The summer is well and truly here now. Every one [Japanese] carries a towel for mopping up the continual outing of sweat that their bodies produce in response to the clammy humidity. Weather that is yet another straw on the camels back of extreme climate conditions that the Nihon islanders live with.
But the Japanese don't just carry on with the usual they also use the summer months for a plethora of festivals. Nearly every weekend there is some sort of party to celebrate a flower blooming or an ancient ruler who did some kindness, or cruelness, to his people.
Laws pertaining to fireworks are much more lax than in Australia and as such there can be heard the sound of explosive recreation going off at different corners of the city [Mito shi] depending on which institution is sponsoring the festive occasion.
The 20th [Thursday] was Umi no Hi [Marine Day or The Day of the Sea] and as such a group of Gaijins went to the local [nearest] section of coast called Ajigaura. So did every other Japanese person in the prefecture by the looks. It was standing room only nearly. The weird thing though was the atrocious weather.
I left Mito in patchy cloud only to find the train, as it neared the coast, heading into a fog bank!
Well it deterred us not and due to the increased level of reflected UV from the overcast conditions I still managed to get some colour into my skin. Fortunately Japan does not seem to share Australia's lack of ozone so sun burn is a little harder to achieve here. Lucky for little fair skinned me.
So we gaijins paddled around, ignoring the pleas of the life guards to exit the water [the visibility being so poor they were obviously worried they would be unable to see and therefore help people in danger, Japan's coast having some nasty rips and costing a few lives a year] and played Frisbee much to the annoyance of many reclining locals.
So in this manner we spread the good name of whitebread westerners
Well last night was a cute little adventure. I went to a local watering hole called The Paper Moon to watch the gaijin boys play, a band called The Junkyard Dogs, and then afterwards got invited to the beach.
Thing is the beach didn't happen, instead we did a midnight raid on a swimming pool in the grounds of some large Junior High School [I think it was]. Much climbing of fences and hushed voices only to end up making a chorus of noise as we all splashed about in the pool.
Weather was beautiful, water was not quite tepid and the accompanying use of a handycam to film us all made for a riotous night. I walked home at dawn from one of the accomplices homes after watching the video. Yay for homemade flicks about schoolyard antics and skinny dipping in the wee hours.
Conveniently there were three boys and three girls too, couldn't have been scripted better {smile}
Hope your smiling
nomaD
