"It's not a proper holiday until you've been drenched by the rain" said Andrew as we hid under the corner of a kind beer seller's tent watching a parade of school children in mini yukata bravely carry on with their part in the lavender festival.
It had been another crazily hot day, which we had spent at the lavender and melon fields of Biei-Furano. Neither of us even had a jumper. Lavender is a big export of Hokkaido and most is grown here. We had fun on the hillside and Andrew got to try lavender ice cream (weird but not terrible). We also found a lost child but as white people are very rare here he was not prepared to be helped by us - or the purple clad ice cream seller we sent to watch him until someone came to claim him.
We were lucky enough to be there for the lavender festival and tried a few festival foods before feeling ill and seeking some plain crisps. The whole village turned up in yukata to sit on the car park and wait for the fireworks. Unfortunately the rain started first. And didn't stop. It was still worth getting soaked for. There were handheld firework cannons and the most impressive display of fireworks I have ever seen, lighting up the flowers below.
A very kind man chased us when he saw we took a wrong turn and were about to miss the last train and gave us his umbrella.
It took
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