仙台 えいごの教室

  Yesterday the Lantern¹ festival on the Hirose River was held. It came back after a 2-year absence because of the Coronavirus pandemic². Of course, right now we are facing another spread of the Coronavirus variant BA 5 and we have to be careful, but it was nice to see this traditional³ festival come back.

 

  About 10 days ago they made platforms to float the lanterns and shoot fireworks, and a couple days before the event a lot of cars started coming and going to prepare for the event. Usually this neighborhood is really quiet, but for this event it gets unusually busy. This year, this busyness⁴ made me even more excited than in the past. We, all people, have been very patient with⁵ quiet lives because of Corona for a long time.

 

  In the afternoon, I started seeing lanterns floating by⁶ on the river from my teaching room. I was teaching classes, but with my students (even online!) we enjoyed this festive⁷ atmosphere while studying. (I should have taken⁸ photos — shoot!)

 

  At night we enjoyed fireworks!

 

 

 

  After I made sure that our cat and dog were OK — moving them into the room with double paned⁹ windows to soften the sound of firewoks — we went out to see the show. Right in front of our house there were already quite a lot of people, so I walked a little farther¹⁰ down the street and enjoyed watching from there. It was nice to be in the cool evening air.

  Even after midnight, I heard workers’ cars passing by¹¹ in front of our house. Thank you for your work preparing this event!

 

  Now the quiet Hirose River came back. I’m waiting for the birds who were scared away¹² by the big sound of fireworks to come back to their home. Come back quick!