Updatelogue
July 26, 2003
Well, as promised, here’s an update about the Tenjin Matsuri.
There were a lot of people. I mean, A LOT. I don’t have any numbers but there were packed streets for blocks and blocks and blocks. Just for comparison’s sake, I would have to say about 10 Vancouver blocks were packed with people.
We arrived at the station at about 7:30pm and therefore missed all the ceremonial stuff like the parade and crap like that. When we got there, they wouldn’t let us cross the street – so imagine about a 1000 people standing very close to a train station. Well, they were doing this because the fireworks were going so they didn’t want huge rushing crowds stampeding. The thing with the fireworks here, they play a short burst every five minutes or so – they’ll launch maybe 4 or 5 up, then stop. This had good and bad implications. Good: people would just stop in the middle of walking and gawk like stupid chickens at the short bursts, and then keep moving. They kept moving about the festival (tonnes of food vendors). Bad: PEOPLE WOULD JUST STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF WALKING. Eri and I were trying to reach the heart of the festival – basically the food vendors and also a procession of crazy boats with drums crossing the river. It was already packed enough but when people would suddenly stop to watch the fireworks – it really took a lot of effort to walk. I’m talking about the whole width of a block stalled because of people not walking. It was very very stressful.
We basically spent 3 hours trying to walk around but couldn’t. We managed to buy some food from the vendors – it was fairly good, before we gave up and went home.
All in all, I say it really sucked. I really hate going to places with big crowds. I feel bad for Eri because she really wanted me to enjoy this festival. I would’ve if about 60% of the people there suddenly disappeared.
I took a few pictures but it was too dark to capture good pics – I really wanted to show you guys how many people were there but the lighting was bad and my camera is retarded. But, I do have a few pictures to show:
- Here is one from the Hanshin Tigers game I went to – here are the balloons right before people were about to launch them.
- Here is a shot of a boat passing under the bridge we were walking on at the Tenjin Matsuri – can’t really see the boat but it was packed with drunk people who were dancing to some cool drum beats.
- This morning, I woke up to hear some drum beats in my own neighborhood. I opened the window and saw this.
Now – I’ve done my part – I’ve updated. You guys better follow suit.
