Festival of Lights

It was Wednesday (July 25th) afternoon, as Melissa and I ventured into a part of Osaka not yet explored by us. It was north of our familiar downtown core, and it was a Festival of Lights that brought us here. The promise of a fantastic fireworks display, to be viewed at the river's side, was enough to lure us out for a night on the town. The party was said to begin at 4:00pm, much too early for a fire show, so we curiously scoped out the area next to the advertised subway exit. What we found was a shopping arcade lined with carnival-like booths where you could play games of chance, shoot a cork at prizes with a cork gun, buy cotton candy or carmel apples, or...
...hook an eel with a gossamer fishing line that is likely to break if you try to lift the eel out of the water without tiring him out first by dragging him back and forth in the mini swimming pool in which he is otherwise peacefully chillin' in with his buddies. Hmmm, on second thought, some of the games would not be played at a carnival back home. Somebody would have something to say about shooting a cork-gun at a pack of smokes to win cigarettes as a prize, or dangling a piece of bread from a stick, in front of a baby chick, in hopes that it will take a bite and not let go while you lift it out of it's coup/box/pen.
We also followed a group of people along a back road and found a massive crowd flowing in and out of a local temple. Here there were more booths and a stage with percussion performers. There was a hedge that was being laced with wishes and prayers written on bits of paper. I snapped a few shots of little kids "tying one on"... ah ha ha.
There were two adorable kids in their kimono's too - one had won an inflatable light saber and the other a helium balloon. So cute!


The fireworks were impressive, but of course don't translate well onto film/digital image... I will post some videos on my facebook account, because they turned out better than the photos (incidentally, tomorrow is another fireworks show and I will likely film that too). I have included one shot, which also shows one angle of the mass of people who collected on the street, on the big bridge overlooking the river where the fireworks were set off.



Next... a sailing trip with our landlord and his friends... do I get to skipper a yacht? We'll find out soon...


Mike