Okayama Fireworks
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Today started out with us being forgotten. Tara and I arrived at our station, got on the train, and got off at our stop. We are always greeted by our driver. He waits for us by the platform and waves and then we walk to the van together and he opens the doors and makes sure we are in and everything. Today we arrived and he wasn’t there. We waited and waited…I called the principal and she tried to call him. We waited and waited some more…no sign of him. Finally the principal came and picked us up. The driver, we found out later, had just forgotten us. Thanks man.
I finish work on Wednesdays at 12:00. I headed off to Okayama because I wanted to do some shopping. I had some birthday presents to buy and I was going to be in downtown Okayama later that night so there was no point in going home then going right back to town. Anyway, I met Clo downtown and we shopped and got some lunch. We hit all of our favorite shops but I was not really succeeding in my birthday shopping. I did find an ant farm though and who can possibly live without an ant farm??? It was one of those cool ones that are made of gel and you put it all together and then the ants tunnel through the gel. One of the kids in my class had one last year and I have wanted one ever since. So, many stores and one ant farm later we headed back towards the station.
I had all of my school bags with me and they were getting pretty heavy so I grabbed a locker at the train station. Then we went in to wait for Tara and the other people that we were meeting. While we were waiting, Clo and I were looking out over the city. We were talking about this and that when Clo said, “It’s going to be another Kurashiki.” I completely didn’t understand what she was talking about until as I turned to look at her and I saw a man coming towards us. He was holding his watch up at eye level, dangling it between his fingers. He was trying to say something to us but there was just no way I was having that today. We immediately just turned around and walked away before he could get up to us but then he started following us. We were weaving in and out of people and he was doing the same. We sprinted a little bit into a shop and we lost him. Clo said that she never had people come up to her until she started hanging out with me. She thinks it’s my hair and eyes (she has brown hair and brown eyes). I am about ready to send for a bottle of black hair dye and some brown contacts! haha
It was finally time to meet everyone so we checked to see if the coast was clear and we went downstairs to the fountain. We met up with everyone in front of the fountain and then caught a trolley thing to where the fireworks were. The streets were lined on bother sides with food tents like at City Stages. In the middle of the street people were all walking around. It was so packed and SO hot. We broke free from the crowd and found a spot to watch the fireworks. They were so awesome. They lasted from 7:00pm-9:30pm. They were gorgeous and just went on and on. I got some great pictures and a couple of little videos on my camera.
Everyone was dressed up in their summer kimonos (yukata…probably not spelled right) and they just looked beautiful. I wanted to take pictures of everyone all dressed up but I thought that might be creepy.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Today started out with us being forgotten. Tara and I arrived at our station, got on the train, and got off at our stop. We are always greeted by our driver. He waits for us by the platform and waves and then we walk to the van together and he opens the doors and makes sure we are in and everything. Today we arrived and he wasn’t there. We waited and waited…I called the principal and she tried to call him. We waited and waited some more…no sign of him. Finally the principal came and picked us up. The driver, we found out later, had just forgotten us. Thanks man.
I finish work on Wednesdays at 12:00. I headed off to Okayama because I wanted to do some shopping. I had some birthday presents to buy and I was going to be in downtown Okayama later that night so there was no point in going home then going right back to town. Anyway, I met Clo downtown and we shopped and got some lunch. We hit all of our favorite shops but I was not really succeeding in my birthday shopping. I did find an ant farm though and who can possibly live without an ant farm??? It was one of those cool ones that are made of gel and you put it all together and then the ants tunnel through the gel. One of the kids in my class had one last year and I have wanted one ever since. So, many stores and one ant farm later we headed back towards the station.
I had all of my school bags with me and they were getting pretty heavy so I grabbed a locker at the train station. Then we went in to wait for Tara and the other people that we were meeting. While we were waiting, Clo and I were looking out over the city. We were talking about this and that when Clo said, “It’s going to be another Kurashiki.” I completely didn’t understand what she was talking about until as I turned to look at her and I saw a man coming towards us. He was holding his watch up at eye level, dangling it between his fingers. He was trying to say something to us but there was just no way I was having that today. We immediately just turned around and walked away before he could get up to us but then he started following us. We were weaving in and out of people and he was doing the same. We sprinted a little bit into a shop and we lost him. Clo said that she never had people come up to her until she started hanging out with me. She thinks it’s my hair and eyes (she has brown hair and brown eyes). I am about ready to send for a bottle of black hair dye and some brown contacts! haha
It was finally time to meet everyone so we checked to see if the coast was clear and we went downstairs to the fountain. We met up with everyone in front of the fountain and then caught a trolley thing to where the fireworks were. The streets were lined on bother sides with food tents like at City Stages. In the middle of the street people were all walking around. It was so packed and SO hot. We broke free from the crowd and found a spot to watch the fireworks. They were so awesome. They lasted from 7:00pm-9:30pm. They were gorgeous and just went on and on. I got some great pictures and a couple of little videos on my camera.
Everyone was dressed up in their summer kimonos (yukata…probably not spelled right) and they just looked beautiful. I wanted to take pictures of everyone all dressed up but I thought that might be creepy.
After the fireworks we headed over to a little bar that is where the foreigners hang out. It was pretty cool to walk in and see people who looked like me! I am so used to seeing Japanese people that when I see a Westerner I get all excited because I think about speaking English and actually understanding what someone else is saying! We hung out for about 30 minutes and then had to catch our train home. I did meet a huge man who told me (in Japanese) that I was a pretty blonde girl. I think he might have been a sumo wrestler and he was all decked out in his summer kimono. I took my picture with him though. Enjoy!! J
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