Knives...

Long weekend in the Japan this past weekend, and it greeted Nic and I with another night down at the Izakaya a-sampling the delights of beer and sake. The next morning, after a couple of false starts we strutted down to the local festival to have our fill of fried goods, just to kick the day off right (see former post regarding festivals, fried goods and coronary disease). The festival here in Godo is suitably cheesy, Nic did make the fine observation that they could have done with one less whole-barbequed-squid stall (there were 3, in a total of about 15 food stalls- a little overkill-y, especially for the squid). Still, they seemed to be doing a roaring trade. Godo spares no expense and drags in all the Carnies (with their big, big hands) from around the countryside including the cheeseball-I-was-a-small-time-celebraty-in-the-70`s-and-I`m-STILL-working-it-and-my-toupee-has-been-with-me-since-those-heady-days type folk to MC it. There was also an enormous, bald-headed, handle-barred moustachioed (sp?), all-Japan arm-wrestling champion. He was taking on all comers. His leather pants were a little odd. He was damned lucky I had elsewhere to be.
And that elsewhere to be was the Seki festival (a real glut of festivals at the moment- everyone trying to have theirs be the last, big blast before the winter sets in). Seki is a medium sized industrial town about 40 minutes away that traditionally made the finest of samurai swords in all of Japan. Understandably, what, with the drop off in Samurai numbers over the past 200 odd years, they have had to branch off into other pursuits. Sticking with what they know, they now make the majority of.....razor blades made in Japan. Talk about a slide is prestige.
They also make cutlery and big, scary, big knives. There were thousands of people, and a few too many of them for my liking were just sort of holding enormous knives, with a 1000 yard stare in there eyes, all glossy like, grinning. These knives were nuts, hey, everyone likes a knife, sure, but these knives made Rambo look like a pussy. We left pretty quick. Still, it was a lover-ly day for a drive and we saw some pretty cool country on our way hither and yon.
Right, I`ve got some Kanji to study.
Goodbye all.
berin