Hey Hey Hey.
Pretty hot here in the old Japan. As Mike said the weather has been a little skew-wif this year, people are looking to the sky, there is much shaking of the heads and gnashing of the teeth. Oh well.

Thought i'd fill you in on the Obon celebrations of a few weeks ago...
Obon is a Japanese celebration of the dead, the theory goes that during the Obon all of the dead relatives come home for a wee while and see what you've done with the garden and how the new drapes look in the living room. Obon forms a quasi-national-public holiday, not really a true holiday, but everyone (traditionally) was compelled to return to their homes and eat, drink and make merry. Leading up to and during the Bubble economy companies were more than willing to let people stroll home for a week or so on unofficial paid leave, assured that when they returned the Yen would be stronger still, and some more of New York would be available to snap up at bargain basement prices.

Then one day it wasn't.

Since then free leave for Obon has been reined in somewhat, but still a couple of days are set aside during the traditonal Lunar Calender oriented festival for you to dash home and pay your respects. This year we were invited up to dance at the Obon festivities in a wee town/hamlet called Gujo-Hachiman. Gujo has been doing this for some 410 years in a row and the practice really does show.
Basically there are five simple dances that are performed by all and sundry in a line three deep that wends its wendly-way down a wee road from a large central courtyard. The line is essentially a large loop, with the dancers facing the middle, open stretch of road, looking across at other dancerswho are ahead/behind them in the conveyer. Like a slot car set. In the middle of the no-mans-land in the middle of the road sits a float and upon this float sit the minstrels, about 7 of them, who play, and play, and play, and play, and play, and play, and play all damn night.
We strolled up there with Tom and Kerryn (our "in" to the whole affair) and a bunch of other foreign types with and International Association of a town called something-a-rather-that-i-forgot. Anywhoo, these folks kitted us out in Yukata (summer kimonos) and taught us (briefly) the required dances before bundling us on a train the 1 1/2 hours up the way to Gujo. The train was pretty swell, we had a booked carriage that had been outfitted with a tatami mat (rushes bound together tightly to form a mat. They appear in essentially all Japanese houses, spectacularly expensive, long-wearing and a standard unit of measurement for Japanese homes eg: "a 5 tatami room"). So there was much sitting on the floor of the train and nattering.

I had a nap. It had been a long day already. (Trick for young players- the Yukata is basically a dressing gown. Take care to keep the mouse in the house...especially while napping)
We arrived, the expected rain didn't, and off we set for the dancing....

Ooops

I have a 3hr 1-1 Japanese class starting in 15 minutes, I"ll be back with more of the Obon carry on after a message from our sponsors...