This past weekend was a three-day one due to the “Health & Sports Day” holiday which commemorates the Tokyo Olympics back in the 1960’s.

To start it off, I went to the Sake festival in Saijo. Jack took the bus over from Yoshida & we took the train over to Saijo. Saijo is where the Japanese language “camp” was that we’d attended a month or so ago. Once there we meet up with many of the other JETs from the area.

We didn’t get there until late afternoon. I’m not quite sure when the peak crowds were on Saturday, but while it was busy there it wasn’t excessively crowded. There’s a little bit of everything around the town, with some streets turned into street fairs, tours of the sake breweries, a park full of food venders, food venders on the side streets, street performers, parades, etc.

But the main attraction for our bunch was another park where for 1500 yen you get a sake cup and basically unlimited refills from the hundreds of varieties from not just the Saijo area but many others around Japan. Biggest problem is knowing what is any good if you don’t know Japanese or sake. So I went with the general plan of choosing whatever bottle was emptiest in hopes that the more popular ones would be better. Guess it was an OK strategy, the ones I had weren’t bad.

I kinda lost track of how many cup fulls I’d had (some people were making hash marks on their hands to keep track). I think it was at least a dozen, though. I was by that point more than a bit tipsy, but was faring better than some others there (who were napping or hunched over). Other than that, generally talked with other JETs in the group, including one or two of my “neighbors” in the other directions from Mukaihara.

By time the festival shutdown at 9pm my head had generally cleared. I went along with a large JET group that hit a dance club there in Saijo. Place was seriously packed, but I think I and the rest had fun. Perhaps a little too much, since I think I missed the last train back to Hiroshima, so I went in the other direction with a bunch of the Mihara folks and stayed with Alex in Onomichi (merci, mon ami). A few of us hung out for a bit and ate at one of the late night Denny’s-like places there before going to sleep.

Next morning I was feeling remarkably well, especially considering the previous day’s activities. I had wanted to buy some sake in Saijo for gifts and future consumption, but hadn’t gotten around to it on Saturday. So I dropped by there on my way back home, since I had to pass it anyways. The crowds late Sunday morning seemed quite a bit heavier than those Saturday afternoon. The walkways near the food stands were really hard to squeeze through. But I managed to do my shopping and get a few bites to eat before heading home.

Monday afternoon I had decided to pop up to the Bihoku National Hillside Park to look at the flowers in bloom there. One of my adult education students/art teacher at the JHS had highly recommended it, saying some special flowers were in bloom there. So I took the train to just outside Shobara again.

Although what occupied me most was something I saw when I first entered the park. There was an aikido demonstration going on, done by a group from the neighboring college. Too bad they’re a rather inconvenient train ride from Mukaihara (Hiroshima is easier to get to and about as close).

After they finished I wandered around the park, looking at the cosmos that were in bloom in a large field. They had quite a few colors and varieties. But they had gone by just a little and suffered a bit from recent heavy rains. They were still pretty, though. They have a tower in the center that you can go up and view the garden from above.

The park itself looks to be a wonderful place if you’re a kid or a parent. Its got the largest and best playground I’ve ever seen, it probably takes up a quarter of the park. Grass slides, things to bounce on, gigantic wooden climbing complex and acres of grass. Loads of low-tech, non-commercialized fun. And there were loads of families there taking advantage of it. To be a kid again…

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