most beautiful lavender sunset. Unfortunately, photos with that sunset I'll get only in September.
We lived in the flats, not in a hotel. I was settled with another singer Lera. The funny thing is that we both are afraid of insects to the death, so every time all those creatures got into our flat, our place became full of screaming.
~Time of awesome stories~
The first time a night butterfly flied into our lodging, but almost at the same time it got lost somewhere, so we couldn't see it flying and buzzing all over our flat, and it was ok. The next morning I took my backpack with the hood, and the hood had cat's ears (I bought the backpack in Sapporo - see below). So all nigh that damn butterfly was sleeping between one ear and the hood! The butterfly even left some pollen on it!
The second time we had to struggle with a big mosquito. I came out to the balcony to hang washing on a line, and that monster entered our place. Lera offered me an idea, and I used it - I vacuumed it.
Hellish insects.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the way our band was accompanied by Japanese organizers. Our constant 'curator' was Nakai, an assistant of our main organizer and sponsor Fujiwara. Nakai knows Russian very well, and English a little bit. Sometimes he asked me how some words was in English. He really became a brother to us. Also there were some guys from Wakkanai's administration which helped us: Nishimura, Sugavara and Arai. Even though Lera and I didn't know English, and the guys didn't know Russian, we laughed a lot, did many jokes, so generally had fun; the language we spoke was a mix of Russian, Japanese and English.
From left to right: Arai-san, Nakai-san,
Nishimura-san and, in fact, me.
Since my Japanese trip 3 years ago I'd known Japanese people are awesome, and now I only confirmed it. Talking about the Japanese language, since this travel I've thought about learning this language one day.
I've already mentioned Fujiwara; so he's very cool. He's been working with Sakhalin for a long time, and he wants to develop this relationship.
~Time of awesome stories~
There's a Russian restaurant in Wakkanai belonging to Fujiwara, and one day Lera wanted to visit it, and I kept her company. We came to the restaurant, and Fujiwara was there. Choosing among Russian dishes, I like pancakes, but there weren't any pancakes in the menu. Fujiwara heard I'd mentioned pancakes (he understood the Russian word "blinchiki" meaning pancakes) and made attendants cook pancakes special for me! I was shocked! Although I had to wait 80 minutes till the pancakes were ready.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the 29th and 30th of July we were in Sapporo. We gave a concert in Sapporo Beer (at the place it was written like "Bier". Maybe, it's German?), and then our headers tasted every kind of Sapporo beer, and that time Lera and I took cool photos with our Japanese organizers.
A guy to the right is Sugawara-san
Then in Sapporo I bought the backpack I've already written about, but my headers said it was kinda childish. I sent them to hell LOL. All Japanese guys said my backpack was kawaii (Japanese "cute"). Moreover, I bought to my friends cool socks as presents there. Extraordinary gift, isn't it? I don't remember what I bought in Sapporo else, so go to the next paragraph.
We had one day off on the 1st of August, so we dedicated it to shopping. In general, I bought a lot of sweets and a lot of small things like pens, chopsticks, copybooks... Socks. One more big thing is a purse, because I broke my previous one in the USA, and my mom likes my new purse.
On the last day we has a cruise to small islands Rishiri and Rebun, as I've written above. We had to wake up at 5 a.m., so probably it was the longest day of Japanese travel. I've written about the performance, so it's time for the islands themselves. Those islands are small, but it doesn't make them poor. Both of the islands are civilized, with good asphalt, electricity and shops on the islands everywhere (reproaching Russian Government). The first island we visited was Rishiri.
~Time of awesome stories~
The symbol of Rishiri is a chipmunk. We stopped near the shop that sold small plush chipmunks (the same as you can see at the picture of me and Nakai-san sitting on the bench with big chipmunks, but there were mini-copies). We all came into the shop, Lera and I started hanging up around plush chipmunks, thinking about buying them. In the end we decided to save money, but one man - Nishiura-san, a general manager of the ferry, who accompanied us on the islands - bought those little chipmunks to us! We were so happy!
Lera and I with big chipmunks and our mini-ones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next island is Rebun. When we got there, the weather became gloomy, but the island still stood awesome. Unfortunately, my camera's battery was low, so I couldn't take many photos. Even though our Russian organizer had told Rebun is more beautiful, I liked Rishiri more.
Also we took a part in one big event in Wakkanai - a festival, but I'll tell about it next time.
Although I haven't been in Tokyo yet, but it's a capital city of Japan, so here's the song of the day.
Actually I'm sooo lazy to write anything.
I've just packed my suitcase for Japan. I traveled to the USA with mom's bag, so this time I decided to take my own suitcase, and when I took it out of the closet, it looked so small! I've got a real tiny suitcase. But it's enough for all my things for 10 days; I hope, there will be also sufficient place for future purchases and gifts.
Yesterday I spent a nice day with Cherry Lady, and today I've had an awesome walk with Dasha and Rey Hadson.
Since the day before yesterday I can't stop listening to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri, so here's the song of the day.
I haven't even unpacked all my things, but I'll again go to Japan already in 3 days! It's so interesting and so crazy, you know. I've already planned what I wanna buy there - stationery and cosmetics. We'll be in Japan for 10 days, and I don't want to travel this summer more actually; in the end, I should start preparing for school.
In this post I want to share with you things I've bought in the USA. I won't tell about the presents for my friends, gonna say only that all my friends are absolutely excited about their gifts. So, I want to describe what I've got for myself.
~ Clothes. I've bought not so much clothes, but I'm very proud of every thing. Maybe, the craziest one for
my city is shorts with American flag. Well, it's not "with American flag"; the shorts are American flag. BTW, our attendant Nick and one man in McDonald's liked them.
~ The weirdest thing among my purchases is a toothbrush with Lady Gaga. Hell yes, it is! This is a black toothbrush with Gaga's face, and moreover the brush can play her songs! It has two tracks: "Born This Way" for morning and "Bad Romance" for evening. I can't take a satisfactory photo, so here's a picture.
~ Talking about American flag and weird things, so I've also bought pants with American flag. Don't treat me wrong, but why not? ~ Improving my importance, I bought myself an "Oscar" - "Superstar". Actually, I could buy it at Hollywood blvd for $5, but thinking something like "I'll find it later", I had to buy the Oscar in Universal Studios Park for fucking $14. Prejudices.
~ Cosmetics. Being more correct, it's more about nail polishes, but there's also one lip gloss by my favourite Sephora. I also bought a couple of nail polishes and a base in Khabarovsk, like I had nothing more to do. ~ Widgets for my light head. I'd been looking for a pretty long time for a straw hat, and finally I found my one. It's "Guess", and maybe I could find a cheaper choice, but on the other hand I could not! And frankly speaking, it's not so expensive, especially for Russia. Moreover, one more dream came true - I got a red bandana like I'd dreamed of. Both of head stuff you can notice in my previous post.
~ Books. I chose two books for myself - a novel and a... a handbook for beginning writers; also I bought a present for my English tutor - a little book called "Fascinating Facts about Las Vegas". And I don't give a shit that a book about Vegas was bought in Santa Monica.
Maybe, there's something more I've left to describe, but I don't remember. Already. Well, see you next time!
I had never dreamed of so near travelling to the USA, but here it is - I've just come back from another side of the planet. So let me start.
Our group was small enough - only 11 children and 2 leaders (one of them now lives in LA constantly), also there was an American guy (from China) helped us. Almost everyone of the teens was from Khabarovsk, but me and a boy from Vladivostok, and it didn't prevent us from making great friendship.
Flights from Khabarovsk to Beijing and from the Chinese capital to Los Angeles were long but we felt ourselves well, and when we were on our way home, flights were fast and we were kinda sick.
Well, here were we, a little bit tired, but so happy - we'd finally arrived in the city of angels. The first fact I learnt is that LA doesn't have a core and contains many districts, everyone of them has each own centre.
In the beginning we lived in Norwalk, Guest House Hotel. It was a nice place with a cool swimming pool and an awesome jacuzzi. Our boys liked jumping into the pool making splashes as much as possible. I finally learned how to swim there! Probably the only disadvantage was a restaurant in Guest House with the lack of food variety.
Our first excursions were Hollywood & Highland Center. It's just a p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e. We visited Beverly Hills, and I discovered where the heaven situated. Chanel and Dior, Bugatti and Ferrari, Tiffany and Swarovski - everything you could only dream of, you may meet there. Then we went to The Madame Tussuads Museum, where I made some photos with the celebrities I like. Perhaps, the best photos are with Iron Man LOL
The next spots were TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Walk Of Fame and The Dolby Center. With all those places we felt ourselves closer to the world of showbiz.
The next day was about to be a free day in the hotel, but our leader Denis offered us to hike the Hollywood Hills and reach the Hollywood Sign. "Why not?" - said we, but we didn't know how hard it would be. I can compare the way to the Hollywood Sign with the way to the Great Chinese Wall, but Denis said the Chinese Wall was harder to hike. Anyway, we did it - we were on the Hollywood Hills, watching LA with having bird's eye view. We were heroes. I felt myself as Doug on the roof from "The Hangover", it was HOT HOT HOT. And to to feel relief, I rolled my shorts up, so the shorts ended up looking like diapers! I'm so sad about my shorts on these photos!
During the adventure (yes, yes it is) we were in Disneyland twice, though the second time we were in the park called The Adventure Park, but it's still connected with Disney. It was my first Disneyland, and it was like I found myself in a fairytale. Even though there were no dangerous roller coasters in Disneyland, but there was a miracle for every child. By the way, The Independence Day we 'met' in the Adventure Park.
We visited Santa Monica whole three times. The first time we spend time near and in the Pacific ocean; all we got the hardest sunburn, and I drank a lot of ocean salt water. Oh, every time I recall ocean waves, I feel badly again lol. Besides, the ocean took my red sunglasses away! It was so pity! Also my friend Ilia lost his sunglasses in the ocean, and the waves tore a dress of another friend and roommate Vicka. Since then we've called Santa Monica Santa Damn Monica. The second time we came to Santa damn Monica, we went shopping. I bought some books, flip-flops ('cause I damaged my previous one [spoilers] in San Diego) and OMG I don't remember. Some souvenirs. And the third time we wanted to rock out in the ocean too, but it was cold weather enough, so we played some games with the ball and said "farewell" to Santa damn Monica.
And now... LAS VEGAS TIME! A city of vices, of lights and absence of nights. Due to our age (under 21), we couldn't feel Vegas fully, but anyway we touched it a little. We visited The Venetian Resort & Casino and some shows near the hotels Bellagio, The Mirage and one more, I don't remember the name. The second day we spend in LV, we went shopping in a big moll. Well, on our way to Vegas, we stopped to go shopping in the Outlet in Nevada desert. It was like natural selection, because the air temperature was about +50 C in Nevada! And also on our way back to LA we went shopping in another center. Sooo, if we can't match our Las Vegas with casino and parties, we can do it with shopping.
~Time of Awesome Stories~
As I've said, we had shopping on our way back from Vegas to LA. We had 2 hours to shop in a big moll. Of course, we, girls, were exasperated by that fact, but we had nothing to do against it: 2 hours meant 2 hours. So, we came almost to the core of the shopping center, even had our own lunch, everything was ok until my phone started ringing. I picked up the phone, and then heard an angry voice of Denis telling me, that all group had been waiting us for an hour!! Shocked, we ran to the place of meeting, thrown away things we wanted to buy in the shop. Certainly, Denis was offended with us till the end of the day, but now we recall it with laughing.
~ ~
My other roommate and coeval Christina and I promised to each other to come back to Las Vegas when we're 21. Talking about 21, I learnt about and started loving a brand "FOREVER 21" after shopping in LV. What cool things!
While we were in Vegas, we take a trip to Grand Canyon. I'd never been keen about that place, but it's really worth being watched. Fortunately, the weather wasn't hot hot hot, like in LV or Nevada in general, or maybe we just become adopted to that high temperature. And we probably really did, because when we came back to Los Angeles, those Californian +30 felt like something ordinary. So I'm keeping silent about the weather on Sakhalin.
Days went by, and we headed to Universal Studios Park. There we fell in the atmosphere of film industry. Almost every movie of Universal has each own side-show - The Mummy, The Jurassic Park, The Simpsons - they're some of which we visited. Also we were on Universal Studios Tour, when we were explained how and where films were made, were shown locations of filming. Moreover, Christina and I was looking for cute guys while we were waiting in the lines, but it's another story lol. Talking about the lines, so in every park we've visited we had to wait from 15 to 60 minutes to enjoy about 5-10 minutes attraction. But we always tried to find ways how to spend the time of waiting; mostly we were talking (oh, Gosh, we're always talking), playing games, taking photos and videos and etc.
There was an excursion which reminded me about my home, and it was San Diego. It reminded me home, because it's a seaside town with lots of sea creatures and sea atmosphere as well as here, on my island. In the beginning of the day, the weather was cold, and I looked like a bird trying to get warm, but it didn't make the photos bad. Then the weather became typical Californian, and we entered "Seaworld". Seaworld is a park focused on - you wouldn't believe! - sea world. Aaah, I'm done. So, I liked that place, because I saw some of the animals for the first time in real life, for example, dolphins and killer whales. It was a nice trip :3
Moreover, we learnt a little about American education visiting a college, a private high school "Maranatha" and Griffith observatory. The observatory's situated opposite the Hollywood sign, so we could see the same view of LA again. What about the education, so I'd already known a lot about it having learn all that stuff for my English lessons.
During the travel we had some lessons of English and TV art. Certainly, English lessons weren't lessons of learning the language, but our teacher told us some facts about the English lessons and the USA structure. What about TV art, so it was more interesting. We were divided into two groups, and each group had to make some videos. In the beginning we were about to make 3 things: advertisement, news and a music video. But Denis didn't have sufficient time to arrange music videos. Maybe, it's even alright, because I think we'd die doing it. Well, in the end now I know how to make videos right.
I'd never cried in those situations, but I cried at our last evening for the first time. Although I hadn't known all these guys before the USA, they all became my people, and it was sad to understand all of them were from another city. Of course, fortunately, we all have holy Internet nowadays, so we can text, but you know, it's never enough.
I had some time in Khabarovsk waiting for my flight to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, so I spent it walking around Khabarovsk with Ilias, because no one else answered my calls. The weather in Khabarovsk was awful, gloomy and even rainy, so symbolic. In the airport I even fell asleep waiting the boarding, and I slept all the way to my city, and all my condition wasn't so good. And here I am in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, writing about Los Angeles. I hope one day I'll return in the city of angels.
