Japan: Happy Summer Festival // 日本快乐的夏天节

3 months since my last adventure abroad, I was super anxious and excited to jump on a plane and have a weekend away from Shanghai. It’s miserably and uncomfortably hot & steamy right now in the city… like… I can’t go anywhere without drenching my clothes in sweat (sorry if TMI) so I let me repeat – I was REALLY excited to leave.

This time I decided to return to lovely Osaka, Japan. Last time I was in Osaka, it was late January and pretty frickin’ cold, so I was excited to experience what summer was like on the island. Turns out, it was pretty hot too – but not as bad as Shanghai (score!). I guess a little sweating is good for pushing out the toxins??!! (Trying to look on the bright side here).

This time last year I was enjoying an amazing summer in Boone, so I think I’m just missing the mountain breeze and cold sunset brewskies. So yes – I am actually admitting to my homesickness here.

I rushed to the airport late Friday night and to my great surprise and delight, there was NO delay. Like – the plane actually left ON TIME. This is unheard of in regards to any China airlines. I got stuck in the very last row on the plane and tried to nap a bit on the way, but I kept getting bumped into by little kids running back and forth to the bathroom.

I guess I shouldn’t of been so surprised by this – but I was – at how the whole plane seemed to be only Chinese passengers. I guess the Japanese passengers were just keeping to themselves and sitting quietly in their seats (like they usually do) so I didn’t notice them, but like, it seemed as if I was the only non-Chinese on the flight. They were all walking around, sneezing, coughing etc. through the flight, so I was getting more and more excited to just land in Japan and get away from the crazy.

Later on I came to realize why so many Chinese come to Japan just for a brief weekend trip. They come and HOARD (pardon my French) a shit load of medications, cosmetics, baby food, multivitamins, diet supplements back to China. These Japanese products are of much higher quality – and more or less cheaper – than their counterparts in the Mainland. Also, if the buyer purchases a certain amount of goods (maybe $100 worth), they can receive duty free advantages. So yeah, despite the cost of the flight and all of the travel back and forth, Chinese do this every weekend. Crazy & just… wow.

ANYWAYS – back to my trip!

Saturday consisted of shopping in dontonbori, eating beautiful foods and celebrating the summer festival with Yuna and her family. Saturday morning Yuna told me that later that night I would be wearing a Yukata, which is basically the summer version of a traditional Kimono. I had no idea how expensive they were (maybe $200-500) but Yuna’s cousin brought one for me to try. HOW COOL.

The yukata is wrapped very carefully and tightly around your body. I couldn’t really breathe but hey – I wasn’t complaining. It took about an hour to wrap both me and Yuna properly, and then we jumped in the car and went off to this remote part of the mountain where Yuna’s family lived. We walked (more like shuffled) slowly in our yukata’s up the mountain to this secret spot and once we arrived, fireworks erupted into the sky. Both times I’ve been to Japan I was lucky to be there during a festival and watch fireworks. I guess this was my belated Fourth of July celebration!

After the grand finale, we headed back to the house and had homemade sushi Japanese style. This meant sitting on the ground in my yukata (NOT EASY), spooning sticky rice into a piece of seaweed, putting fish and other delicious fixin’s into it, wrapping it up in a ball, dipping it into soy sauce and shoving it into my mouth in one bite. They had an apron wrapped around me to prevent any spills, which turned out to be much needed. It was all so amazing.