Shopping and festival

I woke up this morning around 9 AM with a bad pain in my neck, hardly able to move my head to the right. Argh. I kept trying to stretch through the pain, but that wasn't working well. It was just lots of pain! :( I took some ibuprofen and made some breakfast. I read a little bit, checked email and took care of some bills, and then decided that I was tired! I tried to get my head situated on a pillow on the couch in such a way that it would stretch it out a bit, and that worked some. I slept about an hour and a half and woke up to shower and start laundry. I got caught up watching a couple of back to back shows (Standoff- why was it around for only one season?) so I ate a late lunch and then finally decided to head outside. It was nice out with a cool breeze, so I went and walked around a bit.

I stopped by the Shinkoganei station area and saw the preparations for the festival tonight, but nothing was really going on so I headed out to Kichijoji to do some shopping. I found some stuff I wanted, bought it and walked around some more. I had a late dinner at McDonald's because a burger just sounded good, and because I hadn't eaten at a McDonald's around here yet. :) When I got back from Kichijoji, I got snacks for the trip tomorrow and heard the drums and singing from the festival. I dropped off my stuff and went to check it out. I saw the ladies and kids in yukatas dancing and got some pictures. See the quick video below for a small clip of them dancing. I think I got there as it was close to ending so it was good timing. They were handing out ice cream/popsicle treats to people and then the crowd was dispersing.

I really should be in bed now because I have to be at ASIJ at 6:30 tomorrow morning, but the sleeping in and taking a nap this afternoon may have ruined that! I'm going to take more ibuprofen and hope that my neck doesn't hurt again tomorrow morning. Somehow I think that canyoning won't be so fun if I'm in pain!