Summer in Japan is full of festivals and events. I feel like a sweaty social butterfly.
Kamogawa Citizen’s Fireworks
Although we’ve lived in Kamogawa for a decade, this is the first time we’ve taken in the beach fireworks. They were quite spectacular – lots of multicolored rainbow explosions reflecting on the water and waves.
We were there to celebrate the kanreki (60th birthday) of both Kengo and Hitomi. Naomi made the plan and brought a picnic; Fujii-san miraculously parked us 2 blocks from the beach. I brought “party decorations” in the form of glow bracelets. It was a group effort to celebrate this milestone with our friends.
Awanova Bon Odori
This bon odori kicks off the ten day Kozuka Art Festival (more on that below). It was formerly held at Satoyama design Factory and Hangar Eight but has moved to the old elementary school. There were so many booths and people visiting – it was great fun. We caught up with neighbors and old friends. I painted a cat mask. But I didn’t join in the dancing because of my back. Maybe I will dance next year.
Kozuka Art Festival
In another first this summer, I am participating as an artist at the Kozuka Art Festival. From Thursday through Sunday, I’ll offer art mediation as a self-paced workshop. Tomorrow morning I will set up my booth. But there’s a typhoon coming on Friday and Saturday so I’ll be adding “waterproof tarps” to my packing list today.
This is one of the scarier things I have done recently. The art festival is well establish and has a clique of local creative people I know but am not integrated with. I’m confident about Drawing Meditation being a positive addition to the festival, but I am really nervous about my ability to deliver linguistically. I have been prepping for weeks by drilling the vocabulary and putting together signs and worksheets in Japanese for when that language practice fails me.
And if you ask me about socialising with the other artists, I will hang my head in shame. I went up to the venue on Monday to have a look and to try to make some connections with people. But the heat muddled my head and turned my face tomato-red. I utterly failed. Folks stared past me or smiled weakly in that way they do when hoping to avoid conversation. I feel punched in the heart, but I will go on anyway.
Fingers crossed its not all a disastrous mistake. At least Fritter likes my booth, which I set up for practice a couple days ago.
Barbecue!
Our 20 year old Weber kettle grill fell apart – literally – during our Spring Equinox BBQ. This gave Tod the chance to get a new and improved one recently. And as it turns out, he now has two. After the first one arrived, we were combing the Tateyama recycle shops for something else and found a slightly dented but almost new Weber for a very good price. Couldn’t pass it up, so now we have two grills. It’s time to schedule a BBQ party because we have capacity.
Art & Nature Retreat
This is an upcoming retreat that I am hosting at 555. Creative meditation, conversation, and nature all wrapped into a relaxing one-day event. The first two were excellent; I have expectations that this one will be, too! Registration is open here: https://forms.gle/32vXUFZz5XDbbAiF8
