I completely forgot to post yesterday. And now cannot remember what happened. What was yesterday? Saturday? Ah, right. Saturday was a flurry of packing. Woke up about 10ish and spent the entire morning and afternoon packing to go home. I even forgot to eat breakfast until after 2 or so. Furious packing rampage. I thought I would be shipping packages so I wanted to get everything completely squared away. And mostly did. Unfortunately, no shipping that night.
At about 5ish I left to go see some fireworks with Tama-chan at the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival. It was later than we'd meant to leave, but oh well. I'd been planning on wearing my yukata in Japan for the last time, but it was so freaking hot I decided to just go with a dress. Tooooooo hot. Even in the short, light dress I wore, it was too hot. We went out to Asakusa, 'cause I guess they were doing fireworks out on the river. I keep getting myself into these situations were I don't really know what we're doing, and come along anyway. This was a great example of that.
We got to Ueno to take the Ginza line to Asakusa and it was packed. I mean, packed full, shoulder to shoulder, just to stand in line to get on the train. OMG. Tamara wore her yukata, but with a new obi and was kinda falling apart already. We did manage to get onto the train and to asakusa where we fought our way down the middle of the street to see some fireworks. It was intense. I mentioned at the beginning of my trip the crowds for club recruiting at waseda? It was nothing compared to this. I intentionally stomped a few toes just to vent my frustration at the crowd.
Still, it was astounding to see so many people and women dressed in yukata. Usually, in Japan, you can see four or five women a day dressed in traditional attire. And they're usually old ladies. On a lucky day, you see them moving in packs and get in a whole 10 or 12. This day, about 1/15 women were dressed in yukata, of so many shapes, colors, sizes, decorations, with hair bows and flowers and ties, that it was just baffling. I wish I'd taken more pictures. I wish I'd bought more yukata, or at least worn mine. But I'd look dreadfully dull in my more traditional colors against the brilliant bold colors and darks and pastels and glitter and butterflies and everything…
We did get to see some fireworks. Never really had a good shot of them though. They were really impressive. Took some video. But I think the best part was really the people, fighting to get past, listening in on conversation, rubbing elbows with hundreds of other people all charged with the excitement of just being there. Reading up on the festival itself now, it seems there's a long tradition, and while we only stayed for an hour or so, they were going off the entire time, and continue for hours. Thousands of fireworks all up and down the river. And I guess expected attendance was over a million? You never really get the feel for how many people there really are in Tokyo until you go to one of these major festivals. It was insane.
We couldn't stand it for very long. Headed back to the station, where we had our Japanese version of a mosh pit of all the people trying to shove their way into the station. No music, but plenty of stomped toes and screaming people. The ride once we got onto the train was pleasant though. Took it all the way to shibuya were we relaxed and had a quick meal before I returned home.
I think, of all the things I've done so far, this has been the most "Japan" of them all. So many people, meeting for such a Japanese-type display, wear traditional clothing. It was overwhelming, but also just utterly fantastic and I'm glad I went. I guess I was so exhausted when I got home I just forgot to post or even think about posting. I guess this means we get two posts back to back tonight.
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