Whew! Today was long, exhausting, cold, wet, and a blast! I got up, got some food in me (delicious toast!), showered, got ready, and headed out. I made my way to the station, and got my ticket (less than 10 bux there!). Here's a picture from the train station platform, it was really pretty today!

But the train heading the opposite way as mine came in just a few minutes before mine did, and the window went down, and I heard some "Dowaito-sensei! Hallo!" So I waved and said hi to some of the boys from the jr. high, but then I noticed a stream of girls getting off the train from school! Their faces were blank, then a slow understanding and dumb-struck awe at seeing their teacher on the platform in regular guy clothes! Ahaha. Kawai-sensei was with them, and asked me where I was going, and they were all surprised I was going to the place of the fireworks show so late after the original show, but I assured them there were fireworks today. :-P

So I got my ticket, and rode the train. I got off at Okaya, and asked an attendant where I needed to go to catch my next train, got on the right platform, cought the next train, as was to Kawa-suwa with no hitches! It also helped that I was just following a huge stream of people. :-PMe following the stream of peeps.


So I got there, and I had detailed directions from Erica, the head of AJET (who sponsores a lot of events for JETs, including this one). I made my way where I needed to go, and noticed that since I was early, the gates weren't open yet. So I figured I'd save some of the time instead of standing in line, and walked towards where I was supposed to go. Well, I find a nice place in line, after I got to wander through the delicious smelling venders row:



Although this picture was taken later on that day, it still smelled delicious.

So I'm standing in line for a while, and finally 3 o'clock rolls around, and they start letting people in. Well, I finally get there, and the guy asks me something, and I pull out my headphones, and he asks me for my ticket. I told him I didn't have a ticket and asked wehre I could get one, and he pointed me in the direction. I was a bit confused though, because I was under the impression that this was a free event for me to attend. So I finally get down to where the tickets are sold, pick one up (for 2000yen, which upset me), and start walking back. As I'm walking, I'm thinking "man, there are a ton of people sitting outside of the fenced in area". And wondering if the AJET tarp could possibly be outside of the area? I didn't think so though, because I was told we were along the jogging path, and this area wasn't so wide, so it couldn't be the jogging path.

Instead of going back in where I originally was, I kept walking just to see if I could find them anyway, and lo and behold, turns out the fenced in area wasn't the only place, and there were other areas that were free. Awesome. Ugh. So I ended up walking past the AJET tarp, because I figured, with everyone signing up for AJET, at 20$ a pop, they would have an EZ up or something. I then realized that not only did we really just have a 'blue tarp', there were only 3 people there, and none of them were block leaders. Whoops. So I meandered down, introduced myself to Nicole and Bren and their Japanese friend, and just kinda settled in. It was warm though, which was a bit of a bummer but the sun felt nice.

after a while people started showing up, and by 5-6 we had a full tarp of people, and I had introduced myself another million times, and was having fun chatting with people. The sun finally went behind some clouds before settling behind the mountain, which was great. The only problem was that if it went behind clouds, it meant that rain was on the way. LAME


So it finally got dark, and after grabbing some karaage (friend chicken) and a chuhai (fruity beer, MMM!. Also, hooray to Japan's OK attitude to public drinking) I went back to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks show is held in the same place as the major one on August 15th, but this one is done by competeing agencies to see who gets to do the job for the next year. The fireworks, as you can see from the video's ,were amazing. after this first video you watch (aka the first show) finished, I let out a resounding "YAY AMERICA" which got a lot of laughs. :-P

Some of the highlights of the fireworks included ones that blew up into pictures of shapes (personal favs: hearts and little piggy faces), as well as one that blew up, and then all the end points just HUNG IN PLACE and trailed off / rained white light from them. I have no idea how they did it, but it was the coolest effect I've ever seen with a firework.








So then, it was getting about time for us to go (we wanted to beat part of the rush and catch our trains) and a big wind came rushing in, which we were promptly informed meant that a huge storm was about to hit. It had been sprinkling earlier, and some lightning had been going off around us, but the woosh of air was kind of a good hint.

So we're packing up hurridly, and had thought the show had finished, when they set off the finale. the finale was done down at water level on the lake, not more than 400 feet from us. so when the first boom went off, it was like the firework was coming right for us, hah! This next vid is the finale, doesn't do it nearly enough justic.


So, like I had said earlier, the wind is just whipping through here, and the rapid and constand explosions combined with the wind to partially block the explosions while at the same time send huge clouds of gunpowder smoke flying over us. Well, we're walking away as this is finishing up, and after the finale (which was HUGE, intimidating as anything, and in general just amazing), we're all rushing away trying to beat the crowd (which was going to be impossible anyway), and the smoke is just everywhere. With the streetlights, it combined to make everything like a bad horror movie with people coming out of the smoke as you walked along. Kinda a post-apocolyptic / horror thing.




Well, we're making good time, and we can see the lightning seemed to be moving closer / over us, but we're getting close to the station. well, not more than 1 1/2 - 2 blocks from the station, the line stops. It was a complete jam of people up until the station, and that was with trains shoveling them out as fast as possible. So fast, in fact, that you didn't pay for your ticket until you got to your destination to speed up the trip. Well, as we're standing there, it starts to rain. And of course, I don't have my umbrella.

Then it starts to pour.

Then all of a sudden, I'm in a monsoon.

Wind is whipping, rain is just POURING, and i'm getting soaked. We're slammed-packed so close that people's umbrellas are emptying off onto me. First I feel my shirt start to get wet, and feel it spread across my shirt. then my shorts, then my underpants. Then I can feel water running down my leg and pooling in my shoes.

I turn to Tony next to me, and just go, "I don't know if I should laugh or cry, this situation is just so ludacris." I also turned to a young japanese guy standing next to me, also lacking an umbrella, and gave him a clenched fist and said "ganbatte" (Do your best / try and put up with it). We both had a "what else can I do in this situation" kind of look on our face.

so after 30 minutes in the rain, we made it to the station and out of the rain. I was wringing out my shirt and shorts, and trying to squeeze it out of my shoes too. Luckily, another jet gave me a ziploc baggy to put my zune, psp, and camera into. Bless your soul, JET who's name I've forgotten.

So then we cought the train to Okaya, and thank goodness, a train was there for us to hop on, and left not more than 2 minutes after we boarded, saving us 40 minutes of standing there waiting. I then had another hour and a half to ride the train, wet, until Iijima. By the time I got to Iijima, was was only damp! :-P

I walked home, shucked the wet clothes, and hopped into nice dry ones. Now a hot bath, and I'm going to crash. Today really threw off my schedule, it's 2:30 am, and while I'm definitely tired, I'm not nearly as exhausted as I should be. I think the whole rainy experience kinda 'reset' me. :-P