Settling in to Takasaki Life

Everyday so far is just super packed, it can get quite insane! But the busy-ness is nice. The heat isn’t – it drains you of your energy so fast! But it’s still been a lot more bearable than I thought. I was prepared to be drenched in sweat wherever I go, but Japan does these amazing, very refreshing sweat wipes that smell super nice, and also these magical cooling pads you stick on and it cools you down a lot!

Anyway, today I still woke up early (7:00am?) so I did some laundry – Japanese laundry powder (liquid in this case) smells so nice!!! I love it. My clothes all smell super clean and lovely now. After my clothes had dried (it dries insanely fast in this heat) I set off to Cainz on my new bicycle to pick up some miscellaneous items for home, and help out a fellow ALT in purchasing her bicycle. It was a bit hard cycling to Cainz at first because Google maps doesn’t seem to work the best in navigating the small rural back roads, but I got there in the end and the air conditioning in stores is a blessing. After Cainz we went to Daiso together to get some more miscellaneous things, before we split off and went back home for lunch and put away our stuff. Since the basket on the bicycle is quite small, you can only buy so much at any one time!

I stopped by 7-Eleven on the way home to buy lunch (cold noodles and salad!) and my favourite yuzu honey drink. It was then home to unpack, finally eat my first meal of the day (I need to go to the supermarket soon) and relax a bit to recover from the heat, before heading back out again at 17:00 to get a spot for the fireworks tonight at Takasaki Festival!

One thing I really like about Takasaki in comparison to Kyoto where I lived for exchange is that you can really cycle everywhere – even right into the city center. I know it’s because Kyoto is a much bigger city with a lot more people so it makes sense to prohibit bicycles in certain areas, but it’s just really cool to be able to whizz straight through to the downtown area here in Takasaki! I left my bicycle at the station for ¥100, and then walked to the river where they were going to be setting off the fireworks! I just followed the crowd and managed to get a spot on some stairs on the river bank.

I got there quite early so I just relaxed and enjoyed the summer festival atmosphere – lots of people had already arrived and set out picnic mats on the banks! After a while more of us ALTs started showing up so it was nice to not be waiting alone anymore.

The fireworks started at 19:40 exactly and they were BEAUTIFUL! I am so glad I got to go see fireworks because I missed out on all of the summer festivals back on exchange, so this was a real treat. The fireworks started with a bang, and then they paced them out by firing single huge ones into the skies. It was fun to guess when the big ones were coming because you could tell from the initial fire up how big the resulting firework would be! Whenever the initial spark flew up really high you could hear everyone going “ooooooh” and guessing “it’s a big one! It’s a big one!” and the crowd was great as well with all their applause after big fireworks and everything. There were fireworks of every kind! It’s amazing and I just wonder how it all works. They would have these fireworks that have several layers (rings and circles expanding!) and colour changing, and they had the most adorable smiley faces, cats, bears, frogs, and even the prefecture’s mascot Gunma-chan!!! Super cute.

When the fireworks ended it was time to join the massive queue for home. I’ve gotten used to queuing up for any amount of time in Japan just because there’s so many people, but I really don't mind it because Japan is so efficient about it (staff overseeing things all the way) and it wasn’t too bad. We were back in the station after a little while and then I cycled home in the dark for the first time since I got here – they really don’t use/have street lights here! But it was fun and it felt really good biking at night with the breeze and rice paddies around you, lit up by your sole bicycle light! And it was much better to cycle home because the car traffic was horrible so it made it all the more awesome to whizz by them all.

All in all a lovely night, and one of those moments where you’re really, really glad you’re in Japan!