Obon in Miyazu. Limited Casualties.

Obon : The Buddhist Dio de los Muertos

Last night I went to Miyazu City to take part in the celebration for Obon. Obon is a Buddhist holiday celebrating the ancestors, and its the day of the dead. Ghosts and zombies and all that. Well, maybe not zombies.

So I went over to Jarrad's home which is among some rice fields in the city (because even decent sized cities still have weird rice fields and ditches). His home is small, but very cozy and he actually has some furniture which I find amazing. We practiced flashcards while waiting for Scott and Liz to show up from Omiya (a tiny bit west from the area). They got stuck in traffic (as did I, I spent about 80 minutes driving straight from work to Miyazu in fact!) but they eventually made it.

From Jarrad's we all walked to the big department store, Mipple. It was packed! Everyone had gathered there to watch the lanterns and boats and fireworks. We eventually found our friends in the crowd and sat down. Yumi was there with her friend Jun, who is hilarious and brought sesame balls filled with delicious things. Marina was also there (the girl from LA) as well as Bryn (a kiwi who has been in his city of Iwataki for going on 4 years now) and Jannie (an Aussie who is on her 3rd year in Kaya). The boys went off to find food in the kiosks (a lot of ice creams, sodas, crêpes, and really greasy chicken) while the ladies went to look at the bay. Amanohashidate, the bay in Miyazu, is totally gorgeous all the time. But for Obon there were tons of little floating paper lanterns with candles in the bay, to represent ancestors I guess, and a lot of strange very "oriental" looking boats floating in the bay as well. They had lanterns and fires all over, some of them were manned some not. It was a strange thing to see, and the reds and oranges were really beautiful against the dusky blue background. As the sun disappeared, we went back to our tarp to watch the fireworks.

Fireworks in Japanese is "hanabi" which means "fire flower". I think that makes a lot more sense than firework. A work of... fire? I don't pretend to understand English. I only teach it.
The fireworks were amazing. They weren't like American ones where it's about a 15-20 minute show. Instead, they had 30 second, 2 minute displays, all of them different and sponsored by different companies. After the first would end, they would play a musical interlude while the sky cleared of smoke, and then would start the next display. It was very organized, and I saw some fireworks I had never seen before. The shape of a cat face, or a flower, or a smiley face, or a heart. Things like that, it was really neat! Some of the fireworks looked bigger and more glorious than I imagined they would. I think maybe I am not used to seeing fireworks so close up, or maybe it was the reflection off the water that made it seem grander? I don't know. Anyway the displays went on for about an hour. During this time, we decided to teach Yumi some American slang/Ebonics. So if you see a tall Japanese girl saying "what up, shorty?" ... we are to blame.

Afterwards, we all gathered around a big sort of wooden stand with speakers. A lot of people at the gathering were in yukata, which is summer-time clothing. Not to be confused with kimono, which are more of a winter wear (and more formal, I think). Anyway there were people of all ages wearing them, and man did they look pretty. The little girls especially looked as pretty as could be, and the older women in their patterned yukata and sandals looked like they were in a picture book. Everyone looked like paper.

The dancing began! Elderly women in the big wooden stand began to sing traditional songs about Miyazu and Amanohashidate while men played taiko drums and some other instruments I don't know the names of. It was really spectacular! Many of the people in yukata began to dance in a circle going clockwise, and many people without yukata joined in (including quite a few from our group). The dance steps were easy, but I could tell by seeing the older women do them that they took years of practice to perfect the grace and the balance of the dance. After the first "number", they played a few more songs, but always repeating them. It went on for quite sometime! I even joined in one of the dances, the easy one, with some other JETs. This older lady in front of us in a yukata was helping us learn the steps, and I had more fun watching her than I did actually doing the dance. It was like tai chi... and very much like tai chi, my balance always ends up on the wrong foot. Always. There were a few young men in the group adding their own sort of spice to the dance, and one of them came over to Marina and said, "shall we dance!" She couldn't say no. Liz and I decided to dosie-do instead, which was fun.

Afterwards, we went for a long walk to avoid traffic (we weren't in a hurry to go home anyway). We went to find cheap vending machines and got some drinks (tea for me, and "sweet kiss" soda for the others, which is basically mountain dew). We also spotted some little frogs along the way, and some big spiders.

Then it was back home, and a very long boring drive. Driving past the sea at night scares me, I feel like I could fall off the edge of the world into outer space if I make a wrong turn. But I didn't, and I got home, and I feel asleep almost immediately.