Now, which week are we up to???? Ah yes, week 38, somewhat warm (read mushi mushi) with a slight undertone of fire…

As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, we went to watch the Gozan no Okuribi, or Daimonji last Wednesday night. It is the conclusion of the Obon festival on August 16 in Kyoto, when five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signals the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during Obon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world.

So, what is the Obon festival???? It is a festival built around the Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the spirits of your ancestors. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

I had seen one of the sites on the mountains where one of the fires was going to be a few weeks ago – the trees were cut back and it had been set up to burn in the shape of one of the kanji; the kanji for large (‘dai’). So, I was hoping we would find a place where we could see more than one of the fires, including that site, and had read that the best place was near the fork of the Kamo river. The fires are lit one by one from 8pm, so I thought it would be nice to go up there early and have a picnic dinner.

We got off the train two stations early, at around 5:45 and walked the last 2kms (approx.) along the river. It had been a hot day but it was a lovely walk along the bank of the river. There were a number of spots that had good views of the one fire site I had seen, but we kept going in the hope we would see at least one other. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the designated place there were already hundreds of people, so we couldn’t get to where we wanted to be. In the end we decided to sit close by where we could at least see the ‘dai’ kanji fire.

We had a nice picnic (some tempura, inari and onigiri, washed down with sake and beer!!!) and awaited the fires. During this time, the number of people around us grew quite dramatically, until it was very crowded. Luckily we had a seat, having arrived early. When it came time to leave it took a long time to travel the 500 metres to the closest train station, with the crowd numbering in the thousands.

We tried to take photos when the bonfire we could see was lit, but our cameras didn’t like the low light very much, so they are somewhat blurry. I have included a photo from the internet of the ‘dai’ kanji and what each of the five fires look like.

This week we also made the longish journey to one of the large home centres to buy some new foam mattresses to put under our futons. The ones we had were bought back in January 2015 to be used by guests in our flat, and were not in the best condition. We ended up buying the most expensive ones in the store, which are made with memory foam, but they were much cheaper than some we had seen in iSetan and Takashimaya, both high end department stores. They were delivered a couple of days later (eagerly awaited…) and they are much more comfortable than what we had, particularly for me as a ‘side-sleeper’.

Our other major outing this week (in the humidity and heat – it has been around 35 most days and I turn into a walking puddle) was a visit to The Block (aka ‘once was carpark’). This time there were no neighbours out and about, so we were just able to get some photos and then return home. There were some workers there, who were having lunch at the time we arrived. They were in the process of putting together the ‘reo’ for the full foundation. Interestingly, there had already been some concrete poured into the base of the foundation channels onto which they were installing the reo.

You may notice in the photo of the construction workers that they had brought with them an industrial fan, which they were using while they had their lunch break!!!! It was hot, so I thought it was quite sensible, if a little odd looking. Not something I have ever seen in Australia…

One  thing I haven’t mentioned is the very large number of dragonflies that are around here at the moment. There are a number of different ones, differing in size and in colour. On the way to The Block, we came in close proximity to two different ones and tried to get good photos of them. As with anything that  moves fast and is small, this was exceedingly difficult (especially with a mobile phone) but we managed to get a couple of photos that at least give an idea of how really beautiful these insects are.

In the world of tv, this week we watched a show about words and phrases in Japanese that are difficult to say – and we’re talking difficult for Japanese people! They went through the top 10, and the word at number 10 position just happened to be the same word used in a game show we saw some years ago here, where the contestants had to say it correctly three times:-

Atatakakatta

(meaning: past tense of warm (atatakai))

It was quite funny watching people stumbling over the pronunciations of all of these words and phrases! In some cases they just could not say it at all. The number 1 word was:

Shujutsuchuu

(meaning: shujutsu means surgical operation, so something to do with an operation (code for I’m not quite sure))

Photos of some of them for those who read/speak Japanese:

And so, like sand through the hourglass, this week comes to an end. All I can say is that it definitely was not atatakakatta!!

Cheers until next time…