Friendly Night Skies

 

The weather wasn't all that great last weekend, raining all day on Saturday and Sunday being cloudy and chilly.

A friend asked me to help him move a piece of equipment he bought at an auction. He wanted me to meet him at the peak of traffic congestion. He had the audacity to tell me how he was worried about me taking so long to the meeting place. He wasn't as familiar with the roads in the area but I am and know just how congested it can get, especially on the weekend.

Well, I finally get to the meeting place, load his equipment in my car, and headed off to his place to drop the equipment off before we went to have a Korean BBQ dinner he promised me. Actually, he bribed me with dinner when he asked for a favor. LOL

He took me to a yakiniku (Korean BBQ) place near his place. We grill our own meat at these BBQ places. Each table is set up with a grill and what was cool was that there was a duct that sucks up the smoke. The meat is thinly sliced so it can be cooked in no time. This place offers a happy hour with drink prices slashed, so the place was pretty crowded with customers taking advantage of happy hour. If I weren't driving, I'd be imbibing, too. It was a great meal. I ended up doing most of the grilling since my friend just plopped the meat on the grill with no strategy. Not all men are geared to "man" the grill. 😂

Dessert was at a little Italian cafe. The cappuccino and Italian pudding was so good!

It was evening by the time we were finished and it was time for me to head home. Google maps took me through an interesting route to avoid traffic. At least I made it home in one piece.

There was a fireworks show the next evening within scootering distance. The show was supposed to start at 6pm, and I got there at 4pm, but the park was already filled with sheets laid down by people staking their spots. I managed to find a small spot behind a low bush up in the front.

There were a bunch of food stalls set up around the park, from the traditional fried noodles and savory pancakes, candied apples (they don't do caramel apples here), and cotton candy, to chinese dumplings, steak on skewers, and bubble tea. I enjoyed some steak on a stick and it was good.

I settled down in my chair waiting for the fireworks to start. Unfortunately, a guard decided to stand right in front of where I was staked out and was totally in the way of getting a decent image. It was too late to move to another spot since they were all taken.

Another unfortunate thing was that since there were little breeze to blow the smoke away, a lot of the fireworks were hidden behind the smoke. It didn't help that I ended up sitting next to a bunch of rowdy kids yelling "tamaya" throughout the entire show. People wonder why I'm not a huge fan of kids 🙄 But still, the finale was spectacular. What I could see of it, that is.

• Note: The Japanese shout “Tamaya!” and “Kagiya!” during fireworks displays. These were the names of famous Edo-era fireworks makers' shops, and shouting them is a way of praising the fireworks.