Kagoshima Dragon Boat Race

After a 6 hour car ride, our boat race team finally made it to the night before the race festival. We were all really excited about putting on our costumes and attending the big party! The only problem was when we showed up, we were the only 5 people in costumes at the huge event! My worst nightmare came true! We were the attraction of the evening. Everyone had their picture taken with us! At the boat race, the entire town knew me as the strawberry! If you think that's bad, the next day we were expected to win our race, which didn't exactly go as planned. First, we couldn't get the boat moving, then we were towed to the start line(so they could laugh at us during the race). After about 10 minutes of pure agony, we were soaked and towed to the finish line. When we finally got out of the boat, there were tv cameras pointng at us and thousands(no exaggeration) of people laughing at us! What a weekend! The sightseeing made it all worth the while. We drove around an active volcano for about an hour before realizing our original 6 hour drive would now be at least 8 hours! My stomach hurt from laughing so hard by the end of it all!