AUGUST

The first weekend in August was the big fireworks (hanabi) festival in Ashikaga, the city we live in. Ashikaga is famous for its hanabi festival and we are told 200,000 - 300,000 people come every year (the city's population is about 120,000), people line the river bank, you can sit on the ground for free, people set out their tarps to reserve their spots days in advance, or you can pay to sit on the 'stage', an elevated platform. Our students, Kimiko (my student) and her grand daughter Sakura (Denis' student) invited us to join them on the platform. So we watched the fireworks from the elevated platform with their family and they were so kind, they fed us until we thought we were going to burst especially since I was wearing an obi that was holding my yukata on but squeezing the life out of me. The fireworks were great, two hours of pretty amazing fireworks, good company and good food. (check out Ashikaga festivals for the pictures).

The next weekend we left for Hachijojima. Island paradise, except a typhoon was heading straight for it and we were planning on camping...but the typhoon turned and headed away from us although we got quite a bit of rain and made for some awesome clouds and waves, and the second typhoon that was right behind it fizzled out before it got to us. The campground was great, far better than we expected for a free campground and ten steps from the ocean, with the nicest beach in Hachijojima right there...hachijojima isn't a great beach place most of the swimming spots are in harbour like areas where large cement tetras break the waves enough so you can swim but it was great all the same. The second night we were there baby sea turtles hatched, although no one was there to see them - they snuck out at 2 or 3 am although a few early birds saw the last few slowpokes at 5 am, we were still sleeping, but it was pretty cool none the less. That day we hooked up with an Australian tour guide (and pub owner) and he took us on a tour of the WWII tunnels and a waterfall. It was great, the tunnels were amazing and it was hard to believe they were dug by hand, some of the spaces were huge and supported with cement. The waterfall was quite a hike up but it was very nice and you could swim in the little pool below it which was great to cool us off and clean us up after messing about in dirty tunnels. That night we went on a glowing mushroom tour, and we got to see glowing mushrooms which grow all over Hachijo, but the pictures didn't turn out. It was really dark and I couldn't see what setting we were on - it was one time I wished we had a simple point and click camera...but we got a cool poster. We rented a car for two days and toured all around the island, checking out some more cool waterfalls and onsens (public baths - like hot springs that are segregated and no bathing suits) we also saw the traditional housing and the wall built by exiles to protect themselves from the crashing waves. We also drove up as high as we could to one of the two mountains, Hachijo Fuji, and climbed the 1277 stairs to the top. Although the top was in a cloud and we couldn't see the crater, or anything else for that matter, it was really fun. It was so humid that raindrops were forming on our eyelashes and arm hairs and sometimes Denis got too far ahead and I couldn't see him...it was that foggy. After we gave up the car we just relaxed on our beach, the weather had gotten much better and we were dying of heat now. It was SOO hot and SOOO humid, but we stayed near the ocean breeze and in the ocean and took a lot of cold showers, I wouldn't have taken a hot one even if we could. We got a great tan and then a sunburn and then a sunburn on top of our sunburn even with sunscreen on, we just didn't have anywhere to escape since we were camping and all. But we were all right. Our last day there we found a place where we could make Kihachijo, a traditional fabric made old school with a loom from silk died with plants found only on Hachijo, it was way harder than it looked but very rewarding when I was done. Well it was back to work after, but it was a much needed, very relaxing break.

The next weekend, Aug 26 -27 we went to the Dai Chochin Matsuri in Isshiki City, Aichi prefecture. We left Friday night to drive halfway there, we stopped driving around midnight and couldn't find a hotel that wasn't booked so we decided to try a love hotel. A love hotel, for those of you who don't know, can be rented for a few hours or for the night and is where Japanese people go to make love...since they live with their parents and/or grand parents and/or children in tiny apartments, they go to a love hotel when they need some privacy. The whole idea behind a love hotel is PRIVACY...you do not see or speak to anyone, you press a button or open a door which promptly locks behind you and then you are stuck until you pay and the door unlocks. Unlike regular hotels you pay after, but these hotels are awesome. They have huge beds, nice bathrooms usually with sweet jacuzzi tubs, all sorts of extras, toothbrush, hairbrush, bath stuff, condoms...a big TV with Japanese porn - which is hilarious at best...we saw a girl getting it on with some outdoor patio furniture...anyways it is a great deal, way cheaper than regular hotels. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Isshiki to see the giant paper lanterns. The lanterns were giant, 10 - 12 meters high and about 5m in diameter. And there were huge candles that they put in them at night to light them up. There were carnival games and carnival food, and traditional dancing and drumming...it was very cool. After the festival we drove towards Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, and stayed in another love hotel. The next day we went to Nagoya castle and walked around Nagoya. I have to say I think Nagoya is my favourite big city in Japan, it has everything you want but doesn't feel too big and has a very young vibe to it. There was a festival going on downtown so we walked around there and then went for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant - it was great. We then drove back to the same love hotel we stayed in the first night, neither of us had to work until Monday afternoon and since we now knew the drill we took our time before driving back to Ashikaga.

On August 31 our company had a BBQ for the preschool students and their parents, it was a lot of fun. It was in Ashikaga near the dam in the mountains. We played games and played in a little river that was much stronger than it was before, all the kids fell down and got soaked, and ate a ton of food.

That was August, super busy...lots to see...