Cherry Blossoms and Fire

The cherry blossoms have finally come out in my city. So this weekend, we had a barbeque to celebrate.

This tree has also been blooming in the last week or two. I have no idea what it is, but it's my favorite so far. The flowers are bigger than my hand.

After the barbeque, we made our way over to the Tejikara shrine, which is on the edge of our city. Every year, they have a fire festival, and I was told it would be worth the train ride to see. The danger alone made it worth it. They would NEVER allow something like this to happen in the States. The festival involved large lanterns on swaying posts and the explosion of them into sparks. Sparks that rained down on the audience!
When we arrived, we saw about 8 of these nice lanterns about 40 feet up in the air. There was some bell-ringing and dancing by the festvial participants (i.e. half-naked men who we were assuming had consumed a LOT of alcohol before the event), and then suddenly one of the sets of lanterns would explode in a shower of sparks. They also had little floats, carried around by the half-naked men that were shooting sparks all over them. None of the men seemed to care too much, as they just kept dancing and parading the floats around.

We weren't standing all that close to the men, but we could see the sparks bouncing off of them. It was insane. We got showered once or twice ourselves; I was still picking ash out of my hair the next day. Anyway, it was a great festival- especially because no one died. That we know of.

Before I forget, here is a picture of me in a kimono for the Cherry Blossom Festival, where I participated in 2 tea ceremonies.
The woman with me is one of the English students I have once a week at my office. It was her kimono, and now that I look at this picture, it does look a little small on me. It took about 45 minutes to put on.