![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 31st, 2004 08:37 pmA Shizugawa experience.
Ayelet invited me to come along with her to the Akita Prefecture Fireworks festival. It's one of the biggest in the country and very famous.
I wanted to get Ayelet a Konosu hina ningyo since they are famous here for them, but I didn't think I had enough time to go to Ningyo cho since it is away from the train station. So I hoped there would be something on the way to the station that would sell them. Unfortunalty not, and so I had to stop in at this other place that had all sorts of other statues and Asian novelties. The store owner was really nice to me, and gave me some flower seeds (which I don't know what I'm going to do with since I have no garden. Maybe the balcony). And had me sit and talk to him for an hour or so. His niece came for a bit and was all over him. It was adorable. She was trying to get hugs and they were teasing each other. I think she was 9 or 10. She said she hated English. Haha. I guess I have to work especially hard to convince her it's worth learning.
Got Ayelet one of those Japanese cats with the arm raised that are supposed to bring goodluck, and set on my way. Too bad that cat isn't good luck. My trip started so terribly that I almost went back home.
I had to pee so badly when I arrived at Omiya, I had no choice but to do that first. As a result I missed the faster Shinkansen to Sendai. I had to buy a ticket for the next train which would make me arrive in Shizugawa one hour late. I was already in semi-tears, when I realized that I don't have Ayelet's cell phone number with me. I try to ask the guy at the booth to help me find a way to find her number, but that just wastes so much time that I miss the next Shinkansen too! Now I'm really crying, I paid for a reserved seat, but it was for the previous train, so I had to sit in this other weird section where there only a few seats. I was told that I had to move if person holding a ticket for that train came.
When the ticket man came, I asked about the shizugawa train, and of course the train I'm on arrives in Sendai 4 minutes after I need to be there to catch the last train. Now I'm really bawling. WTF do I do now? I got as far as Kogota, and hoped that the station manager could call the Shizugawa station and see if Ayelet is there waiting. No dice, the Shizugawa person went home already. Next it's the police station. And somehow they pulled their Big Brother deal and found Ayelet's number! Yes! The first lucky thing that happened to me that whole day! So I took a train to Ishinomaki and Ayelet had to drive an hour to come pick me up. I felt really bad, but there was nothing else I could do?
After that we went out to a 100% inaka bar/restaurant. It was fun. I met Yoji and LeiLei, friends of Ayelet's.
I never get enough sleep when I'm with Ayelet. We didn't get back to her place till 4 am, and we had to wake up at 7am the next morning. At least we could sleep on our way to traveling to the Hanabi (or Fireworks) Festival. We picked up some other people from Furukawa, six of us in all, and made our way to Akita. I forget the name of the town that the fireworks were at, but so many people came I bet the population for that day was at least twice as big. I think something like 700,000 people showed up. We parked so far away from the actual park and then had to walk the rest of the way. It wasn't so bad. We had all pitched in for a little plot to sit on and it was just a little too small for the six of us. I think five is the comfort limit. But thankfully there were two empty spaces right near us (how lucky) and we got to spread out a little.
The daytime fireworks were a little boring, but some of them were interesting. We went and bought some food for people, tacoyaki, mochi with miso paste around it, some omelet cabbage thing from Hiroshima, and the things that the other people brought. The tacoyaki was best. The actual fireworks were pretty good over all. They are done a little different in Japan. Rather than just having one big show, there are entries. Before each entry there is some guy going "DAAAAAI JYUU YONN KA" (number 14, etc). And then the announcer explains who sponsored this piece and you see the show. There were fireworks with faces, bunnies, and cartoon characters. There was one set that was really elaborate and the music went perfectly with the fireworks, it was defiantly a highlight. Other than that, there were lots of different colors I'd never seen before, like a lavender blue (rather than the neon-ish bright blue) and some really really bright fireworks as well (almost blinded me bright). You could tell which companies had given more money than the others. It was certainly worth going, I had a nice time.
And Yoji said he would visit me when he came to Saitama.
Ayelet invited me to come along with her to the Akita Prefecture Fireworks festival. It's one of the biggest in the country and very famous.
I wanted to get Ayelet a Konosu hina ningyo since they are famous here for them, but I didn't think I had enough time to go to Ningyo cho since it is away from the train station. So I hoped there would be something on the way to the station that would sell them. Unfortunalty not, and so I had to stop in at this other place that had all sorts of other statues and Asian novelties. The store owner was really nice to me, and gave me some flower seeds (which I don't know what I'm going to do with since I have no garden. Maybe the balcony). And had me sit and talk to him for an hour or so. His niece came for a bit and was all over him. It was adorable. She was trying to get hugs and they were teasing each other. I think she was 9 or 10. She said she hated English. Haha. I guess I have to work especially hard to convince her it's worth learning.
Got Ayelet one of those Japanese cats with the arm raised that are supposed to bring goodluck, and set on my way. Too bad that cat isn't good luck. My trip started so terribly that I almost went back home.
I had to pee so badly when I arrived at Omiya, I had no choice but to do that first. As a result I missed the faster Shinkansen to Sendai. I had to buy a ticket for the next train which would make me arrive in Shizugawa one hour late. I was already in semi-tears, when I realized that I don't have Ayelet's cell phone number with me. I try to ask the guy at the booth to help me find a way to find her number, but that just wastes so much time that I miss the next Shinkansen too! Now I'm really crying, I paid for a reserved seat, but it was for the previous train, so I had to sit in this other weird section where there only a few seats. I was told that I had to move if person holding a ticket for that train came.
When the ticket man came, I asked about the shizugawa train, and of course the train I'm on arrives in Sendai 4 minutes after I need to be there to catch the last train. Now I'm really bawling. WTF do I do now? I got as far as Kogota, and hoped that the station manager could call the Shizugawa station and see if Ayelet is there waiting. No dice, the Shizugawa person went home already. Next it's the police station. And somehow they pulled their Big Brother deal and found Ayelet's number! Yes! The first lucky thing that happened to me that whole day! So I took a train to Ishinomaki and Ayelet had to drive an hour to come pick me up. I felt really bad, but there was nothing else I could do?
After that we went out to a 100% inaka bar/restaurant. It was fun. I met Yoji and LeiLei, friends of Ayelet's.
I never get enough sleep when I'm with Ayelet. We didn't get back to her place till 4 am, and we had to wake up at 7am the next morning. At least we could sleep on our way to traveling to the Hanabi (or Fireworks) Festival. We picked up some other people from Furukawa, six of us in all, and made our way to Akita. I forget the name of the town that the fireworks were at, but so many people came I bet the population for that day was at least twice as big. I think something like 700,000 people showed up. We parked so far away from the actual park and then had to walk the rest of the way. It wasn't so bad. We had all pitched in for a little plot to sit on and it was just a little too small for the six of us. I think five is the comfort limit. But thankfully there were two empty spaces right near us (how lucky) and we got to spread out a little.
The daytime fireworks were a little boring, but some of them were interesting. We went and bought some food for people, tacoyaki, mochi with miso paste around it, some omelet cabbage thing from Hiroshima, and the things that the other people brought. The tacoyaki was best. The actual fireworks were pretty good over all. They are done a little different in Japan. Rather than just having one big show, there are entries. Before each entry there is some guy going "DAAAAAI JYUU YONN KA" (number 14, etc). And then the announcer explains who sponsored this piece and you see the show. There were fireworks with faces, bunnies, and cartoon characters. There was one set that was really elaborate and the music went perfectly with the fireworks, it was defiantly a highlight. Other than that, there were lots of different colors I'd never seen before, like a lavender blue (rather than the neon-ish bright blue) and some really really bright fireworks as well (almost blinded me bright). You could tell which companies had given more money than the others. It was certainly worth going, I had a nice time.
And Yoji said he would visit me when he came to Saitama.
