Fire Festival and Ume

Today I had an amazing time with Helena and Ryan. We went out to Nara to catch the end of the Ume blossums. And of course we got some really cute Loli pictures. Helena was really great and took a ton of me. Some actually came out pretty well, too! We hung out with the deer and ate food from the street venders. Our main purpose was actually to see the Omizutori- which means water taking. However, the famous part that we went to see was the fire festival. The water is taken from a sacred well around two in the morning and I believe it is a religious ceremony and not for public consumption.

The fire festival was really interesting. We got there an hour early to wait but found out that the prime spots had been filled over an hour earlier! However, we did get what seemed to be pretty good second tier standing views despite a large tree in the way. We met some really genki Japanese obaachans too. Waiting wasn't much fun but we had a good chat and the weather was warm and breezy. When the drums started the men began to carry the huge flaming poles up to the top of the temple. The pole and buring bundle together weigh about 80 pounds. THe men must have it lit from the sacred fire and carry it up the steep temple steps to the porch that overlooks the crowd. Then they allow the air to fan the flames creating a fireball which they dance back and forth across the temple railing raining down lucky sparks on the waiting people below. If you catch the sparks on your clothing you will be lucky for a whole year. Someone must be about to win the lottery because the first burning bundle fell completely off the pole and nearly over the safety fence! The temple was almost set on fire by an overzelous wave and subsequent flying fireball- but other than that there were no major mishaps. It was a good night and certainly a sight that I have never seen before.

Afterwards we walked a long ways down to the Akintestu Nara shopping street for a donburi dinner. For 500 yen it was a pretty good experience. The quality of the donburi was really good at the little shop, despite how busy they were. I will definitely take my parents there when they come to visit. The long train ride home was very enjoyable and we talked about everything ranging from driving to family. It felt a lot like the good parts of college did. I am really glad we were all able to spend some time together.