Bull Fights and Charity Auctions

This weekend had a bit of everything; excitement, culture, adventure, and relaxation. There was a festival going on in our city this weekend. I've found that festivals are pretty common occurrences here and I am certainly not mad about it. Our city is known for the large bull fighting arena. Bull fighting is very popular here. Last week we even saw a guy taking his bull out for a walk. For the festival, they had a huge, free bull fighting event at the arena. I was slightly skeptical, because as an animal lover, I wasn't sure how I was going to react. I got online and read that they are a great cultural experience and not gruesome, so I was excited. The event started out with a typical Okinawan ceremony; drums, dancers, karate. 

After the counselors of the city started the event with a huge ball of confetti opening from the ceiling, 10 different match-ups began. The biggest bulls went first. Basically, it is two bulls going head to head, literally. They push each others' heads and try to get the advantage over the other. They each have a handler holding their rope and yelling at encouraging them. The bull who over takes the other wins. I was glad to see that they were hurting each other too much even though they have very sharp horns. After one bull wins, they have a short ceremony for the victor. 

Bull Fighting Arena

This is where it got pretty heated

Winner Winner 

We stayed for about 5 matches and then headed onto our next adventure. We were glad we went and thought it was a great cultural experience. We then headed to the Charity Auction at the Officer's Club. We decided to take the scenic route and were glad we did. We happened upon the neatest warehouse full of things from different countries. There were statues, furniture, decor, kitchenware, clothing, jewelry and much more. I probably could have stayed in there forever wandering around. I am sure I will make it back there at some point to buy some goodies. Christmas presents anyone??

I really wanted this, but what are you supposed to do with a $2000 elephant head?

Jake found a little piece of Kentucky here on Okinawa

After this little detour, we made it to the auction. The auction is a semi-annual event where items from China are brought in and auctioned off for local charities. There were so many amazing pieces and plenty things that I would have gladly taken home with me. It was mostly antiques, furniture, decor, jewelry, and other artifacts. The big pieces were live auctioned and others were silent auctioned. The event lasted 6 hours with a buffet dinner in the middle. We sat for awhile and watched some of the items being auctioned off. We stayed until the silent auction closed so I could make sure I got my item. Thankfully, I beat out 3 others and got the item I wanted, how exhilarating (sarcasm). The most popular item was a dinosaur egg. It sold for way over the starting bid price. I tried to convince Jake to bid on it, because who doesn't need a REAL dinosaur egg?? We opted out of the buffet dinner since we had already eaten our fair share of appetizers. We headed to a fast food udon noodle place and then to A&W for root beer floats. What a fun day!

My auction purchase. Now I need to figure out how to hang this bad boy up.

Me and my bidding paddle

Sunday we did nothing. Like as in absolutely nothing. Well I grocery shopped and Jake cleaned (what??) and that was the extent of it. I had really wanted to go to some of the festival events going on in our city, but we were sick of traffic and crowds so we decided not to. I did decide to do a bit of country cookin' and made chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes from scratch. Who the heck am I?? 

Sometimes life requires a home cooked hearty meal

On to another week. Hope it's a good one, y'all!

Have you ever been to a cultural event? Have you ever bid at an auction? What's your favorite home cooked meal? 

Linking up with Sami and Kimberlee