Nagasaki Lantern Festival

As promised (Laura :) ) I went to the Nagasaki Lantern festival today! * 3 cheers for me *

I'm a little short on quotes, so for now just me babbling will have to do. I haven't been sleeping well, so I've been rather tired over the last few days, and so when I got up this morning ( I have been setting my alarm clock for 9 am to get back into some sort of normal rythm after havint stayed up late and slept in a lot last week) I really wasn't in the mood for doing something, and yet I really didn't want to stay at home. And I'm so glad I got myself out of the house, because I had a really fun day! I went to the Starbucks in Hamanomachi with Gerrie to meet Tomo there. After an extremely delicious Cinnamon Dolce Frappuccino (just the name sounds good!) we set of to Minato-park to see some of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival. As the festival is a celebration of Chinese New Year, there was lots to do in China Town and surroundings, but we basically went to see this one stage today. We will go see other stages some other time. When we got to Minato park, we found a wonderful selection of very aromatic food stalls, lots of people, and lots of different kinds of creatures, not really statues, but... well, creations. I guess this year has something to do with pigs, looking at the huge pillar of pigs, and the (real!) pigs heads arranged in the shrine. Gerrie had been to parts of the festival a few days ago, and recommended "goma dango", a mochi-riceball, covered in sesame seeds and with anko (sweet red bean paste) inside. Quite yummy I must say!

First up was a dragon dance performed by a bunch of very small children. Not to be underestimated by the way, they were quite good, for a bunch of 4-8 year olds or something, I'm serious, they were really young! Some of them had little drums and other instruments, but mainly the teacher accompanied them on a big drum and a little girl with a gong. They did this little going in circles dances, with slow and fast bits and then getting all tied up in a knot and coming out unharmed, impressive! Though impressive, after several repetitions we decided to take a look somewhere else for a bit before the start of the dragon/dog head dance we were really waiting for. We walked up to this shrine, not sure what it was for exactly, but we were invited to wish for anything we wanted. I didn't wish for anything. Maybe I should have wished for a good night's sleep, but I just didn't think of it! hehe. We had a quick look around, and then went back to the stage where they were just finishing the kiddie dragon dance. Thank goodness they didn't really do a "motto koi" (encore) that the presentor lady was making us shout. Tomo, Gerrie and I definitely didn't shout out.

At 17:50 it was finally time for the dragon/dog head dance, but not after a "chuuka chimaki", a véry sticky rice snack with bits of meat and mushrooms, wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf. No picture, just take my word for it, it was good :P I call it a dragon/dog head dance because it's not quite sure whether it's supposed to be a dragon or a dog, though these creatures definitely behaved/moved like dogs. The first round was for the kids again, who again, did a magnificent job of actually moving like a dog and everything, it was really fun to watch!! It didn't get really interesting until the adults came up however. Same dogs, slightly bigger version! Unlike the kiddies, there was quite some acrobatics involved in this dance. Not only did they make really tall doggies, they also jumped on and off poles, and the last one even did some ropewalking, véry impressive!! It was overal a really really good show, and very fun to watch. These dogs good bat their eyes, flap their ears, and waggle their talls, and it all almost seemed "natural". I'm not kidding, they really moved and gave the public the feel of a dog-like creature.

By this time it was time for dinner. Tomo, Gerrie and I made our way through the crowds and past all the pretty lights to have a quick dinner at a "donburi" restaurant. This means they have the katsudon, tendon, karedon etc etc. It's a type of dish where basically you have some sort of food on top of a bowl of rice. So I had a pork cutlet with egg and onion, on top of a bowl of rice. Extremely yummy mind you. We only had an hour before we wanted to be back at the stage for the "chinese amazing show", as Tomo translated it for us hehe. So after our meal we struggled our way back, there were just masses of people, and we were right on time for the next show. By this time it was also getting really dark, making all the lanterns everywhere, realllyyyy pretty! ANd Haru, a Japanese girl we know, joined us. The more the merrier!

The "chinese amazing show" was really quite amazing, but to be expected from Chinese acrobats. They were mostly realllyyy flexible and had an amazing sense of balance. They wriggled themselves into the most impossible positions, balanced on 5 cylinders, rode a bike, all 12 of them or so on the 1 bike, they climbed all over and under eachother with teacups on their heads, one girl turned from lying on her to back to lying on her stomach and back, all while holding these ornament thingies with the soles of her feet, her hands, ánd one in her mouth, holding them upright, the whole time. It was insane! And then the hoola hoop girls, with several hoola hoops and flipping them up into motion with their feet, not using their hands and stuff... Well I guess you just had to see it. I made several movies of the various shows, but you shall have to be patient just a little bit, there are some technical difficulties with the server. Will let you know as soon as it's fixed, as the january and february movies are online now as well.

PICTURESSS

I had a really fun day yesterday, am glad I dragged myself out of the house. (notice the change? I wrote the first part of the post last night, the rest this morning, sorry for the confusion :P). Anyway, it didn't help me sleep though. Does anybody have any tips for me!? I want to sleep! I have tried reading, hot drinks etc. I walked around all day, I'm actually really tired, and yet I can't sleep. Help!?



x Jenn