This is How We Celebrated August Traditions in Rural Japan

By August, there is no escaping summer in southern Japan. If you're new here, welcome. If you're a returning visitor, welcome back. I'm Mika, this is Jessie, and this is Pancake, and we're Canadians living in rural Japan. School holidays and vacations make August one of Japan's busiest travel seasons. Even our normally quiet rivers become a popular spot for visitors looking to enjoy the countryside. And for much of the country, August 13th also marks the beginning of Obon. It's a time when families return to their hometowns and practice traditions to welcome their ancestors back from the spirit world for a few days. And while most prepare for that, some of us are practicing dance steps for the upcoming Obon Dance Festival. Bon Odori are dances performed during Obon, when communities gather to entertain their ancestors through song and dance. Alongside the better-known dances found across Japan, many rural communities have their own local dances. In past festival years, it seemed like only a handful of people still remember the steps. So this year, I joined a few neighbours at the community hall to practice the dance, then recruited myself a dance partner at home. This Obon, the idea of going home, took a slightly different meaning. This year, I made my own journey back to Canada to visit family. To a very different climate from the one we're used to here in Japan. And this is where I want to thank today's sponsor, Saili. I'm using Saili right now while I'm in Canada, and it's taking care of one important thing. Getting mobile data while I'm abroad. Instead of changing the physical SIM card in your phone, an eSIM lets you add a prepaid mobile data plan digitally. If you're travelling too, Saili lets you connect to flexible data plans that let you use your phone just like you do at home. Just download the app, choose your plan, and you're set in over 200 destinations. And if you find yourself running low on data, you just have to log into your app and top up directly from there. So you never run out of data. Saili has a bunch of flexible plans, starting from 1GB to unlimited data plans. And they all start at just a couple dollars. And you never have to worry about expensive roaming fees. So if you're about to take a trip, be sure to visit Saili.com slash MyGomika, or download the app. Just be sure to use my code MYGOMIKA at checkout, because that will get you 15% off your very first plan. A few days before the Obon Festival, we processed hot peppers we'd been growing all summer. We'll ferment them for a week, before pureeing them into hot sauce. It's all part of building our tolerance, a talent we're still lacking. The peppers aren't the only things heating up this summer. This August has been unusually dry. Every year, the stretches without rain seem to grow longer. But eventually, even the longest dry spell has to break. While the Obon Festival is usually an outdoor celebration, this year, the rain brought everyone under one roof. Every year, the Obon Festival brings the neighborhood together over homemade food, karaoke, and activities like okashimaki, throwing sweets into the crowd as a wish for a strong and healthy community. And then of course, there's the dance we've all been practicing. On the last day of Obon, we light farewell fires to guide spirits as they make their way back to the spirit world. With Obon now behind us, we return to the hot peppers we left to ferment. And we get to see if our efforts to build our tolerance have paid off. Cleansing my nostrils. Oh my god, it gets hotter. It's spicy. What are you doing? You're going crazy. I just keep forgetting how hot it is. It's another set of summer traditions we've started and finished here in the Japanese countryside. And while we're still deep in the summer heat, we know it won't last forever. So for now, we'll enjoy the summer while it's here, before the next season takes its place. Thanks for watching, and a special thank you to everyone supporting us on Patreon. If you'd like to see a little more of what we're up to, including behind the scenes updates, you can find them over on my Patreon. We'll see you next time. Bye! If you're traveling... So you never run out of data. Can you come up to me really quickly? Is this flattering? Not really? No, I'm not gonna do that. Gotta do it for the people. Why did I do that? I was like, no, that's a bad idea. Let's do it! Let me do that again.