Mercifully, the bus home from Mount Fuji was air-conditioned and it wasn't long before the night's exertions caught up with us. Heads began to drop and before I knew it, everyone around me was snoring softly. 

At this point, it was around 27 hours since we had last slept and so having climbed a mountain in the intervening time, I guess that we can't be blamed for having a snooze on the bus home . However, anyone who knows me will also know that I don't really do naps. I can go for long periods without sleep and then I more than make up for it by collapsing into 24 hour coma's. I knew that if I drifted off now, that would be me until after the weekend. This would be a real shame as we had something pretty special lined up that evening.

Throughout the summer months, towns and cities across the country play host to some spectacular festivals known as matsuri. These festivals last for 2-3 days and are usually in celebration of that years rice harvest. Things get kicked off in the morning/early afternoon, with street parades and dancing before progressing into the evening with fireworks and drinking. Typically seen as a time for the traditionally conservative Japanese people to let their hair down a little and party, matsuri attract people from miles around. Take it from someone who knows... these people definitely know how to party!

Fortunately for us, this particular weekend happened to be the turn of Numazu . We set off for the centre of the city at about 7pm, after everyone but myself managed to squeeze in a few hours sleep. Without question, you could sense the festival before you saw it. The distant, deep rumbling of thousands of people all talking at once, a few premature fireworks going off over the river and the smell of at least a hundred mini food stalls drifted towards us. Still, I don't think I was really prepared for the sight of it as we rounded the corner on to the main street. I have never seen so many people all packed into one place. The women in brightly coloured and patterned yukata (an informal summer kimono or dress) and the men in their darker jinbei (similar summer wear for men) looked great, certainly putting me to shame in my jean shorts and tee!

We spent an hour or two milling around in the crowd, soaking in the atmosphere and availing ourselves of some of the food on offer. Marion and Jay went for some octopus balls, (EDIT: I realize how this reads; I don't mean the literal balls of an octopus . Balls of octopus. Sphere's of octopoda. Meh, you get the idea.) and I bought myself a huge pancake-type thing filled with cabbage, noodles and meat of an indeterminate variety. My favourite kind. Still, it was delicious.

I'm a little angry about letting myself get so tired before this event. It only happens once a year and it is a truly spectacular occasion. Unfortunately for me though, I was absolutely spent and I was very aware that I wasn't enjoying myself like I should have been. I was at level 7 on the tiredness scale, where every noise felt as if it was going straight through me and rattling my brain. Little things that I wouldn't even notice under normal circumstances were irritating me to a completely unreasonable degree and my responses to questions were getting shorter and snappier. Put simply, I was getting grumpy, and that isn't a pretty sight. Well aware that level 8 includes hallucinations and is just a further level from a homicidal rampage, I knew it was nearly my bed-time . 

Before this however, was the not-so-small matter of the fireworks display. Each night of the festival was ended with fireworks, but the centre-piece of the weekend is the display on the last night. At the time, it was hands down the single greatest fireworks show I have ever seen. 

Japanese people's love for fireworks really needs putting into contest. Numazu is only the 110th biggest city in Japan. It is of a comparable size to Warrington (though there are far fewer people on the dole here). Any fireworks show Warrington decided to host would most likely consist of two pre-pubescent teenage lads strapping a catherine wheel to a stray cat. And yet there I was, in this relatively small Japanese city, experiencing something pretty spectacular.

It was obvious that something was about to happen when people began moving en masse to the riverbanks. We followed the crowd, finding ourselves a good spot across the river with a big group of people sat in the middle of the street . We had earlier purchased a few beers, (or girly fruit based drinks if your name happens to be Ali) which we now opened as we turned our heads toward the sky. 

It is hard to say exactly why it was so much better than anything else I had previously seen, but it may have something to do with trying to describe a fireworks display I saw whilst half-asleep almost 2 months ago. In any case, it was really good, and I can only hope that where my literary skills/memory fails, the photos do it justice. They were released from two points on the river, with one taking over as the other stopped (presumably to set out more rockets and light them). The smoke from both drifted across the surface of the river, occasionally illuminated by the bright colours and explosions occurring overhead. The "oooh's", "ahhh's" and "sugoi's" (Japanese for "That's so cool/awesome!"), interspersed by frequent rounds of spontaneous applause made for a really pleasant atmosphere. 

It was the almost perfect antidote to a very difficult couple of days, and a great way to rewind with some really cool people and a fruity beer. Now that I think about it, you can reverse those two adjectives. 

The ACTUAL perfect antidote came a little while after, when I stumbled in to my bed. Tired, but happy and contented with my accomplishment, I closed my eyes and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.