My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
August 2024
This was such a great day. Like one of those days that goes down in the history of great days. In Japan they have summer festivals. This was one of those, but let me give you more context. I feel like every time I get a new Cruise Director they promise that they will give us days off or nights off and while they imply that this will be a regular occurrence, it usually ends up happening maybe once a contract. So obviously on the Diamond I’d heard about nights or days off and I didn’t believe them, but the Japanese cruise staff told me that the summer festivals were coming and we would have time off because no one would be on the ship. The first Nebuta festival, I was IPM (stayed on the ship for safety and to conduct activities) with Hiroshi (Cruise Staff) and Lexi (Production) and THERE WAS NO ONE ON THE SHIP! Like no one came to our events! We went to the lounge and waited for no one to show up and after the appropriate amount of time, we went to Kai Sushi – the specialty restaurant. When our turn came around, the schedule was out – I had a full 24 hours off. The ship sailed late because of the festival so I had to make sure I was back by 11pm. I was thrilled, and also a little concerned. We had been to ports before where they had a ‘Japanese Festival’ which turned out to be more like a market with a bunch of tents selling stuff and food. Sometimes there was a big stage with music and dancing. I love a market but I was hoping there would be more to this one. Luckily there was.
Koto said we should wear our Yukatas to the festival. I asked her to help me dress in the one that I had borrowed from the ship – I hadn’t learned how to do it myself yet.
Andi and my mom decided they’d be more comfortable in regular clothes. Out on the streets about half the people wore traditional clothes and half the people wore modern clothes. Andi and I kept remarking that usually we were worried about cultural appropriation, but that didn’t seem to be a concern in Japan. We tried to explain cultural appropriation to our Japanese friends but they appreciated that we were curious about their culture.
My mom insisted that we take a picture with the Diamond Princess sign. We humored her.
Later my mom had this picture (above) printed on mugs and she gave them to everyone in the picture. I thought it might be a little overboard but they loved it. I love it. I bring the mug with me and it reminds me of how much I enjoyed hanging out with these people, not just on this day, but all the days before and after. I also remember how much I loved getting to experience this Japanese tradition.
It was windy on they way to the shuttle.
We stopped at a Kombini (convenience store) for snacks. I wasn’t sure if this was snacks or lunch so I found some stuff my mom would like.
Then we rounded the corner to the festival.
Now this was what I had been hoping for!
Everyone was videoing and taking pictures and videoing and taking pictures of everyone else videoing and taking pictures.
I just soaked it all in (and then collected the photos that my mom and Andi took)
The floats were so colorful
We had been to Aomori a few times and it was really fun to see all the streets blocked off. I told my mom that that triangle building was where I had been before to get local apple juice, apple wine and apple pie (which were more like pastries).
We all had to take pictures on the empty street.
And then my mom took pictures of everyone else taking pictures of each other.
Then it was time to eat. We went to a traditional place. I asked my friends to order.
I’m not sure what we had.
We then went our separate ways. My mom was ready to go back to the ship, but I wasn’t ready. We took my mom back to the shuttle, and then Andi, Dave and I went out exploring the town.
We just wanted to find a pub to hang out in, but we were in Japan, not England. I pulled out google maps and found a brewery.
Then Andi went back to the ship and Dave and I went to check out the fireworks. The floats had been tucked back in their tents and there were people having picnics by the floats.
This was so cool.
We walked through the rows of tents of floats
When the sun went down they lit up.
Then we sat and watched the fireworks before making our way back to the ship. Now I really felt like I had been to Japan.