So yeah, from the first two Chinese characters, you can tell that Kumano means wild bear. The third Chinese character tells you that it's a BIG fireworks (4th and 5th characters) festival (6th and 7th characters).
And yes, it was HUGE. MASSIVE. COLOSSAL. It lasted 2 hours, and it was well-worth the 8 hour drive down from Nabari. Yes, it was 8 hours. Actually, I did only like... 3 hours of actual driving. The rest of the time, we were stuck in a HORRIBLE jam because everyone in Japan knows that Kumano does the greatest fireworks display in the Kansai / Chubu region. Ok, I don't know that everyone knows that, but judging by the number of people who turned up, it did seem like everyone thought Kumano was the place to be in on August 17.
This is the route we took.
This is our first close up of the sea.
Thats's Hadeer's silver Honda Fit in front. The car we rented was a silver Honda too, so we felt like we were in a two-car convoy, haha.
It was quite an easy drive, or maybe I just hadn't driven much, so I could take it pretty well. We talked in the car, listened to stand-up comedy, spaced-out, sang etc. It was a good road trip to start with.
Here's us in the car! Don't know what I was looking at.
We left Nabari at 9.30 am, met up with Hadeer, Tim and Ken in Iga, then headed down to Kumano.
See the line of cars in front of us? It stretched all the way for a couple of kilometers in front. That's how popular this hanabi display was. People come from all over Japan, I heard. Well done, Kumano!! You put Mie on the map! Haha.
When we caught our first sight of the beach, we were flabbergasted to realize that it was COVERED with people. Yes, the white dots are people. And that was only... one-fifth of the total number of people on the beach? There were more on the roads as well. The little colorful rectangles are the shelters of the food stalls - ALL SUPER YUMMY Japanese pasar malam food haha.
We reached Kumano at 6.30 pm, and slowly crawled to find a parking space. Hadeer and I parked the cars, and returned to the beach, in time for the first fireworks display, but we couldn't find the JET group anywhere. There were just TOO MANY PEOPLE. So we grabbed something to drink and eat, and plonked ourselves in the midst of some strangers and watched the fireworks.
All I can say are these few sentences:
Sat beneath an orange moon. Grey pebbled beach. Falling gold rain. Lost capacity to breathe many times. Goosebumps. Felt like a child again. God is so good to me.
I wanted to describe it, but I can't. Lost for words, and words are inadequate. Photographs too, cos they can't take in as much as the eye can. What a marvelous eye God has given us.
Want to see what I saw, feel what I felt etc? Every year, on August 17, no matter what day of the week it is, Kumano has a fireworks display.
Moving on, the office lady, through Tony-sensei, asked if I wanted vegetables from her garden. Of course I said yes! So this is what she gave me:
Two tomatoes and a pumpkin.
One for close up effect. Can you see how shiny the tomatoes are? Not wax ok...
I cooked one tomato with garlic, and here is what I tasted: Real. lol
Forget the thin taste of tomatoes from NTUC. This tomato was saturated with tomato. hahahahah. It was juicy, firm and meaty. Yes, meaty. You know how portobello mushrooms can taste like meat sometimes? Well, this tomato tasted like healthy meat. Heh.
Shall try to cook the pumpkin next. Since it's so big, I'll use half for asian pumpkin soup, and puree the other half for western pumpkin soup. Will take pictures and post them when I do.
Edit:
Since I had the car till 7 pm today, we were went to Super VIVA HOME CENTER and I bought floor chairs. Went to Aeon too, to buy the shelves I like - a little pricey, but they're really cool! Once I've done up my apartment, I'll post pictures too. I can't wait!!
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