Everyone Celebrates on My Birthday...

The middle of August is the Obon Festival here in Japan, and the last day is August 15th, which convienently gave us something to do on my birthday this year. (The general consensus is that I turned 21...) To be honest, I know very little about the background of this festival. I know it's meant to celebrate the ancestors, especially those who have passed on recently, and that's about it. The method of celebration, however, is very pretty.

Last night just outside Nimitz park, people from all over town gathered to purchase little wooden/rice paper lanterns, which they then decorated with markers, lit, and sent out into the river to float away to the ocean and, presumably, the beyond where they would pass on messages to the aforementioned ancestors. The bridge over the river was decorated with lanterns, as was either bank. There were stands selling the usual fair style food: yakitori (meat on a stick), corn on the cob, ice cream, snow cones, and the like. In one tent, a monk chanted prayers, too. Some of the women and most of the little girls dressed in kimonos. It was very pretty to see, but very difficult to catch on film. This picture of the bridge was probably the best one I got.

So Zack and I wandered around the park enjoying the festivities and admiring all the lanterns floating along the river. He had made it a point, apparently, to tell everyone he could find that it was my birthday, including a guy from the AFN station who was trying to get interviews with people about the festival, and therefore insisted on interviewing me. Thank goodness I don't get TV, so I'll never see it (with any luck). We ate from the stands and then wandered up towards the main road where there was a sort of mini parade going on. Aparently, some sort of ceremony goes on at all the local shrines leading up to obon. Then the people who visit that shrine arrange to carry a long, boat-like object filled with lanterns in procession from the shrine to the river. At the beginning of each of these processions were two people who set off firecrackers that echoed all over town for several hours last night. They were followed by someone ringing a gong, followed by the float itself, and then several more people with firecrackers. Sorry, no pictures of this. They just look like glowing blurs in the shots I got. Since we've arrived in Japan, we've learned that Dory is afraid of loud booms (thunder and fireworks, for example), so we were not surprised to find her shaking when we arrived home, but we had a lot of fun watching the festivities. How many people get an all out festival for their birthday?

Hiroado and the Dragon Neck Falls

Zack has been very busy this week. As in, he didn't come home to sleep most nights. Very very busy. Poor guy. So when he arrived home Friday night, we were determined to do something fun on Saturday. I had visited MWR for information on quick and easy day trips from here, and we chose Hirado because to get there we didn't have to use toll roads, so renting a car wouldn't be necessary.
Hirado is an island a little north of Sasebo. It's claim to fame is that it used to be the site of a Dutch warehouse for the East India Trading Company. However, the views from the island, hiking, and castle are far more interesting in my opinion. It took us about an hour to get there, but the drive was quite lovely, too. To get to the island, we crossed this bridge:
Pretty, huh? Upon arrival on the island we got temporarily lost in the void between the big road map and the little tourist map provided by MWR, but this detour lead us straight to the castle so it worked out. The Hirado castle, like most in Japan, is a reconstruction. The original I think was actually destroyed in a battle. The castle walls used to contain what is now a lovely little park on a bluff near the bridge. During Cherry Blossom season, I can imagine it would be really amazing. I'm hoping to go back around that time and check it out. The castle building itself is not enormous, but it is very pretty:

Inside we found various "cultural treasures" including samurai armour, swords, scrolls, and so on. And check out the view from the top:

When we were done checking out the castle, we took a self-guided walking tour through the middle of town to see what's left of the Dutch influence on the town: a bridge and a wall. The warehouse building was destroyed on an order from an emperor because the date on the outside was by Christian reckoning. By that time, lunch seemed like a good idea, so we took a break.

The problem with sightseeing in August is that it's hot. Really hot. Too hot to have fun for very long hot. So after lunch we were getting a bit tired of seeing things and a bit ready to hang out inside near an AC unit. We decided to check out the church before we left. We still aren't sure what makes this particular church special, but it was also a lovely building:

So, considering the day a success, we retreated home to the cool of the indoors. It was quite a fun day, all things considered. We enjoyed being out of the house and doing something fun. May be when it's cooler, we'll go back for some hiking around the island.

Sunday, Zack had duty, so he trudged back into work. I, on the other hand, accepted an invitation to see the Dragon Neck Waterfalls. Rob and Shay, the new CHENG on Zack's ship and his wife, invited a group to come check it out. We were instructed to bring lunch, shoes for hiking, and bathing suits. We drove out of town, south this time, past little towns and rice and tea crops, and an hour later, we were parking on the side of a tiny road up in the mountains a little ways.
Those of you who went to Appalachian, or visited regularly, might have seen Hebron Rock Colony, a favorite hang out of outdoorsy college students. This was something like that, only the water was not rushing so fast. The main waterfall had a pool under it so deep that the divers in our group couldn't find the bottom. There were signs everywhere saying that you shouldn't swim because the water was too cold, but that wasn't stopping any of the Japanese people, so it didn't stop us either. Even though the water really was pretty cold, we swam and took the paths down to see the other waterfalls, and generally had a good afternoon. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Needless to say, I can't wait to take Zack to check it out. What a great weekend!

Creepy Crawlies and Typhoons

Since we arrived in Japan, I've been warned repeatedly about the existance of enormous spiders that like to show up around the rainy season. I was more than relieved when at the end of rainy season I had not spotted any. Sure, I have issues with the cockroaches that seem to think my kitchen should belong to them, but at least they're smaller than my hand and unlikely to be poisonous. The only spiders I'd seen so far had been the little bitty ones that like to hang out on the walls and porches around here. I don't mind them. They're outside.
Then I went to help out with exams over at NJC Monday. The exam was an oral exam in which two students would have a conversation and two teachers would listen and grade them. The first two walked in and one of them immediately made a noise between a scream and a gasp, much like I make when I see a bug. The bug turned out to be a spider on the wall. It's body was the size of a quarter and with it's legs, it wouldn't have fit in my palm, not that I wanted it there anyway. For reasons that are probably very nature-friendly but still beyond my comprehension, the Japanese frown on killing these monsters. Instead, Luc, the other teacher in the room, suggested we ignore it and it would go away. Since this sounded like more fun than trying to catch it, I tried my best to ignore it. During the first group's exam, it crawled at an alarmingly fast pace around the room until it was directly in front of me on the opposite wall near the ceiling. Even Luc gave up after that. He pulled out a broom and dust pan and somehow managed to catch the thing between the two, at which point he hurried outside with it. Super impressive. I intend to make my students do that kind of thing if I see them in class.
The roaches, which I mentioned many times previously, have also finally broken through whatever magical barrier Zack had created under the sink. Two days ago he came upstairs and announced he'd had to kill one. It's the first time either of us have seen one since he cleaned up under the sink. Then last night (he asked me to report this, by the way), he killed no less than four in a row while I stood in the doorway pointing and shouting annoyingly. Clearly it's time to do something extreme again. I'm trying to get up the nerve to look under the sink and see what I can do, but I'm more inclined to wait until Zack has time to do it again. Still, they're way better than that spider.
And of course, another typhoon is working it's way steadily towards us. Usagi (which means Rabbit) seems to want to tour the whole of Japan. The nifty graphics on the base website depict it's path as basically following the island chain. It's going to be centered over southern and eastern Kyushu, and we're northwest Kyushu, so it shouldn't get too close, but we're scheduled for more rain and wind starting tonight and heading into tomorrow. Never a dull moment, right?