Big crowds, bigger fireworks!

Today was just like any other Saturday – we tried to sleep in only to be woken up by the kid who never wakes up early on a weekday.  Ah well, sleep is overrated anyways.  With an early start, we had the whole day in front of us!  So what would we do?  … yep, it was another Saturday – like any other Saturday we had no idea what to do.  When Tamie asked me the night before I told her I didn’t want to do anything – I was too tired and I think getting sick to boot.  The shining sun outside and the bouncing Layla underfoot made going back to bed impossible… so we did what anyone would do – we called my parents.

Layla is always excited to call Nonni and Chinni and they always make time to watch Layla on the webcam and we did just that.  Hurricane Layla made a mess while her grandparents watched, her dad laughed and her mom worked hard.  Nonni asked what we were doing… still no idea.  Maybe going to the beach or something… we’d figure it out.

After about an hour, Nonni and Chinni got bored (or just tired.  or both?) so we said our good-byes and tried to figure out what to do.  Layla made it easy – she decided to go lay down and take a nap.  I don’t know if it was the heat, the waking up early, getting older or just plain boredom but I’ve never seen her go lay down by herself.  I didn’t complain though as it let me play around with this new blogging software.  Tamie went out for a while and I stayed with Layla as she slept.

Once the kid woke up, she immediately demanded to know where her mom was.  Luckily Tamie called 10 minutes later to tell me, so we went and met her for lunch.  Macau Meadows in Ebina – used to be decent but now?  Not even the cute waitresses are worth it.  The food has gotten progressively worse in the two years we’ve lived here… so much so that I think that’s the last time we’ll eat there.  At least until the next time.

As we ate, Tamie mentioned there was a festival going on in Hon-Atsugi, a neighbouring city only two stations down (three minutes away by train).  She seemed interested and I was curious so we decided to go check it out.  Who doesn’t love a good festival?  Street meat on sticks and cold beer at marked-up prices!  Throw in a million people and 40 degree heat and you got yourself a grand old time!

At Ebina station there were already about a thousand people waiting around to head down to Hon-Atsugi.  It’s easy to pick out the festival-goers as they are all wearing yukatas (summer kimonos).  That, and the fact they’re standing on the same platform we are to get on the same train.  The small crowd in Ebina was just a hint of what was to come!

Hon-Atsugi was packed.  If I knew how to post pictures on here properly, I would post one.  But pictures wouldn’t do justice to the scene we were in – throngs of people out enjoying the festivities.  A throng, by my estimation, is just under a hundred thousand… and there were many throngs.

Layla discovered the joy of riding on my shoulders as she saw other kids propped up on unfortunate fathers sweating under the weight of their own offspring and wanted to join in.  Always happy to oblige, I precariously balanced her atop my shoulders, trying to find a good gait to walk that didn’t bump into anyone and didn’t shake her too much.  It seemed to work out well as she was enchanted just watching the moving crowds around her.  I was jealous of her vantage point, but not nearly as jealous as Tamie =)

We picked up some chicken (on sticks) and beer (overpriced, but cold… and oh so delicious!) as we walked towards our ultimate goal – the big field where the fireworks were happening.  Every summer festival in Japan has fireworks and every fireworks display is massive.  Even our little town of Ebina has a summer festival with a decent fireworks display.  Hon-Atsugi isn’t such a little town and their fireworks display was more than decent!  To put it another way, Layla was able to watch the fireworks in Ebina but she got so scared tonight in Hon-Atsugi that she passed out.  She forced herself to fall asleep just so she wouldn’t have to endure another second of sheer awesomeness.  That’s how awesome it was.

Actually, the fireworks were definitely a good show – unfortunately, Layla was definitely scared and did put herself to sleep.  We watched with at least a million of our closest neighbours as the sky lit up in various colours and shapes.  Did you know they can make fireworks that look like hearts and happy faces?  Even cartoon characters!  I was disappointed there was no Mario though.  The grand finale was called Niagara Falls and it was a display that stretched across the river and rained fireworks down upon us, looking like (surprisingly) a waterfall!  It was a good way to end a good show.

Once the show ended, the fun began.   The only problem with jamming a million people into a small area to watch fireworks is the battle royale you have to fight through when leaving.  Luckily, people (mostly) are polite and stream out slowly and steadily.  There is one benefit to having a kid on your shoulders – when someone cuts you off or steps on your foot you got to legs at head height that might ‘accidentally’ kick them.

It only took an hour to get out of the sea of people and there were no serious injuries (at least to us), so we counted our blessings and decided to walk home.  It’s a nice feeling to know that we didn’t have to follow that stream of people back into the train station and cram into a sardine can for a long ride home.

All in all, not a bad day for doing nothing.