This morning, I got my things together as I’ll be leaving for the airport this afternoon as it’s my final day in Japan. The town is all in a bustle today not for my leaving, but for their semi annual festival, one of Japan’s largest and most ornate. Throughout the town, you can see huge tall skinny doors like barnyard doors protecting the portable shrines that are tall and slender. Only the lucky get to see the doors open and take a peek of the culturally significant and beautifully adorned carts that hide behind.
Those who don’t get to see this in its preview state, get to see them this morning. Set out around the city in specific areas completely unveiled for viewing, picture taking, and observing. Parade-goers are all excited to see these unique carts, and of course, one picture is not enough.
By around 11 o’clock, a girl came over the intercom initiating the parade, and Taiko drums began to sound. By this point, I had already seen them up close and personal, and was ready for lunch :) My lunch from the previous day did not set well with me, and for the first time in my life, I have experienced indigestion. The funny thing about Japanese food, is while it can be quite healthy, it can also be quite disgustingly fatty, where meats are so marbled, that you take a bite and more than 80% of the chewing is through fat. Trying to demurely spit out fat when only given a single serviette makes for quite an embarrassing aftermath of spat out fat, but alas, I must not have spat out enough, because I paid for it the whole next day, almost feeling nauseated, yet hungry. I thought, how can I already be getting ill this early on my trip, and in one of the most sanitary of all places?
After lunch, I felt uncomfortable again, and figured I wasn’t going to be good walking around watching this festival prance around everywhere, so I headed to take an earlier train out of Takayama and headed for my little capsule at the airport to relax, rest, and be ready for my flight the next day to China.