Backlog

July brought the muggiest weather I’ve ever experienced, I’m pretty sure. I slowed my walking pace to fruitlessly avoid being soaked upon arrival at school in the mornings; even the students were allowed to sport their gym shorts and t-shirts all day instead of their usual button-downs and long pants/skirts. Wearing nylons was like punishment, and heaven was an overcast, breezy day. Our plants died. July was rough. After sunset, naturally, temps slowly lowered to tolerable, and Shizuoka’s rooftop bars especially bustled with business. July was also prime summer festival time, and before I left for vacation, I was able to take in a few seasonal traditions, including a lantern float, a temple festival, and a fireworks display.At the Tomoe River in Shimizu, participants bought floating lanterns, personalized them with wishes and drawings, and sent them downstream through the city.Right behind my apartment is Kiyomizusan Park, which includes the small Kiyomizu Temple, and on an early July evening, vendors lined the streets leading up to the park, and people packed the area to visit the temple, eat food on a stick, and view the sporadic fireworks being launched over the nearby playground.A takoyaki stand: pieces of octopus cooked in balls of breading and sprinkled with fish flakes or other toppings...Many men and women wear traditional yukata (summer-weight kimono) to festivals...Droves boarded busses in downtown Shizuoka, headed for the Nihondaira fireworks, despite cloudy weather. The Nihondaira is a huge, forested hill between Shizuoka and Shimizu, and the fireworks were to be set off over a grassy clearing near the top of the hill. As our hour-long bus ride took us up the winding, switchbacked road, we realized a thick cloud had stationed itself atop the Nihondaira. Davin, Joyce, Tatyana, and I were left off and proceeded to claim a spot on the crowded field, covered in fog. As showtime neared, people who had arrived early to claim prime blanket space began to pack up. A few test shots were fired, and the darkened sky lit up in solid color, as if we were watching a giant movie screen that briefly flashed plain green, then red.Nevertheless, an announcement was made that the show would go on, and the entirety of the display proceeded just as the test—a solid wall of color flashing before us—no individual sparks or distinguishable fireworks to be seen, until the end when they lit off a few ground displays (including a Mt. Fuji). Everyone who stayed was laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Definitely a most memorable fireworks experience.