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Published: August 24th 2007
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Rows of beautiful lanterns
I want to have lots of lanterns in my own garden one day :). They are so beautiful at night. Just a quick update on some of my recent whereabouts...
There are festivals galore throughout August in Japan and while I did not make it to any of the big, famous festivals this year, I found a small one in Shizuoka, about a 25 minute bike ride from my apartment last Wednesday. It was held at a shrine that Dawn and I found about a month or so ago on some random exploration of Shizuoka. The shrine is tucked away at the base of a hilly, tree covered mountain and for this particular festival, there were hundreds of lanterns lit up specifically in memorial of people who lost their lives during World War II. The lanterns were fairly simple, but lit up all together they looked magnificent. Of course as with all Japanese summer festivals, there were plenty of Yukatas, I even spotted a Yukata on a dog, lots of takoyaki (fried octopus) and other fried festival foods, beautiful hanabi (fire works---directly translated hanabi means fire flowers 😊), taiko (drummers) and people dancing. In addition I must say that there is nothing like a Japanese festival to stamp out the traditional images of Japanese people as quiet and reserved,
I like seeing that side of the people. (Although most festivals I have been to tend to end at the latest around 10(typical starting time for festivals in many other countries), so I am afraid that the Japanese don't quite compete with the Spainiards or Italians in terms of their festival endurance 😊.
Last weekend I also made a small day trip to a place called Dogashima on the west coast of Izu. It was gorgeous, but I must say that I do not recommend taking day trips in the middle of August. I thought I might escape the heat of Shizuoka by heading towards the coast, but to my dismay I found Dogashima to be just as hot. I must have sweat out about a gallon of water searching for a small cliff side onsen that I had heard good things about. I eventually found it and my reward was a beautiful view of the ocean and a boiling hot spa (not exactly the refreshment I was hoping for at the moment--but the scenery was well worth it).
Yesterday one of my Japanese friends and I dressed up in Yukatas (my first time sporting one 😊 and
went to a small hanabi festival in Yoshida (about a half hour trip from Shizuoka). We had a very Japanesey day. We met up at about 1 ji (1 pm) and Emi took me to a really neat little traditional Japanese restaurant that is completely off the beaten path. I would have never found this place on my own. The menu consists of one thing, which I loved since I am the indecisive person that I am. It was a big traditional Japanese meal, complete with Miso Soup, rice, ume, pickeled cucumbers, and many other interesting dishes which I already forget the name of 😞. The owner/cook had us sign his guest book and gave me some lessons on Japanese table manners, how to properly hold your dishes and chopsticks. I am enough of a disaster when it comes to US table manners so you can imagine what a catastrophe I was with foreign table manners. Ah well, I gave it my best shot any how. After lunch Emi and I walked to her family's home where her mother was waiting to help us put on our Yukatas. This is going to sound pretty dorky, but it was my first
visit into a Japanese home and I was excited. Emi warned me not to be excited because she said it was nothing extraordinary, but I thought it was wonderful, lots of tatami mats, a split level entry (the bottom level specifically to take off your shoes), and a family altar complete with food and other offerings for their ancestors, and of course a deluxe, state of the art full body massage chair. Emi set the chair up for a 15 minute massage for me, while I waited for her to get dressed. It was a small slice of heaven, I could have fallen right asleep!!! Once Emi was finished, I went into the "dressing room" where Emi's mother, Takako carefully took my Yukata up to an appropriate length and tied my casual obi around my waist. And voila we were two little Japanese Yukata wearers 😊.
We arrived at the festival at about 6:45, the hanabi was due to start at 7:30. We scoped out some sushi and unagi (eel) and a couple of vending machine drinks, found a nice place to sit in front of the water amidst the hordes of Japanese families and friends enjoying homemade or
festival bought dinners. Just as we finished eating, the lightning storm that we had been nervously watching in the distance finally reached us and the skies opened up pouring down buckets of rain. We found some shelter under a building and watched the hanabi from there before trekking back to Shizuoka a bit wet and soggy. Despite the rain, it was a wonderful festival and I feel really lucky to have such a nice friend to experience some of the Japanese culture with 😊.
Wish everyone who is reading this was here with me 😊.
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Whitney
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miss you farber!!!
sounds like such an amazing time you are having sarah...i love the pic of you in your Yukata...you are so flippin cute...miss you and lots you tons!