When we last left our heroes, they were broken and tired after a long pilgrimage up the mighty Fuji. After seeking shelter with Atsuo, they were granted access to a washing machine and a much needed shower. Even though sleep still eluded them, they felt refreshed.
Atsuo welcomed us into his house with open arms. Although he had a family of 6, he still managed to give Tyler and me a room to sleep in. His father in law, who also lived in the same house, was a professional chef, and he made us an incredible dinner of tempura and sashimi. No horse meat!
Tyler and I went to bed fairly early, as we were tired from a long day and had to leave at 6 the next morning. Atsuo spoke wonderful English (a nice break from Hagi), and his family was friendly, but our time with them was unfortunately slim. At the crack of dawn the next day, Hagi came to pick us up for more nonstop action.
We were headed off to Kusatsu, a few Rod Stewart filled hours south of Tokyo. This was Hagi's hometown, known for the best hot springs in all japan, and we were going to partake in some sort of local festival. I'm still not sure what the festival was about, but there were a lot of noises and drinking.
First, Hagi took us to another mountain. I'm not kidding. Apparently Fuji wasn't enough for this guy. Luckily this one was small, but after climbing Fuji, another mountain is theadt thing you want to see. Unless you're Hagi. Hagi is crazy.
He took us to his parent's ryokan, a traditional Japanese bed and breakfast style place, where we partook in the local bathing customs. After getting squeaky clean Japanese style, we went into town to see a traditional water cooling show. I have no idea what it was about either, but I volunteered to do it also, in which I got a certificate with a stamp. After 5 stamps I apparently get a free prize or something. Nothing made sense, but it was fun!
Ok, now the real party was starting. We dressed in traditional Japanese festival attire, and headed to the center of town. We had to buy these weird toe shoes, but other than that it was all free. We headed back down to the center of town and proceeded to stick out like a couple of gaijin thumbs.
After meeting the mayor, the owner of a golf club, a geisha, a member of the yakuza, and somebody from Canberra of all places, and helping the locals drink all their sake, it was time to work. Tyler and I were tasked with helping to carry a mikoshi. The heaviest thing on this God forsaken planet.
Apparently this festival was broken up into teams, with each team denoted by uniforms carrying a different mikoshi. These were basically just heavy floats carried by 20+ people at a time on their shoulders. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but when you're a foot taller than everyone else, you tend to bear a little more weight than average. A lot more actually. And you have to bend down to be ay level with everyone, but then you step on people's feet. In short, it was a disaster. Nevertheless we survived, and are one step closer to samurai because of it.
Now we're heading back to Tokyo, my final stop before the main event. We've got a couple days to party it up before I become unofficially employed by the rice community of Japan. Just as long as we don't encounter any horse meat, mountains, or heavy objects I should be fine. But as always, we'll just have to wait and see...
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