What a way to spend a Saurday

Had a fun-filled Saturday yesterday. I started off the morning at the Big River Jazz festival. Several groups were playing Dixieland, swing and gospels down on the river in Osaka. It went from 11am to after 4:00 and it was tons of fun. I heard about it through the Wednesday night dance groups, so by 2:00 there was a group gathered to dance. It was perfect weather and perfect scenery. Several people had brought purple/lime green/gold umbrellas ala Mardis Gras and there were more than a few beads in the crowd. I arrived shortly after the music started and was the only foreigner. Since the rest of the dancers didn't arrive until around 2:00, I was of great interest to several people in the crowd wondering what had brought me to the concert. Finally one man came over and asked me if I was staying at the nearby hotel. I told him, no, I lived in Japan. He asked if I lived in Tokyo and I said, no, I lived in Kobe. Next he wanted to know why I was in Osaka. I told him I had come to see the festival. He seemed honestly taken aback. I think it made more sense once the dancing started...

After that, the remaining dancers headed to the Belgian Beer festival going on at the Sky Building. You bought a glass and 10 tokens to get started and hit the booths. Two tokens for a full glass of beer... not much opportunity for just tasting. My first beer looked dark, but tasted like someone had poured a cabernet in a Heineken. Not what I was expecting. The brown that followed was much better. As were the french fries. The festival was packed. There was music on a stage and at least 30 different beers to choose from. It seemed very well organized - much better executed than the German Christmas Festival in the same venue the last two years.

We stopped for bowls of ramen after the beer festival and then headed our separate ways. I had been invited many time to try Swingweek - a different swing dance group that meets on Saturdays. Usually, Russell and I already have plans for the weekend, so we rarely make it into Osaka. That paired with a vague sense of bad blood between the two swing groups and the worry that going to both might make us traitors, and we simply hadn't tried Swingweek after a year of invitations. I was invited again on Saturday and I figured I couldn't really plead previous plans to be elsewhere. I knew many of the dancers go to both, so I figured I would try it out. It was fun, but unless I'm in Osaka on a Saturday I probably won't be going as often as I go to the Wednesday dance. There's just something about celebrating being half way through the week with a good swing dance that attracts me.

And where was Russell? He planned to come, but decided to be grumpy and skipped out at the last minute. His loss.

Today we are going back to that spa with our friends. It will be nice after a full day on my feet.