夏休み -- Fun times, Obon 2015

This year, I chose not to do much traveling over the Obon period, as I've learned from experience that the traveling includes insane amounts of people and being August, it's of course ridiculously hot! Not to mention, I've been thinking about future holidays that are a little longer, as this year Obon only made a 4 day weekend (not that I'm complaining about 4 days off in any way -- it's great!)

So, the first day off was a little depressing to start with as I wanted to go to the beach, but it rained on and off all throughout the morning and a little into the afternoon.  Luckily, the rain cleared off later in the afternoon. I say luckily because I was planning on going down to Takamatsu station to watch the fireworks portion of the festival. I was joined by my co-worker, Marisa.  

And as we were there well before the fireworks would start, we wandered around browsing and buying from some of the various food stalls.  As it got closer to fireworks time, we tried and succeeded in finding a large group of foreigners that Marisa was familiar with. They had secured a prime position right near the water. 

But as it was about time for the fireworks to start, it started raining, heavily. Again, luckily, after a few minutes the rain tapered off and a little while later, they were able to start the show. But, about 5 minutes in, it started to POUR!! Heavy and hard. But they kept going. 

Neither of us had an umbrella, but one of the other people in the group had an extra or was ok with just his rain coat and lent us one which we shared. Not that it helped overly much. I still got quite wet, although that may have been due in part to the umbrella tipping back so that the fireworks could be seen. Anyway, I decided to leave a little early as you know how I feel about rain and getting wet, (I was soaked and not so happy). And of course it stopped on the way home, but, too late, I was squeezing water out of my clothes and hair all the way home. My mood was strangely improved and yet at the same time not when I walked by a couple of girls and they made a comment that I looked sexy. Yep, that's me. The sexy, half-drowned 外人. (笑)

 

The next day I got up bright and early to head out to the beach for a few hours. It was only for a few hours because I had to head back into Takamatsu to meet up with Narumi. The two of us were going to get all dressed up in yukata and go to the festival. Narumi's mom lent me one and helped both of us get all properly tied in. 

The yukata I got to wear

They definitely wanted to go all out in the authentic experience as they also gave me the traditional bag and shoes to wear with the yukata as well.

Shoes to go with the yukata

 

Wearing the shoes with the yukata

 

The whole view

As it was the final night of the festival, it was the dance night, and the streets were lined up with various groups of dancers (sorry, I didn't take any pictures) and Chuo park was PACKED with people. We slowly worked our way through the throng, picking up various things to eat along the way. And eventually we got to eat it as well. Yummy!

Me and Narumi in yukata at 高松祭り
 

After all that eating we wandered around the park some more, braving the craziness of the food stalls one more time before we took a bit of a stroll and ended up in Takamatsu's shopping area where we ran into Rhio, one of our co-workers, and her friend. After chatting for a bit, on we went. Until we got interrupted by a couple of young boys (and when I say young, I mean they were 21 and 23). They worked at a kind of dance club and were having a festival promotion -- for girls wearing yukata, it was 1000¥ cheaper for the entry price (basically just pay for your drink). Normally, I would say no, but Narumi wanted to go, and so, we did. Inside there was a bunch of people doing kind of hip hop style dancing--kind of interesting to watch, but not really my thing. Many people came to talk with Narumi (and to ask questions about me...but not to me because for whatever reason, they assumed I didn't speak or understand Japanese). Actually, we met an elementary teacher from Marugame, and he was having difficulty getting his head around the fact that I wasn't an ALT, and, of course, around why a kindergarten would possibly need a native teacher.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early yet again, but this time to catch the bus to go to Kobe. There were a couple of things that I wanted to do, and Kobe is of course always nice to visit. Not to mention, I was able to catch a couple of street lives and enjoy the nice warm, sunny weather at the same time. During the day, I did some emailing to ヨシダさん, and he was actually doing a live in Kobe that evening, and after messaging back and forth for a while, I found out it was near to where I was staying, so I decided to go to that! It was a really fun evening, although not so many people were there because it was a holiday. He and the other musician (クボタアツシ) he was doing the live with were funny and near the end of the night they both put on yukata (ヨシダさん said his was a lady-killer style...really? Why??) and they had an amusing dialogue on understanding women's feelings about wearing skirts after they had been sitting down wearing their yukata. Hehehe.  
 

Also, it happened to be his birthday as well! I was surprised--and some of the other guests brought out a birthday cake and presents and another made balloon things. All in all, as I said before - a fun evening and a good little holiday!!

Beach days and new friends

If you don't know already, summer in Japan is HOT!! Not only is the temperature high, but the humidity is as well. So, in my opinion, the best way to deal with it is to go to the beach. Which I do. Often. Like practically every weekend.

While at the beach, many people will stop and talk with me for a little bit because they don't get to see so many foreigners in this area and they're really curious. Generally, I don't mind at all, since it gives me a chance to practice my Japanese. Although there have been a couple occasions where I would have preferred certain people didn't talk to me at all. But that's the way it goes sometimes. 

Anyway....yesterday, I met a couple of really nice people! This couple had been sitting on the beach behind me and at one point we all ended up in the water at the same time. After a while the girl came over to me and said こんにちは (hello), and then told me she was studying English a little bit and she really wanted to meet and talk to me when she saw me. After that, we started talking a lot about various things (although we were talking mostly in Japanese even though she wanted to practice English...good for me though). Eventually, she saw her boyfriend come back with a bag of drinks and she invited me to join them. After talking with them for a while it was really interesting. She was 22 and is from Saijo, Ehime and is currently working at a bank. Erina also told me that when she saw me she told her boyfriend he shouldn't compare her with me (she said she likes my style....lol). Her boyfriend, Kota, is 25 and he's going to a university in Kagawa (apparently he wants to be a high school geography teacher...yes we may have started talking geo after I found that out) and he works supporting the international students  at the university. He is also a really rare Japanese person -- he likes the sun! They showed me the differences in their sunscreen - Erina was SPF 50, and Kota was SPF 2 (is there really any point in 2?? Might as well go without) They also decided that at some point they need to introduce me to some of Kota's international friends -- some Germans and a Korean. 

So basically we spent the afternoon talking and swimming together. I felt a little bad about intruding on their date, but they said it was all good (apparently they've been together 7 years and they both find it interesting and fun to talk with foreigners) and they were also worried about using my time on my day off. It was a good time though!!

My new friends Erina and Kota!

It also turned out that we were taking the same train and going to the same station to get home, so we went together. However we left the beach a bit late and missed the train we wanted and had to wait an hour for the next one. But even that was fine. We talked lots more, and some cats came and visited. One decided I would be a good spot to lay on. On the train ride home we talked a little more but then they both fell asleep. When we got to the station we had to part ways as we were headed in opposite directions. I think everyone was a little sad since it was a good time, but we said we'd meet up again some time, and I really hope we do!!