This little piggy went shopping

I went on a huge monetary blow out this weekend in preparation for my holiday next week. I get a week off for 'summer vacation'. It's Obon (festival of the dead) so everyone in Japan goes back to visit family and pay respects to their familial ancestors.

I was originally planning to climb Mount Fuji during Obon since it's smack bang in the middle of climbing season. But 98% (yes that's an exact calculation) of people I've talked to about Fuji-san has said that it's actually quite disappointing. Up close the mountain is all ashy and black, so the climb up isn't exactly soul-soothing. The main reason to climb it is to see the sunrise at the peak. But all the people I talked to said it rained all the way up and when they reached the peak it was so cold and foggy they couldn't see anything anyway.

Then I realised that Summer Sonic (music festival) was on the weekend that Obon begins. So now I'm going to the last day of Summer Sonic. So I spent all of my money on my ticket yesterday. Plus I bought a special train ticket which allows me to travel around a bit more too. I can't wait to finally go dancing and listen to live music again.

The line up for Summer sonic isn't anywhere as fantastic as Fuji Rock Festival but beggars can't be choosers. I'm looking forward to seeing The Verve, Death Cab for Cutie, Old Man River and Pendulum. Hopefully I'll be able to stumble upon some new fantastic acts too like we always do in Queenscliff.

Summer Sonic will simply have to be my Queenscliff replacement this year. And all this is happening in Osaka. So first I have to get to Osaka. If I get horribly lost and I don't even make it to Osaka for the festival I'll be sending y'all a tearful email full of rage at my inability to read signs and get the trains right. But fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

And since I'd already spent so much money I decided to go out and spend more. I went to Osu market near the city. It's a fantastic quirky little undercovered market, about half the size of Queen Vic's but a lot less touristy. It's got mostly clothes and food stalls but with an amazing range. There were also a few electrical stalls and pachinko parlours thrown in.

The fashion ranges from the crazy Japanese pop-art clothes, mod, indie-rock, to bohemian. So it's pretty amazing. It was also a great place to go people watching. There happened to be a Summer Festival parade on while I was there. Plenty of Brazilian carnivalé dancers, belly dancers and salsa dancers to be seen. All the half-naked dancing women attracted the old Japanese men like a squashed banana in a forest of beetles. I never got close enough to the parade to take pictures because the horde of skeazy old men created an impenetrable wall around the dancers. Some of them were literally dripping with sweat but they refused to budge and continued to click away on their cameras with frenzied smiles on their faces.

I enjoyed my time scouring all the vintage clothes stores and looking at all the crazy fashion. Eventually I started shopping based on the music the store played and how annoying the sales people sounded. In Japan ALL the store people yell 'Irrashaimase' as soon as a person enters the store. Some of them have crazy high pitched tones that drove me insane. But there were some pretty kooky sales people, dressed in colouful yukatas with crazy hair and make up trying to drag people into their stores and offering free plastic fans.

I found a few Ishka-like stores where I could have happily spent all my money on all their beautiful things. But I didn't have any money anyway.

After Osu, I went to the Cosplay championships which was happening in Oasis 21. For those not in the know, Cosplay is a huge thing in the Anime nerd (Otaku) world. People dress up as their favourite anime/manga characters and act out scenes. They are then judged on their costume, act and how well they represent their character. It was insane. There were so many people and so many oddballs in costume. These people are the literal definition of enthusiastic.

My favourite was a dude who dressed as a Harry Potter character. He was wearing the full school uniform with the cloak and wand and Gryffindor vest and scarf. He also had on a blond wig so I'm not sure who he was meant to be. There were some other pretty spectacular characters out there but I can't explain it nearly as well as the photos can.

After watching a few of them acting out there scenes on stage we decided to head out to Anjo for their Tanabata festival. There were only so many times we could watch grown men running around with samurai swords play fighting, kissing then screaming at the injustice of it all after they kill their opponent. It seems like a popular theme in these animes.

The Anjo festival was huge and beautiful. Nat and Joel's coworker Kayo was our guide for the night. It was great. She was telling me about Tanabata, a festival that celebrates two unrequited lovers who have become stars. They can only meet on the one day everyday (July 7). So people write wishes on papers and tie them on trees with stars.

They had the usual festival stalls but also some hilarious extras. One stall sold 'Magic voice'. Basically these were bags of helium. So there were teenagers running around inhaling helium and cackling at how funny their voices sound. Personally I think most Japanese teenagers have really high voices anyway so I couldn't really tell the difference. ;)

There were also some stalls selling beetles. The Japanese kids are crazy about having beetles as pets. Nutty. Apparently the beetles in Japan love Nat and they keep appearing around her and stalking her. So we all kept making fun of her. We saw a beetle that was literally the size of my foot. Yes, I know my feet aren't terribly big but for a beetle that's pretty ginourmous.

Oh we also got to join in on a bon-odori dance. There was a parade of dancers and they were pulling people in from the crowds so we decided to jump in. We were clapping and hopping about. It was great. High-fives all around.

Photo credits: Natalie Borda