pyromania

japanese people love fire. and i love fire. and i love them for loving fire.

last weekend, tracey and i roadtripped down to saito for its annual festival. perhaps you've noticed that i've attended many festivals since coming here...it's very easy to do so! different towns throughout the prefecture have multiple festivals per year, so there's always one to go to. many of them are similar, with taiko performances, music, food booths with yakisoba, jidori, takoyaki, and other festival treats, and lots of families. some of the jetlings have commented on festival burnout, citing the repetitiveness of many of the events.

however, saito's festival was anything but commonplace. i'll let the video speak for itself. peeps set a little house on fire and danced around it. there was also an impressive samurai dance, in which two of our beloved jetlings partook! enjoy.




also, yesterday at school we had a fire drill. i expected it to be similar to american fire drills, and for the most part, it was--other than the fact that the students had to run to their safe zone (our american teachers forbade us from running...which totally makes sense. jokes.)

the students and teachers stood/squatted out in the baseball field, while a fire marshall spoke at length about safety...pretty standard. however, two teachers and two students then came to the front.

this is where japanese fire drills really differ from american drills...and in the absolute best way possible. there was a flat box (maybe 3 feet long, 3 feet wide, 6 inches tall) next to a propane tank. the fire marshall then poured some sort of flammable liquid into the box, added propane, and lit it on fire. a HUGE, billowing flame (over 10 feet high) resulted, and one of the teachers rushed forward with a fire extinguisher to put it out. this was repeated three more times, to the kinesthetic learning benefit of the other teacher and two students, and to the great entertainment of everyone else. it was truly hands-on learning, and the whole experience was more awesome than i could have ever dared hope fire drills could be.

with fire in my heart,
lilly