Another week has rolled by here and today me, Matt and my Aussie flatmate Ashley went down to our local sports park for a bit of a hit around. The weather as usual was hot and humid, and although it was a bit overcast it seemed a good day for it. After about ten minutes of park cricket with a tennis racquet (it's very difficult to find a cricket bat here: if anyone has a spare one lying around please send it over. I'll pay for postage!) we experienced the biggest electrical storm I have ever seen!
I was running in to bowl when suddenly a saw a bright flash of light and heard a huge clap of thunder. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with my hands over my head. When I got up to look around I could see my friends too were also knocked off their feet by the impact. It says wonders for the speed of human reflexes but it was quite disconcerting. I think the lightening must have struck within 20 metres of our impromptu cricket pitch.
It proceeded to rain extremely heavily for about two to three hours. We ran home and within minutes the drains were overflowing, and the deafening thunder was louder than any I`ve experienced before. It was a great adrenalin rush, but we are all looking forward to the weather being less humid and unpredictable next month.
Despite the weather the last few weeks have been a lot of fun and we have all been really getting into the festival season. Last weekend was the combined Kitakyushu City Festival which ran from Friday to Sunday. It's called the Washoi Hyaku Man festival which roughly translated means One million Cheers. I'm not sure that there were quite one million people at the festival but at times it certainly seemed like it. The streets were absolutely teeming with thousands of people enjoying the night's festivities and it was much bigger than the Kokura Gion Tiako festival in July.
The festival included contributions from each of the cities that make up Kitakyushu. Each with a different style. There were dazzlingly bright Yamakasa (portable shrines) floats from Kurosaki, which were up to ten metres high and had very detailed effigys of traditional Japanese figures on top. The floats from Tobata were huge Mikoshi or lantern pyramids that needed to be hauled along by a number of men in traditional costume. And of course the Kokura Tiako drummers were also out in force, beating on their huge drums and dancing around the streets. There were many other spectacular floats made of wood to resemble Japanese Boats or Dragons from the other areas. All the floats were lit up by `choin` or Japanese lanterns which created a wonderful glowing spectacle for the crowd as we watched scores of them zoom past us, accompanied by hundreds of people in costume chanting Washoi Washoi (hooray hooray).
At eight pm the centrepiece of the festival began; Hanabe (fireworks) over the river. We watched these crammed shoulder to shoulder on a crowded bridge to the sound of many 'oohs', 'aahs' and whispered 'kires' (beautiful) from the locals. The fireworks themselves were excellent and a great climax to a festival full of stunning scenes. I can really see why the 'Washoi' attracts so many people.
We had a really exciting night even if it was a little cramped at times!
I was running in to bowl when suddenly a saw a bright flash of light and heard a huge clap of thunder. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with my hands over my head. When I got up to look around I could see my friends too were also knocked off their feet by the impact. It says wonders for the speed of human reflexes but it was quite disconcerting. I think the lightening must have struck within 20 metres of our impromptu cricket pitch.
It proceeded to rain extremely heavily for about two to three hours. We ran home and within minutes the drains were overflowing, and the deafening thunder was louder than any I`ve experienced before. It was a great adrenalin rush, but we are all looking forward to the weather being less humid and unpredictable next month.
Despite the weather the last few weeks have been a lot of fun and we have all been really getting into the festival season. Last weekend was the combined Kitakyushu City Festival which ran from Friday to Sunday. It's called the Washoi Hyaku Man festival which roughly translated means One million Cheers. I'm not sure that there were quite one million people at the festival but at times it certainly seemed like it. The streets were absolutely teeming with thousands of people enjoying the night's festivities and it was much bigger than the Kokura Gion Tiako festival in July.
The festival included contributions from each of the cities that make up Kitakyushu. Each with a different style. There were dazzlingly bright Yamakasa (portable shrines) floats from Kurosaki, which were up to ten metres high and had very detailed effigys of traditional Japanese figures on top. The floats from Tobata were huge Mikoshi or lantern pyramids that needed to be hauled along by a number of men in traditional costume. And of course the Kokura Tiako drummers were also out in force, beating on their huge drums and dancing around the streets. There were many other spectacular floats made of wood to resemble Japanese Boats or Dragons from the other areas. All the floats were lit up by `choin` or Japanese lanterns which created a wonderful glowing spectacle for the crowd as we watched scores of them zoom past us, accompanied by hundreds of people in costume chanting Washoi Washoi (hooray hooray).
My friends and I visited the festival on the final night, which was
a
bsolutely steaming hot, and made a supreme effort to dress up in Japanese clothing. The women wore Yukata (summer Kimono) and the guys Jinbei. The Jinbei looks similar to a two piece dressing gown and is very cool, unfortunately the same can`t be said of the Yukata, which is long and by all accounts quite hot and cumbersome. We braved the crowds for a while and watched the parades much to the amusement of many Japanese people who are often quite delighted to see Europeans in their traditional costume.
After a while we retired to one of the many temporary bars set up on the riverfront for a quiet beer to cool off. We also sampled much of the festival food on offer from the scores of foodstalls nearby. They include such local favourites as Yakitori (skewered chicken), Takoyaki (fried doughy balls with octopus in the middle) and of course barbequed squid. These are all surprisingly very good, even to someone like myself whose favourite meal is a good mince and cheese pie!
a
bsolutely steaming hot, and made a supreme effort to dress up in Japanese clothing. The women wore Yukata (summer Kimono) and the guys Jinbei. The Jinbei looks similar to a two piece dressing gown and is very cool, unfortunately the same can`t be said of the Yukata, which is long and by all accounts quite hot and cumbersome. We braved the crowds for a while and watched the parades much to the amusement of many Japanese people who are often quite delighted to see Europeans in their traditional costume.After a while we retired to one of the many temporary bars set up on the riverfront for a quiet beer to cool off. We also sampled much of the festival food on offer from the scores of foodstalls nearby. They include such local favourites as Yakitori (skewered chicken), Takoyaki (fried doughy balls with octopus in the middle) and of course barbequed squid. These are all surprisingly very good, even to someone like myself whose favourite meal is a good mince and cheese pie!
At eight pm the centrepiece of the festival began; Hanabe (fireworks) over the river. We watched these crammed shoulder to shoulder on a crowded bridge to the sound of many 'oohs', 'aahs' and whispered 'kires' (beautiful) from the locals. The fireworks themselves were excellent and a great climax to a festival full of stunning scenes. I can really see why the 'Washoi' attracts so many people.We had a really exciting night even if it was a little cramped at times!
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