In the land where things CAN get stranger and weirder, some people had the idea the give cicadas a try as a fashion accessory. Don’t believe me? I’ll let the pics speak for themselves.

Since yesterday morning started a bit dramatic, we decided to take some time to relax and go out. Lucky for us there was the Yodogawa festival. Yodogawa is Osaka’s biggest river, and as the name of the matsuri already gives away, the festival takes place on the Yodogawa riverbanks. Especially with this summerheat a splendid location. The Yodogawa fireworks show is probably one of the most popular fireworks show in Japan and definitely draws one of the largest crowds. I’m talking thousands of people, the place will be really packed.

If you are not into large crowds I suggest you watch the fireworks from the Umeda Skyline building, but you’ll really miss the great atmosphere. Since the fireworks are on the river, you’ll have a good chance to view the spectacle from both sides of the river, I do advise you to come in early for a good spot.

The end result:

In my life I have never seen such a large crowd all packed together. Unfortunately 10 minutes before the show it started to rain. HEAVILY! We had to use 1 umbrella with 4 people, so you can imagine how soaked we were. This didn’t stop us from viewing the fireworks though. A splendid show with some fireworks I had never seen before. Too bad I couldn’t make any pictures to capture this splendid even, but hopefully I will catch another fireworks show this month.

My girl woke me up screaming in pain. No idea what was going on. When her mom came in the room and they started talking Japanese I noticed it was not good. I recently learned the word “kyuukyuusha” (which stands for Ambulance) and heard the word Byouin which means Hospital. Shocked staring at my girl I had no idea what was going on. She didn’t wanna tell me either.

Now 2 minutes ago, 3 men came into the house, asked her many questions and took her and her mom to the hospital. So I’m sitting here now, worried as hell, staring at my screen, waiting for a phonecall or something.

It’s these moments that make me wanna study advanced Japanese, how else am I going to take care of my wife and the children in the future if something really bad happens. sigh..

Update: Missus is back home, on some heavy meds though. Took some tests at the hospital, results will be in next week. Hope it’s nothing serious. Thnx for all the kind words guys, much appreciated.

What’s the story behind this picture?

…..

…….the Chinese man had a date with this bench and it didn’t end well.

full story here

With all the hana-bi around me lately, I suddenly had a small idea last night for a small hana-bi project. Inspired by the amazing guys from Lichtfaktor and others, we thought we’d do something similar. Alas I’ll let the screen do the talking

We first started with a long exposure setting of 2 secs, which was definitely not enough. Then we boosted that up until 10 to 13 secs, which gave us a better timeslot to make something creative.

Next problem was the fireworks. The fireworks was simply too small and finished too quickly to make something nice.

So we bought some bigger fireworks. This is what we came up with:

Well…we got more and more into….

A fugly starshape

An audi A4 Quattro widebody, resembles alot eh?

A tulip? That’s what she said, I think it looks more like my car design after a crash

Guess…….

And pacman heh

Still, we were thinking too much in the box or at least on paper. But last night’s project gave me some new ideas for a next project. Can’t wait to start working on it.

Behold! Japanese melon flavored soda.

Right?? WRONG!! This is Melon flavored sake. Me likes though ;).

As I explained in the previous post, The summer is a splendid time to visit Japanese matsuri’s. Last night we visited one those festivals, the Tenjin Matsuri in Tenjibashi! It was a huge festival with supposedly big fireworks.

Tenjinbashi was crowded. Loads and loads of girls in yukata’s, many delicious yatai and did I already mention crowded? It’s a huge understatement. Probably 150 people per square meter.

Luckily I’m a tall gaijin, so I can get a really good view looking over all those Japanese heads and not bump into something. We head off to the location for the fireworks, along the way eating very oishii food and play some of the funny matsuri games.

We arrived at a big crossing near the place to watch the fireworks and witnessed a big Japanese parade (see pics.) Really glad it wasn’t finished yet as I had never seen one before. Dozens of men carrying a large golden shrine, with two men shouting and cheering the guys below “not to drop them”, Lots of laughter and cheering from the crowd as well of course. A great positive vibe for everyone.

After the parade finished, we head to the bridge where supposedly we could see the big fireworks. Supposedly!! As you can also see from the pictures below, there aren’t any firework pictures!!?! Apparently they’d changed the location of the fireworks and left us only the see some particles lit up behind the tall skyscrapers a few miles away. DAMN!

One of the main reasons people should come to Japan in July is….errr….well actually I don’t advice anyone to visit Japan in the summertime. However, these months are splendid for visiting matsuri’s and see/light hana-bi (Japanese fireworks). Instead of the traditional fireworks in Holland which is only allowed to be lit at 00:00 on the 31st of December, in Japan the government condones lighting fireworks everywhere during the whole summer.

Even though fireworks are really popular in Japan, you will never see some kids light fireworks on the middle of the street. No idea if it’s against tradition or they just have manners, it just doesn’t happen. The government also forces the people who do light fireworks, to bring a bucket of water in case of fire.

Aye the bucket is very very important. God forbid you have foreigners like me light some fireworks and burn half the country down. Or a riverbank. Yeah u guessed right…..papi has been a stupid pleb last night.

The idea was, meet some friends, have a couple o drinks and after that go to the riverbank and light some fireworks. Actually everything went very smoothly. We lit some hanabi, and after that the next batch etc etc. In Holland however, I always like to throw it in the air for some extra excitement and see gravity at work. So after 5 minutes we wanted to lit the next batch of hanabi and suddenly we heard a ‘WHOOSH’ sound followed by a big light.

When I looked at my right I suddenly noticed a gate getting lit up with some of the grass behind it. “FUCK!! Noooooooooooooo!!!!” was going through my head. I had set the riverbank on fire.

Actually that is somewhat exaggerating.

So what have we learned today children?

PapiGiulio + fireworks = national security risk!!

Here they are.

1 week in. Time for a list of remarkable things as I did back in 2006

1. Summers in Japan are CRAZY HOT!!!!! And I’m not talking SAHARA hot….noooo..I mean effin Mercuries HOT!! Just sitting in a tee already makes you transpire, let alone if you walk to the station. Japan has air conditioners everywhere, although some shops put their airco just a little under freeze temperature, and I prefer to stay away from those shops, definitely not healthy.

2. Cicadas make a shitload of noise. Since it’s summer, apparently Japan’s nastiest creatures crawl out of their holes….Cockroaches and Cicadas. Luckily for me them cockroaches don’t appear in masses. Cicadas however do. 1 cicada makes as much sound as a passing truck. Just imagine 10. It’s like a freakin horror movie, buzzzing grasshoppers sound in your head.

3. The food is simply amazing…as usual. Sushi, Ramen, Donbouri, Sashimi for now with the hot weather, but I will not be able to resist Shabushabu, Yakiniku or Ommurice for long!! Already getting hungry.

4. Gyaru’s used to be cute. Now they are getting really really annoying with their stupid voice!! There are loads of female clothing shops here in Osaka, and every time you pass a store 3 of those girls welcome you with the simple word ‘Irashaimase’ (which means ‘welcome’). And not just short. Noooo way. It goes like* “Irashaimaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”. Clinging on the LAST E and slowly raising the tone. Now imagine that and imagine 3 girls saying that in a ECHO. I’ll try to get some sound samples for you as soon as possible.

5. Summer means a lot of festivals here in Japan, can’t wait to visit one. The first one will be a firework festival next week.

6. Trains run smoothly as ever. Japans public transport system is still by far, THE BEST I have used until now.

7. [scarface voice]Die you cockroaches! DIE!!![/scarface voice]

8. Can’t buy a keitai (mobilephone) anymore as a gaijin. Really need the gaijin-card or a Japanese resident with an ID to help me buy one. This sucks, as you all know I love to twitter.

9. Got a wireless connection on my laptop, but I can’t seem to connect to internet in Japan, it seriously sucks!! (Now using my girls computer the whole time, she dont like)

10. I feel a bit disappointed that my photography is lacking lately. It’s actually because of this heat! Just doesn’t feel comfortable to shoot with this heat!

Lots of complaints?? Maybe so, but that doesn’t take away that I really really f*cking love to be here!!