A Wee Little Summer Festival 🌻 (Patreon)

Now that summer is officially under way (the cicada woke up last week), we're also seeing and hearing the first summer festivals all about town. They do this thing in the countryside, -- well, at least I don't think they do it in the cities -- but early in the morning (usually 6am) they launch fireworks to announce some event happening that day. They aren't fancy ones with colors, but just basically explosions in the air.

Then throughout the day you'll hear these sudden, very loud detonations in threes or sixes. Boom! Boom! Boom! Depending on the neighborhood, it could just be to announce "Event Today, Don't Forget!", then "Event Starting, Hurry Up!", then "Event Ending, It's Been Fun, Ya'll".

But some places have money to burn or they're just excited to use them and you'll get them nearly every hour. It's a little annoying until you get used to it. You're sitting there trying to read or nap and BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Right outside your window.

I worked with the festival committee a lot in my old house/neighborhood, and the old men were so darned cute and honest. They told me how excited they were to launch them (you don't have to have an license or anything, despite them being pretty loud), so they bought as many as they could to set off all day long. Then they'd have fun deciding who got to light the fuse for which ones. "The Parade Will Start Soon!", "Parade Has Started", "Kids about to Stop for Lunch", "Everyone's Having Lunch Now!"...you get the picture.

They do this for summer and autumn festivals, also undokai/Sports Day (in spring or fall, depending on the area).

Anyway, the video is pretty bad. My apologies. I was a little overwhelmed with all the people and really didn't want to point my camera anywhere. But I did want to convey the lively atmosphere. So...you kind of get it. Can you believe I didn't buy ANYTHING? I was eyeing a few things, but lines. People. Next time!

Another thing they do is during the fireworks show, a guy on a loudspeaker announces who paid for the next firework. It could be just the name of a company or in some cases the names of a group of people. It's always interesting when the local Pachinko parlor has the biggest fireworks. If you're at a bigger show, you don't always hear the announcements. These small ones though, you can.

So I just added some of the fireworks toward the end. It was darker, we were on our way home so away from the crowd, and there were more actual fireworks per sponsor. Summer fireworks used to be my favorite thing. But now I'm thinking poor animals. They didn't sign up for this. Not a big drone person. But a well choreographed drone show might be the way to go.

My father-in-law used to always say, "You can tell how well this year's economy is doing by the fireworks show." I was a little touched that M-san-neighbor said the exact same thing the next day when I told her we went. She said, "This year is pretty bad. It ended before nine." Yeah. Well...

Another bit of getting out of the house.

I had heard about a farmer's market in a big park near here. It's once a month and I've been wanting to go for years. Finally, went this past Sunday. It was nice. Very small. A little hippie. I bought some bread and black garlic. Then took photos of the lotus blossoms. I need to get there earlier for the really pretty light.

But here's a nice shot. I mean you can't go wrong photographing a lotus. Even bad photos look nice.

I'll go again earlier in the morning. There's a thing I want to experience that a friend told me about ages ago. If you go super early, the flowers are all closed and as the sun comes out and the air warms up you can hear them pop open. Not sure if that's true. But wanna test it out.

Everyone, stay safe and well, and Bedtime Story coming soon.

XO,

t