Surviving August!

 August in Japan is...well...as the Japanese say, while drawing air through their teeth, muzukashi (difficult). It's too hot. It's too humid! It's too noisy (cicada overload). 

BUT to make up for the difficulties of the season they have lots of festivals, fireworks, and other fun events.

So here is how we survived August this year - 

Bon Odori festival and fireworks on Camp Zama. It's an open base event meaning lots of local people come on base and enjoy looking around and buying food at the PX. 

The city of Yokohama hosts an annual fireworks display (August is "fireworks season" and there are multiple fireworks events every weekend). 

The Yokohama fireworks are shot off from a barge that just so happens to be located right by the US Military base - Yokohama North Dock. So while everyone else is crowding along the shore and the surrounding area is packed with people, if you have a  US Military ID you can get on base at the North Dock facility and have a FRONT ROW seat.

There was a bus that left from Camp Zama so we didn't even need to drive. It was the easiest outing ever! And the fireworks were really great!

During August each year the City of Zama hosts a Sunflower Festival. (The Sunflower is the mascot of Zama so the festival is themed all around the Sunflowers.) 

                                        

It was beautiful day (except way tooooo hot). But the blue sky and the white clouds and yellow sunflowers were very pretty.

                                                                Dog in a sun hat!

When we were in Sapporo last February we had a fun time visiting the Olympic Park Museum. Then we heard that there was an Olympic museum in Tokyo as well. We decided to check it out. It was interesting to learn more about the Olympics in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, Tokyo has had a rough history with The Games. The 1940 Olympics were awarded to Tokyo, but then...well it just wouldn't work out that year, ehum. After rebuilding they were very excited to host the games in 1962. They were the first Asian country to host, and those games seemed to go well. 

But the next time they hosted was in 2020. So sad! When we arrived on August 3, 2020, the airport was deserted. Huge banners were hung all around the airport saying "Tokyo 2020". The 2021 games happened, but with no spectators. 

Remember at the 2021 Open Ceremonies they had the cool thing where the guys made all of the symbols of the various sports/events. This is one of the suits they used to to do that.

For some reason, Zama was lucky enough to host a Sumo wrestling exhibition on August 24th. It was held in a gym right outside Camp Zama, so we were able to walk to it. It was much more "intimate" than the large Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. It was a little bit hot inside, but there was some AC (not enough, but better than nothing)

Finally, to close out this crazy month we headed to Kusatsu Onsen (a mountain town, so a little bit cooler). 

Along the way we stopped for church in Takasaki. The members in the ward there were very friendly and kind to us. There was a senior missionary couple from St George (Elder and Sister Gunther). Sister Gunther is Japanese but came to the US when she was only 11. Both her English and her Japanese were great. 

Kusatsu Onsen has been known for its wonderful onsens for hundreds of years. There is a river that runs through the town and in the middle of the town they funnel the river through troughs and down a chute. In the evening this area is illuminated and its very pretty.  As you can see in the pictures the town is an interesting mix of new and old.

 

I must say that while living in Japan I have been impressed again and again by how kind and polite everyone is. From the owners of the ryokan we stayed in, to shop workers, to the guys passing out samples on the side street, to the owner of the Okonomiyaki restaurant we ate in - everyone was just so nice! 

But the one negative thing that happened to us is this guy - he was selling yakiimo (baked sweet potatoes) from his van. Sloan loves them so she stopped to buy one. He was super friendly and helpful and gave her and I samples of the sweet potato (it was good). Then he told her to "just pick out the one you want". I thought that was odd, never done it that way before. Sloan got her yakiimo and we walked away. Chad stayed behind and paid they guy. When he caught up to us he asked Sloan how it tasted and told her "we should have it paid off by next year!" They guy had weighted the sweet potato and then charged Chad 1,700 yen ($12)! Normally they cost 200 yen ($1 to $2).

Cat face down in a bowl of curry!

Back in the day, the water was too hot for bathing so they came up with idea to have ladies stir the water to cool it down before it was fed into the onsens. The ladies developed a dance and song while they stirred. Nowdays you can buy tickets to watch a performance of the Stirring of the Water.