Yesterday was a very long day for me. In the
morning I went to take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 5
(the easiest…). The test was from 12:30 to 16:00 after which I went straight to
Narita to meet with my friend and her daughter. The reason we went all the way
to Narita (about an hour long train ride) was because they had the annual
Narita Gion Matsuri; a 3 day festival of which Sunday was the last day. Going
to a Japanese summer festival means of course, we need to wear a Yukata! (well
you don't have to, but if you spend a shitton of money on one, you'll wear it
as often as you possibly can). The problem was that I had the test in the
morning so I had to take the Yukata in a bag and dress in the Narita station
bathroom. Let me tell you, that was quite an experience. The bathroom in Narita
station isn't made for changing clothes, especially not to a Yukata. But I made
it! With no mirror it took me around 30 minutes and a couple of tries to get
the length right, but in the end I came out of the bathroom stall looking
pretty decent. I met up with my friend that arrived by car and we went on a
hunt for parking. We managed to find a pretty decent spot (super lucky!) and
she helped me bling up my Yukata with extra sparkles I had and off we went! The
place was SO crowded and It was over 30c outside and humidity was around 3000%
or something. We were DYING, but we walked around and sat in a store/rest stop
for a little bit. My friend's daughter wanted to play some festival games so we
went to do that. She caught some bouncy balls and a yo-yo ball thingy and was
very happy. All the while, these people were pulling really big structures by
rope and being very happy. According to my friend, each structure (Dashi)
represents a different town. The order of the people pulling it is from
youngest to oldest, so at the beginning of the line you will see 4-5 year old
children, and at the end you'll see adults. They pull it up the street slowly
at first and then they start running and the structure goes by really fast and
it's kind of dangerous because of how crowded it is.
When the sun set it took the extreme heat and
humidity with it so it was a lot more tolerable. All in all, I'm super happy I
went, even if I was so exhausted from the test and pretty much passed out when
I came home.
Have some videos of happy people!
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