花火 Fireworks!

08/08/10

This is a Kotatsu.  I mentioned this
in a previous entry.

Hello beautiful readers!

Yesterday I went to the largest fireworks show in the prefecture.  Fireworks in Japan are called hanabi, written as “花火.”  It was a ways from my home town, so I took one train two stops over west to Kofu, which is the capital of the prefecture I believe, and then took a different line south to Ichikawadaimon 市川大門.  It was pretty crowded at this point, but nothing I wasn’t used to from Tokyo.

At the station, we got off and walked a ways to the area where people buy food from booths, fried noodles and ice cups, drinks, etc.  We pushed our way through a large sea of people (which I believe was the line for the restrooms?  I’m not sure though, it literally was just a sea…), and got to the top of a large ravine type place.  It kind of looked like a dried out riverbed?  There were rows and rows of people camped out on their tarps and blankets.  It kind of looked like a stadium in a way, but instead of being circular it was just straight.  Everyone was facing the center of the small “riverbed.”

We walked for several minutes and finally found where our group had put their tarp.  I was joking with the JET who was guiding us to our location that whoever got the spot must have been camped there since yesterday and his response to this was, “yesterday?  They’ve been holding this spot since May…” Turns out this group of people brought a tarp and some things to the location in May, and came by once a week since then to make sure that everything was still there.  They probably came by more often as then actual even drew nearer.  I got a kick out of my under estimation.

When the fireworks started though, it was absolutely amazing.  I’ve never seen so many fireworks, so close, and so large before!  I took a few video clips of them, but it doesn’t accurately portray the massiveness of it.  It also does no justice to the way the sound of the booming fireworks would resonate in your chest!  A few of them filled up the whole sky several times.

At the end of the show, nearly everyone left at the same time.  There is only one train line that goes through this town, so if people didn’t drive or weren’t close enough to walk home, there wasn’t any other way to go.  Stupidly I waited around with the rest of the group until the end, but if I had followed my instincts I would have left 15 or 30 minutes before the end of the show.  Hundreds (thousands?) of people all tried to leave this small town at the same time, and there was a massive build up of traffic.  The people leaving the ravine were allowed in waves.  Then we walked back to the train station, and had to wait on another long line before we were able to get to the train station to get back on the train going north.  What I thought was a sea of people leading up to the station was actually a sea of people leading down the street, around the block and back to the station.  We waiting in this line for nearly two hours I believe to get onto a train.  The train took another 30 minutes and then by the time we got back to Kofu I had missed the last train going eastbound.  I didn’t feel like walking that far (probably would have taken several more hours…) and I didn’t feel like trying to contact anyone in Kofu so I just took a cab to my station where my bike was parked.  $31 spent.  If only I had just left 20 minutes earlier, I would have gotten home three hours sooner. ^_^ Oh well.  Now I know for next year to not wait.  I do think it is worth going to see, however you just have to plan it right.  Also, the trains around here don’t run nearly as often as I am used to.  I went to my station without checking the schedule in hopes that I could just hop on one and be on my way.  I waited for 45 minutes before anything came at all, and then I was afraid to get on it because I couldn’t understand what the conductor was saying.  I waited another 15 minutes for the next train, which turned out to be a train that was an hour late of it’s expected arrival.

This is called Inaka 田舎.  Inaka is country basically, but for others can be roughly translated as “the boonies.”  I have learned from this, and will now check the train schedules to AND from Isawa train station so I will not run into these problems anymore.  I have Internet now however!  I have also inherited a free printer; free mini television set, and a smallish couch.  The couch is not free, but I’m still deciding if I want this one of a different one.  This one folds out into a mat kind of thing, but it’s pretty low to the floor and low tech.  I saw a cute green one in the store the other day and it was only $200.  Not cheap for how small it is, but nice.  I guess I’ll just have to decide if it’s something I really need or really want.  I also got a free basic blender.  By basic I mean it has functions on and off. ^_^

This is the couch I was thinking about buying maybe.

There is a new Ghibli (Miyazaki Hayao) movie that I found out about yesterday.  It is a rendition of The Borrowers.  It would be nice to see in the theaters I think, but people were right when they told me it would be hard to get around in Yamanashi without a car.  The train station isn’t necessarily close to the majority of the things you need to go to.  By bike the movie theater may be an hour or more away.  I bet it will stop showing in theaters pretty soon though, so I need to decide quickly if I want to go see it or not.  (Wednesday’s are Lady’s day.  Instead of $20 for a ticket, it’ll be about $10, which is considered pretty cheap.)  Otherwise I’ll have to wait for it to come out on DVD and see it that way.  I bought the book in Japanese in hopes that it could be a good study tool.  It’s written for a younger audience I think so with help from my dictionary, I should be able to get through it some day.  I’ll let you know when that day comes!  So far I’ve read one page.  Maybe I’ll try to finish it before the movie comes out on DVD in a few months.  That can be my goal…?

On a very different note, although Japan does not have as much free wifi as the US, there is this new thing that is starting to get popular I believe.  It is a tiny little box (about as big as a folding cell phone) and you can carry it around with you wherever you go.  If the service provider is pretty good in your area, you can get this wifi as long as you have the device with you.  I think wifi is still considered more reliable than 3G (which is what iPhones and things work off of…) so it might be a more popular option if it get’s good ratings.  I’ve spoken to one person who uses it.  She says it’s good for surfing websites, but it’s not quite fast enough for using skype and things.  It is less expensive than the fast internet that I’ll have in my home though.  If I had a very “on the go” type of lifestyle and needed internet throughout the day, I would probably consider this option.  However, sometimes I will want to watch video and use skype for calling people back at home.  The times I’m not in my apartment needing internet probably won’t be great enough to consider buying this item, but you never know what kind of popularity it might get.  I wonder what companies are doing this in the states?  I wonder if people will use it? 

Two videos of the fireworks.  If you compare them to the fireworks from my apartment window, maybe it will give you an idea the scale!!

Went to what's called "kaitenzushi" which is sushi that
rotates around the room on a small belt.
This was the largest type I'd seen like it though.
Also, special orders came out on a small plastic
"shinkansen/bullet train" in that top area.
Very high-tech Japan...

08/09/10

Real internet!  Woohoo!  This Wednesday through Friday we have our local orientation though, so after tomorrow there may be a Lana-less block until about Friday night.  We'll see!

Lana