Japan Blog
Japanniversary Today! ~ Louise Zhou
9th May 2017, 11:03 pm9 months ago today Connor arrived in Japan, every month on the 9th we celebrate our 'japnniversary' by having a nice meal and watching a lovely film. Tonight we had steak and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral, Connor was sad that Brian Blessed died :'(
The Moon and the Lanterns ~ Louise Zhou
October 21, 2016, 11:30 pmFor our last weekend adventure I suggested the Furusato flower field in Sakura, Chiba.
The weather was a bit warm for October, but perfect for our exploration. The area was very quiet with just one straight road stretching into the distance, and we had to walk for half an hour to get to the destination.
Connor has already written a lovely blog about our time there, but I would just like to add that the walk from the station to the windmill was also wonderfully pleasant, the two of us were holding hands all along the way, the sky was curiously blue, and there was the autumn sunshine shading everything we saw in a cheerful gold colour.
After our visit to the flower field, we headed back to the Sakura station for a late lunch, 'could just chill and walk around a little bit?'
That was the plan.
However, we should have noticed that there were way too many people at the station for a small place like Sakura.
We finally realised something was going on when a beautifully decorated traditional Japanese carriage stopped in front of us. It could be described as something of a large rickshaw, garnished with an abundance of mini paper lanterns and various patterned fabrics, brilliant, almost to an excess. At least a dozen people were pulling the carriage itself, with another 15 or so girls singing and fan-dancing around it.
Connor and I exchanged an excited look. That was definitely something we don’t see everyday.
Suddenly, several people jumped onto the rickshaw. Some of them appeared to be musicians while the others put on their peculiar masks of distorted human face and started performing what seemed to be a dance of some sort, mainly moving their arms and fingers. As some quaintly orderly music filled the street, we could almost sense the change in the air, as if the exotic tunes of flute and drums were painting the town with mystery, whispering of an inexplicable lure.
I found out later that such carriages are called Mikoshi, they serve as substitutes of real shrines in certain religious activities.
And yes, presenting its charm to us was the Grand Autumn Festival of Sakura.
The night fell and so did we, - down the rabbit hole. The streets of Sakura were filled with a hypnotising mix of colours, music, laughter, and food stalls. Some unusual activities were also available, e.g. goldfish scooping (see picture)! The most amazing, – ‘Louise, look up!’ – was the perfect full moon which seemed unbelievably close to us, Connor was going to ‘throw a lasso and pull it down’ for me. ;) All in all, the ambience had been so overwhelming it felt to us that we were in a completely different world.
Like everyone else, we followed the Mikoshi and the lanterns, one trailing after another, like an infinite loop. Nonetheless, we did finally come to a crossroad and it had appeared to be the time to head home. I walked back briefly to take a picture, trying to capture one small piece of this precious, glorious night. But somehow I knew it then: this feeling would just slip away, never coming back to me again.
I returned to the end of the road, but nobody was there. "You should never have let him out of your sight!’’ Being slightly annoyed with myself, I looked around for Connor, It is extremely easy to lose one person amid a busy festival like this.
Fortunately, the boy was just a few steps away, his back towards me, looking at the lantern-lit path traveling further and further, until it blurred into the darkness.
Maybe it isn’t that easy to lose him after all. I smiled. It’s like at the Takadanobaba station every weekday evening. I would have known him in a crowd of a thousand, or of a hundred thousand.
It somehow reminded me of a random line from some book I read long ago:
- I will see you where the roads meet.
Bit irrelevant. But romantic, isn’t it?
‘Shall we go home?’
‘Yeah. Let’s.’