Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Q: What kind of socks do pirates wear?

A: Aaaarrrrrrgile!

Q: What's the new pirate movie rated?

A: Aaaarrrrrrrrrrr!

A joke: A pirate walks into a bar and says, "Aaarrrr! I'll ne'er do 'at again!"

Happy "Talk Like a Pirate Day!"

Shoronagashi

Happy Obon one and all! Actually, my salutation in a bit dated. The Obon festivities are generally celebrated over a few day period in August. This year, people in Nagasaki honored their dead from the 12th to the 16th.

Obon is one of the biggest holidays in Japan and most people return to their hometowns where the pray in front of the graves of their ancestors, light lanterns and shoot off firecrackers in order to welcome the spirits back from their unworldly journey over the past year.

Nagasaki's Obon festival is one of the most lively Obon festivals held in Japan. The actual day of Shoronagashi (when people carry hand-made floats adorned with lanterns from their homes to the port in order to destroy them) is one loud affair. People sometimes tell me that the abnormal amount of "bakuchiku" (firecrackers) that are lit here is from the heavy influence of the Chinese in the area.

Hiya

It looks like you've made the switch. Welcome to BIG in NAGASAKI!!! "Yokoso!" as we say in Japanese.

I started a new ejournal for my new life in Nagasaki. It just didn't feel right to keep up the other one now that I've left Ojika. I've got a new mailing address, so I figured a new virtual address would be a good thing too. Maybe it doesn't make much of a difference. Anyway...

So, here, my faithful reader (Not a typo. I know there's only one. I love you too, mom.) you'll get all the hip, hot, heavy gossip of my life in Nagasaki. That and all the really cool cultural stuff that goes down as well.

I hope you enjoy. Drop me a line when you can and let me know what you're all doing.

Dawn