Adventures in Japan

The Days Are Just Packed

Wow. We were busy.

The beach party was fun. Not as big or as packed as we were expecting. The beach itself was pretty big, a nice long stretch of sand. And the weather was much nicer than when we last visited it with Trevor back in January. The 'boardwalk' (quoted because it was not in any way made of boards) had a bunch of bars set up along it. But mainly just bars. It was expecting all sorts of small stores selling assorted tchotchkes. There were none. Other than the bars, there was one tattoo parlour.

Likewise, I was expecting a couple of bandstands playing different music. I expected all this because most of what we read and heard about this Suma Beach Party mentioned that it was 'big'. Not so much. There was only one bandstand, with no one dancing in front of it. I can understand the lack of dancing, the music was lackluster. Generic repetitive beats being rapped over, reggae style.

See, this always happens. I'm sounding too negative. We had a good time. The weather was great, the surroundings were very pleasant and the food was good. The beverages were a bit overpriced, but we just walked until we found cheaper.

During our walking, we met a big group of Japanese revellers. They had fireworks. Along the beach, at regular intervals were very cute signs asking people to please not set off any fireworks. The signs were goggle-like in their efficacy.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the beach, but I did get a bunch of hanabi (fireworks) photos.






By the end of the evening, the beach was covered in a haze of fireworks smoke. And we were covered in watermelon juice. One of the girls from the group of Japanese people bought a watermelon. We ate a lot of watermelon. Watermelons here are expensive. They cost like twenty bucks.



This guy was a loud annoying jerk.

The event did not go all night long and was winding down around the time we left. Just as well, that meant we could actually get a little bit of sleep before going to see the big parade in Kyoto.

There was a big parade in Kyoto. Fairly different than the parades back home. Well, there were still lots of people walking down closed off streets, big crowds watching the lots of people, and 'floats'.






I shouldn't really call them floats, cuz that might be insulting. These non-floats don't have motors, don't have nails either, put together entirely with wood and rope. They are pulled along by teams of sweating men and steered by other sweaty men using chocks, blocks and wedges.


So it was all very impressive looking.



I don't know how they don't just tip over.


After the parade we went to the college I teach at to enjoy a school festival. Basically all the kids from the different faculties get together and put on different events. There was a talent show with MCs and various acts. I just missed one of my students singing and dancing. That kinda sucked. The tech kids taped the talent kids and this was broadcast over all the TVs around the school. That was cool. There was a haunted house. That was fun. There was food and fun a good times. And pretty pictures. We all had a good time.