chiba-kun ambassador!

Exciting news: I found out just the other day that I was selected to be a Chiba-kun Ambassador! Which basically means I'll be part of a group of people using blogs, social media, etc so that people in their home countries can learn about Chiba Prefecture. Because it's a pretty cool place, as far as I can say after being here for 10 months, and I think people should know that there's a lot more to Japan than Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima (though I also think these all do deserve their fame).

Anyway, this really doesn't change too much about the blog - except maybe giving me more exciting things to write about. As a Chiba-kun Ambassador I'll get to go on a few trips around the prefecture, with the first one coming up in June! One of the places we'll be going is the Kikkoman Soy Sauce Museum in Noda, which is actually pretty cool because the group of students who visited the Mayor today got to go there and I had just been thinking about how I wished I could have gone, too. Plus I've heard that if you go on a tour you get a free bottle of soy sauce, which is always a plus!

So I guess I'll find out if it lives up to expectations next month, but I plan to keep posting in between as well. There's a new exhibit at the Chiba City Museum of Art, which I feel like I'm practically a regular visitor to now, which has apparently been getting some attention so I'll be checking it out sometime soon. Until then! :)

makuhari dokidoki flea market

This Sunday, a few friends and I went to the Makuhari Doki-Doki Flea Market, one of the biggest flea markets in Japan! I'm a big fan of recycle shops and flea markets and anything that involves reusing things instead of throwing them away, so I was excited for this. :D

Sunday was the last day of the market and it opened at 10, so I definitely did not expect to see the giant lines of people waiting to get it when I got there around 9:30. I wonder if there are people who look forward to this every year and get up extra early to get a head start on shopping - actually, I'm sure there are. Evidently, 'one of Japan's biggest flea markets' was no joke - it took up Makuhari Messe's exhibition halls 1-8, which is a looottt of space (to give an idea, I'm pretty sure the time I went to go see a Noh performance there, it only took up one exhibition hall).

I think this is roughly 1.5 exhibition halls' worth of space?

That said, there was plenty of stuff to fill up the space with! There were all sorts of booths selling all manner of things (clothes, household goods, typical flea market stuff), but also a handmade art section (ceramics, artwork, arts & crafts - somebody was selling little shoes made out of peanuts!), cars, a stage sponsored by bayfm78 (a radio station in Chiba) with performances, and lots of food stalls all around! I had some Thai chicken and also gelato from 'Samurai Gelato' (where all the staff had cowboy hats), which was all very tasty.

We were at the flea market for probably about three hours or so, and it took us almost all that time just to walk around through everything! I thought about buying a gigantic Pikachu pillow but decided I'd go back for it later, which (as I suppose any seasoned flea market shopper knows), this was not a good choice because when I went back it was gone (and actually I saw the people who bought it walking around with it later, haha). Ah well. I did end up with a Pooh-bear suit though (don't ask).

It was so crowded when we left we all had to stop and take pictures.

All in all, it was really cool and I'm glad I went! I'll probably go back next year, too - well worth the 600-yen admission fee, I think. :D