月見

Today Mayumi and I went on a bike ride up to Omihachiman mountain. We checked out the modern library and ate some snacks on a table overlooking the tops of all the houses, apartments, and stores below. We noticed a couple people at the time setting up telescopes on the side of the mountain. As we were going home around dusk, we passed that part of the mountain on our bikes and a large group of people had gathered. We decided to scamper on and see what was going on. There were a number of high-powered telescopes, along with the local media. It was to be the first autumn full moon. Also, Venus shone brightly in the sky. The moon was nowhere to be seen, but Venus was aglow, visible to the naked eye. It was even larger looking through the telescope (actually, Venus remained a constant size, but I perceived it to be larger through the telescope). Finally, fingers started pointing and telescopes started rotating on their hinges. The moon was rising above the mountain on the other side. It shone a beautiful deep reddish purple color. I had never seen it like that before. Over the next 30 minutes it transformed to blood red to bright orange. It was a sight to see, through the telescope and through the eyes. We felt really lucky to have ridden into that chance. We rode home through the quiet, historic streets of Omi-hachiman. Some sort of filming was going on down a beautiful street. Commercial? Drama? Who knows? We stopped home after that before going out for some sushi.