Obon in Kyoto

This week is a national holiday called Obon, or the Bon Festival. It's a time when most Japanese people return to their hometowns and visit the graves of their ancestors and family, paying respect to the dead. The office at my school has been almost deserted the entire week.
I was invited by one teacher to spend the holiday with her family (since I don't have one here and it's a tradition to do so), which I was grateful for, but declined; deciding to spend the last night of the "festival" in Kyoto instead. My purpose in going to Kyoto was to see the famous daimonji, or giant Japanese characters that are lit-up on the hills of Kobe. The event is known as Kyoto's "Gozan no Okuribi", or basically the bonfires lit during the Obon festival.
The Wired Cafe in Osaka with Ms. Jane
After school, I headed directly to Osaka to meet Jane for lunch. We did a little shopping (actually resisted the urge to buy things since I'll be going home next week) and chatted for a few hours at a really great cafe in Umeda called Wired. The wrap and tomato soup were some of the best food I've had in Japan, the atmosphere was great (a lot of smoker's though), and it wasn't that packed or expensive for being in Osaka. I'll see Jane again on Saturday night (birthday party for one of our Japanese friends after the beer garden), but that will be the last time before she goes back to England, so it was fun to catch up and hang out together for one of the last times in Japan!
Minnesota Gals (and a Seattle Boy) in Kyoto
After dinner, I headed to Osaka Station and met Brianne on a JR train to Kyoto. A lot of my friends are out of the country right now, but I was shocked that more expats in my area didn't want to join us for this famous event. None of the other Kobe people (where Brianne lives) were apparently interested in going Kyoto for Obon either...(can you believe it?!), . The two of us were going to check out the festivities together and were on our way, when we got a text from one other straggler from Kobe named Kevin. So, once we got to Kyoto Station, Brianne and I went to Tourist Information to get a map of the city (I've probably gotten 15 this year...oops) and then met Kevin at Starbucks.
Gozan no Okuribi
There are 6 main hills with symbols that they light up with giant bonfires on August 16th (two are together, so really 5), but they are spread out around the city and light in intervals of 10 minutes, so it's not possible to see all of them. Kyoto is not that large of a city, so it's possible to see four of the hills (including the most famous "dai" character, above Ginkakuji Temple) from a bridge near Demachiyanagi Station, over the Kamo River. It was either that (Higashiyama Area) or the complete other side of town (Arashiyama area...which did have a festival with floating lanterns), so we chose to take four symbols over one at the Tourist Information Office's advice.
To save time (and keep out of the massive crowds - more foriegners I have seen in one place for a LONG time!!), we took the subway over to the area. My friend Serene's brother also just moved to Kyoto (they grew up here and he's working in the city), so I called him, as well. He and some friends were also heading towards the bridge, so I kept an eye out for them once we got there, but it was so packed, that I soon realized the chances of running into them were slim.
We found a good spot on the bridge around 7:40pm and just watched children run around on the river bank below us (you can walk along the river path and a lot of people were sitting there) until the first symbol was torched. At 8pm sharp, the crowd gasped as little-by-little, the character for "big" ("dai") appeared in the distant hills, now so dark, that it appeared as if the symbol were floating in air. Everyone feverishly took pictures for a while, until the excitement wore down and everyone turned their focus to the north, waiting for the next symbol (meaning "ho", or law) appeared.
We had heard rumors of a good restaraunt where you can see the symbols, so we decided to move from where we were standing. We actually ended up walking along the river, which was a nice release from the intense grip of the crowd and had a breeze, but we ended up only seeing one more symbol (saped like a sailboat, near Shodenji Temple). The flames were starting to wear out and people were leaving, so we also decided to search for a good place to get a bite. After a lot of exploring (and a bit of getting lost), we finally found an Israeli restaraunt called Falafal Garden. The portions were Japanese-size (smaller than would be acceptable at home), but the food was amazing. I was surprised to find Baba Genoush on the menu (one of my favorite foods), but found it funny to see that the pronunciation was wrong in the Japanese translation (they use katakana, so essentially the original pronunciation). Sort of like Engrish, on a Hewbrew menu. There were also a lot of foreigners in the place (many of which I think were students), and it was funny how tempting it was to eavesdrop into their conversations, as if eavesdropping into English is a rare luxury.
On the Road Again....
After dinner, we were all stuffed and tired from doing a lot of walking and battling crowds, so we took the train back to the station (cutting it a little close on time) and headed in our separate directions. I had a lot of fun, and while I didn't really get any pictures to do the festival justice, it was a great experience. I'm glad I saw the mountains (with symbols) that I did, but I would definately head over to the Katsura River for the floating lanterns next time. I'm not sure why that festival is not famous (Obon in Kyoto certainly is), but that gives a glimmer of hope that it would be less crowded!