Hisami Scarecrow Festival

Fall is officially here in Sasebo and the weather is absolutely beautiful!  Today I went with a few friends to Hisami (a small town about 45 minutes away) to the annual scarecrow festival. Every year the locals decorate scarecrows and line the street with their creations. It is quite an unusual  sight!  Some of them were a little odd, and some of them we had no idea what they were because of course the signs are in Japanese. But we had a great afternoon looking at all the fun scarecrows and enjoying the amazing countryside. Here are some pictures of my favorite scarecrows.

This is for my honey... it's a Harry Potter scarecrow!

The scarecrows lining the streets.

Scarecrow holding a fish...

Scarecrow with fish in a basket...

Playing on the bridge...

Playing "Ring Around the Rosey"

I think this is some sort of sports team, maybe soccer?

Okay, this by far was the funniest scarecrow, and the little kids standing by it and playing in the water, made it even better!

Just too funny!

Who knows??

The scarecrows were fun to look at but the most amazing part was the amazing rice fields.  The fields are turning yellow, because the rice is almost ready to be harvested.  The fields were breath-taking.

The rice in full bloom

Rice fields of Hisami

I just loved the sight of the rice fields, red flowers, and stream.

Just amazing!

Of course I had to take some pictures of the bright and beautiful wild flowers.  They just added to the scenery to make it even more spectacular! I don't think I'll ever get used to the beautiful wildflowers of Japan!

After the festival, my friend took us to a fun udon (fat noodle) place where you could watch them make the noodles.  It was yummy and exciting to watch!

The noodles on the conveyer belt

Dishing out the udon noodles

Yum!!

Ohgata Cho Farmers Market

So tonight Chris and I experienced something new for the first time... We have been in our house for eight months and once a week we see a truck selling vegetables parked in the empty lot across the street from our house. Before he parks he drives around our neighborhood playing music from his truck, just like the ice cream man.  I must admit Chris has always wanted to go see what he was selling, but I have been pretty nervous.  I didn't know if he would pressure us into buying things or just be plain creepy.  Well tonight after our dinner date, we decided to head on over and check him out.
We had such a fun time! He let us look in all his boxes where he had tons of fresh vegetables at amazing prices!  I think he really enjoyed seeing how excited we got!  After we paid, he continued to give us free veggies like onions and tomatoes.  I am always so pleasantly surprised at the kindness of the Japanese people.  They are just so giving and friendly!  I have definitely found my new produce stand!

Our vegetable man and his truck right across the street from our house

Our goodies we came home with!