Juice Me!

~The big festival in Nagaoka begins in just two days, and I'm really looking forward to it. While riding my bike across one of Nagaoka's four bridges, I saw this:


^Barges have been secured to the riverbanks in preparation for the fireworks. When the time comes, pyrotechnicians will blast of fireworks with names like "Super Vesuvius Grand Star Mine" from these barges, where they will explode over the river. Presumably, it there's some kind of accident and the massive fireworks explode prematurely, the position of these boats in the river will prevent Nagaoka from burning down (for the third time).

^ I also took this picture from the bridge. Aside from the pretty mountain sunset, you can see that mysterious mountaintop tower on the right. It seems to have some kind of window in the side. I wonder what it's for. Perhaps it's a shiro ( 城 ), which means castle in English. You have to be careful when saying this, because emphasizing the first syllable gives you SHI-ro, which is the color white; to say castle, put the emphasis on the 'ro', for shi-RO.

If you want to say the name of a specific castle, such as Okayama Castle, you can just attach '-jo' to the end of the location, such as Nagaoka-jo. Why? I have no clue.

Anyway, here's some Japanglish. I'm telling you, it's everywhere!

^ Text reads "We are juice boys! A boy and a bear like juice. A boy drinks orange juice and a bear drinks apple juice every day. A sweet, delicious juice is a source of vigor."

Well, now I know what to do if I ever need some vigor! Today in class I learned how to tell time in Japanese, and seeing as how it's almost ju-ni-ji gogo (12 in the evening) and I'm exhausted from the final dance practice today, I'd better get to bed. Or maybe I'll just drink some juice...
~Oyasumi.