Watch out for flying embers!

On our way to our new apartment a few days ago, Karen had stopped at a tourist information center to pick some things up for us. Among one of them was a calendar of events for the month of August. Jame and I took a look at it and we saw that there was going to be a fireworks show on the 26th at 7:30 (yes -- it gets dark here at 6:30pm).

We really wanted to go, so we hopped on a train and another train and another train with the hopes of getting to Uchichagegawa. I am very envious of Jame as he looked at the train route map once and knew where we were going. It took us about 1 hour to get where we wanted to go, but once we got to the train station we weren’tsure which direction to walk. We walked around trying to find someone to ask. I approached a couple and they clearly didn’t understand me. Another couple who happened to be North American saw us asking for directions and came up to ask asking if we needed help. We asked if they knew where the fireworks were and the guy said to just follow the crowd. He said “Do you see all the girls in the flower dresses? Follow them. You want to go where they are going.” We thanked them and were on our way.

The streets here are quite narrow and the one we were walking on was packed with people and cyclists. I have come to the conclusion that it takes great skill to ride a bike in a massive crowd of people!

It was neat to see girls as young as 2 years old to about 70 years old dressed up in their kimonos. My other favourite site was seeing small children ride in the baskets of their mother or father’s bike. I tried to take some photos, but it was dark and everyone was moving so fast. I am determined to get one though because it is sooooooo cute!


About 30 minutes later we arrived at our destination. The first thing that came out of both ours mouths was “Wow!” The side of the street we were walking along was lined with colourful tents and lanterns. We walked down the hill a bit and saw different kinds of food for sale and children playing carnival like games. About 10 minutes later the fireworks had started. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sky in amazement.

As I was taking some pictures I was hit in the head with something. I looked down at my feet and noticed a big piece of a firework casing. Later on Jame was hit with the same thing. It didn’t hurt, it was just surprising. An older lady beside me got hit as well and someone in front of Jame actually got hit by some burning embers. While the fireworks were beautiful to look at, they were a little bit hazardous at the same time. Hence the large fire crew standing nearby!



**Eric...these aren't as good as your firework photos, but I'll figure it out eventually :) **

Once we were back in some light, I saw that Jame had black ashes all over his forehead and I had them on my arms. We laughed about it on the way home, which by the way went by a lot faster. This time we took the semi-express train (only makes 2 stops) home instead of the local train (stops at every station) that we took on the way to the show.

So last night we learned a couple of things things: a) take cover when you are watching fireworks in Japan and, b) black train routes are slow and blue ones are fast!

P.S. - I just want to saw that Japanese commercials rock! While writing this entry the TV was on in the background. Every now and then something hilarious would catch my eye -if I only knew what they were saying in the commercials! Oh well, they are fun to watch.

August 26, 2006