It's very cold

and I have a cold. boooo.

I went to two winter festivals this weekend, the Takeuchi Festival (aka giant bamboo fight) in Rokugo, and the Kamakura Festival (a.k.a. snow huts!) in Yokote. Akita is renowned for their winter festivals, so I felt obligated to go check them out. They were neat and totally worth the effort, though I'm not so sure it was such a good idea to stand in the snow at night when I was already sick...

Anyway pictures here:

Takeuchi and Kamakura Festivals

And video of the bamboo fighting here: