Aboshi Lantern Festval October 21 2006

This weekend I went to the Aboshi Lantern Festival with Manami and Atsumi. I met them at the train station at 6:30 and we took the train to Aboshi whch took about 30 min. They brought there other friend Dan along who was from Canada. The girls were chatting together so I talked with Dan on the way there. He was nice and had been in Himeji for 2.5 years. He taught English at the YMCA here. He said he only taught 1 day a week and got paid enough to get by. Can you imagine having to work only one day a week? I asked him what the hell he does all day and he just said, “Not much of anything.” He did tell me some cool stories of a biking adventure he took. He biked from here to Tokyo in about 1 month, just sleeping in a tent at night in a park. Then he went and bike through Kyushu in a month and then did Okinawa. How amazing that must have been. He said Okinawa was a real party town. I am sad as I will have never have gotten the chance to have seen that Island.
I followed Manami since she new where to go once we got off the train. Our group had added a person as some British girl asked f she could follow us on our way since she had no idea where to go. She lives in himeji and works for NOVA. NOVA is a for profit corporation that also brings foreigners over to teach English only they actually work. They do about 8 classes a day and don’t get weekends off. I hear bad things about them but if you don’t get into the JET progam and still really want to come here that’s what you do. They don’t even make near as much money as us either. Shitty.
Basically the Festival was similar to last weeks festival (each town has its own festival) as the colors which correspond to what neighborhood you live in each have a shrine and the men wear that color headband to carry the shrine through the streets to the temple to have it blesses. This festival has something to do with the harvest season from the sea since historically that is what this region of the country is known for. Remember how big those shrines were? Well tonight the would hoist them over there heads on cue and then lower them. IT was incredible considering how much these things weigh.
Then the communities would carry the lanterns through the streets and meet in the center of the town. They would chant for a while then the MC would call otu something and then they would smash the hell out of each others lanterns in the air. I had no cllue why though. They did this for a while so we wlked around. Atsumi and Manami got Takoyaki (octopus balls) which are good but I decided to just get a desert made out of the really good sweet beans. MMMMMmmmm! We wondered aroudn and looked at all the good food stalls. It was fun. Then we went to the main temple. Inside it was packed. It was crazy though. There were about Jr. High age girls getting wasted playing drinking games, the local hoodlums picking up chicks, and others getting drunk all around. Matsuris are all about drinking too. IT was funny. There were a number of fights I saw. Kinda like girl fights since all the boys are scrawny metrosexuals with long permed hair Manami told me some even wear make-up! I could never be stylish here as I wont take that long to get ready. Some really drunk guy in a funboshi (or loin cloth) came up to me talking crap. I just laughed and ignored him. His buddy grabbed him. I didn’t know what he was saying but it didn’t sound very nice. I saw one fight and one guy would not let go of the other guys hair and literally ripped a full handful of hair out. It was gross. Then I met some girl from Chicago and it was FUN to talk to another normal American girl. I also met up with some of Manami English speaking friends. One guy was REALLY wasted and cracking jokes the whole night. I was on t he floor. Mostly cuz he was making fun (in a nice way) of Japan and how the react to us foreigners. Everyone on the train was just staring at him. I even got some pics with a local guy who just waslked up and put his headband on me. He then even gave me his special festival coat he was wearing to carry the lanterns on me so I could get a good picture. Still some nice people here.
Then I went to the Tiger pub to see if anyone was there. Downstairs was a funky jazz band. It was nice to just sit and chill and listen to some good msic. I talked to a few people I had seen before too. A girl came up and talked to me who was American but she kept telling me how wasted she was and I felt left out as I was not drinking. It was especially fun to see new American people! It was incredibly smoky in there and my eyes wouldn’t stop watering so I headed home as I was so tired from walking around all night. I am REALLY glad I met Manami as she is a great guide and really fun to talk t about stuff. She’s a good listener and you can tell she’s interested. She’s also very open-minded about many things and can speak on a broad range of topics such as religion and human rights and such. Some good conversations, even though sometimes I cant understand her English entirely.
Today I went to sit by the castle on a bench next to the water after I had a nice long lifting session at the gym. However, I got my book out, started to read and after 10 minutes my eyes were closing. So I decided to just close them a 1uick second, Japanese style. Next thing you know I was straight up sleeping on some bench while people walked by. No one bothered me and it was soo nice I didn’t mind either. Well mom comes in a lil over a week and I still don’t have out trip planned. I better get on it! One more week of work! Woo-hoo!

Notes:
1. My new favorite fruit is called Kake. Or in America I guess its called Persimon. (I have no clue how to spell it as I have never heard of it before this month) IT is nothing but a piece of pure deliciousness! They are coming into season here and are at the stores now. I bought another bag of them and they area great! You must try them!