At the festival we had a 30 minute time slot which we filled by playing our violins and singing. We both did the playing while Sarah did the majority of the singing. She sang the Titanic theme song, I Will Always Love You, and a song by a Japanese singer named Hikaru Utada. For the final song all of the kids in the junior high school part of the school joined us on stage and we all sang a song together. The crowd must have loved Sarah because they asked her to sing Amazing Grace as an encore.

After the festival we took our bikes out to one of the surrounding towns where our friend Ichi's village was having a town festival. Last week we went to a town festival and this one was much the same. Except in this festival they run with the portable shrine. Quite a job according to Ichi, especially considering that the festival starts at 12 noon and doesn't finish till around 6. It's a good thing there are lots of breaks for beer and food and Shinto prayers.