MP3
track of the day: Why does it always rain on me – Travis
Weather:
rain, rain and more rain; until the festival was over and then it
stopped … naturally.
My
2013 summer holiday started in a very relaxed way. No early buses to
catch, no stressful sprints to the airport terminal and no foreign
salesmen asking me if I would to purchase a penguin. This year I
slept in until 10:30am, moped around my apartment until 1:45pm before
finally setting off towards my prefecture's capital city, Morioka,
for it's annual summer festival.
Well
the above isn't completely true. Before setting off I stopped to pick
up my good friend Francis, who would be accompanying me, for the
festival, before heading south to Tokyo. I picked up Francis and, at
precisely 2:08pm, off we went in a westerly direction towards
Morioka.
The
drive was the same as usual; route '106' (which connects my town
to Morioka) meanders through a
tight valley following the Hei River. The scenery was as beautiful as
usual, the road had someone driving 15km below the speed limit as
usual and Francis fell asleep as usual. All-in-all the drive wasn't
anything to write home about; the only thing which was different was
that it rained continually throughout our journey.
We
arrived in Morioka at around 4pm. I thought, arriving three hours
before the Sansa Festival started, would have meant that I would have
beaten the crowds and parking wouldn't have been a problem. I was
wrong. The first two car parks I found were full; the 3rd
had spaces, was reasonably cheap but a little further out of town
than I would have liked. Due to having ample time, but little cash,
'reasonably cheap' took priority over 'a little further out of town
than I would have liked' and so I docked into one of only a handful
of spaces left, on the top floor of the car park.
With
the engine switched off I jumped out of the car to find that it was
still raining. Throughout the whole day it had rained however, the
severity of rain had changed constantly. To quote Peter Kay, at
4:10pm I would say that 'it was spitting'. Annoyingly I hadn't
planned for rain. I'd remembered Morioka's 2012 summer temperatures
and dressed accordingly in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The only
comfort I received from my 'wardrobe cock-up' was that, currently, it
was just about hot enough for the rain to dry as soon as it landed on
me; oh and that Francis had made the same error.
We
headed into town and dived under the first bit of cover we found.
Fortunately, under this 'footpath with a roof', we found a man giving
out free 'Sansa programmes' which included a few excellent photos of
Sansa 2012, a tiny bit of useful information, a terrible map of where
the parade will take place and bucket loads of adverts ranging from
hotels, to restaurants to that guy trying to sell a penguin.
Nevertheless, it was within this booklet of adverts that we
discovered something crucial; the parade started at 6pm, not 7pm.
This meant that I had arrived two hours before the event and not
three, which explained the mystery of why all the parking was
occupied so early into the day. This also meant that Francis and my
'dinner date' had to be brought forward an hour so that we did not
miss the festival.
Choosing
something to eat is always difficult when there is more than one of
you. The annoying phase 'I don't mind' which, I am sure, was created
by the devil himself, surfaced numerous times and so therefore we
decided to walk around until something grabbed our attention. Little
did I know but, right at that point in time, God intervened and
washed away, quite literally, the devil's evil phases by increasing
the rain to 'it's time to go inside' level. At this point both
Francis and I were in an area without any cover and so a harmless
looking Italian restaurant started to become more and more appealing.
Once
inside I realised, quite quickly, that 'harmless' wasn't quite the
correct word to describe it. For an average amount of money, I got a
less than averaged sized spaghetti. I ate it greedy and, still
feeling a little hungry afterwards, we stopped at Mr Donuts for …
err … some doughnuts.
The
festival hadn't even begun but, as we devoured our dessert, we saw a
strange sight which, thinking back, was never eclipsed throughout the
entire festival. As I was finishing my 'banana doughnut' a Japanese
man dressed in a zebra skin-tight body suite, with a keg of beer
attached to his back posed in front of us for a photo. At the time he
was also smoking a cigarette and he had glasses on which flashed all
the colours of the rainbow. It was indeed a strange sight but,
weirdly, I didn't feel alarmed and I just accepted it as the 'norm'.
It
was getting close to the start of the parade. The rain was still
coming down and, looking up towards the sky, it seemed as though it
would continue raining all night. As we followed the crowds east,
back towards our car and out of the shopping area, I did thinking
about buying an umbrella however my hatred for the thing, plus the
cost, teamed up against my 'logical self' and won. I therefore found
myself heading to a watch a festival in a wet t-shirt with no
possibility of cover.
Little
did we know but we had followed the crowds to where the parade
started from. This, quite naturally, was packed with both performers
and spectators a like. My hatred for the umbrella grew when I
discovered just how much of your 'line of sight' is removed when a
wall of umbrellas are positioned in front of you. We made a
unanimous, and quick decision to head further down the parade street
in search of a 'good spot'.
Due
to the crowds of spectators moving this way and that (probably
with the same goal as us) we
moved in time with the front of the procession. We finally found an
excellent viewing spot with, sadly, little cover. The only spectators
between us and the procession were sat down in temporary made
shelters which only came to 'waist height'. With the beat of hundreds
of drums we knew that the parade was on it's way.
Sansa
is a dance which originates from Iwate (this Japanese
prefecture). Most prefecture
summer festivals cling onto something local and famous, and bleed it
dry. The Sansa festival was no exception. Thousands (and I
do mean thousands) of people
paraded the streets in individual bocks made up of around one hundred
people. Each block followed a similar layout with a sponsorship
banner at the front, a few 'randoms' dancing enthusiastically behind
and the main 'block' of people (lined up in a 8 x 10 grid)
forming the rear. This man block
was split into three parts with the drummers at the front, followed
by the flutes who were followed by the dancers. Due to the rain the
drummers had plastic
bags wrapped over the drums to protect them. As the 'drummers drum'
is attached to their stomach area, it allows them to dance as well as
play and the whole group moves in harmony (unless little
children are present).It was
great to watch however, after the seventh group (I think
there must have been at least twenty groups) things
did start to get very similar. In the end my enjoyment for the
festival moved from the dancing and onto the sight of seeing so many
people moving 'as one', the constant beat of the drums and the
individual groups clothing. Each group was wearing different coloured
'yukata's' (a kind of kimono) and,
as the group danced as one, the colours and patterns almost came
alive. My favourite yukata's were the ones which were the same
pattern three-quarters of the way around and then, on their right
side, was a totally different colour. This meant that when the group
turned sideways the whole colour of the group changed for a split
second.
The
rain was starting to fall even harder yet Francis and I remained
where we were and didn't run for cover. Personally I had two reasons
for this. Firstly I only plan on seeing this festival once therefore,
I want to see it all. Secondly the performers kept on coming; they
all had smiles on their faces and were determined to have a good
time. I decided that if they can keep going, so can I. It was in
these moments of torrential down pour that I wondered if the
performers actually preferred rain to baking summer temperatures.
Either way they are going to get wet and, personally, I would prefer
it to be rain rather than sweat. Also, if the weather had been fine,
I reckon Francis and I wouldn't have had such a commanding view. The
only annoying thing was that, occasionally, people with umbrellas
would stop behind me and watch the parade. Their umbrella would
prevent rain hitting them however, the water would drip off the edge
of the umbrella and onto my back. Three times a whole torrent of
water rushed down my back when a person, with an umbrella, tipped it
unintentionally as they readied their camera.
At
8:30pm the final group danced past us. Francis wanted to see where
the parade ended and so we headed off. It was on this walk that, now
with the air flowing past me, I realised just how wet and cold I was.
Luckily I had my P.E. Kit (for school) within
the car so, once back, I could get changed into something dry.
It
didn't take too long to find the end of the parade and, strangely,
there wasn't anything there. The lanterns, which lit the parade
street, sort of ended. Afterwards darkness consumed the street making
it rather uninviting.
Thoroughly
soaked Francis and I marched back towards the car stopping at a
temporary food outlet. The rain, naturally, had stopped so Francis
purchased a couple of 'Japanese festival food products' before we
continued back on our journey. Once at the car I got changed and,
once finished, Francis did the same.
I
knew that the weather had put a lot of people off attending the
festival however, there must have been about 3,000 performers and at
least double that watching. I was therefore expecting traffic chaos
(and I had to get Francis to the 'southern bus station' for
his night-bus to Tokyo) however
the streets were silent; I didn't have to queue to get out of the car
park and I could even choose which ticket barrier I wanted to exit
from. As I made it onto the main street I drove my normal speed
without hindrance from any other vehicle. I would even go as far to
say that it was even quieter than normal.
As
I drove towards the southern bus station an empty road, plus a line
of green traffic lights, greeted me which resulted in us being two
hours early for his bus. Due to this, and the fact that I was a
little hungry, we popped into a local McDonald’s to reflect on the
days performance. With an hour to spare I dropped Francis off at the
bus station and made my way home.
Due
to the darkness the journey was even less interesting than the one
coming here. I did, however, make excellent time and even though I
left at 10:38pm, I found myself entering my apartment at … a very
reasonable time (I can't write the exact time just incase
the police are reading this and they do a 'average speed'
calculation). Once home I put
stuff away, put my wet clothes out for washing and went to bed as
quickly as possible. Tomorrow I will be at home but the day after
(Saturday 3rd August)
I am off to Akita for another festival.
It
won't be long before another update.
Toodle
Pip!
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