Matsushima Fireworks and Lanterns Festival

As its name suggests, the Matsushima Fireworks and Lanterns Festival, which was on Sunday (busy weekend) centres around a two-hour display of massive fireworks and floating lanterns. Our trip to Matsushima, however, encompassed oh so much more, largely because we got off at the wrong train station.

Our directions said that the festival grounds were a five-minute walk from the station, but it quickly became clear that we were not five minutes from anywhere. It was also raining again, necessitating a stop in a combini (convenience store) to buy umbrellas. Then we went wandering. Luckily, we had come quite early and so weren't worried about missing any of the festival. Also luckily, it was still daylight. The one Japanese-speaker in the group stopped a woman on the street and asked her for directions.

Instead of directions, we got a three-hour walking tour of Matsushima, including a hill with a thing on top that looked like an ancient rest area, a functional Buddhist temple, the reconstructed house where an ancient royal kept his wives and visiting princesses (which included a cup of green tea and a personalized tour of the attached museum from the curator despite the fact that the museum had already closed), and finally the festival grounds. There are times when being a group of foreigners can really come in handy.

There are other times that it does not. Carnies in America are annoying. Carnies in Japan, all speaking in unison and very aggressively, in a language you can't understand, border on frightening. As did the people who leaned out their apartment windows to stare at us; one person actually went and got a baby to show him the foreigners on the sidewalk. I'm getting used to this sort of thing (I almost caused a car crash walking to work my first day because a driver was staring), but I am still not much of a fan.

The rest of the festival, however, was delightful. We tried a huge variety of Japanese fair food, much of which is not that different from American except for the addition of soy sauce. The fireworks were incredible. I realize I am from a small town, and maybe there are equally good shows elsewhere, but these were bigger, more numerous, and more impressive than any I've ever seen before. Also longer -- we decided to leave after 45 minutes, in part to make sure we could catch the last subway home, but they were still going strong.

I was back at school on Monday and Tuesday, but today is one of my "summer vacation" days -- all the teachers get three, including me even though I've only been here for one week of the five-week break period. So I cleaned my apartment all morning, then walked down to the mall and bought a bicycle (aided by a Japanese-English dictionary that the clerk and I shared) and biked downtown. My bike and I are not in love yet -- you never forget how to ride a bike, but I never learned in the first place how to ride amidst a zillion pedestrians -- but I can tell already I am going to vastly prefer it as a mode of transportation.