Mountain Day and Fireworks (feat. Friday as an after thought)

Thursday 11th August

Perks to living in Japan

manymanymany public holidays.

After one morning at school I took the liberty of sleeping in until 11 oclock.

Wandered into town to see how bad the train timetable really was – they weren’t lying when they said it was rather infrequent…

Stalls set up along the riverbank for the fireworks

Back home to realise that I had a bit of mail in my letter box. Out again to the post office as the mail appeared to be for something that had tried to be delivered while I was out.

Back home again after I got to the post office and remembered it was a public holiday so everything was shut….
At least I know where it is now I guess.

That afternoon Alyssa came and picked me up (she bought her predecessors car so much more mobile than myself at the moment). And we drove up to Honjo to meet another couple of ALTs who had offered us a lift up to the Fireworks in Akita City.

Liam (Ireland) and Dave (England) provided the banter on the drive to Akita City where we met Carri (America) and went for a drive to one of the local parks (picking up ice cream on the way through of course). We headed back to Carri’s apartment (being there reminded me that it’s not actually normal to have a washing machine in your kitchen…) then met up with Keith (a 3^rdyear ALT from Canada) and met Becks (Scotland) at the station. Enough new names for you? Welcome to my life.

However other than Alyssa, this lot were the first Gaijin I’d seen in the week that I’d been in Nikaho – so it was all very exciting.

We meandered through the suburbs until we got to the river bank where the fireworks would be let off. Picked a patch of grass in amongst the crowds and set up our blanket before we went off in shifts to suss food at one of the 50 odd stalls that were there.

The reason for the setup is that fireworks here will go on for a couple of hours, bursts with breaks in between – not like back home where its 15 minutes full bore and then everyone buggers off to the pub.

There was also an interesting selection of music to accompany each burst of fireworks, from Japanese pop, to Enya, to And so this is Christmas…. This is where I remind everyone that Japan single handedly made me loath Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas” after insisting on playing it all year round at the shopping arcades in Matsuyama (and of course with renewed vigour when it was actually December).

We zigzagged our way back through the streets, popped in at Lawson (I miss convenience stores already – Konoura is too small to have one) for a bite to eat. Then commenced the hour-ish drive back to Honjo.

Friday 12^th August

A slightly more respectable start this morning as it was a good idea to make an appearance at school, good impressions and all. What I didn’t realise was that there would only be 2 other teachers there to make an impression to….

Continued flicking through the text books and S-Sensei got my laptop going for me. Pottered around till lunchtime and then took my leave. 

Set out for the post office again – apparently the mail that I got was simply to confirm my address – I remember there being issues when I was on exchange when my family sent me a parcel (addressed to me obviously) but because the name didn’t match that on  the letter box (my host family’s name) it was sent back. Thorough. Via the supermarket to pick up some munchies for lunch and have since retreated back into the fan-cooled shelter of my flat.

 Thought for the evening: In Tokyo it seemed we were constantly scurrying out of the way of cars pushing through the crossing on a green man – Hugh (a uni mate who has been in Tokyo for the past year) voiced his strong dislike for drivers there. HERE it seems that I a constantly being waited for and waved on to cross the road, I’m not sure if drivers are just more patient here or if it’s just that nobody wants to be the one to maul the only gaijin in Konoura….