The remaining sparks of summer.

Last week, I thought summer had already come to an end. It's been a blazing hot summer this year, but after the typhoon a few weeks ago, it had cooled down drastically. Still, the summer sparks remained and flared up to past 30 degrees again this week. Talk about a persistent summer, despite it being mid-October already.

To be honest, my health has been terrible especially this past month. The exact cause(s) are unknown, but no doubt, the ever-changing weather has a part in it. I've had the cold for a month now, and I've been feeling faint and very fatigued, to varying degrees depending on the day, but too often to be considered healthy. I've been trying to eat more regularly lately as well as more balanced meals (also increasing my vitamin C intake), but since I was previously diagnosed with a mild case of anemia, there may be a variety of reasons why I've been sick and I'm not quite sure what exact steps to take to speed up my recovery. Maybe I should go see the doctor after all, even if I can't explain what exactly is unwell.

In any case, today I finally had a day off and was reminiscing about what kinds of things I've done this summer. Honestly, it hasn't been a very exciting summer. I worked, and I was sick half the time. Because I get easily tired, on days off, rather than going out I've preferred staying at home and resting.

But now that I think about it in retrospect, I guess I did do a couple of things this summer. I went back to Hong Kong. I had my hair cut. I went to see several exhibits. I ate watermelon. I tried to go see the fireworks.

Speaking of fireworks, a friend was visiting Tokyo in July and we went to see the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival. It was my first fireworks festival in Japan, so I had been waiting in anticipation for weeks. I hadn't been feeling well that month either, unfortunately, but still I went after a long day of work with high expectations.

And, as it happens, we managed to get an obscured view of the fireworks for 10, 15 minutes before we were hit by a giant rainstorm. By rainstorm, I mean sheets of pouring rain and strong winds that rendered umbrellas and raincoats useless.

My friend and I noticed the sky clouding over, and disappointed that we weren't able to secure a good spot among the masses of people due to us arriving rather late into the evening, we actually decided to start heading back to the station about 30 minutes after the fireworks started. We wanted to avoid both the rain and the crowd.

But we couldn't make our escape fast enough, and the rain didn't stop for hours. Visibility was extremely low with the wind and rain (it was already dark by then), and I had never been to the Asakusa area before. Unable to find our way back to Asakusa station, we wandered around (soaked from head to toe) for almost an hour until we found our way to another station.

Needless to say, it literally "rained on our parade" and we went home without the satisfaction of "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing at the fireworks while drinking beer and eating street food like we had pictured. But it's all right, because I would say that's pretty much how this summer felt overall.

Despite the miserable rainstorm, however, I did try to snap a few pictures of the fireworks near the beginning--you know, to prove that I did go and everything. I wasn't in a good spot and I didn't snap any spectacular shots, but looking at how fire and light can warp and move was still fun for me.

Well, let's think of it this way. I'm determined to go see some spectacular fireworks next year, and it's definitely going to be much better than this year's. Already looking forward to it!