Takayama Handheld Fireworks

On Thursday, August 9, I spent the day up in Takayama - first at an ALT meeting where we planned the upcoming English Shower, a 3 day English camp for elementary school kids that is completely run by the city ALTs. Puttered around town with Theresa and Dan as they went to get their phones, found out Dan can't get his until we get our foreign resident IDs. Awww. I also finally got a pair of indoor shoes! I splurged and got some nice Puma sneakers that were on sale. I love them. Kinda ruins my idea of buying 4 cheap pairs of shoes, one to leave at each school...

But who could say no to these?


We met up with most of the other ALTs in the city for dinner at the fabulous hamburger restaurant that Katie took Kyle and I to the week before. Even though it's a small place, they managed to accomodate us quite well. I split a pitcher of beer with Kyle, Dan, and Daniel and we had ourselves a nice American meal! Complete with salsa cheese fries.

They're yummy ^_^





Like I said before, if somebody didn't take you, you'd never know it was there


After dinner, Dan changed into the jimbe that he got at the dept store, and we headed off to the river to claim our spot for the show!

aww, he looks sheepish. Could it be beacuse they look suspiciously like pj's? heh heh

The new ALTs...


Theresa, Erin, and Katie with some shaved ice


The handheld fireworks were incredible. They are basically fireworks stuffed into bamboo cylinders that these guys hold on scaffolding out in the river. They make a fountain of sparks that shoot up in the air and totally cover the platform when they fall. It's beyond me how they aren't all covered in 3rd degree burns...


They went on like that for about an hour. They also shot off some traditional fireworks every now and then, and there were drummers on the bridge but none of the pictures I took of them turned out -_-

After the show we headed off to the bar...




Theresa and I stayed until 11, then had to head back to the bus/train station to get the last bus for Miya at 1130. Some young English guys we met at the festival, and who accompanied us to the bar, walked us there and stayed until we caught the bus. It was cute that they waited with us, the funniest part being just before the bus arrived when they asked how old we were. These guys were in the "gap" between highschool and college (well one of them was already in college), two of them were 19 and one was 21. If only I had a picture of their faces when I said "27", lol. Bug-eyed doesn't even begin to describe it. Flattering, I suppose, that they were so surprised; but at the same time it made me feel really old! And to top it off, when I told Dan and Kyle they immediately started calling me the old lady o_O lol, bastards. That better not stick.