But yes, speaking of new ALTs, I met just about all the new ALTs in my area. This year, some high schools went back to JET (so they decided to not continue with the private companies) and so these ALTs have no predecessors. So I imagine they have many questions. But sadly, maybe not the kind I can answer (every school is different which makes every situation different…the best help here would be from a predecessor…*le sigh…).
Anyhoo, back to the main event. The festival!!!
So, yesterday, I kinda raced back home to take a quick cold shower and change into my yukata (summer kimono). I decided to wear the one my host mom bought me 3 years ago (yes, I have 2) and then decided to go for a challenge and do the obi myself. The obi that came with this yukata is pre-set so that I don’t have to worry about making the bow. But, I wanted to try a new obi I had bought maybe a year ago. So, standing in front of the mirror for maybe 13 minutes trying to figure it out do I notice I did the same mistake I did the year before: I folded the sides of the yukata “left over right” instead of “right over left.” Left over right is intended for deceased people…so I was something of a zombie last year… -_-“ But I noticed this time! But sadly it also meant I had to un-do it all and start over. Ugh. But I managed to finish in time to then help my friend dress into her yukata. And she had the pre-set obi so hers was easier to put on.
Then after some waiting for the rest of the block members to gather, we ventured off to the train station where we squished ourselves into an already packed train to get to Kurume. Personally, I think last year was more crowded… hmm…
*Fast Forward*
So we get to the tarps that our friends who live near Kurume set out and sat down. After a little while, the festival began. In Japan, the fireworks run for more than 15 minutes.
They run for an hour.
No really. The festival began at 7:40pm and ran until 9:10pm. So I got to play around with the settings of my camera and managed to get some good ones (woot~).
But of course, since it’s one of the biggest festivals, going back means lots and lots of traffic…both in terms of cars and people. Some of my buddies decided to head back before the festival ended to try to beat the crowd. But some of us lingered to the very end. So we took our time getting up, throwing away our trash, folding the tarps and taking pictures. (And there was even an announcement that because the station was heavily crowded, everyone should take their time walking back to the station. hehe).
So we did. We even stopped by the little stands in the shrine area to check out the kids trying to scoop up goldfish with a paper paddle. But still, we had to wait in a really long time for…maybe half an hour? (possibly more) And then we got squished into a train (not that squished but yes, quite crowded) and returned home.
And now some pictures for you!
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