Blow-Up

today is my first day off in eight days, and while the plan was originally to go to hiroshima early in the morning, i drank too much last night and i'm still sitting in himeji at 1:15pm. last night was the final night in japan for a friend of mine who was a part of the JET programme, and he was also out on the town having a few drinks. when we finally met up with him, we went to a bar together where he proceeded to throw accusations at me. i suppose hostility is easier than simply saying good-bye for some. he even managed to send me an angry email this morning before cancelling his keitai. the experience has left me angry and confused but not scarred. if that's the way things need to be, then good riddance.

in other explosions, the other night was himeji's fireworks matsuri (festival) and i managed to get a few good pictures using an long shutter speed on my digital camera, which i will be posting here. i've seen many fireworks in my time, and found that the best thing about going to the matsuri was overhearing the japanese reactions to the explosions. they tend to express their joy with a regular "sugoi!" which can mean great, cool, awesome, wow, or a lot. some of the movies i have are filled with adults and children alike shouting "sugoi!" after every explosion. the japanese call fireworks "hanabi" which is a combination of the words "flower" and "fire". oddly enough, fireflower was also one of the main power-ups in an ancient japanese videogame.

i take it that i should probably be organizing myself to go to hiroshima. that is, if i go today. it's late.