I was the center of an enigma as I popped by Robin's to leave salsa and tortilla chips round before disappearing for an hour. What happened? Well, I was trying to slowly, carefully, defrost a block of cheese.
It was from the Beach BBQ. Had frozen it immediately after it came back, hoping to be able to use it again. Unfortunately I forgot to defrost it! Doh! so it was in the microwave for like an hour on 40C. It was really useless though. So when I realised it wouldn't thaw I finally went to Yoku and got some cheese and some of the amazing Almond chocolate snacks that, for some reason, I've been so blind to until recently.
On my way to Robin's, now with cheese, I noticed... a fire! It was down the road. But... it was some sort of matusri practice probably. Tsutsuji koen was prettified and getting ready for stuff on Sunday as well as next week for the massive kurojishi festival that takes over the town.
Convinced everyone to come along and at least look at it, but we learned, thanks to Momoko, that it wasn't a practice, it was a proper matsuri!! Lots of picture taking and enjoyment as the dragon/lion ran around snapping at peeps. They snapped it at us, which was fun as always.
Tried to get good pics of all the action but it was frustrated by crappy ISO settings on camera and massive blurring problems due to the low light. Finally I put my thinking cap on and remembered the 1st curtain/2nd curtain function on the camera and that really helped.
Jeff was treated like a god by kids. They were gathering around him offering up their toys and things willingly. It was awesome. One kid had a deck of cards he was offering but Jeff didn't see. I wonder if he has to tell his family that he didn't secure the gaijin blessing and now their rice fields will dry up, or something, lol.
Afterwards we went back to Robin's. Ate awesome fajitas. I overstuffed mine. Lots of mess. Then we broke out the fireworks that robin got for her B'day. they looked mediocre enough....
...until we set them off. They were awesome! They flew around, scaring the crap out of Chryssyand Alda, who screamed as it buzzed around them. some asshole in a nearby house whipped open his window almost instantly to scream at us. Dick. I mean, first time in like a year of Robin living there and the *second* there's a loud sound he's out his window shouting.
This must be the double-edged sword of bushido. Quiet and undemandng in normal life, behind closed doors they all become fiercly, rabidly territorial of their soundsphere. They'd never survive in Western cities or towns even for that matter.
Now sans screams, we continued setting them off (they didn't bang so it was okay; just sort of fizzled). Me Jeff Robin and Kelly had climbed onto the roof. With me taking pics, Jeff would light them and toss them off the roof. About half way on their graceful arc through the air to the ground below they'd burst into life and suddenly soar upwards into the sky! It was fucking amazing. They each had wings on them to make them act lke propellors and spin and fly through the air.
My camera crashed TWICE while trying to take pics of it. Only managed one crazy long exposure of it.
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| From Nagai 2009 |
Fun had, we climbed down. I overcame my fear of edges and clamboured in through the way I was too apprehensive to try before.
We watched Darjeeling Limited, which was an interesting and fun movie. Very "indie" and had the structure that that entails. Lots of lol, then thinking, then some lol and thinking at the end. All with folk-y guitar music or old recordings.
(it's a formulat that I wish would change...)
Anyway, very good movie. Jeff fixed Robin's screen door cos I didn't feel confident in my ability to fix anyone else's but my Screen Doors from Hell.
We went down and played in the playground below, and then I split to go home and sleep before Sunday's marathon. Hurrahs!
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