“The world’s a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky”
– 5th Dimension, “Up, Up And Away”

Finally, I made it!

For more than five years, I have tried to catch the Balloon Festival in Kamishihoro. The festival is held twice a year, one in summer and another in winter. We have tried to see the event for both reasons. But it was almost always canceled because of bad weather.

I already flew in an actual hot air balloon last year, and it was fun. So why do I want to catch this event? I just want to see several hot air balloons lining up in the sky.

Kamishihoro town is around 38 km north of Obihiro. By car, we can travel to the event’s place for less than an hour. The festival is held in Kouku Park, which is in the middle of nowhere. The park is approximately 2 km west of the town. It is ideal for this festival because it needs a big space. Around 39 colorful hot-air balloons will be released into the air during the three days of the festival. They usually do it as early as 5 or 6 am when the wind is quiet. So to go there, we have to leave very early. The funny thing is that it was always canceled on those dates when we were there. It’s like we have a jinx for this event.

It was the 8th of this month. I woke up very early so we could catch the summer hot-air balloon festival in Kamishihoro. The weather was kind of gloomy, and it was raining a little bit. I went there with a couple of friends, praying that it would not be canceled. My prayers were not heard; it was canceled. I believed we were jinxed, haha. We went back to our homes, and I just slept.

My friend called me at nearly 2 p.m., saying that the hot-air balloons would fly at 3 p.m. We went there, and although we didn’t make it at the start, we saw the last 10 balloons flying. At least we made it this time!

And, oops, that is not yet the end of the story. We came back at night to see the lighting of the hot-air balloons. They didn’t fly. They just lined up and fired up (to become bright). The music played for 30 minutes. And finally, I was satisfied. (Or maybe next time, I will try again, lol.)