The typhoon is back on in a big way. I had to bike to work in it this morning. I didn’t completely dry off until lunch. A thick fog has now set in over the mountains outside of my window at work. It has basically stopped raining though. My ride home should be a little nicer. When I saw it was raining still I decided to go in to work early so I could change my clothes. My co-workers asked my why I wasn’t using an umbrella. Yeah right lady! You try biking with a 20 pound laptop back in the basket of your granny bike while going down the side of a freakin huge hill AND holding an umbrella. It would be like the deleted scenes of Mary Poppins where she accidentally gets sucked into a jet engine. I don’t think so.
The weekend was a blast! I went to a festival in Fukokushima in the Kiso Valley with the salty ass crew. (Shiojiri means something close to Salty Ass so that it what people call us). I don’t really know what this festival was about other than the fact that it was a Shinto festival. When we got there, this Japanese family invited us into their home and served us a huge Japanese meal. They gave us all kinds of crazy sashimi (uncooked slices of meat and fish). This is always a mistake but we asked what it was they were serving us. It was blue whale, eel, salmon row and various other fish that we couldn’t quite work out. I thought I was probably going to die. After dinner, the women of the family dressed us up in summer kimonos called yukata. Not bad for a bunch of total strangers. They were quite uncomfortable but it was a neat experience to wear them.
After we got all dressed up, we went out to the festival. The Japanese people were so kind. They involved us in every possible aspect of the festival. They had us doing this flower hat dance, dancing in the parade, playing with fireworks and drinking sake on the street. All of these complete strangers wanted us to pose for their family pictures with them. People would run up to us and ask to take our picture or they would give us beers, sake and festival food. At the end of the festival we were invited to this party for all of the men who carried the large festival poles. There was even more food and beer. They gave everyone a pack of cigarettes and they brought us out special soup. This would rarely if ever happen in Canada. People go out of their way to sit beside you and talk to you even though they can barely speak a word of English. They just want you to enjoy everything they can offer you. It was an incredible experience.
I will close with a birthday shout out to Mr. Matthew Hayes who turns the big 2-5 today! Happy birthday Matty! I miss you!