Of stars, dragons and blue skies 1 of 2

It looks like rainy season has come to an end! The clouds finally parted after weeks of oppressive humid hot weather and the blue skies shone through! It was very uplifting—not like I’m not already having the most amazing time—and the heat is a lot easier to bear when the sun is shining! But, enough on the weather, let me tell you, that I had maybe the most fantastic weekend yet!

On Saturday, Rhee and I went to another Tanabata festival. This time in Hiratsuka; which boasts one of the bigger star festivals in the Kanto region! It was spectacular—and because the skies were clear I like to think that Orihime and Hikoboshi did get their chance to meet. As long as we celebrate why should they be denied the festivities for them ne?

How to explain what it really feels like to be at a Japanese festival is so difficult. I can only capture one aspect of it, the sights, and even than my photography does it no justice at all. There were colourful streamers and decorations for a contest to be held later. Sometimes the decorations were shaped live pavilions with little dolls dancing in them. Sometimes it was just elaborate artwork other times the streamers draped down to the ground forcing spectators to battle their way through the dazzling ribbons. The smell of every Japanese food imaginable; of frying octopus, fish on a stick, sweet corn, kababs, picachu and Hello Kitty shaped donuts, sweet sticky ice, curry, pineapple, melon, cucumbers, sushi,  iced matcha tea, yakisoba, gyoza, omelet hotdogs, fried chicken and many many other things I couldn’t identify. The sound of taiko drums in the distance and a steady stream of giddy Japanese that I can only grasp words of. Everything just comes together to create these little pockets of magic.

We wandered about a maze of streets that had been shut down for the festivities until we came across this beautiful shrine. You enter through a torii gate and on to a bridge that is surrounded by two ponds. On the one side are turtles and koi fish and on the right is a pretty little island where hiding in the shade is a bright red tori on the water and a little shrine. The grounds was pleasant except the smell of sulfur coming from a natural spring pouring from a dragon’s mouth. The main shrine was decorated with tanabata bamboo and little wishes from artistic children and, something I haven’t seen yet, a ring that one walks through in a figure eight pattern to achieve good luck!

But back to the festival and a short bit of back story. Right now there are these adorable things called mameshiba which are very popular in Japan for being ADORABLE! Mame means bean and shiba is a type of Japanese dog (which I really want!) Basically they are little stuffed animals of bean dogs and come in different themes. Like fruit, samurai, animals, etc. but they are rare. I managed to find a tiger mameshiba that was super cute once on a trip to Tokyo. But on another trip to Tokyo it fell off my backpack ;_;. Anyways I’ve wanted to replace it but they are hard to find. But I saw a sign at the festival for them so I ran up and asked “mameshiba o arimasu ka?” And the lovely old lady said “nai, gomen na sai.” And I smiled a little sad and said, “hai, daijoubu.” And she said, “chotto mate kudasai,” with a sudden excitement and hurried off into the back of the shop and returned with this tiny little ketiai charm of a mameshiba shaped like a little green pea! She pulled it out of the package and thrust it into my hands with a giant smile. Well I lit up, giddy with finding a mameshiba and with receiving a gift from this wonderful woman, “Watashi ni!?” For me? I exclaimed and she nodded furiously, so proud of herself. I was so grateful! Even in a big city on the outskirts of the Tokyo metropolis, I get treated with an unconditional kindness you don’t see often. I thanked her again and again, “arigatou gozaimus! Kawaii! Kawaii” and told her I thought it was the cutest thing ever, and then we were on our way again with me not letting the little pea dog stray from where I wrapped it around my finger and held it tightly in my palm.

Hungry now, we feasted on pita kebabs, Hello Kitty donuts and sweet peachy drink and did some people watching. There were literally hundreds of yukata to admire, and I vowed next festival I too would wear a yukata! We finished the amazing day with an accidental stroll to the park where we found a dance competition. It was so cool! I love group choreographed dancing! It was a mix between western and Japanese but it was all amazing to watch. One of the first groups I saw danced to ‘Cartoon Heroes,’ (some of you will catch that and be super jealous XP) beast Japanesesque song ever! The finale was awesome. The dancers came on to the grassy stage in traditional white costumes but before we had even realized what had, happened while they danced, streams of blue ribbon appeared. I blinked again and then they were dancing in yellow and blue. “When did that happen?” I asked Rhee. One more blink at the height of this powerful song that sent shiver down my back under the setting sun and cool breeze and they were dancing in whirls of red, green, yellow, blue and the original white. It was so beautiful!

As the festival was winding down—there are still energy conserving standards put in place because of March 11 and thus it couldn’t continue into the night—we headed with a thrall of other people back to the train station. That night we tried something new: couch surfing. I would never do this in any other country, but I trust Japan with my life. Couch surfing is where a bunch of people offer their house for the night for free and in exchange you offer yours. That was how we met Soichi and Natto. Two lovely young guys who took us in for the night and were incredibly kind and polite. Soichi prepared a bath for us (much needed after a day of wading in our own sweat) and then after serenaded us with his amazing guitar skills. After, we apologized but turned in early as we were exhausted and had to be up early for our next adventure! And that was just Saturday!