Guy Fawkes Night~

Guy Fawkes Night... where shall I begin?

On Saturday, after a well-deserved house cleaning session and some studying, I headed into the city to pick up De-, The Brit and Tall-Matt so that we could start our westward journey into gorgeous mountains, and sickeningly windey roads. Both times I've been out toward the Shimanto area, I've been driver and have yet to be able to really appreciate the beauty of the area.... but alas. My day will come.

It took us a few hours to get out there to Gab's house, and then another hour to get ourselves to the store to stock up on drinks and food (me and De- split a lovely bottle of Nakamura sake, since she is the sake queen herself and I am her apprentice). Once we finally got to the camp site, it was rather dark, and greeting everyone was really difficult because we could only go by the sound of voices and cell-phone lights. After some scavenging of the food left over from the day, we all headed toward the lake side to partake in the heat and light of the bonfire Jon scrapped together for the ritual burning of the effigy. Although Guy Fawkes night was being celebrated a day late, we all lit sparklers, and various people set off little dollar-store fireworks above the lake. Soni had used her amazing sewing skills to create a fabric doll to toss into the fire to burn (as the effigy). After much banter and fizzling fireworks, we counted down, tossed the girl into the fire, and gave a few hurrahs before heading back to clean up and go to the bar that Jon had reserved for the night.

The bar we ended up at was very cute and had a door handle made from a wooden hand (so odd). It had karaoke capabilities, so of course hours of entertainment. Many of the chairs in the bar were shaped like hands as well. Unfortunately, one of the hands lost a finger that night.... After the bar, we went to a ramen shop and then back to Gab's house to crash~ The next morning, before taking on the 2 hour drive, me and De- stopped to take a lovely and refreshing bath in one of the Shimanto onsens.