Summer on Nanikore

First Matsuri of 2012

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:31:14 +0000

I’ll admit that this post is two weeks late. What can I say, I’ve been busy. In my world, ‘busy’ isn’t just the day job, it also covers drinking tea, drinking beer, and sleeping, and I’ll confess to having done all three of these in the last month. Quite often. So on with the post. On May 19th., we went to our first matsuri of the year. For those few of you who don’t know what a matsuri is, a matsuri（祭り）is a community festival, and many are held in the Summer around Japan. I like these things.

This one was a little atypical, in that it wasn’t really a community one, but one organised by the local council in a nice stretch of family oriented park down by the river. There were a few game stalls, a few food stalls, some free popcorn, free balloon animals (though I got a balloon katana and tried to claim it was for my kids), some ponies to ride, and inflatable castle, a monkey and some vegetable stands. This is typical faire, even for a small one like this, though I admit, the ponies and monkey are a little out of the norm.

Given the beautiful weather and park locale, it was a really relaxing day, starting around 10.30am, and winding down at 3pm, which again is a little unusual as matsuris tend to be afternoon and even affairs.

I enjoyed all of the bits and pieces, and we did ponder getting a house nameplate carved on the spot by a local joinery company who had a stall, but somehow managed not to. I do like kakigoori (かき氷), which is a bowl of shaved ice - not ice chunks, but very thinly sliced ice, which makes it more like snow - with some syrup added. It’s a staple of the hot summers here at these kind of things, and something to look forward to. There was a stall selling what seemed to be edible gelatinous spheres. More than that I can’t say - I didn’t try them, and though they looked nice, at least candyfloss is straight-up honest sugar.

I have to admit to not have been sure about the monkey - part of me balks at that, and kids love it, but that thick rope didn’t make it look too friendly to me. The ponies looked a little happier, and their owner didn’t pan-handle for tips.

One game involves a small paddling pool filled with water with what are referred to here as balloon yoyos - kind of water filled balloons on long elastic bands if you can visualise that. Each person gets a hook on the end of a length of tissue paper, and has to hook the elastic band and retrieve the yoyo from the water before the paper breaks. In reality the kids all get one to prevent riots.

One energetic tyke was bouncing his balloon up and down and then tried a trick at the precise time the elastic band broke, and the balloon flew off and smacked me in the face. For a second I had a mosh pit flashback for some reason, but calmly picked the balloon up as this clueless kid just stood there with his mouth doing that guppy fish thing whilst his poor grandmother had to apologise. I tossed it back to him and asked him to be more careful in the future.

So this was a gentle introduction to the fervour of the matsuri season in Japan, and I look forward to a lot more in the next few months.

Useful Summer Products

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:33:33 +0000

Japan is hot and humid in the Summer, which is something I don’t need to tell anyone who has actually been here for it, but here’s a few things I have found which makes it that little more tolerable, especially if like me you actually like to get outside in it. One thing not explicitly on the list is sunblock which I apply liberally and frequently … and liberally again. Surviving n Japan has a round up on that, but in the meantime, here are some useful summer products.

Taichi Arm(our)ed Mesh Gloves
Just to start with a motorbike oriented one - my old summer gloves somewhat fell apart at the end of last summer, and because I like to ride my bike year round, I decided to pop down to NAPS in May during one of their sales and try on some gloves. I tried on a LOT of gloves. Aside from the four fingers and thumb per hand, I seem to have hands which don’t fit in a lot of gloves very well. The Icon gloves are nice, but the fit and size of the ones at NAPS weren’t quite there. These Taichi ones instantly fitted - like a glove. On the bike they let enough air through but don’t feel ‘drafty’ if you know what I mean, and the straps are well made from rubber and fit well. Importantly, there’s enough space around the thumb to allow easy reach to the indicator (blinker) switch - that’s something not to underestimate.

Frogg Toggs ChillyDana
I often wear some kind of head towel, because, to be honest, I sweat a lot. I also like to get out and do stuff - or indeed stay in and cook, so it works there too. Usually I’ll use a large cotton kerchief or a towel solution, but we found this.

Camelbak
If you like going out on these hot, humid days for any amount of time and distance, but don’t want to keep dipping into the (plentiful) vending machines, taking your own water with you, I’ve found, is a really good move, especially if you’re on two wheels. I decided to invest in one of Camelbak’s most basic products - the classic 2 litre water bag, in a simple backpack mount. It does seem to keep that water a little bit cooler, and the tube dispenser means there’s less mucking about with lids and cumbersome bottles. You can also put the bag itself into most backpacks on the market, so there’s no doubling up on baggage.

Keen sandals
Since where we live has sea, sand, rivers, stone and pavement, I like to have a decent pair of sandals for just walking around with the family - something which can go in and out of water without it being an issue. Previously I’d had a pair of Teva sandals, but since their distribution in Japan seems to have fallen apart at the same time as those long serving sandals, I decided to try Crocs last year to see if the low price was worth it, and frankly they just annoyed me for the whole Summer.

This year then, I’m giving the Keen Newport sandals a go, and so far they’ve been fantastic for all surfaces - very comfortable, and you can even jog in them if you’re so inclined for short distances. They’re not cheap though at 9,500en for my pair, though it looks like they’ll last a significant amount of time, and feel good at the same time.

Chigasaki Hanabi 2010

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:13:19 +0000

Every summer, places the length and breadth of Japan celebrate summer with festivals and fireworks displays ( 花火). Since we moved out of Tokyo, we’ve been going to the Chigasaki hanabi at their South Beach, and this year was as fantastic as before. Despite the thousands of people, there was a mix of people on dates, families, parties of friends, but as ever, behaviour was good, the venue (essentially the beach!) was well organised, and we sat back to watch a fantastic (almost) hour of big fireworks.

I put a few more pictures up on the Flickr! page. Since I’m no longer a Pro member, I guess those pictures will disappear at some point.