Street Performers World Cup

Last Sunday I had plans to go to Shizuoka with a friend to see Daidogei. This is a festival and competition for street performers from around the world. But my "friend" bailed on Thursday night. But I still wanted to go. So I asked my private student, Yukino, about the logistics. She used to live in Shizuoka. Turns out she and her husband were planning on going, and would love for me to join them. Hot Dog! So I took the local train (it was my first time) up to Shizuoka and met them at the station. We went out to lunch first. Normally Italian places are easy for me to get some food without meat. But no such luck here, so I just picked around it. Then we headed out looking for a street performance. The first one we chose to go to was called "Quick Change", from Holland, which was an odd combination of juggling and twirling from one half of the act, while the other half of the duo did "quick changes" of outfits between playing the sax and the xylophone. It was mildly amusing. The next was a Japanese juggler, yo-yo and balancing act. He was pretty good. Then we stumbled on this young kid named Alan Sulc, a 15 year old juggler from the Czech Republic. And he was amazing. Completely mezmorising. He juggled and did various other things while juggling. Not to mention he has to be 6'3" and weigh a total of 120 pounds. He is a true beanpole. And then we saw an American, who did this weird street play, that I'm not sure I could explain. Nor do I want to. It was just really dumb. And he came in 3rd in last years competition. Go figure? Afterwards we went out to dinner and then we drove home. The weather was awesome, it was great spending time with Yukino and it was really fun to meet her husband. Man, last we was a good week! More Pics here.