August 24, 2010

Bright Splash of Color


One of my favorite things at a matsuri (festival) are the Yo-yo water balloons!

You have to try to pull the balloons up with a paper hook, something I've never been able to do. Usually after a couple of tries, they just end up giving me the balloon!

21 comments:

Unknown said...

colorful and wet!
:)
Happy nice festival...

Unknown said...

I love balloons. Makes me feel like a kid :). Lovely colourful photo.

Copenhagen said...

Wooo. I remember having this balloon when we visited Japan.

Tall Gary said...

What a happy, colorful bunch of water balloons. Whee!

Looks like the trick might be keeping the twisted paper string from getting wet. Maybe by bending the paper string at an angle right at the double hook?

There is a kind of by-the-book explanation and demonstration here. We can see how they are used as yo yos at the end.

The same thing but better close ups here.

I never tried yo yo fishing. It looks like kids of all ages would enjoy that. 

I used to see these a lot at festivals. But talk about scoring at fishing!

Francisca said...

Heh, heh... I like your colorful photo... but my kid's play does not include fishing for balloons. :-)

Al said...

Fascinating and very colorful. I never knew of these before, they look like fun.

B SQUARED said...

Paper hook? Are they kidding?

arabesque said...

paper hooks?! that will take you forever! ^0^
colorful balloons though.

Halcyon said...

They are so colorful and pretty!!!

cieldequimper said...

That's cool, I love the cheerful colours!

this too will pass said...

a warm and colourful shot

T. Becque said...

That looks fun but frustrating!

Anonymous said...

Isn't life great ! Thank you for this colourful escape in the middle of the night.


daily athens

gogouci said...

Oh wow. Looks like a box of crayons exploded. Fun, fun, fun.

michael said...

Colorful, beautiful and fun.

Hilda said...

Colorful and fun!!!
How nice of them to give you one anyway. :)

Rob said...

A splash of colors!

VP said...

I'm not sure I can do this, but it must be funny!

Kaori said...

Thank you everyone for the comments! It really is fun. The adults are just as serious about fishing these colorful balloons out of the water as the kids are ;D

Tall Gary, I need to work the technique you suggested for next year!

Tall Gary said...

Be careful you don’t tear the paper string right where it joins the double wire hook.

The next suggestion would be to position it carefully before you dunk it as briefly as possible. But once it gets wet it’s basically curtains.

Still, if it is possible, folding or bending the string it an an angle sounds pretty good—so that one upper tip of a hook is below where the string joins, and then lower it slowly and gently just barely enough to hook a balloon elastic loop without getting the twisted-tissue string wet. Let us know how it works for you.

Sometime before next matsuri season maybe you could practice trying to snag balloon substitutes in the bath with a re-bent paper clip (straighten it out; bend it in half in the middle; then bend each leg in half so the tip of each end is even with the 180º curved middle loop). Add twisted chirigami like in the YouTube video. For the balloon you could substitute something like an empty PET bottle of 爽健美茶 with a little water in it; a couple looped rubber bands at the neck. 頑張って。

Tall Gary said...

“...it an an angle ...” じゃなくて: ...at an angle...

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