Fire Flowers

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6

No one was at work today. Okay, there were people, but maybe just five. It was quiet and it was dead. I didn't leave my desk all day, except to go get tea, and to heat up my pasta lunch. I looked up my lunch break: 12:15-1, and I'm going to have to start observing that.

I did some lesson planning and I feel I was productive.

I got home, and watched a bit more Paradise Kiss. Yes, I plugged in my external hard drive and was suddenly reminded of all of the exciting things (in ENGLSH!) available for me to watch on it last night. Paradise Kiss is an anime based off a manga. It's shojo (for girls) and quite fluffy. Okay, it's incredibly fluffy. But, it does take place in a high school, so it was interesting to watch. I understand a lot more about school culture than the first time I watched/read this story. The anime was also subbed, so I could pick out some words and phrases here and there, which was quite exciting.

Then, I made some pasta and stirred in my leftover tomato sauce. I had utilized the tutelage of master chef Alan to sautee my onions and peppers with garlic and eventually also add some basil, oregano, and cayenne pepper. A lot of cayenne pepper. Perhaps because this was the end of the sauce, but I could feel the pepper warm in my tummy for hours afterward. Unfortunately, it wasn't actually that spicy to eat. The front taste was a bit disappointing, but I didn't want to dump too much of my expensive and precious spices into one meal.

Then, I ran outside, a smidge late, to meet Elizabeth and we walked to the train station. Once inside, we bought our tickets to Otsu from a booth set up especially for the occasion, then followed all of the young girls dolled up in yukata (a summer version of a kimono) to the trains. The crowds in Otsu were amazing. Japan is a densly populated country, yes, but you don't really get that impression where I live. Here, it was a sea of people. Everywhere, sitting on every available bit of ground and trying to walk on what little was left. All as far as the eye could see. I counted, all evening, maybe 5 non-Asians.

Otsu's fireworks run on the principle of watching the beautiful fireworks reflected in the lake. That's all nice and good, but does require being able to see the water, which was nigh impossible, even with us showing up 90 minutes early. We eventually found a place to sit on the cement walkway (our Japanese neighbors all seemed excited by their foreign neighbors) and settled in for the show. There were huge fountains in the distance off to one side that were illuminated as it grew darker with green, yellow, and white lights. Why the colors of the Irish flag, I don't know.

Otsu launches the fireworks from two barges in the middle of the lake. When the show first started, one barge would launch one, then the other would respond, meaning that, at least from our vantage point, it required flipping your head back and forth, kind of like watching a tennis match. The pace was quite slow. Elizabeth's coworkers had told her it would last 2 hours, which we'd thought must be a mistake, but with how slow these were, one shell at a time, I suddenly realized that yes, that could be right. After all, the ones in Town were long and slow like this. I sadly realized that the Japanese probably believe in the beauty of each individual fiery blossom and that the pace would probably remain plodding for the next two hours.

Then, after a 2 minute pause (and there were many of these pauses throughout the night) the REAL show started up. Oh, Rhythm and Booms back home, farewell you pathetic thing! The advantage of shooting from two vantage points is that many shells were purposefully launched sideways, thus, when shot from each barge sideways, the shells nearly met in the middle, were shot directly over each barge and outward the other direction, meaning that fireworks, honesty and literally filled the entire sky for 180 degrees. It was too much often to take in everything, so I just sat back and watched art.

Japanese shells are more advanced than American ones. I noticed this when I was watching the Town ones, but it was definitely confirmed here. There are also lots more shapes, like fireworks that look like smiling faces (with mouth open), like rice balls with legs, like fish, like cats, like mushrooms, and like flowers. When they would do a shape, they were nice enough to shoot up about 6 at once, so at least one angle would be correct and make the whole thing identifiable. When they did this, there was always gasps from the crowd as they identified the shape. In fact, the Japanese were very verbally expressive, gasping, cheering, squealing, screaming, and generally just enjoying the show. I fit right in. And really, it was hard NOT to react.

One of the coolest shells, which they sadly only did once, shot off, red, like the droopy ones we have at home, except that somehow, the fragments burned, stationary in the air. The entire glittering debris hung, unmoving in the air for about 15 seconds. It was stunning. The crowd went wild.

The show lasted 1 hour. After which, hundreds of thousands of people all stood up and went to the trains at once. The entire thing was very well organized with officers everywhere directing things and keeping everything organized. Elizabeth and I walked to a station a smidge out of the way, somehow took the back way in and missed a bunch of the crowd and were politely directed by officers every few feet to wait a moment, okay, proceed, and to enter the platform.

Both Elizabeth and I had been warned that the trains would be ridiculously full. But then, that's part of the Japan experience. As it was, while there was pushing for more people to squeeze on, it wasn't actually THAT ridiculously tight. Yes, we were all packed in, but not squished. And, at every station, more people got off so that Elizabeth and I soon got seats.

Back in Town, we stopped by a convenience store and bought ice cream as the perfect treat to end a good night. Elizabeth's beautiful idea. As soon as we got away from the station, we started eating them while walking (considered rude in Japan.) So delicious, and only a buck each.

I stayed up much too late watching the end of Paradise Kiss. But it's my weekend after all.