Patrick: Recovering from the festivities with more festivals..

I've been hit by a spout of writer's block these days and so this post has taken second priority to a lot things, like Harry Potter for instance..

In any case, last week, my co-workers invited me to play soccer for the Bioinformatics Center team. I haven't played soccer since the 4th grade but they ensured me that it would be fine since, unlike most of the other guys in the lab, I actually play sports. It was actually not fine. Japanese people are quite enthusiastic when it comes to soccer and those pick-up games were intense. I was so embarrassed with my horrid trapping skills and easy-to-read and slow-as-hell dribbling. Yet, it was fun, even though we lost all our games.. We ended up forfeiting the last one because our goalie had fearlessly received the ball in the face and his glasses scattered into pieces.

07182007

This is a little random, but check out my first self-made meal.. all right so I bought the sashimi at the supermarket but I made the noodles myself!

07192007

On Saturday, I played badminton as usual at Doshisha. The session was extended to 1 pm now that summer's approaching. A lot of people didn't show presumably studying hard for their final exams. Apparently the entire grade for college classes here is determined by the score on these end-of-the-year exams and Kawabata-san said the failure rate is around 60%. Anyways, most of the better players still came so the games were just as exhilarating. It was extremely hot and humid though. By the end of the session I was sweating from every pore on me. My shorts and shirt were completely soaked and I was feeling utterly ikky and disgusting.

After that, I rushed home to take a shower and then headed to Hikone in Shiga Prefecture with Kawabata-san. He lives there (about an hour and a half commute) and he offered to show me around Hikone Castle and Lake Biwa (the largest lake in Japan). Unlike Kumamoto Castle which we went to during Golden Week, Hikone Castle is not a reconstruction. It's one of the few that predate Ieyasu's ban on castle construction during the Edo period. Although according to the WikiTravel site, Kumamoto Castle is one of Japan's Top3 castles (the other two being Himeji and Matsumoto which I definitely still need to see). Hikone was nice though. The weather was nice, the castle itself is pretty typical of Japanese castles, but the view of Lake Biwa was gorgeous. I'll let the pictures say the rest...

07212007

The next day, I went to the bookstore (Junkudou) near Megan's apartment to read the newly published Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Along the way, I saw people fishing on the Kamo River and photographers with their fancy and distinctive white Canon lenses. I wonder what kind of fish swim in that shallow canal they call a river... hope they're tasty.

Nick, Raunaq, and Megan came to interrupt me for lunch around noon. We had some delicious fried pork at Katsukura and then proceeded to walk off the immensely satisfying meal with a stroll along the temple district at Higashiyama. We stopped by Raunaq's favorite shrine, Yasaka Jinja, where we ended up not praying because no one had a 5 yen coin. Apparently the Japanese pronunciation, go-en, is a pun that supposedly helps make your wish come true. Raunaq said this place was great for enjoying Sakura blossoms with sake during the spring. In any case, we convinced Megan to hike with us some more and we got all the way south to Kiyomizu-dera before we decided to turn back. Along the way, we stopped by a woodblock print shop that sold a famous set of 50 odd paintings of scenes along the tokkaido road connecting Tokyo to Kyoto.
If they weren't so expensive, I would definitely buy them for decorations or presents. But I guess they're for hardcore collectors; each one had over a hundred years of history...

Upon turning back, we went to see the great Sanmon of Chion Temple which is one of the three largest Divine Gates in Japan. The one we went up during our first week in Kyoto at Nanzenji was pretty big already but still much smaller than Chion Temple's gate. After that, exhausted from the humidity more than anything else, we decided to head back to Gion and try our luck at the famous matcha dessert cafe Tsujiri. We were able to enter the cafe after waiting in line for 40 minutes or so. They were nice enough to hand out iced towels and paper fans. The desserts were without question deliciously pleasing. Check them out in the pictures. After that, Megan, Raunaq, and Nick went off to watch some Office and I went back in search of a bookstore to read some more Harry Potter...

07222007

On Wednesday, Megan and I went to Osaka where we met Raunaq, Keeley, and Obina to attend the Tenjin Festival (天神祭), another one of Japan's Top3 festivals. The festival is held every year on 7/24 and 7/25. Unfortunately these dates are weekdays which meant we couldn't attend the festivities due to work. But on 7/25 we decided to go in the evening to see the end of the festival and the fireworks.

Unlike the Gion festival in Kyoto, this one featured portable shrines being moved on floating barges on the Yodogawa River. Yaten (屋店), food stalls, lined the river banks and the number of people in attendance was mind-blogging. There were definitely more people at the Tenjin Matsuri than those who went to Gion. This made things difficult when the fireworks started to go off. The crowds of people rushed to and fro to catch a glimpse of the fireworks. Unfortunately they were launched from the same side of the river as the food stalls so we caught great glances of fireworks... behind trees or buildings. Unfortunately, there is no height restriction on buildings in Osaka (unlike in Kyoto) so it was impossible to get any clear view of the night sky from where we were. And the people were so dumbfounded by the fireworks (as if they haven't seen any before) that they would stand content behind these trees and buildings to hear the explosions while oohing and gushing at the flashing night sky. Thus all the roads and alleys to the river ended up being clogged by human plaque and we soon lost Keeley and Obina somewhere in the crowd. Raunaq, Megan, and I valiantly fought our way, squeezing through the mass of people, old and young, trying to get to an open clearing to better see the fireworks. There were moments when I would lose hope and allow myself to drown in sea of hands, hair, feet, and tunneling children thinking this must be what my food feels like brushed by the tiny microvilli in the intestines. I don't mind being squashed in the middle of groups of girls wearing yukatas with hair smelling of white lilies but I definitely don't care for the skinny Japanese guys stinking of BO. With significant effort, we finally made our way onto a large bridge where people gathered to enjoy the fireworks on both sides and see the floating barges pass by underneath. I think the best place to enjoy the festival would definitely be on one of those barges. I wonder when and where you could actually get on one... The bridge, nonetheless, gave us a great view of the fireworks until a foreigner who must've been at least 7 ft tall came by and obscured the skies. Megan tried to get a picture with him without him realizing but we were met with much difficulty. We even met some other Japanese guys trying to do the same thing. Check out the pictures to see Megan's antics. All in all, it was a great festival, awesome atmosphere, the fireworks were pretty standard (if not a little disappointing), great food, the crowd was an experience in itself, and best of all, we've hit up 2 of the top3 festivals in Japan! Only one more to go.. though I think we're gone before it's celebrated.

07252007