Saturday, June 9, 2007

Hiryu Matsuri

Last weekend on Saturday evening, Ritsy and I decided to check out the Hiryu festival near the Tenryu river- not too far from our home. I think I might have to adjust my way of thinking as I convinced my poor pregnant wife to walk the 2.5 kms rather than busing or driving there. Well she went along with it and it didn't seem to have any negative effects. To get to the area where the festival was, we had to climb the stairway pictures above which, apparently, has only be used by 1-2 people ever...
Hiryu means flying dragon and true to form they had a giant dragon suspended for all festival-goers to enjoy.
Ritsy allowed me to have a couple of beers and I tried out the offering of the Hamanako brewing company- so in this picture that is my beer she is holding- don't worry! We were able to witness a display of the Enshu Dianenbutsu (the source of much stress for me...) followed by a taiko drum performance. After that, the fireworks began.
As I got into the fireworks show, I started playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon out in my head and started taking experimental pictures using the fireworks setting on my camera (Breathe, breathe in the air- don't be afraid to care...).
The climax of the Hanabi, the dragon started glowing with fire and it shot fireworks out of it's mouth.
Afterwards a plethora of fireworks followed ending in a series of body jarring, ear splitting bangs. It was actually pretty cool. We made the walk home and I slept on the couch for my thoughtlessness of making her walk.

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