The Giants of Zama Japan

I walked into the town meeting prepared for an empty room. It's become the norm for town meetings. What I did see when I walked in was a standing room only crowd and most were NOT from Smyrna.

I've heard that Smyrna has a sister city in Japan. Outside of putting that bit of knowledge in the back of my head I gave it no heed. That knowledge, and the sister city, became reality for me last night.

It seems that last Friday 20 school age youth and 5 chaperones arrived from Zama Japan. Staying in the home of students across the city, they all made a show to view the city council at work. The youth, their chaperones, and the local hosts, created the first crowd I have ever seen in a city meeting.

The Mayor then introduced our guests and then they all went to the front for pictures and a few words from the head chaperone. I leaned over and asked a one of our "guests" which of the spellings I had written down was correct. Zama, or Zamah? She smiled and pointed to "Zama". I was rather impressed with myself that I was only one letter off.

After some pictures and a few words they all took off for other activities.

At this point I figured I would do a post to introduce you to Zama Japan.

First of all Zama is old. Ancient would be a better word.

In Zama city , signs of early human habitation have been found in the form prehistoric earthenware dating from about 30,000 years ago.
Many vessels and stoneware from the Jomon period have been found along the Sagami River.
People formed small villages during the late Kofun eras proven by the finding of ruins in Zama area.
It is recorded in books written during the Nara and the Heian periods that Zama had been an important traffic point in ancient times.

Smyrna is still a swaddling baby when held up to an old city like Zama.

Of course Zama is a modern city of noticeable size.

After 1948 Zama developed rapidly under the process of democratization and agricultural reform.
Due to the growth of the economy of the nation during the Showa era, population and economy of Zama also grew. It became a municipality, the seventeenth city of the prefecture, on November 1, 1971.
Zama City, whose population exceeds 127,000 today, is promoting the realization of "an attractive city where an abundant vitality is in harmony with comfort".

Now outside of the standard information that any encyclopedia could provide I did find a giant bit of information worthy of delving into.

Kites. Not just kites, but big freakishly large kites.

The flying of large kites began during the Bunsei years (1804 to 1830) in the Edo era, as an event to celebrate Boys' Day on May 5th. Initially such kites were 3 or 4 meters in size, and they were flown by individual families in such regions as Sindenjuku, Yotsuya, Zama, and Kurihara. As time went by, the kites became larger, and young people in regional areas began to fly them in groups, together, the kites reached their present size during the Meiji era. In the Showa period, more and more homes were built, as well as electric utility poles, which made it difficult for people to find places to fly the kites. Around 1955, they came to be flown at only one location by all kite-fliers, in the city of Zama. In addition, concern arose about passing on the techniques of making and flying the kites to future generations, accompanying social changes and the like. Presently, therefore, kite-flying is conducted by the "Zama City Large Kite Preservation Association."

Here is a photosite with many images from a Zama Kite festival.

Now you may ask how heavy these kites are. This site gives some information.

A giant kite 13 meters square and weighing 1 ton is flown using a 200-meter rope.

2000 pounds!?!? A standard Cessna 182 weighs 1540 lbs empty.

Giant kites may never take hold down here in NASCARland as they are a bit more exotic then most are used to, But the idea of giant kites taking flight over Smyrna is thrilling to think of.