It’s time for my now ?apparently annual? excursion to the “local” Botanical Garden’s Japanese Festival. Chronic is picking me up from my home this afternoon, following which we will pick up his twin brother from said brother’s place of work and make our way to the home of our friend living adjacent to the gardens. Last year, the heat made the festival unbearable. It’s also hard for me to believe I was out walking around so shortly before my back went out completely, but I know I must have. That does help explain my previous entry on the festival (found here) which might read normally, but I was trying SO hard to be cheerful.
While it’s nothing new at this point, so long as the weather holds, it should prove a decent endeavor. The food alone… yum. However, I woke up this morning with a good deal of pain in my upper back and neck, not to mention the slightly-more-elevated than usual pain in my lower spine. This upper back pain is worse than it’s been in actual months, so…
Really, I’m going back and forth about attendance.
I’ll probably be fine, so long as my friends understand my limitations and Chronic (because he is driving, after all) doesn’t mind cutting the day together short should I need to do so. He was very good about this when we went to Anime STL and another, smaller con that required a greater travel distance, so… I mean. I think I can take the risk and go out with my friends.
I think.
I still have some time to decide on the matter, so if I actually publish this journal-like coverage, then I suppose you’ll know I did indeed take the plunge. But now, I think I’m going to lay down for a while.
Maybe I’ll message Chronic about my predicament and leave the decision up to him.
Well, I did it, and things went pretty well. When we arrived, we parked at our friend’s house and walked to the gardens. Our first stop upon arrival was the food area, where I ordered a bento 🍱 containing katsu poke (I’m living that “Yuri on Ice” life, right?), noodles, gyoza, a spring roll, a takoyaki ball, lettuce, and white rice. It was just as delicious as you’d probably imagine, though I neglected to take pictures. We then proceeded to the Sumo demonstration.
Three genuine wrestlers showed how Sumo is done as the host educated the audience and answered questions. Sumo takes such dedication and training; it’s really a life-long sacrifice, too, because after retirement in your late 20s (as you would imagine, Sumo is hard on the body), you’re still dealing with the repercussions on your body, with weight-related complications and joint injury being the most common. A wrestler’s day begins at 5 A.M. each morning. After they wake up, they train for a solid 5 hours before eating their first meal of the day, taking a nap, and going about their personal business.
After demonstrations, actual matches began. The longest sumo match ever recorded lasted only 4 minutes, with some matches being over in mere seconds. The wrestlers presenting here are all fairly evenly matched, so matches tend to last longer than that just because they know what to do with expect from each other and how to counter.
Following the sumo demonstration, we made our way to a cooking demonstration, wherein a chef made various types of sushi while answering questions from the audience. He prepared cucumber rolls, California rolls, shrimp nigiri, and salmon nigiri. We didn’t know this when we went in, but when the demonstration was over, we got to sample his creations! They were delicious, probably better than any sushi I’ve ever had.
After eating, we walked around a bit in search of melon bread (though I personally was in search of a fluffy cheesecake), and we ate those things while chatting at table in the shade. I also bought some cookies n’ cream Pocky (the only good Pocky in my honest opinion) to take home and save for rough days at work. :p
The bonsai exhibit was closed by the time we made it that way, and so we ended up going back to our friend’s house and chatting a bit before we went home. I also didn’t find any Amnesia Memories or Hakuouki SSL pins this time (I mean, the latter was a 1 in a million occurrence last year, lol), but I didn’t expect to, really.
I’ve spent the last two days recovering from lots of walking, sitting on the ground, and standing around, but it was a good time, in the end. I’ve been peopled-out for a while, though. Homebody me needs to get back to being a homebody. ❤
I hope you’re looking forward to my next anime post this week!
Until I write again,
Shoujo 🌸
P.S.
These are pictures of me and my friends, as well as one friend’s cat. Cause, you know, why not?
Shoujo Thoughts: ☆ ～('▽^人) Otaku Ramblings 