I travelled out to Chichibu over the weekend to attend the 秩父夜祭り (Chichibu Night Festival) that happens once every year in the beginning of winter. Since Yuri lives near Chichibu, we decided months in advance to go together. I've always wanted to go to a festival because believe it or not, I have not been to any festival even though I have been living in Japan for 3 years.
The Chichibu Night Festival is also considered one of Japan's top three festivals that feature floats, so it's something definitely worth checking out.
I made my way out to Chichibu on the 2nd, the day before the festival. Yuri came to pick me up at the station and we went to get dinner. It was already late when we were done eating, so we didn't do much but headed back to her place for the night.
The next day, we woke up in the early afternoon and went out to get lunch. We decided it was better to take the train to Chichibu station to avoid the traffic later that night when the festival was over. We got to the festival in the evening. There was already a float in front of the station when we arrived. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be.
After a while, we went to get some food. There were so many food stalls, so it was pretty hard to decide what to get. As we waited for Yuri's friend, Shayla, to arrive, a float was already passing by, so we tried to get some photos. It was really hard to take photos honestly, everyone was pushing and shuffling their way just to get a good photo.
I was amazed at the attention spent on the details of the float. Also, people sitting on top of it?! How?
Shayla arrived not long after that and we accompanied her to get food and walked to the other side of the festival together. The number of food stalls was never ending, we ate some more as we went to look for the other floats.
There were also fireworks that were going on throughout the night, even when we were on our way back to Yuri's place at around 10 pm, we could still see fireworks from the windows of the train.
We decided to go to the supermarket before heading back. Even though we ate a lot at the festival, we figured we'd be hungry when we get back because of the cold. So, we decided to make Nabe.
We spent the rest of the night at Yuri's place eating some more and drinking. It was really fun because I got drunk by drinking my alcohol too fast, haha. We finally passed out at 5 am.
On the last day, I felt bad for getting up too late. I caught a cold from the day before and wasn't feeling too well. We decided to get pizza for dinner, it was about a 20-minute drive away. The smell of pines was so refreshing when we got out of the car. Things like that are so difficult to come by because I have been living in the city for my whole life.
The pizza place was really cute owned by an elderly couple. It was difficult to take photos since it was already dark outside. They had a nice old stove and the restaurant was located in the house that looked like something out of a Ghibli film. I can't remember what we ordered anymore, but the pizza was probably the best thin crust pizza I have had in Japan yet. I really hate Domino's in Japan. The pesto sauce was sooooo goood. Sauce does wonders to food.
We still had some time to spare before my train back to Tokyo, so we went to the supermarket again and got some ice-cream, went back to Yuri's place for a bit before driving out to Chichibu Station.
I got on the train at 9pm and even though it was a long train ride, I enjoyed it. I always need time to unwind after a crazy weekend. I was greeted by the rain when I got back to Tachikawa and H was waiting for me at the station with an umbrella. He knew I was sick, so he made udon for me when we got home.
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It's so strange to think that H was still in my life just a month ago. I do miss him sometimes but I know we're better off not being together for now, at least. I hope he is doing better without me. We didn't have a bad break up and we plan to stay friends but now is just not the right time.
Living in Japan has really let me experience so much, I don't know how long more I plan to stay in Japan but for up until now, I'm really grateful for everything that has happened in my life. The good, and even the bad. I still don't know what 2017 has in store for me but I'll just take things one baby step at a time.
I'm slowly healing.
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