Festival of Lights

Today I slept in super late and did my laundry, as is typical for a Saturday morning here.  The weather was great so I opened up the patio doors and bedroom window and wallowed in it.  Then a friend of mine from work called and invited me to the last day of a month-long festival in Nagasaki City, which is about 45 minutes from here.  He brought his 8-year-old son with him.  I love that kids at that age have no concept of personal space or physical boundaries, because t was just like walking through town with one of my own kids--he sometimes grabbed onto my jacket and talked to me about everything from video games to bugs to static-electricity-punch, which is where you put your jacket hood up until the static builds up in your hair a whole bunch and then you put your hood down and while your hair is sticking up like crazy, you punch your dad or your dad's friend in the kidneys repeatedly until someone grabs your hand and says "ok, the light's green, let's cross the road!"

On the way to The City, my friend was talking about the amazing lights put up for this festival.  Then we arrived, and walking from the parking lot we saw this LED Snoopy.  That blurry child silhouette is my friend's son.  Anyway, I saw this Snoopy and I was thinking "hmmm...if the light displays are going to be like this, I'm curious why they were talked up so much."  But like I said, this was just outside the parking lot, so rather than say "I've seen enough, take me home," I decided to press on in case there was something more.  Of course, I was not disappointed.  Right around the corner, I saw a crowded street with crowds of people pushing in from all sides and lit by red paper lanterns, with street vendors all about.

This is probably what a lot of my friends in America picture when they think of Japan.  Of course, with it being dark and the paper lanterns being so bright, it's a little hard to tell that that's what they are.  It just looks like a busy, brightly lit city at night I suppose.  But this festival is actually a festival to celebrate, amongst other things, a lot of the Chinese influence in Japan and particularly in Nagasaki.  So luckily, this picture was only the beginning.  Actually, Snoopy was only the beginning.  But Snoopy has little to do with China or Japan.

And just in case you've never seen dozens of real severed pig's heads on platters, now you can cross that off your bucket list.